The Miscellany News Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com
September 8, 2011
Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY
Volume CXLV | Issue 1
Need-blind Transitions policy in its program fourth year continues Molly Turpin
Mary Huber
Editor in Chief
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ow in its second year, Vassar College Transitions, a preorientation program for low income and first generation college students, has become widely regarded as a success. It owes much of its positive reputation to its leaders, both in the administration and, especially, the student body. “This wasn’t just a bunch of administrators cooking up a program based on their opinion of what they think students need,” said Dean of Freshman Benjamin Lotto. “This is something students essentially demanded for years.” The program’s goals are to help students adjust to academic expectations, alleviate culture shock, promote awareness of resources available to students on campus and foster community relationships. Each year, Transitions See TRANSITIONS on page 7
Katie De Heras/The Miscellany News
hen Vassar College adopted a need-blind admissions policy in 2007, the policy was touted as being able to have a positive impact on the make-up of the student body. Four years later, for the first time and after a major recession, all four of Vassar’s current class years and a majority of its students have been admitted under the policy. After taking on the policy meant to increase access to Vassar and diversity within the student body, this year the College can begin to see how need-blind admissions are already shaping the student body. For Vassar, the need-blind policy was in many ways a corrective measure. President of the College Catharine Bond Hill explained that the policy had the potential to address areas she saw in need of improvement. “Whenever you’re deciding where See NEED BLIND on page 8
Assistant Features Editor
Lower-than-expected ticket sales from last year’s Of Montreal concert, pictured above, are largely blamed for ViCE’s debt situation: the student organization started the 2011-2012 year $30,000 in debt, accrued over the past two years.
Poughkeepsie bus line ViCE starts year with $30k debt rolls onto VC campus VSA passes censure at first meeting Dave Rosenkranz
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Assistant News Editor
Molly Turpin
Editor in Chief
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t its first meeting on Sunday night, the 26th Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council voted to censure Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE) due to a $30,000 debt,
amounting to one fifth of its total budget for the year. The debt has largely been attributed to lackluster ticket sales for last year’s Of Montreal concert that did not reach the organization’s projection; the amount has also led to
some questions of ViCE’s financial management. “The thing that I probably find scariest in the situation is that there were maybe two or three people on ViCE Exec last year that had full See VICE on page 4
Courtesy of Middlemain.com
ast summer, the City of Poughkeepsie Transit System made several changes to two of its bus lines as part of an agreement with Vassar College that will lower the cost and increase the availability of off-campus transportation. The Shopper’s Special Bus Line will now include a stop on campus, and both the Shopper’s Special and the Main Street Bus Lines will be free for students and employees with a Vassar College Identification Card. Each $1.50 fare will be subsidized by President Catharine Bond Hill’s Office until at least the end of the fall semester, at which point she will consider extending the funding through
to next semester. The transition from Leprechaun Lines, the company that provided the old weekday shuttle service, to the Shopper’s Special and Main Street Bus Lines has several benefits according to Director of Media Relations and Public Affairs Jeffrey Kosmacher. The Leprechaun Lines shuttle only ran from around 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., and charged the College for gasoline, personnel and maintenance. The new bus lines have a longer schedule, and those costs are already covered by the city transit system’s budget. “As we like to say, we got out of the bus business,” said Kosmacher, adding, “this change enables us to support students and employees who need to See BUS on page 4
The above murals, painted onto storefront boards as part of Middle Main Revitalizatoin, shout positve messages to the passersby in an attempt to create a more attractive, safer, inclusive and unified neighborhood through action.
Christie Chea/The Miscellany News
Travellers escape the wet weather while waiting for the Shopper’s Special bus. Starting this year, Vassar students can access two Poughkeepsie bus lines for free.
Inside this issue
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FEATURES
A look at the history of orientation
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FEATURES
Murals revive Middle Main St. Rachael Borné
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Arts Editor
andwiched between Pershing Avenue and Academy Street in downtown Poughkeepsie lies a stretch of Main Street in the midst of a powerful community revival. A span of boarded up storefronts now serves as the site of a vibrantly colored mural heralding the projects aim: “Poughkeepsie Revitalization.” Spearheaded by Hudson River Housing and known formal-
The original fudge recipe a part of VC history
ly as Middle Main Revitalization (MMR), the project strives to create a more attractive, safer, inclusive and unified neighborhood through advocacy, collaboration and most importantly—action. Over the summer, MMR took on many projects, ranging from a cleanup of the Fallkill Creek to the construction of a small park space to one element that captivates me every time I bike down Main Street: a pair of huge murals painted
18 SPORTS
brightly and shouting loudly positive messages to the community. “We’re trying to build this area back up from the ground up,” said Darrin Weaver, better known as TC on Vassar’s campus. Weaver and his girlfriend Boogie Tochigi designed a mural now adorning the façade of a boarded-up property with its sassy, animated, cartoon-like characters toting boom boxes, flashing their bling bling and hip-hop style. See MURALS on page 17
Liberty league undergoes changes
Page 2
The Miscellany News
September 8, 2011
Editor in Chief Molly Turpin Senior Editors
Katharine Austin Erik Lorenzsonn Aashim Usgaonkar
Contributing Editors Katie Cornish Mitchell Gilburne Carrie Hojnicki Jillian Scharr
Humor & Satire Alanna Okun Arts Rachael Borné Adam Buchsbaum Sports Corey Cohn Andy Marmer Photography Juliana Halpert Madeline Zappala Online Nathan Tauger Managing Qian Xu
Assistant News Joey Rearick Dave Rosenkranz Assistant Features Ruth Bolster Danielle Bukowski Mary Huber Jessica Tarantine Assistant Opinions Hannah Blume Assistant Arts Charlacia Dent Shruti Manian Assistant Photo Carlos Hernandez Crossword Editor Jonathan Garfinkel Columnists Brittany Hunt Michael Mestitz Tom Renjilian Andy Sussman
In 1943, Vassar experienced its largest incoming freshmen class to date despite the happenings of World War II, prompting overflow housing in the Alumnae House. President Henry MacCracken addressed Vassar’s role in the war during his concluding remarks at the year’s Fall Convocation.
This Week in Vassar History
By Dean Emeritus Colton Johnson
1888, Sept. “For the first time in the history of the College it opened, in September 1888, without any preparatory students.” Report of the President, 1888/89
1938, Sept. Announcing that “Our isolationist days are over,” Alumnae House opened the Pub, a sodafountain and sandwich bar, to encourage students and faculty to keep coming up the hill.
1917, Sept. The 1917/18 academic year promised new courses in Far Eastern affairs, the Near East, modern Russia, modern governments, diplomacy and international law. The curriculum also “came home indeed,” as The Vassar Quarterly put it, with courses in horticulture and landscape gardening, food analysis, the family, hygiene of the child, history and principles of education and educational and abnormal psychology. Vassar offered credit for performance courses in music, one of the first liberal arts colleges to do so.
1946, Sept. 7 Fall convocation opened the College’s academic year. In addition to incoming President Sarah Gibson Blanding, Associate Professor of English Richard A. E. Brooks, returned from teaching GIs at the United States Army University in Biarritz, France, spoke of his experiences. 96 non-resident veterans from nearby communities joined the 1, 142 students as classes began. The 435 members of the freshman class came from 39 states and nine foreign countries.
1929, Sept. A Vassar student was sent to Spain for her junior year. Vassar was the first college to have a junior year in Spain. 1932, Sept. Russian was offered for the first time, although the courses carried no credit toward the degree until 1935. Vassar’s Russian department was the first in a college for women.
1952, Sept. 8 “God help me for what I did! There is no doubt in my mind I did a great deal of harm.” These statements punctuated the opening testimony of Dr. Bella Dodd before Michigan Senator Homer Ferguson’s Senate Internal Security subcommittee investigating communist subversion in education. A former member of the Communist party’s national executive committee and legislative representative of the Teachers Union who had recently repudiated the party and returned to the Catholic
faith, Dodd told the committee that most of the Communist professors and teachers were concentrated in the New York area and that they numbered around 1,000. Vassar, Columbia, New York University, and Brooklyn, Queens and Hunter Colleges were among campuses named by Dodd as institutions where at least three registered Communists taught. Smith, Wellesley, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Massachusetts and Chicago, Northwestern and Minnesota in the Midwest were similarly infiltrated, she said. Dodd went on to describe the influence of these agents on their students and colleagues, claiming that one Communist teacher might influence 300 future teachers in a single semester. The late pioneer anthropologist and chairman of the Committee for Democracy and Freedom Franz Boaz was, Dodd said, among the wellintended dupes who had to differing degrees been manipulated by Communist subversives. The New York Times 1961, Fall The College opened for its second century with the largest enrollment in its history, 1,493 students, of whom 434 were freshmen. The College instituted the Matthew Vassar scholarship to be given to sixty students, fifteen in each class. Up to $ 2,500 was awarded to the students as either financial aid or an honorary scholarship.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
LETTERS POLICY
The Miscellany News is Vassar College’s weekly open forum for discussion of campus, local and national issues, and welcomes letters and opinions submissions from all readers. Letters to the Editor should not exceed 450 words, and they usually respond to a particular item or debate from the previous week’s issue. Opinions articles are longer pieces, up to 800 words, and take the form of a longer column. No letter or opinions article may be printed anonymously. If you are interested in contributing, e-mail misc@vassar.edu.
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The Editorial Board holds weekly meetings every Sunday at 9 p.m. in the Rose Parlor. All members of the Vassar community interested in joining the newspaper’s staff or in a critique of the current issue are welcome. The Miscellany News is not responsible for the views presented in the Opinions pages. The weekly staff editorial is the only article which reflects the opinion of the Editorial Board. The Miscellany News is published weekly by the students of Vassar College. The Miscellany News office is located in College Center Room 303, Vassar College.
September 8, 2011
NEWS
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CDO director leaves an improving office Search for new DOPAA T continues Joey Rearick
Assistant News Editor
Erik Lorenzsonn Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News
he new school year has ushered in some important changes for the Career Development Office (CDO). Though the CDO will continue to offer its advising services in the midst of an economic climate in which they are needed more than ever, students will notice two important differences within the office: a new career services website and the departure of former director Mary Raymond. Raymond announced plans to leave last spring after overseeing Career Development and Student Employment operations for two years. Her next job will take her to southern California, where she will direct the Career Development Office of Pomona College. After her final day, Aug. 30, Raymond was replaced by Senior Associate Director Stacy Bingham, who will act as director while the College searches for someone to fill the position permanently. Bingham stressed that the office is functioning well despite Raymond’s absence. “Students can feel reassured that it’s really business as usual at the CDO.” Besides Bingham, Assistant Directors of the CDO Aimee Cunningham and Susan Smith will be able to meet with students to provide counseling and career advice per usual . The Office has also chosen to hire a part-time consultant, Carole Beiber, who will work remotely and communicate with students mostly by email. The CDO was the subject of concern last year when the results of a survey of seniors, administered in 2010 by the Consortium for Financing Higher Education, indicated that Vassar students were largely unsatisfied by the office’s performance. In a letter to The Miscellany News, Raymond wrote, “Due to diminished staff as a result of retirement incentives and an inability to replace a significant student employment advisor, there were fewer hours available for career advisement. A weak market for internships and jobs increased the demand for advisement yet we had the fewest hours available ever for the 2009-2010 school year.” But Bingham, Cunningham and Smith are excited for the upcoming year, and they hope that a new website, VCLink, will improve the experience of students looking for jobs and internships. The new site runs on a platform created by software company Simplicity, which allows each institution using the tech-
The Career Development Office’s updated website, shown above, now features VCLink, a database that hosts internship listings, links to other jobs listings.sites, and tips for résumé building. nology to customize its site to best reflect its students’ needs. The platform is growing more popular among colleges and universities, and its useful features have helped form a new technological standard in the career support industry. “Every school has the opportunity to brand it however they want,” said Bingham. The new site sports Vassar’s colors, and the CDO staff members post jobs and internships they believe will specifically interest Vassar students. When deciding what to call the new site, the office surveyed last year’s seniors about potential names. VCLink was suggested by one of the respondents. Students can use the site in a number of ways. Visitors to VCLink can look at job and internship listings tailored to their particular interests, screening results by keyword, industry, location, position type and a host of other variables in order to arrive at the most relevant listings. For instance, one could search for entry-level jobs in publishing within 20 minutes of Brooklyn, N.Y. In addition, VCLink provides a convenient link to two larger jobs databases: the National Association of Colleges and Employers and the Liberal Arts Career Network. “The great thing about VCLink is it links directly to other robust jobs listings sites,” said Bingham. “And you don’t even need to
log on again.” In addition, the site offers résumé-building services. Students who log on to the site will be happy to find much of their information has already been transferred from Vassar’s records using a program called Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, or LDAP as it is usually called. Students need not type in their addresses or GPA when writing a résumé; this data has already been imported via LDAP. The site also provides several résumé templates, each intended for a given field. For instance, the Creative Art and Financial résumé templates contain different content and formatting. Students can customize their résumés beyond those basic templates as well and make several aesthetic choices, such as font and size. Bingham and her colleagues hope that the site’s usefulness and ease will encourage students to avail themselves of the career development services that can be crucially helpful in a time of economic stagnation. And despite recent changes within the office, the CDO’s commitment to informative advising remains firm. “We’re doing a lot of the same things we’ve always done to help students, and I hope more students will take advantage of these services,” Bingham said. “The jobs are out there.”
Sesquicentennial hits full swing for fall Aashim Usgaonkar
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Senior Editor
n January, Vassar launched a global celebration that extended from Poughkeepsie to Athens; these celebrations will now enter their second and final semester this fall, concluding a yearlong series of events honoring Vassar’s sesquicentennial. “It’s important to remember that the year isn’t over yet,” said co-Chair of the Student Sesquicentennial Committee Ruby Cramer ’12, referring to the extensive sesquicentennial programming that took place last spring; indeed, some of the largest and all-encompassing “sesquibrations” are still to come. Moreover, the upcoming sesquicentennial programming will be markedly different from previous events. “Last semester’s activities were really a look back at Vassar’s history and what it was like to be a student at Vassar in the past,” said Cramer. “This semester, we’ll be looking at Vassar’s future as a place of academic progress and learning.” The first of these events—to be held on Saturday, Sept. 24—will celebrate the memory of Pulitzer-prizing winning poet Elizabeth Bishop ’34. The Vassar alumna left her legacy in the form of archival papers, which will be on display at the Thompson Memorial Library starting at 3 p.m. There will also be two panel discussions on editing and teaching Bishop’s work at Taylor Hall at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., respectively. The day will conclude with the Curtis Lecture, delivered this year by former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky on the subject of Bishop, also in Taylor Hall. The second event of the semester, A Day at Vassar, will be held during the College’s
October Break on Oct. 15, when the College will open its doors to members of the greater Hudson Valley community, including university presidents, and non-Vassar alumnae/i. This event branches away from previous sesquicentennial programming in that it is not held chiefly for Vassar students, faculty or alumnae/i. “We’re inviting members of the community to experience the resources that Vassar has to offer for a day,” said Senior Director of Regional Programs and co-Chair of the Sesquicentennial John Mihaly ’74. Registered guests for this event will have the opportunity to take classes taught by Vassar faculty; eat in the Students’ Building; take walking tours of the campus; and visit exhibitions at the Library, the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center or the Palmer Gallery. As such, this event represents a concerted effort by several members of the Vassar community, especially the faculty. “This day couldn’t have been possible without the participation and support of our faculty,” commented Mihaly, adding that he is still seeking further support from student volunteers who, if interested, should get in touch with his office. Another event inviting individuals not affiliated to Vassar will be held on the weekend of Thursday, Nov. 10, when Vassar will cast a wider net and bring in 50 student delegates from other colleges to attend a conference entitled On Educating the Global Citizen. These delegates—accompanied by Vassar’s own selected by the faculty—will attend talks and panel discussions on wide-ranging topics such as “economics, communications in the media, justice, relationship between nation states and philanthropy,” said Mihaly.
The format of the talks, he explained, will be that of an interview, “which allows for a more informal atmosphere and affords the audience a chance to hear unprepared views of the speakers and panelists.” “This event celebrates Vassar as an academic institution and a place where minds come together,” said Mihaly, adding once again that the support of the faculty has been crucial to its planning. Finally, as a coda to the year of celebration preceding it, the Library will host a reception on the occasion of its acquisition of the millionth volume of its collection—an anatomy book authored by famed Dutch physician Govard Bidloo. This is the first anatomy book published after the invention of steel plates, which allowed anatomists to gain a far clearer and nuanced view of the human body. The book is a gift by the Class of 1972, and “represents a wonderful synthesis of science and the arts,” said Mihaly. While it maintains a strong presence on campus, the sesquicentennial has also been on the road, taking the performance piece “Vassar Voices” to various cities across the United States and the world. The largest of these regional events—hosted in New York City—has been recorded and will be shown to freshmen who didn’t have the opportunity to watch it when the Vassar College Choir and student actors performed it at Skinner Hall of Music. On this recording are also remarks from President of the College Catharine Bond Hill, Chair of the Board of Trustees William Plapinger ’74 and Trustee Meryl Streep ’71, among others. “Vassar Voices” will continue to travel to Midwestern and Southern states, Mihaly indicated.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
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Senior Editor
espite having announced in February her intentions to resign as dean of Planning and Academic Affairs, Professor of Greek and Roman Studies Rachel Kitzinger will resume her post as dean until the end of the fall semester. Kitzinger decided to temporarily return to the position following a conversation with President of the College Catharine Bond Hill last spring, in which she was asked to stay on as dean. “It became clear that the search for my replacement was not going to yield any results by the end of the semester,” said Kitzinger. “So I agreed to stay.” Professor of Political Science Peter Stillman serves on the search committee that was created in March to find a replacement for Kitzinger. Thus far, the committee has not yet found a suitable candidate. “The committee was divided within itself, and the committee and the president were divided,” said Stillman. “We couldn’t come up with consensus candidates.” Finding a suitable candidate for the position is a challenge due to the singular operational niche that the Office of the Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs fills. The office is responsible not only for the College’s long-term planning but also for the libraries, the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Wimpfheimer Nursery School, the Athletics Department, the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid, the Grants Office, the Office of Institutional Research, maintenance projects and the Faculty Housing Program. Because the position demands familiarity with so many facets of the College, the committee’s search was focused within the faculty. “We agreed that for this job, it’s particularly appealing to have an internal candidate,” said Stillman. Even within the faculty, few have had the experience with the many diverse aspects of the College that fall under this office’s umbrella. “If you don’t have a little child, you don’t know how the nursery school functions,” said Stillman. Likewise, “there are some faculty members who don’t pay attention to athletics.” Kitzinger agreed with Stillman that her position is not easily replaced. “It’s a difficult job to find people who want to do it, have the skills for it and have any background at all in the areas covered,” she said. “Because the job has such a range of responsibilities, it’s hard for faculty to imagine that it’s a job they could easily do.” As the committee resumed its search this semester, it decided to expand upon the field of candidates by reopening the nomination process. Stillman stressed that this decision does not preclude any of the candidates who applied for the empty position during the last semester from receiving the committee’s recommendation: “The committee is really going to consider new nominations, and reconsider previous ones. Everyone who was in last year is going to be reconsidered.” Kitzinger has served as dean of Planning and Academic Affairs since the position was created in 2007. After four years at the helm of the unique administrative office, three of which were marked by a severe economic crisis, she announced in February that she planned to retire at the end of the academic year. She rationalized her departure by saying that she felt it was time for someone new to move the position forward, and that the alleviated economic status provided a perfect opportunity for the transition. As Kitzinger is the first and only dean of Planning and Academic Affairs that Vassar has ever had, such a transition is unprecedented. For now, Kitzinger is not focusing on the transitional aspects of her final semester as a senior officer; rather, she is treating the final leg of her tenure as a senior officer as nothing extraordinary. “If there’s a person named when I leave, then I will help them move into the new position in January,” said Kitzinger. “It all depends on who the next dean will be. Certainly for the moment, I am continuing as normal.”
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NEWS
Under new loan system, VSA orgs to share items
Shopper’s Special and Main Street bus lines free to students
Bethan Johnson Guest Reporter
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Courtesy of Media Relations
his week the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Finance and Activities Committees announced a plan to implement a new method of purchasing and distributing capital items. This new financial plan will be called the Capital Loan System (CLS) and will allow for items used by multiple student organizations to be purchased and owned by the VSA so that they can be loaned out to several groups. This new policy, which the Finance Committee has hoped to enact for two years, will work as a supplement to the current Capital Budgeting system. VSA Vice President for Finance Jason Rubin ’13 explained that the plan’s completion has been delayed because of “so many other things you have to do for Finance Committee. A lot of time what you want to do just gets put off to the side because there’s no time for them.” The change has come after another round of in-depth consideration by Rubin and his financial team. The proposed plan requires that new contracts between the VSA and student organizations be written, a process involving hours of research and discussion with administrators on proper storage. This system will have the potential to significantly alter the relationships and capabilities of a number of student organizations. However, certain elements of the past program will remain the same. Items that are used almost exclusively by one organization will still fall under the current system of Capital Budgeting. Rubin mentioned tents for the Outing Club; since they are used almost exclusively by the Outing Club there would be no reason to have these items in the shared Capital Loan System. Previously, there was no guarantee that the Finance and Activities Committee would approve capital items. If student organizations were in need of a particular item, their leadership was required to submit applications for approval by the Finance Committee once a semester in order to maintain possession of a capital item. While
Rubin said that rejections under the old system were “infrequent,” the committee could not always provide funding for several identical, expensive items for different organizations because of the VSA’s limited budget. This new system, however, is intended to allow student groups to gain access to a pool of new items within the CLS, and hence helps them bypass some of the limitations of the old system. Now items will always belong to the VSA and this means, with approval, items will float in and out of storage as is deemed necessary. While the switch to the CLS is a strategic financial move, Rubin asserted the plan is not intended to save money at the expense of student organizations. According to Rubin, “It’s more about opening up money to be used to purchase other items.” Organizations will now be responsible for sharing items based upon their needs. This may mean trouble for theater groups, especially during performance seasons. They will need to work together to manage a more campus-wide schedule to prevent overlap. In addition, organizations will be responsible for borrowed items. Contracts will be used to ensure that the group that incurs damages or loses the items will be financially responsible. Still, the Rubin maintains a positive view on this new purchase method, saying that groups will find that “if (they are) affected at all, it will be in a positive way.” Because the VSA budget will not be depleted by identical funding requests from different organizations, Rubin hopes the Finance Committee will no longer “have to deny any good application.” Even though the CLS will be brought to Council to vote on this week, most likely without much controversy, there are still issues that need to be addressed: A location for the CLS inventory needs to be found, and a list of capital items eligible for CLS needs to be completed. However, before any of these issues are decided upon by the committee, the plan must gain approval by the VSA Council at its upcoming meeting on Sunday, Sept. 11.
September 8, 2011
Two Poughkeepsie Transit System buslines, the Shopper’s Special and the Main Street bus, now feature stops on or near Vassar campus as part of their routes, thanks to an agreement between the College and the Transit System. BUS continued from page 1 get around the city without having to rely on cars or taxi cabs in a cheap and easy way.” This project was largely handled by the Campus Community Advisory Committee (CCAC), of which Kosmacher is also co-chair. The Vassar Student Association (VSA) also played an important role in this project. In 2010, the Executive Board wrote a letter to Poughkeepsie Mayor John Tkazyik supporting change to the city bus route. “It was certainly an important extra message because it wasn’t coming from the administration. Students were saying that they wanted the new route, and I think that the mayor took notice when he received that letter,” noted Kosmacher. Students going downtown can either catch the Shopper’s Special bus behind Jewett House, or the Main Street bus by the Raymond and Fulton Avenues intersection. Students going east can either catch the Shopper’s Special bus by the Raymond and Fulton Avenues intersection, or the Main Street bus at the corner of Main Street and Raymond Avenue. The Shopper’s Special line will operate weekdays only from around 10:05 a.m. to 5:05 p.m.,
and the Main Street bus will operate weekdays from around 6:25 a.m. to around 5:35 p.m., and on Saturday from around 6:25 a.m. to around 2:25 p.m. Between these two new bus lines, students can commute to the Poughkeepsie Middle School and High School, the Transit System Bus Hub, the Poughkeepsie Train Station and the Walkway Over the Hudson entrance. They also stop near K-Mart and Stop and Shop, a destination that was previously unavailable to students who used the old weekday shuttle. “It is a new relationship being offered to the College to help our students get into the downtown Poughkeepsie area, get to fieldwork programs in and around the city area, and, last but not least, provide a source of transportation to the train system and other bus systems throughout the greater Poughkeepsie area,” commented Vassar’s Transportation Director Dennis Cody in an emailed statement. To access the Galleria by way of public transportation, students can either pay a 30cent transfer fee at the bus hub onto the Galleria bus line, or wait until the weekend for the shuttle bus funded by the VSA. Each bus line
includes other stops; students can visit neighbors.vassar.edu, or get a red pamphlet from Campus Activities (located in the College Center) for a full list and an exact schedule. The weekend shuttle funded by the VSA will continue this year with only slight changes. “We’ve added a stop at Barnes and Noble, and changed another stop to become closer to the Walkway over the Hudson,” explained VSA Vice President for Operations Jenna Konstantine ’13. Unlike last year, this year’s VSA shuttle will stop in the North Lot, not in front of Main. Service begins on Sept. 17. Due to rising costs, the VSA weekend shuttle will only run for four hours on Saturdays and Sundays this semester. According to Konstantine, the VSA is considering further consolidation next semester by extending Saturday hours and cutting Sunday hours to save money. “Leprechaun Bus Lines keeps really detailed stats, which showed us that people overwhelmingly use the shuttle more on Saturdays than Sundays,” wrote Konstantine in an emailed statement. This change will reduce costs by roughly 20 percent from $1040 per weekend to $827 and possibly help the VSA fund other events and programs.
ViCE required to seek oversight for big-budget events VICE continued from page 1 awareness of what was happening and the way this was going to end,” said VSA Vice President for Finance Jason Rubin ’13. “So the people that are now on ViCE didn’t know and have now inherited this and now are first realizing, so that’s an accountability issue within ViCE.” “And then there’s the accountability issue between ViCE and the VSA,” he added. Sunday evening’s censure addresses both issues—the financial management of ViCE and oversight by the VSA. While some VSA censures in the past have amounted to a warning, the ViCE censure carries with it specific financial terms. Most censured organizations are referred to the VSA Activities Committee, but ViCE will instead report to the VSA Finance Committee. In addition to its normal programming reports to VSA Council, ViCE will be required to present reports to the VSA Finance Committee that detail how it is budgeting for programs and specifically how its budget has been distributed among ViCE’s committees. For individual expenditures over $4,000, ViCE will have to come to the Finance Committee for approval. Though the terms may seem pointed, neither the ViCE nor the VSA leadership characterizes the censure as punitive. The issue becomes complicated because the annual turnover of ViCE leadership means that no member of the current ViCE Executive Board is culpable.
“It’s basically entirely preventative,” said Rubin. “The only punitive part of it is if the preventative measures are not followed, there’s a fine. There is no fine right away.” In fact, ViCE helped design the terms to which it is now subject, and despite concern over past financial management, Rubin is quick to praise the current ViCE Executive Board in its approach to the issue. “Conversations that I’ve had with [Rubin] basically amounted to that if a punishment were to come in the form of a fine it would be unproductive,” said ViCE Director Mitchell Gilburne ’12. “And if a punishment were to hinder the way that ViCE functions then campus programming would take a hit.” [Disclosure: Gilburne is a Contributing Editor of The Miscellany News.] “I think the VSA has been very mindful of that and has created a system that enforces, encourages and mandates dialogue and communication without creatively limiting my Exec Board, which is the best sort of punishment I can ask for,” he continued. This is not the first time ViCE has begun the year with a significant debt. At the start of the 2010-2011 year, ViCE held $1,200 in debt from the previous year. In concert with the VSA Executive Board, ViCE decided to accept half of the debt and roll the last $6,000 to the 2011-2012 year. This number is included in the current $30,000 debt figure.
The issue of the recurring debt as well as its size has troubled both the VSA and ViCE, especially in regard to the organization’s unique role on campus. While it is not entirely unusual for a few student organizations to end a year with a slight debt, the size of ViCE’s budget and its position as the campus’s chief programming organization make its debt concerning. In a particularly Vassar sense, ViCE is, in a way, too big to fail. Gilburne explained that the organization would be taking on all of the debt this year rather than a portion of it, like last year. “We are eating the debt,” he said. “The last thing we want to do is pass that on to next year. Within the organization itself, both Gilburne and ViCE Finance Director Sean Shoemaker ’12 say that accountability is a top priority for the year. According to Shoemaker, he plans to ask ViCE committee chairs to print out budgets to discuss with him one to two weeks before an event. “So we make sure that we have everything in the books before the payment is made,” he said. “That’s basically what the censure is doing, but we’re doing it on a small scale also.” Part of ViCE’s plan for fiscal responsibility includes predicting costs before making any purchases or signing contracts. Over-optimistic sales projections have widely been blamed, but Shoemaker also suggested that a significant portion of the debt came from Building
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& Grounds costs that were not adequately accounted for before the charges came in over the summer. As for splitting the debt internally, Shoemaker said that an equal percentage has been taken off of each ViCE committee’s budget. According to Gilburne, the $12,000 debt accrued before the 2010-2011 year, “was more of a bookkeeping error in that some [Buildings and Grounds] costs didn’t come through, and then came down the pipes at the end of the year, so we thought we had $12,000 that we didn’t, whereas the $30,000 does come from true mismanagement.” Even without one-fifth of their original budget, both Shoemaker and Gilburne remain optimistic about this year’s programming docket, though VSA Vice President for Activities Mookie Thottam ’12 suggested that the organization might review the process of planning the spring concert. “It’s their most controversial decision that they make every year. They always take heat for it, and it’s also putting us in the hole, so it’s obviously a process that’s going to be reviewed,” he said, while remaining hopeful. “They’ve got some great, great plans that I think could be not only great for this year but be great for every year as far as the large concerts go.” “We’re still going to throw a huge spring concert, so don’t you worry about that,” said Shoemaker.
September 8, 2011
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A look at Freshman Orientation from 1865 to present Danielle Bukowski
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Assistant Features Editor
Madeline Zappala/The Miscellany News
he very first group of new Vassar students, arriving just as excited and nervous in 1865 as Vassar students do today, didn’t have nearly the same type of orientation as their modern counterparts. The 353 girls who arrived on Sept. 14, 1865, ranged in age from 15 to 25. “I know they all sat down right away to write letters home,” said Professor of History Rebecca Edwards. “A lot of the process was meeting one’s roommate and settling in,” she said. Four-fifths of the girls would have roommates as first years, and apparently did have some freedom in deciding where to go; the anonymous student whose 1869-70 letters comprise the book Letters from Old-Time Vassar wrote, “they asked me if I would like to live on the fifth floor, but it is too near the sky line.” Once at Vassar, students often had to wait for classes to be organized. Christine Ladd-Franklin ’69 wrote in her diary on Sept. 22, 1869 that she was “tired of having waited more than one week without having a single class organized.” The classes could not be organized until the girls took entrance exams, which for the first three days lasted from morning until late afternoon with one break for lunch. Part of the problem was the great variation in the girls’ education prior to Vassar. “It was difficult in the early years to tell if they were ready [for college work] or not, because there was no SAT and no national curriculum. So a girl who knew Latin might have studied with her older brother or at a girl’s academy,” said Edwards. The entrance exams determined if a girl was prepared or not, and President John Raymond was distressed to find that many of the girls were not on the level he expected in order to enter as freshmen. He established a preparatory department for those girls who did not score well, encouraging them to stay on for a semester or year until they were proficient, at which point they would enroll as students in “full
The Main House Team of 2011 welcomes its incoming freshmen. In 1865, Main functioned as the sole residential hall for students, in addition to holding nearly all other aspects of college life. standing.” The first admitted Vassar freshmen learned Latin, mathematics, natural history, English composition and their choice of Greek, German or French for the first semester. Since everyone lived in Main, the girls developed class, rather than dorm pride, and the freshmen created their own songs and traditions. One favorite pastime was, according to Edwards, tricking the Lady Principal, Hannah Lyman, by sneaking into friends’ rooms after hours. Edwards said that the Lady Principal “was seen as an enforcer and a preventer of fun for those girls who tried to bring in visitors claiming to be their brothers.” Students also defied the Lady Principal in other ways. “I know that every year [Lyman] wrote to the girls, don’t bring any ball gowns, we won’t be having any balls. But each year some of the more elite girls brought ball
gowns,” said Edwards. One crucial part of those early weeks was making friends and fitting into the community. Girls wrote in their letters and diaries about walking around the campus and Arlington while discovering their new home. Mary Harriott Norris wrote in The Golden Age of Vassar that the class pride and camaraderie created a “cosmopolitan spirit” that was “silently, stealthily driving out a narrow provincialism in which many a girl had hitherto lived.” The friendships formed between girls from North and South, East and West were very important following the Civil War. Although today’s freshman orientation may be more structured, students hoping to feel welcomed and included is as much of a concern in 2011 as it was in 1865. Dean of Freshmen Benjamin Lotto said that the current ori-
entation has two main components: academic and residential. “Both are essential in different ways,” Lotto said. “Obviously getting the freshmen academically registered, enrolled and advised is a big part of orientation. But it is also designed to introduce them to the Vassar community, and what it means to be a part of that community.” “Every year orientation is different, but we’ve had programming about a week prior to movein since the late ’70s,” said Dean of Students D.B. Brown. One of the biggest parts of freshman orientation is the student fellow program, which was developed during one of the first coed classes in the early 1970s. “It was created to provide peer advising support for first-year students in that transitional phase,” said Brown. “It’s moved from counseling to Residential Life, and now the student fellows are more of a part of the House Teams. So there’s a lot of in-house support for the new students.” Many of the programs during that first week—meeting with academic advisors, fire safety, Arlington Amble, the tours of the health center—allow the students to learn the regulations of their new school. In 1913, Lucy Maynard Salman developed a comprehensive freshman orientation plan, “which would open up every single part of the College, for two to three days, for the freshmen to see places like the greenhouses, the sewage systems and the business offices. She wanted them to see how their college was run,” said Edwards. These tours were never instated, although Edwards agrees it would be an interesting concept. Any freshman tired of the long days of tours and talks might look back and see a day trip through the orchard as idyllic, but the resources available today vastly outnumber what was available for freshmen in 1865. And although 146 years have passed, Edwards believes the class entering in those early years “probably had the same feeling as freshmen today: a little excited, a little anxious and a long way from home.”
Princeton Review ranks VC fourth most secular college Jessica Tarantine
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Assistant Features Editor
uried in the diverse and heaping piles of college rankings, Vassar’s place on one Princeton Review list raises more questions than answers. In the 2011 edition of The Princeton Review’s “Best 367 Colleges,” Vassar was ranked fourth on the list of least religious schools in the country, following only Bennington, Reed and Bard Colleges in the number of secular students on campus. Many not only question the methods of calculating the ranking—asking randomly selected students to rank from one to five how religious they felt their peers were—but also the ranking itself, feeling as though the ranking perpetuated an already existing false assumption that religion is incompatible with a reason-based study of the liberal arts. “For my own part, I can’t resist noting that the dichotomy that the ranking sets up is somewhat of a straw man,” wrote Professor of Religion Marc Epstein in an emailed statement, referring to the often perceived notion that faith and reason are competing factions. “It seems to me that the alleged conflict you are describing, which I don’t believe is a conflict in the first place, or is only a conflict for unreconstructed, non-intellectual scriptural fundamentalists, should more accurately be described as one between religious belief and practice and a secular lifestyle and belief system than between ‘faith’ and ‘reason,’” Epstein said. Assistant Professor of Religion Jonathon Kahn agreed: “Let me just add that [Epstein] in remarkably pithy fashion has raised all the right sorts of questions beginning with the false dichotomy of faith and reason.” “Indeed, part of what might mark these so called least religious schools is the degree to which this dichotomy continues to be the working assumption of these campuses,” Kahn stated. This assumption does seem to exist some places on campus. Katilin Reed ’14 said, “Vassar is a highly selective school and I feel that—not to say that only non-highly educated people are
religious but those really involved in academics aren’t religious,” she clarified. “The more educated you are the less likely you are to believe that women were created from the spare rib of a man.” For religious students the result of these kinds of views seems to be that more students are not openly practicing their beliefs. “My sense is that 1) the recent years have seen an increasing number of religious students, 2) many of these students hide or keep these beliefs private. This too may be a characteristic of these so called least religious schools: places where students feel compelled to privatize their religious beliefs and practices,” said Kahn. Even in light of Vassar’s high ranking on the list of secular schools, the number of religiously minded students on campus seems to be larger than one might expect. Assistant Dean of Student Life and Director of the Religious and Spiritual Life Office Rev. Sam Speers stated, “In some recent work with Vassar’s Office of Institutional Research, we learned some things that surprised even us, including that our most recent survey on hand of the Vassar student body indicates that a striking 35 to 40 percent of students are somewhat engaged or actively engaged, while they are at Vassar, in a range of spiritual and religious practices,” citing the 2008 National Survey of Student Engagement. This suggests that while a fair amount of Vassar students are religious, they do not popularize their beliefs or join religious organizations it could also be that Vassar students define religion more loosely than the Princeton Review does. Episcopal Church at Vassar College President Christopher Ewing ’12 held a different view. “Because there are so few religious students, I would not say that Vassar is especially welcoming,” he said. “However, many of the religious groups on campus have done a fantastic job of creating a space for students to practice their faith and these groups are only occasionally met with open hostility. And yet even if not all religiously minded student are joining faith based organizations, those students who do of-
ten find strong well-supported communities.” The Religious and Spiritual Life Office recognizes and aides 12 religious student organizations, as well as providing their own programming to the campus. For those students who take advantage of the programming, the experience of religious and spiritual life at Vassar is a meaningful one, according to many religious organization’s leaders. “Rather than think of religion here as in decline, I think it’s more important to see how much it has changed,” said Speers. “When the Buddhist Sangha met this past week for the first time, they ran out of the handouts they had prepared for everyone. At Freshmen Shabbat, about 80 students crowded into the Bayit—there was barely enough room for everyone who wanted to be there.” Explained Vassar Christian Fellowship President Sarah King ’14, “The ranking is a bit ironic for me personally because I feel that my time at Vassar has been a tremendous time of growth in my own faith. The opportunity to learn from other Christian students about how my faith can and should effect every part of my life has been transformative.” King continued, “Perhaps even because few students are religious at Vassar, I have found that those who practice their Christian faith here are wise, thoughtful and passionate believers who have taught me so much about following God.” Vassar Catholic Community President Tracy Bratt ’13 also noted the importance of religion in her college life. “My experience with religion on campus has been an important component of my college career thus far, and I would like Vassar to be perceived as a place that, though secular, welcomes religion. I generally believe that students are receptive to religious people.” In agreement, for some religious groups, Vassar offers more awareness for religious practices than the outside of the Vassar campus. “Vassar students are generally very knowledgeable [about Islam] compared to people I’ve met outside the College, and they’re usually re-
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ally accepting and welcoming,” offered Zoheyr Doctor ’13 in an issue of The Miscellany News (10.5.2010. Miscellany News. “Islam at Vassar a growing, diverse community of students.”) But Bratt added, “That does not mean that there aren’t students who look down on religion.” In fact, the interaction between members of the religious and non-religious communities is often far from perfect. Unitarian Universalist President Heather Kobayashir ’12 offered, “I sense that there is some sort of wariness when dealing with people of faith, as if they are an unknown quantity.” King agreed, stating that, “although people are excited about diverse religious practice, I think discussing the effects of religion on daily life can make people at Vassar uncomfortable, probably because of the general feeling that religion has to do with blindly following the declarations of authority.” She continued, “I think that for their own lives, students at Vassar want more than a set of antiquated practices. I’ve found that Christians at Vassar, however, often feel the same way.” Even so, some still felt tension. “It would be great if we could be more relaxed about faith/ non-faith relations at Vassar. None of the religious orgs are trying to convert anyone or get up in anyone’s face, but I fear that we may be perceived that way, even just handing out balloons that say ‘Believe it or Not’ on RSL Day,” Kobayashir stated. Ewing remained optimistic that the tension could be eased and that religious practice and a liberal arts environment could mirror one another in regard to acceptance. “The dialogue between religious groups and the rest of campus should be increased. Right now when students discuss religion, it’s in a very academic setting, so I think the dialogue needs to become more personalized,” he said. “I find that one of the core principles of a liberal arts education is open-mindedness, which necessarily leaves room for all sorts of opinions and beliefs,” said Ewing. “I was always taught that reason and religion are not opposing forces, but rather two paths to the same truth.”
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September 8, 2011
Classes, open lectures celebrate Sesqui in academic style Jillian Scharr
Contributing Editor
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Courtesy of Archives & Special Collections
ood news for incoming freshmen—the sesquicentennial celebrations of last semester aren’t over yet. The College continues to celebrate its 150th year through the fall semester with a variety of parties, receptions, celebrations and—for the first time—accredited courses. Foremost among these classes is History/ Women’s Studies 285: Pathways to Vassar: the Rise of Women’s Higher Education in Historical Context. Aside from its focus on Vassar within the historical context of women’s higher education, the class’s organization is also unique. Like most other classes, it meets twice a week: “I’m meeting with the students in the class on Mondays … we’ll discuss the readings and everyone will work on a research project just like in a 200 level [history] class,” said Professor of History Rebecca Edwards, the course organizer and primary instructor. Thursdays are a bit different. The class period will be a lecture, delivered by one of the seven history professors team-teaching the class. Further, these lectures, held in Taylor Hall 203 at 5:15 p.m. on Thursdays, are open to the public, meaning other students, faculty, Poughkeepsie residents, Vassar alumnae/i and anyone across the world with a computer and Internet access, because the lectures will also be webcast and recorded on Vassar’s sesquicentennial website. One of Edwards’ goals is to broaden the class’s definition of women’ rights. “It tends to be treated as the suffrage movement,” she said, “when in fact at the time it was much broader…access to professions, equal rights to child custody, marital rape, a whole range of things, so we’re going to tap into that. Instead of this little story about women’s education and the right to vote there was this broad array of really interesting things going on.” The first of these lectures took place last Thursday, with Professor of History Nancy Bisaha talking about the European Renaissance
and the beginning of higher education. Tonight’s is entitled “Constructions of Femininity and the Enlightenment Debate over Women’s Education,” by Associate Professor of History Sumita Choudhury. The other professors involved with the course are Professor of History Robert Brigham, Professor of History Miriam Cohen, Professor of History James Merrell, Assistant Professor of History Quincy Mills and Head of Special Collections and Adjunct Associate Professor of History Ronald Patkus. And on Nov. 17, several Vassar alumnae/i, as well as professors from other universities, will present for the course at different points during the semester. Professor of Art and Sesquicentennial Planning Committee co-Chair Susan Kuretsky remarked on the unique nature of History 285 and the whole of Vassar’s sesquicentennial celebration. “A distinctive quality of this particular celebration is the fact that technology is what it is now,” she said. “So much of what’s being done is communicable to the outside world in a very vivid way.” That History 285’s lectures are open for free to non-students, both on campus and online, for example, is very unique. Other Vassar educational materials have been archived online in the sesquicentennial site for use by students, professors and teachers both at Vassar and around the world. Kuretsky pointed to a new website about the history of each academic department at Vassar, which archives the different teaching methods and approaches that have been used at the College in the past 150 years. History 285 is not the only sesquicentennialthemed class, however. Professor of Art Nicholas Adams is teaching a 300-level seminar on the architectural history of the Vassar campus (Art 370), and Kuretsky is teaching a freshman writing seminar entitled Celebrating Vassar’s Art Museum (Art 186). “What I’m interested in doing is first of all telling students about the history of [the Lehman Loeb Art Museum] and the unusual fact
Above, Helen Drusilla Lockwood delivering her American Culture seminar in 1953. Today, in honor of the sesquicentennial, several courses are offered exploring Vassar’s place in American culture. that the museum was established so early,” said Kuretsky, “but [also] using the modern museum as a laboratory for studying certain problems that are endemic to all museums.” The focus of these sesquicentennial classes is not limited to Vassar in isolation, but also includes a study of Vassar in the context of the history of the nations: the College’s place in the history of American art, architecture and educational philosophy will all be major themes of the planned courses. Edwards, who conceived of History 285 almost two years ago for Vassar’s sesquicentennial year, describes its content as “a history of the intersections between gender and education.” The first half of the course, she explains, focuses on the intellectual history of women’s education from the American Revolution through the Enlightenment. “How did it become possible to think about higher educa-
tion for women? What were the justifications, arguments, goals?” she asked. “In the second half we’ll talk more about education; we’re going to be thinking not only about gender but also issues of race and social class,” Edwards explained. For example, “how is it that different kinds of institutions such as boarding schools for Native Americans were linked to broader projects of emancipation; how education could be exclusive or oppressive as well as liberating.” So before the Add/Drop period is over, consider browsing through the course catalogue one more time to find the sesquicentennialthemed classes that fit your schedule, dotted throughout—or just stop by Taylor 203 on Thursdays at 5:15 to attend a history lecture. It’s like class but without the homework. And since they’re all online you really don’t have much of an excuse.
URSI project pushes bounds of artificial intelligence Ruth Bolster
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Assistant Features Editor
up the pattern of the language. For the robot, you can throw in up to 40 percent noise, or 40 percent junk, and it still picks up the pattern. However, it would take it longer to process the information.” The team also experimented with blurring and putting bars over the robot’s field of vision. They were excited to find that they could occlude almost half of the image and the robot would still be able to recognize the object. However, Livingston quickly noted that the system is limited and any obstruction would result in the robot taking longer to process the information. This summer was specifically devoted to optimizing the robot’s processing speed and allowing it to better mimic the way in which a human cortex processes data. Among the improvements included programming the robot to recognize an object for what it is despite the angle at which it is viewed. This required the students to build a new network that is computationally simpler and faster than the one previously used. Ultimately, Livingston hopes that such research could result in a robot that can learn to do complex tasks, such as cleaning your home. Think Rosie from The Jetsons rather than the mono-tasking Rumba. However, he is quick to note the potential drawbacks from such technology. “I think there is no question that more general purpose kinds of systems are coming. The environments we encounter during the day, just in my lifetime, have gotten so much smarter. I mean, for crying out loud, my microwave is smarter compared to anything I knew as a kid. And as we come to depend on these technologies, there is a whole lot of our intelligence that we are offloading,” said Livingston. He found these developments more troubling than exciting. “Take Google for example; who bothers to remember anything anymore when you can Google it?” he asked. “So I think we are changing the sort of creatures we are every time we offload some of that intelligence into
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Courtesy of Vassar College
or many, the idea of robots with the capacity to think like humans is for over-the-top, apocalyptic summer blockbusters starring Will Smith and has no place in everyday life in 2011. But while such individuals may believe Artificial Intelligence (AI) belongs solely in the realm of science fiction, Professor of Cognitive Science Ken Livingston and his team of student researchers share a different perspective. They have the notion that machines being able to process data in a humanistic way may be closer to reality than a layman might initially think. For the past two summers, Livingston has worked with teams assembled through Vassar’s Undergraduate Research Summer Institute (URSI) in order to explore the ways one can artificially create human-like intelligence. This past summer, he enlisted the help of Lily Pytel ’13, Joshua Hawthorne-Madell ’14 and Nina Vyedin ’11. “We are trying to replicate some of the features of primate cortex to see whether we can solve a certain set of problems in learning and intelligence,” noted Livingston. “One of the big problems in robotics is building general purpose intelligence. We have lots of robots that do very specialized things. The Rumba will vacuum the floor, but if you ask it to make a cup of coffee, it can’t do it. Watson can play a great game of Jeopardy!, but is completely incapable of doing anything else. So there have been a lot of tremendous successes in AI with robots that do narrowly focused tasks.” The project itself, formally titled Hierarchical Temporal Memory Solutions to the Robust Intelligence, specifically seeks to utilize our understanding of how the human brain processes complex tasks and to reproduce it in machines. This “bio-inspired” project, as Livingston refers to it, has physically manifested itself in an antenna-ed, Rumba-like research robot that processes information in a separate computer. The link between robotics and neuroscience
is not unexplored. Jeff Hawkins, creator of the Palm Pilot, was the first to found an institute for computer-based neuroscience research, known as the Redwood Center for Theoretical Based Neuroscience in Menlo Park, Calif. Hawkins is also credited as one of the first people to suggest that the human brain is physiologically hardwired to make predictions. When humans experience new situations, their brains store the information they gain as memory by building patterns of connections. For example, you learn at an early age that when you continue walking toward a solid object, such as a wall, without stopping, you will inevitably walk into it. Your brain then uses this pattern to predict outcomes when it encounters this situation again. “The reason that we are so good at learning all kinds of different things is that the brain is a general purpose pattern-learning prediction maker. And the patterns it learns just depends on the experiences it has. The goal is to abstract away from the details of how the brain is doing things and figure out how to replicate that in the robot. Ultimately we want to get to the point where we can turn the robot loose in the world without having to program it,” noted Livingston. The project had a series of simple successes in which the robot could be presented a series of simple perceptual patterns and make predictions based on this information. Specifically, the robot would recognize a solid object in its path of vision and would know from past experiences not to collide with it. However, Livingston and his team were able to take their research one step further by obstructing its visual and audio input. “It is sufficiently robust because our robot does something else that is historically difficult to get AIs to do; it learns the patterns even when the input is noisy. Like right now,” referring to the squeaking of doors and the hum of Olmstead’s industrial-strength air conditioner, “this is very noisy in the auditory channel. Humans can filter that junk out and just pick
Above, Professor of Cognitive Science Ken Livingston poses with a robot. Livingston’s URSI project tests the limits of artificial intelligence. the world. Almost nobody, for example, knows how to drive a standard transmission in a car anymore—that is all automatically computerized. Your brakes are antilock, with a fancy computer chip that knows the optimal way to break your car, so that’s another skill you don’t have to learn. There is a lot of information that we are shedding like that, and I think there are interesting questions about the point at which that becomes problematic.” Despite these potential social implications, Livingston notes that he has enjoyed working with his URSI students this summer. While robotics and AI have a long way to go before it is up to par with the expectations set for it by science fiction, their project, he feels, has been a valuable learning experience.
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Mallet takes her place as new registrar CRPG helps Juan Bautista Dominguez Guest Reporter
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student body weather Irene Danielle Gensburg Guest Reporter
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assar’s new Registrar, Colleen Mallet, has been involved in the Vassar community for years. She moved to Dutchess County at three years of age, attended Dutchess County Community College and later Marist College, and has worked at Vassar for almost 28 years. “Prior to this job I was the Associate Registrar and Assistant Registrar for about 10 years,” said Mallet in an interview. “I’ve also done every job in the office. So I’ve been around. Know the ropes. Know the people.” Given her experience, Mallet is the logical replacement for former Registrar Dan Giannini, who put an end to his quarter-century run last year. “The day starts with putting out whatever fires are burning from the night before,” says Mallet, whether it be a professor who can’t find his student list on Ask Banner, a student who really needs to register for a course or the state of New York asking for the school’s latest academic reports. “Then I see what meetings are on the schedule. I chair the SIS committee that meets every two weeks with representatives from every student service area. We go around the table and bounce ideas off each other. We go over student accounts, financial aid, residential life and upcoming job or JYA fairs.” Mallet and her coworkers are constantly trying to improve their accessibility and handling of the student body’s needs. Mallet described her office as something of a mad house that must deal with last-minute senior credit fulfillment; certify all graduates; and eventually order, proof and organize all the diplomas while producing honors lists for Commencement. Mallet has seen many improvements take place, including the digitization of all the student academic records the office oversees. “Several years ago, we took on a project and imaged all the old hard paper copies of the student transcripts,” Mallet explained, “so that now they are accessible via our desktop. Through a software program I can bring up that person’s record, view it, and print it so
that we can put on all the official seals and stamps.” Mallet praised her coworkers, saying, “My staff make my job easier. They are the best support staff one could hope for. They are on the ‘front-lines’ every day and enjoy their interactions with students and are always willing to help.” However, she still sees room for improvement. Mallet hopes to add evening hours to the Registrar’s Office this spring. She explained, “You’re all up to the wee hours and we know it’s hard for some to get here by five.” Mallet suggested the Registrar’s Office stay open until 8 p.m. on Thursday because she hopes it will allow last minute submissions before Friday deadlines and breaks. She added, “We know that before breaks people are gone Friday so when school starts again there’ll be a lot of cases of missed NRO and drop deadlines and that creates problems.” In order to improve accessibility and ease student formalities, Mallet hopes to standardize the Vassar student course catalogue. “Between departments there is some variation in how they list things in the catalogue. Is it two 75 minute periods, meetings, or sessions?” explained Mallet. “I’m not going to tell faculty how to write their course descriptions ... I’m not going there. It just needs to be cleaned up. Just some simple editing.” Mallet most looks forward to digitizing various student forms. That includes the yellow, pink and green declaration forms. “We want to implement a degree audit system. An online interactive tool to be used by students and advisors. You can check off you’re credit requirements and you’re advisor can watch as those things tick away,” said Mallet. Apart from saving paper and keeping communication fluid between advisors and students, Mallet believes it will make both processes up to date with constant changes. In keeping with her genuine and warmhearted ways, Mallet has introduced something that may make many want to redeclare. Now the newly declared will be able to sport Rose and Grey buttons that say, “Hurray I’m
Brought up in Poughkeepsie, Colleen Mallet takes over as registrar after Dan Giannini retired at the end of the previous semester. declared,” upon leaving Main’s north corridor. “We just want to acknowledge that it’s a very big deal,” said Mallet. “It’s a big day for you guys!” Mallet believes that in years past the office’s reaction was seldom up to par with students’ expectations; most students who declared their major received little more than a smile for their accomplishment. The buttons were also Mallet’s first speed bump as registrar. “Those buttons would have been here by the first day of classes but our lovely Irene stranded them in a warehouse in New Jersey!” she exclaimed. So the few students who declared last Wednesday were told to come back. Mallet concluded, in accordance with the care she has shown for Vassar students, “Right now it’s all about customer service and you guys are the customers. We are here to help you succeed at Vassar and beyond.”
Students form bonds with interns, advisors TRANSITIONS continued from page 1 guides about 40 incoming freshmen though a course of tours, information sessions, practice classes and group bonding exercises. Transitions originated not in an administrative office in Main, but as a 2009 proposal created by a group of students and professors which outlined a six-week pre-matriculation program to help low income and first generation college students adjust to life at Vassar. Administrators pared the six-week program down to three days due to cost, and Transitions began as a pilot pre-orientation program in Fall 2010. “What attracted me [to the program] was the opportunity to move in before everyone else, which, coming from an environment that’s very different from Vassar, was pretty huge,” said Ian Edwards ’14, who has been both a participant and a student intern in Transitions. “That chance to breathe was really important.” Student interns lead a group of five or six students through the pre-orientation program. “It’s a lot like being a student fellow, but I think you’re allowed to be a lot more close to [the students] in this position,” said Edwards. He continued, “Really the point was to give the kids a familiar face. Someone they could wave to at orientation.” According to those interviewed, the student interns were particularly supportive of the program’s participants. “She’s like our mom,” said Genesis Hernandez ’15 of her student intern, “If we ever need anything she’s always available.” Administrators also acknowledged the special bond between interns and their students. “The mentorship relationships are really powerful, and I don’t mean to slight the professors or administrators, but the peer mentorships especially,” said Lotto. “I’d call them the first among equals.” Both administration and participants said the program has been an excellent experience
for those involved, with Lotto citing extremely positive feedback from former participants. Amy Cao ’15 wrote in an emailed statement, “I loved Transitions. I got to experience Vassar with a tight knit group of people, which helped me a lot during regular orientation and through these first few days of school.” Lotto also emphasized the general student body’s positive response towards Transitions. “[Vassar Student Association President] Tanay Tatum [’12], when she spoke at Convocation last spring...mentioned the Transitions program,” he said. “Even though she didn’t participate in it at all! The campus as a whole has embraced this program in a way that’s really astonishing for a program that’s essentially a year old,” continued Lotto. Despite the positive buzz, the pilot program has undergone a number of adjustments. Last year’s participants noted that the faculty advisor aspect of the program was lacking. “I don’t think I ever saw [my faculty advisor] last time,” said Edwards, though he quickly added, “This year it’s much better. This year [the professors] came to Juliet’s for the final celebration and talked to all the kids individually about how [the students] were feeling after orientation.” Lotto also conceded that the administration has had to make adjustments to the Transitions program. “We realized a couple of elements needed to be better defined. Last year faculty members didn’t quite know what to do, and so they weren’t always available,” he acknowledged. There were also changes made to the practice classes that participants attended to get a taste of academic life at Vassar. Instead of going to class once, like participants last year did, this year students attended the same classes twice and were assigned homework to simulate what the beginning of classes would really be like. The classes themselves—an English class
on hip-hop, a political science course on violence and a chemistry class on fireworks— were meant to draw out student interest. “Students received the classes really well,” said Edwards. “I think they were the choices that appealed to the most people.” The level of student leadership has encouraged participants to remain involved in the program. “I felt like after going through the program myself, I was in a good position to improve on things I had noticed and to help accelerate the process [of settling into college life] that I had gone through myself,” Edwards said of his decision to become an student intern. Cao shared similar sentiments, writing, “The entire experience was great. I would love to be involved with it again, perhaps as an intern next year.” Administrators are also looking forward to the program’s future. “I think it’s going to be really powerful two years from now when we have four years of Transitions students on campus,” said Lotto, “That’s 160 Transitions students, which is about seven to eight percent of the student body. It’s going to be easy for them to find each other, support each other and for their efforts to multiply beyond their own groups.” Student interns and members of the administration are already encouraging participants to support each other by planning activities for those who have gone through the program in the hopes of creating a permanent, tightknit group on campus that will turn to each other for assistance. Those in the administration are hesitant about expanding the program but optimistic for the future. “I don’t know yet about growth and expansion. We will continue to examine what parts of the program have been successful and to support those aspects, and what parts haven’t worked as well and alter or eliminate those aspects,” said Lotto. “Those are my hopes for the evolution of the program.”
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
n the wake of Hurricane Irene, the Vassar community banded together and demonstrated campus-wide preparedness and dedication to its students, resulting in only minimal damage to the campus and no serious injuries. “Our response was successful because of all the collaboration and cooperation we received from so many students, faculty, staff and administration,” said Dean of the College Chris Roellke. Before cutting a swath across New York and the Northeastern United States, Hurricane Irene made its way first along the Caribbean, then the United States East Coast. As Irene approached New York, Vassar’s Crisis Response Planning Group (CRPG), an emergency response team that has been in place for several years, responded to the impending storm. Made up of College administrators, crisis responders from all areas of the College and President of the College Catharine Bond Hill, CRPG communicated with students before and during the hurricane and sent updates to both the Poughkeepsie police and fire departments. “We conduct ‘table top’ exercises at least annually which give us the opportunity to practice the kind of collaboration that took place,” Roellke said. “The emergency team meets periodically and has training sessions every few weeks,” Dean of Students D.B. Brown added. As a safety measure, all students were required to return to their residence houses Saturday evening, close all dorm room windows and remove any electronic appliances near windows. Roellke sent a series of emails to both students and their parents describing the hurricane’s status on campus. Additionally, several freshman orientation events, such as Vassar Adventures for New Students, were canceled and both the Retreat and All Campus Dining Center dining halls were closed, requiring food services to alter their schedule. “We closed the dining facilities and arranged for delivery to the residence houses (the first time in Vassar’s history that I know of) to make sure that students wouldn’t be injured when walking on campus,” said Senior Director of Campus Dining Maureen King. Vassar’s food services made two deliveries: one Saturday afternoon consisting of water, fruit, cookies, bread, peanut butter, jelly, cheese and snacks; the second, Sunday at noon, consisting of water, salad, cold cuts, cheese, humus and bread. Pizza was also delivered later Sunday afternoon to the dorms. “I am very proud of the job that campus dining did,” said King. “It was truly a team effort and the entire dining staff deserves credit.” Thanks to Vassar’s extensive preparations, Irene luckily left little more than strong rain and minor flooding near Sunset Lake, campus bridges and in some of the basements of buildings. More importantly, the storm actually created a stronger sense of community. “It turned into a positive experience,” Dean of Freshman Benjamin Lotto said. “Students came through it together, bonding with one another in the dorms. This class will always be cemented together in a way that others are not.” Students agreed. Darielle Gadsby ’15 and Katie Ewen ’15 said they appreciated the efforts Vassar made towards protecting freshmen and keeping them updated. As for being required to stay in the dorms Saturday night and Sunday during the day: “It was kind of like a giant sleepover,” Gadsby said. Furthermore, Roellke claimed that many premajor advisors said the free time during the hurricane allowed students to be more relaxed and prepared for their curriculum planning meetings. “In some ways, providing some ‘down time’ during [freshmen] orientation is a real lesson for us as we think about future iterations of orientation,” Roellke said. “I would like to commend the frosh, house teams and all those that responded to the hurricane. I was really proud of Vassar, and I think we were quite fortunate not to experience the kind of damage, power outages and flooding that was caused throughout the northeast in this storm.”
FEATURES
Page 8
September 8, 2011
Vassar unexpectedly integral to fudge’s life story Sarah Begley
A
Guest Columnist
Madeline Zappala/The Miscellany News
fter the campus tour, the sesquicentennial celebrations and the daily homepage factoids, you probably thought you knew every piece of Vassar trivia. But somehow, one great item of the College’s history has slipped through the cracks: Vassar students discovered fudge. By “discovered,” I really mean “popularized,” the way 21st-century Vassar students might discover an unheard-of band and put it on the map. Yes, Vassar girls were the hipsters of the 19thcentury foodie community. It all began when Emelyn B. Hartridge, Class of 1892, first tried fudge in 1886 at a grocery store in Baltimore, where it sold for 40 cents a pound. Two years later, as a freshman at Vassar, she befriended her classmate Nannie Hagner, also Class of 1892. Coincidentally, Hagner happened to be a cousin of the Baltimore grocer. According to a letter written many years later, Hartridge used this connection to secure the recipe for fudge. In 1888, she made 30 pounds of it for the senior auction—“its real introduction to the College,” as she reflected. Though Hartridge’s letter seems to indicate that she had always known the dish as fudge, the Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink suggests that the name, unlike the recipe, might not have been a Baltimore import. According to the book, “the name probably developed in 1888 at Vassar College, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and refers to an expression young women might have used instead of swearing.” (Confirmation of our long-held belief that Vassar ladies have always known how to be sassy, yet classy.) Whether or not the name was a Vassar origi-
nal, fudge was born. After its smash-hit debut at the senior auction, students began making and eating fudge on a regular basis. They would use gaslights, chafing dishes or spirit lamps borrowed from the chemistry lab to melt together the necessary ingredients in their rooms. When they went home on breaks, Vassar girls spread their knowledge of fudge to their families and friends at other Seven Sisters schools. The new confection received national attention before long. In 1896, the Chicago Tribune wrote a short article called “‘Fudges’ are Vassar Chocolates,” which touted the dessert as “the latest confectionary dainty.” The recipe that appeared with the article inexplicably leaves out chocolate as an ingredient, and includes such instructions as using “a piece of butter one-half the size of an egg,” and cooking the mixture “until it begins to get grimy.” More appetizing is a recipe from 1909. The Walter Baker Company published a book of chocolate recipes that included instructions for making “Vassar Fudge,” “Smith Fudge” (which uses molasses) and “Wellesley Fudge” (which uses marshmallows). We’ve published the Walter Baker version of the recipe here, with a few small alterations to make it more understandable for the 21st-century reader. Go vintage Vassar and share fudge with friends as a late-night study break. As the 1896 Chicago Tribune article recommends, “‘Fudge’ may be eaten hot or cold, but it is never so truly delicious as when, at the witching hour of midnight, it is first removed from the gas jet or alcohol lamp and served on bits of cardboard or portions of a manicure set bubbling hot to a group of maidens in night attire.”
Vassar Fudge »» »» »» »»
2 cups sugar 1 cup cream 1 tablespoon butter, plus more for the tin 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped into small pieces
In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the cream, sugar, and chocolate. Stir vigorously and constantly until the sugar dissolves and the chocolate melts. Raise the heat and bring to a boil. Add the butter and stir until a small drop forms a soft ball when dropped in cold water. Remove from heat and beat until well blended. Pour into a buttered tin (or rimmed baking sheet). When cool, cut into diamond-shaped pieces.
College sees turnaround in aid, demographics trends NEED BLIND continued from page 1 to put an extra dollar of expenditure in the institution, you are trying to figure out where that dollar adds most to the College,” said Hill. “At the time when we returned to this it really looked like we weren’t living up to our commitments in terms of diversity and that that was where we could improve the most.” Hill noted that for several years prior to adopting the need-blind policy, Vassar had been coming in under budget on financial aid. Rather than making Vassar an outlier in diversity statistics among its peers, the policy has brought the College back in line with its peer group in financial aid spending, the share of students receiving aid and the average student grant. Vassar is also by no means alone in its peer group in boasting a needblind policy, but prior to adopting the policy Vassar was below average in each of these statistics. According to Director of Institutional Research David Davis-Van Atta, the student body in the mid-2000s was “relatively speaking more highly moneyed … It had a higher income profile, lower financial aid profile.” “The income profile has really changed. It’s broadened at the low end,” said Davis-Van Atta. What is perhaps most notable is not precisely where Vassar stands in these areas with regard to peer colleges, but how quickly these statistics have been shifting since the adoption of the policy. Beginning with the Fall of 2010, Vassar even surpassed the peer group mean in several areas, including per student average scholarship dollars, percent of students on aid and racial and ethnic diversity. These trends indicate that economic diversity has been changing as well, but with a number of different measures, such as the Freshman Survey as well as financial aid data that only accounts for students receiving aid, it is more difficult to pinpoint specifically. Davis-Van Atta pointed to two graphs that look nearly identical—tuition discount ratio and percent students of color. The tuition discount ratio refers to the percentage of scholarship dollars in the gross tuition and fees, essentially how much Vassar students spend on tuition versus how much they would spend if there were no financial aid. The tuition discount ratio has increased rapidly, probably as a result of both the need-blind
policy and the recession. With it, the percent of students of color on campus has grown in a nearly identical fashion—the two graphs can just about be super-imposed on one another. While it is difficult to separate the effects of the recession from those of need-blind, here there is a fairly clear link between Vassar’s current admissions policies and diversity in the student body. The percent of students on financial aid began to rise when the incoming students in the fall of 2007. Prior to this turnaround, the tuition discount ratio had been slowly decreasing from 1996-1997; racial and ethnic diversity saw a similarly drawn out decline from the early 1990s to the early 2000s when it flattened out beneath the peer group mean. As these rates have continued to grow and seemingly will continue to do so with the statistics from the Class of 2015, the question is now how long will the growth continue. If Vassar passes the mean, then how far will it go before reaching a new level? “Vassar looks pretty normal,” Davis-Van Atta said about the increasing percentage of students of color. “We were at some equilibrium and disturbed the system. We added inputs, and it will find some new kind of equilibrium level.” Demographic shifts can be attributed not only to a change in policy but also to adjustments in publicity. “It’s not enough to just change a policy because students have to know about the policy,” said Hill of Vassar’s recruitment efforts. According to Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid David Borus, need blind has added clarity to the admissions process that had been essentially need blind up to the last two percent of applicants, as stated in the College’s press release at the return to the policy. “One of the reasons we were so pleased to move back to a need-blind policy is because it made our message…much clearer and less confusing because before that we were need-blind through most of the process, but we always had the caveat that if in the end we had overspent our budget we would have to take it into consideration at the end of the process,” he said. “Now it’s unequivocal.” With broader recruitment comes the other theoretical promise of a need-blind policy—a more talented student body—which is also very difficult to peg. Borus noted, “Over the last several years our applicant pool has grown both broader and also diverse.”
He added that Vassar’s applications have increased in years when many colleges either saw a drop in applicants or stagnant application rates, and he attributed this partly to the new policy. According to Davis-Van Atta, the more significant result may not be a more individually talented student body, but how the mix of students is influencing the classroom experience. Based on faculty survey results, Davis-Van Atta suggests that the faculty have been pleased with the increasing diversity in the classroom and have begun to rank student diversity as a higher priority in their teaching work. Of course, the recession has also clearly had an impact on both the number of students receiving financial aid and on the size of grants they receive. However, the effects of the recession and of the need-blind policy are difficult to separate. Hill explained that during a recession in 2001-2002, Vassar’s spending on financial aid also increased. “And that was a time when we were need sensitive, and we still saw the impact of the economy on the share of students needing financial aid,” she said. “So we suspect that some share of it is the recession, but it’s very hard to break that out.” Hill also noted that the timing of the latest recession just after the inception of the need-blind policy was less than ideal, and the recession has drawn attention to the financial stresses that a need-blind policy can place on an institution. Davis-Van Atta also pointed out that as positively as these shifts may be viewed these trends in financial aid from the amount of students on it to how much they receive do fundamentally mean Vassar has less net income that would go towards the operating budget. Hill described maintaining need-blind as a balance with other campus priorities. “If we stayed with this policy and all of our buildings fell down, it wouldn’t do us any good. If we couldn’t maintain the quality of the faculty it wouldn’t do us any good,” she said. The current policy is not Vassar’s first experience with need-blind admissions. An earlier attempt was abandoned in the mid-1990s because it was unaffordable. This example as well as the financial meltdown makes the commitment to need blind seem a more precarious proposition and, perhaps, a more precious one.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
Both because of the policy and the recession, the financial aid budget has grown dramatically over the last five years., reaching $51 million in 2010-2011. Because of financial limitations, the College continues to be need-sensitive for international students and, as of Spring 2009, for students on the waitlist. “Our use of assets has probably been a little higher than is sustainable in the long run, but we’re getting that down,” said Hill. “I think a way to think about it is that when you have a bad time you end up spending a little more than you want to get through that.” Along with the need-blind policy, Vassar commits itself, as it had before need-blind admissions, to meeting the full need of all admitted students. There remain colleges and universities with greater endowments that are able to define meeting full need more generously than Vassar, and the same goes in the other direction. Along with the need-blind policy in 2007, Vassar also announced the elimination of loans for families earning under $60,000 per year. “The Board of Trustees picked that figure as one that made some sense economically and also that we could afford,” said Borus, noting that some schools were able to put that ceiling much higher—above $100,000—or to get rid of it entirely, but he also noted that other schools, such as Tufts and Wesleyan Universities, draw the line at $40,000. “I think more broadly we have been successful at it across the board,” said Hill of Vassar’s ability not just low-income families but also families in middle. “I think just the way the needs formula is devised, the families in the upper middle quintiles have a hard time figuring out how to make this work.” While a need-blind policy that extends to international students and once again includes the waitlist may not happen in the foreseeable future, Hill was hopeful that the policy as it stands could be maintained and the the College has been receptive. “At our core it seems this is who we are and this is what we believe in,” said Hill. “So I’m hoping we can continue to figure out a way to stay committed to this policy, and I think it has had wonderful impacts on the institution.” Some of the statistical trends however suggest the policy and the values it implies have come to Vassar’s core, or come back to it, in just the last four years.
OPINIONS
September 8, 2011
Miscellany News Staff Editorial
ViCE censure a reminder about fiscal responsibility in student organizations
Page 9
Trans, queer discrimination still prevalent Chris Ewing
Guest Columnist
V
assar College Entertainment (ViCE) begins the year in a debt severe enough to warrant a censure from the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council [See “ViCE starts year with $30k debt” on Page 1]. During the first Council meeting of the academic school year, the organization responsible for coordinating extensive programming for the Vassar community was censured for the $30,000 of debt it has accrued at the end of last year. The censure included new financial management terms for ViCE. For all future events this year, its Executive Board must present a detailed report to the Council, in addition to submitting a budget for the event to the VSA Finance Committee. Furthermore, the Finance Committee must approve any ViCE expenditure exceeding $4,000. ViCE’s debt is an issue that should concern the entire campus, as ViCE’s budget comes directly from the Student Activities Fee, which for the 2011/2012 school year was $285 per student. The Miscellany News Editorial Board approves of the new financial regulations for ViCE’s future programming—$30,000 is an exorbitant amount of debt, and censure without specific terms would not have been a sufficient solution to the problem. We also approve of the collaboration between ViCE and the VSA that led to the terms of the censure. It is important to be mindful that ViCE is a unique entity amongst student organizations, and that while it has certainly taken financial missteps in the past two years, the programming on which its budget has been spent is commendable. We also believe that ViCE’s censure carries important lessons for the financial management of
other VSA-certified organizations. The VSA Council acted neither punitively nor passively—the expanded censure provided a sufficient compromise with ViCE. Unlike warning censures the VSA Council has issued in the past, this censure of ViCE also carries specific financial stipulations; ViCE’s budget has been reduced by the full $30,000. We applaud the current ViCE Executive Board for working with the VSA to create the terms of the censure. Considering the scope of the debt accrued, these stipulations are reasonable precautions that were taken to ensure that the organization does not find itself in this predicament again. They facilitate greater communication between ViCE and Council, while at the same time not infringing on ViCE’s ability to provide quality programming. The censure is entirely productive. No other organization provides such a remarkable number of weekly events, including film screenings, Jazz Nights and all-campus parties. Moreover, their semi-annual concerts integrate community and campus dialogue in ways that have made for some of the most exciting Vassar events in recent memory. Consider ViCE’s preparation for the Of Montreal concert last spring that was ultimately responsible for its debt: The Music Committee polled the campus to gauge student interest in potential artists for the concert, an unprecedented action that flew in the face of criticisms of exclusivity. There is no doubt that last year’s ViCE leadership made an unequivocal error in its overestimation of ticket sales for the concert, yet this oversight is independent of the organization’s contributions to campus life. So
far this academic year, the ViCE executive board has maintained their standards of programming despite operating on a reduced budget. We also encourage other organizations to pay attention to the circumstances that led up to ViCE’s mistake. The debt that ViCE currently faces should offer a warning to other organizations on campus. Other than the budgeting lesson, there is also the need to better predict the full cost of events, including Buildings & Grounds charges that are often reported much later. A large portion of ViCE’s $30,000 debt came from such unforeseen costs. Since these added charges for ViCE events were only accounted for over the summer, the organization did not adequately budget for them during the semester. Other organizations should keep these hidden costs in mind when predicting and drafting their own financial plans. Additionally, the way in which the VSA Council sought to resolve ViCE’s debt presents an opportunity for organizations to improve their management. Beyond the special censure of ViCE, one of the other points on last Sunday’s VSA agenda was the passage of the VSA Guiding Principles. First among this list, which seeks to outline the overarching goals of the VSA Council, was the VSA Council’s desire to be “as transparent as possible.” In expressing this goal, the VSA provides a model of management for all organizations that may help prevent financial problems in the future. —The Miscellany News Staff Editorial reflects the opinion of at two thirds of the 17-member Editorial Board.
GOP must reconsider same-sex marriage Kelly Shortridge
I
Guest Columnist
was in New York City this summer when gay marriage was legalized; the joyful buzz in the air following the announcement was contagious, as was the happiness of newly-wed LGBTQ individuals who could now proudly have a legalized commitment to their partners. As someone who is a registered Republican but identifies as libertarian, people are sometimes surprised that I vehemently support LGBTQ rights. However, given the current “don’t tread on me” mentality of the right-wing, conservatives who still believe gay couples should not be granted the same rights as straight couples are simply inconsistent; it is their views that should be shocking. A very libertarian theme that Republican candidates have recently expressed is that the government should stay out of one’s personal affairs, especially when it comes to health care and taxes, both hotbutton issues of the Tea Party movement. A conservative who believes strongly in individual rights should then fully support allowing the government to marry individuals of all sexual orientations, since the government should have no say in who can or cannot wed. This is not the case among many Republicans; in fact, only four Republicans voted in support of the marriage bill in New York, while 28 voted against, and most of the Republican presidential candidates have come out as strongly opposed to gay marriage. There seems to be an issue of confounding morals with rights and legality. While
I see nothing immoral about any love and commitment, many conservatives do disagree with the notion of gay marriage on moral grounds. However, this does not mean that it should be illegal, just as being dishonest is not illegal, although it is likely considered immoral by the majority of the voting population. A rational conservative should recognize that their personal judgment should not affect another individual’s rights and fully support individuals being able to have legal commitments to their romantic partners, regardless of sex. Further, despite many Republicans arguing that legalizing gay marriage would oppress religion, the bill does not require religious institutions to perform ceremonies against their will—the government will simply recognize the union between same-sex couples—so rights of religious bodies are also not violated with the legalization of same-sex marriage. Currently, the Republicans also are paying lip service to state’s rights, a topic that Ron Paul (my choice since 2004 for Republican nominee) has been speaking of for a while and in much greater depth. In his own views of gay marriage, he recognizes that states should ultimately be the ones to decide whether or not same sex marriage is legalized. Many Republicans seem to reject this idea and propose a federal ban to “preserve” the institution of marriage, so that it can only exist between a man and a woman. Again, the inconsistency in their argument is deep and ultimately shows the illogical nature of their bigotry.
Finally, the Republicans are simply practicing poor political strategy. To have a chance of defeating President Barack Obama, the Republican nominee will need to capture moderate voters. Preaching about the “sanctity of marriage” (while the party leaders’ own track records in marriage are shabby at best) and barring certain human beings from marrying each other will not secure these moderate votes, but alienate those who respect other people’s right to love and have consensual sexual relationships with whomever they choose. Focusing instead on the economy and proposing thoughtful, implementable solutions to reduce unemployment would be a much better strategy than spouting homophobic and intolerant rhetoric expressed by some the top candidates and leaders of the party. Sure, they will capture fringe members of the far right, but I doubt they would have been the ones to vote for President Obama in the first place; preaching to the choir does not win elections. I am proud that New York has taken this exciting step forward, and hope more states exercise their rights to give equality to all couples. In the meantime, the Republican party needs to begin paying closer attention to its support of individual liberty and re-analyze its position on same-sex marriage. All citizens of the United States are equal under the law, and LGBTQ individuals should not be exempt from this right given by our Constitution. —Kelly Shortridge ’12 is an economics major at Vassar College.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
W
hen I got the text that same-sex marriage had been legalized in New York, I was in Berlin with a group of (American) friends who didn’t know what the term “marriage equality” meant. So I was left to quietly celebrate the victory myself while my friends smiled vaguely at me. However, in retrospect, I feel this tempered reaction might have been the most appropriate. While I am pretty sure that I would like to get married at some point and possibly in New York (though a Mediterranean location wedding would be a dream), not all queer people share this desire. For many, the fact that in most states queer people are not allowed to marry has provided room to explore alternative relationships without feeling societal pressure to be in a state-recognized, monogamous relationship. In the legalization of same-sex marriage, there arises the fear that those who do not wish to get married will be further marginalized from both heterosexual society and the queer community, such as it exists. The focus on same-sex marriage also leads us to ignore issues specific to or inclusive of trans people. A number of trans people are heterosexual and could marry legally, if they chose, yet they still face a great deal of discrimination. In focusing on marriage equality, some influential organizations in the movement (e.g. the Human Rights Campaign) have effectively left trans issues on the back burner, setting the tone throughout the LGBTQ movement that the “T” and “Q” are not as important. To help solve many of the issues facing these minorities and to strengthen the movement as a whole, the queer community should not limit itself to concrete goals, such as marriage equality legislation. It is important to remember that increased awareness is equally as important in ending discrimination, both from without and within the community. What does this mean? Certain “adopted habits in behavior” (a term I ran across in German and probably butchered translating), such as living openly, along with demonstrations, publicity campaigns, etc., are key to raising awareness about issues facing various groups of queer people. Through Act Out, the campus LGBTQ activist group of which I’m co-president and now shamelessly promoting, I have found street demonstrations and photo campaigns to be successful in raising localized awareness of queer youth homelessness. While some other habits in behavior, such as coming out, are certainly personal choices which every queer person has a right to make for themselves, they can still be powerful tools of visibility in that coming out gives a real face to a cause that some might find completely separate from themselves. Unfortunately, such abstract goals and methods seem to have been lost in the mainstream (as problematic and unspecific as that word is) queer/ gay movement after the AIDS crisis of the ’80s and ’90s. We should not have to wait for such crises to emerge to remember the importance of visibility. While marriage equality does raise visibility in a sense, it only does so for a select few groups of queer people, namely middle- and upper-class gay men and women. Furthermore, it is important to recognize that marriage equality is not the only, or even most important, concrete issue facing lesbian, gay and bisexual people. Other problems, such as queer youth homelessness, employment discrimination and discrimination in foster care and adoption placement are just as pressing, especially for lower-income queer people whose first priority is not tax benefits or legal recognition, but rather holding down a job. The legalization of same-sex marriage in New York is naturally a key milestone in the fight for marriage equality, being by far the most populous state to legalize it (apart from California, which overturned it in 2008). However, as we move forward with the national struggle for same-sex marriage, we must remain aware of other issues. Personally, I would love to see marriage equality become a reality in the United States, but we cannot let this component of the movement eclipse other issues facing members of our community who often do not have a voice. —Chris Ewing ’12 is co-president of Act Out
OPINIONS
Page 10
September 8, 2011
CCL policy a small step in right direction Boyd Gardner
Guest Columnist
L
What were you doing during Irene?
“Playing Candyland with freshmen.”
Lily Doyle ’14
“Pajamas and The Lion King.”
ast year, I had the opportunity to serve on the Committee on College Life (CCL) as a voting representative in my capacity as co-Chair of the Board of House Presidents of the Vassar Student Association. CCL, which is chaired by Dean of the College Chris Roellke, is composed of a relatively equal mix of faculty, students and administrators, and serves primarily to advise President Hill on important issues of college policy. So when rate of alcohol related hospitalizations soared last fall to a disturbingly high level, CCL noticed. Towards the end of the year, CCL received a report from one of its subcommittees, the Drug and Alcohol Education Committee (DEC), with proposals for combating dangerous drinking behavior on campus. After reviewing a lengthy list of alcohol harm-reduction policies for colleges and universities published by the Department of Education, the DEC had identified several areas where Vassar policy was out of step with higher education’s best practices, and particularly identified the ongoing approval by the Office of Residential Life of kegs for “registered” parties in the senior housing areas as worrisome and not conducive to creating safer drinking practices on campus.
CCL considered a formal proposal to remove kegs from the list of approvable beverages for registered campus parties, and the motion passed by electronic vote shortly after the last CCL meeting in late April 2011. I voted for the measure, and I’d like to explain why the policy change makes sense. First, it’s important to acknowledge that there is an obvious over-intoxication problem at Vassar, and that the consequences of a problem of this magnitude and severity are potentially very serious. Fall 2010 saw significantly more alcohol-related hospitalizations than average, and many students receiving treatment were discovered to be intoxicated to a life-threatening extent. Toxic drinking is a persistent and dangerous problem, and Vassar must work towards creating an environment on campus that promotes safer drinking behavior. To my mind, the proposed changes to the party registration process represented a small, if largely symbolic, step in the right direction. Second, I would like to stress that the proposal is far from being a “keg ban.” The status of kegs on campus is largely unchanged— the only difference being that Residential Life will no longer formally approve kegs to be served at registered parties. The proposal did not alter or increase the penalties for kegs found at an unregistered party, nor
will it make much of a noticeable impact in the lives of most Vassar students. Instead, it shows that Vassar takes the issue of dangerous drinking seriously, and is making wellmeant changes to its policies to create a more positive alcohol environment on campus. While many would argue that the “ban” on kegs will encourage students to drink more liquor and hard alcohol, it’s important to view the change in a larger, institutional policy perspective. Put simply, Vassar was one of the few institutions to still officially “permit” students to serve each other from kegs at unsupervised parties on college property, representing a major legal liability for the College. Additionally, the policy change sends a clear message that the College is actively working to create a healthier atmosphere on campus, and the very fact that it has generated so much discussion about appropriate changes proves its value. This is far from a panacea or an endpoint—rather, we as a community should build on the conversations that the changed policy has sparked, and continue to look for new and innovative ways to improve the toxic drinking culture on campus. The stakes are too high for us to continue to ignore the problem. —Boyd Gardner ’12 served as a student representative on the 2011 committee on College Life.
Keg ban promotes unsafe drinking culture
Michael Mestitz ’12 “My friends and I stayed in the dorm and hung out in my room because it’s big this year.”
Maisha Haq ’14
“Hosting a pilates session in Lathrop.”
Lilly Sloss ’14 “I consoled [a Vassar alum] about his shaking windows.”
Jayme Turak ’13
“I drove to Portland. It wasn’t that bad.”
Paul Weinger
Guest Columnist
V
assar College Regulations are intended to signal to the Vassar community our common values, while also guiding students in their conduct. Unfortunately, the 2011 Committee on College Life’s decision to effectually ban kegs at all student-registered parties fails to align with our community’s values and will produce more harm than good in the long run. Current regulations require that all student parties where alcohol is served to be registered with and authorized by Resident Life. Starting this year, kegs will not be allowed at such parties in addition to open containers of alcohol (e.g. jungle juice), which are already banned. The committee decided to ban kegs in response to concerns about Vassar’s drinking culture as well as the signal the administration was sending to the student body whenever it approved kegs for registered parties. The majority of the committee voted with the belief that banning kegs would reduce the harms associated with college drinking and make Vassar’s drinking culture safer. Others, like myself, dissented, fearing that prohibiting kegs would do more harm than good. While only time will tell the impact of the new policy, I fear that the new policy will result in students making more reckless decisions than before, intentionally or not. What the committee failed to realize was that banning kegs does nothing to change what many Vassar students want: getting drunk and doing so cheaply. The reason students purchase kegs is to allow many students to drink at a cost-effective price. For those who follow college regulations, this demand will not change; what will change are the ways in which students drink. While students hosting parties will not be able to provide kegs, they will still be allowed to serve hard liquor, wine and individual cans or bottles of beer. To the cash-strapped college student, if the aim is having a wild party (which it often is) while technically following regulations, the options are narrowed to handles of cheap liquor or boxed wine, as individual containers of beer or wine are not cost effective. Before
the ban, the most cost effective choice was probably kegs. While there are safety concerns with kegs, there are far more serious concerns from drinking hard liquor. Indeed, for many students who may already be intoxicated, the fact that different types of alcohol have different alcohol contents may slip their mind, resulting in them filling up a red solo cup with boxed wine or a mixed concoction of hard liquor in the same way they would have from a keg. Furthermore, drinking copious amounts of beer quickly is far more difficult than drinking large amounts of wine or hard-liquor. As a result, without shifting the demand behind alcohol at parties, we can expect alcohol-related accidents to be greater than before the ban. Finally, for those at such parties who wish to drink responsibly, the decreased likelihood of beer being served could make them inadvertently consume more liquor than they desired. For others, kegs will still be the option of choice. As a result, I expect that we will see the number of off-campus parties rise, meaning an increased number of students drunkenly walking public roads, students being less likely to report sick students because of the risk of having actual police involved, and less ability for the College to monitor potentially dangerous situations. Then there are those who will still choose to ignore college regulations, even if their party is indeed registered. For these individuals, the decision will probably come down to illegally providing either a keg or a common container of alcohol like a gin bucket or jungle juice. While these individuals already risk violating Vassar regulations, there is an additional regulation that they will take heed of: the fact that getting caught with a keg will forfeit that student’s security deposit on that keg. While it may seem trivial if you are caught, the economic motivations behind using a keg may shift many towards providing a gin bucket or jungle juice because a) they are easier to dispose of and b) do not carry the financial risk of kegs. It should come as no surprise that the dangers associated with such vats of unknown concoctions are far more
ADVERTISEMENT Machenzie Cook ’13 —Juliana Halpert, Photography Editor Alanna Okun, Humor & Satire Editor
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
dangerous than a sealed keg. While beer has a fairly standard alcohol content, open vats of alcohol are extremely variable and more dangerous, often containing much more alcohol than one is aware, can contain added drugs beside alcohol, like caffeine, and will not necessarily dissuade people from drinking more of the concoction (especially for the already intoxicated student). Finally, the committee was concerned about the signal that approving kegs for registered parties was sending to the campus community. There are a few problems with this line of thought. First, it is hard to see how approving more parties with hard liquor or boxed wine at parties is sending a positive message to students. While the committee thought kegs in particular had a strong association with large and wild parties, I think it is safe to presume that the most reckless parties involve hard liquor, often consumed quickly. Second, the administration has already put itself in a pickle by requiring Resident Life to approve any alcohol to be provided in the first place. Regardless of whether it is approving kegs or wine, it is still approving the consumption of alcohol. More importantly, the administration has created a double standard by still allowing kegs at campus-wide parties. I urge administrators to consider what it would mean to serve the same amount of alcohol on the same budget as before without using kegs. The administration’s only option would be wine (which probably wouldn’t be in line with the budget) or hard liquor. Sound like a good idea? If it’s not a good idea at campus-wide parties, it probably isn’t a good idea at student parties where more underage students are likely to have access to alcohol. I urge student leaders and administrators to pay close attention this year to see if alcohol-related accidents go up or stay the same. If there are no positive effects that come out of the ban, it should quickly be ended. And besides, if nothing else, what would Matthew Vassar say? —Paul Weinger ’13 served as student representative on the 2011 committee on College Life.
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OPINIONS
Page 12
Former CDO director bids adieu to VC Mary Raymond
F
Guest Columnist
—The author is the former director of Vassar’s Career Development Office, and left her post for one at Pomona College on Aug. 31.
Class of 2015 invited to second half of Vassar’s sesquicentennial celebration Susan Donahue Kuretsky
A
Guest Columnist
s we welcome a brand-new Class of 2015 to the College we also invite all of its members to join us in taking part in the second half of Vassar’s sesquicentennial events during this fall term. A milestone of 150 years deserves joyful celebration; we even had a student bake-off competition for the birthday cake back in January. But the history of this college is as impressive and as unusual as it is long. Vassar was a pioneer in women’s education in 1861, and more than a century later in 1969, the initiator of a boldly co-equal form of co-education with the admission of men—a sequence far more frequently reversed, and with less challenge to prevailing attitudes, when women have entered men’s colleges. Saluting that history is a way of positioning ourselves today in relation to it, institutionally and personally. Openness of mind and thought, the quest for diverse points of view, and a taste for questioning the status quo all marked Vassar’s founders and earliest students and those who followed them. Learning more about them can help us see ourselves more clearly and bravely and encourage us to focus our own aspirations. Every week day—and we all now look forward to it—the College’s Sesquicentennial home page features an evocative photo from the past that instantly captures the spirit of its era. As I write these words, I’m overcome with wonder at today’s image of a little horse-drawn train taxi of the 1860s, awaiting unseen Vassar students in front of the College’s small original Main Gate. The clock on the gate reads 10 minutes before two. The horses and cab are long gone, as is the gate, which would be replaced in 1915 by the much larger structure that now houses Taylor Hall and the Art Department where I spend my days. Why would knowing about, and especially seeing, that trivial distant moment matter to any of us today? For one thing, the very existence of this structure and the fineness of its architecture—the work of
Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News
or the class of 2015, how wise you were to choose Vassar and how lucky you are to be on the threshold of four amazing years, bound to be transformative. So often I have heard from seniors a lament about the years having gone way too fast, and a desire to turn back time so they could do it all, and more, again. As a member of Vassar’s CDO team these past six years, I have had the privilege of working with many talented students poised between opportunities, challenging options wondering if the choice they make will be the right one. Moving beyond your comfort zone—as many of you did in coming to a school like Vassar—inspires growth, and helps build resilience for the next steps in your life’s path. Encouraging students to hear that little voice inside them compelling them to reach beyond their grasp has often been my tactic for career advisement. I cannot recall a single time that this has not worked to the student’s advantage. This summer an opportunity presented itself to leave my lifetime New York home, and my dream job as director of Vassar’s CDO. This offer was one I could not refuse, and perhaps the most difficult decision of my life. Pomona College has offered me the position to re-engineer career services for their students under the guidance of a blue ribbon task force. So I have heeded my own advice, and know once I pass though this transition, I will be a stronger person with increased authenticity as a career advisor. So it is with much sadness I bid you adieu, and Vassar College will remain close to my heart with much gratitude for all I have learned from so many fine people. You should know: The CDO is stronger than ever! I was but one member of a talented team of extraordinary professionals. Class of 2012, you know you are extra special and the CDO has many plans, programs and resources to help you fulfill your dreams, so don’t delay in making an appointment. Best wishes for a great year, Mary Raymond
September 8, 2011
The Old Gatehouse — designed by James Renwick —once welcomed new students to Vassar’s campus. It is now replaced by Taylor Hall, designed by Boston architectural firm of Allen and Collens. James Renwick, a leading American architect of the period who also designed Main—is a visual announcement of the seriousness and quality of the institution within. The scene is ordinary in its implication of repeated arrivals and departures, yet extraordinary in what it actually represents and even how it emphasizes the new college’s connection to the world beyond its gates. All over ourj campus today are such invisible vestiges of the past, accessible only in old photographs: a vanished building or an open field now occupied by later structures. And from every decade and day of those 150 years the spirits of the lively inhabitants for whom this beautiful and constantly evolving place was made. Finding our own connections with the full temporal scope of landscape and people allows us to both honor and learn from them and to feel more deeply connected to the College as it is today.
The materials on our extraordinary 150 website (Google 150.Vassar.edu or just click on the “150” box on the College home page) will put you in touch with hundreds of photographs from the distant and more recent past, the histories of the departments and programs in which you are now studying, a fascinating historical timeline, college memories from our alumnae/i, Vassar videos and the many events on campus still to come, which include lectures, panels, performances and exhibitions. Class of 2015: you will be busy as you settle into the beginnings of college life, but you are most warmly and enthusiastically invited to come and participate in as many of these celebratory events as you can. The happenings of today are the memories of tomorrow. —Susan Donahue Kuretsky ’63 is the Sarah Gibson Blanding Professor of Art and cochair of the Sesquicentennial.
Crossword by Jonathan Garfinkel ACROSS 1. Troy, N.Y. sch. 4. Alfred E. Neuman’s mag. 7. It may be Solo 10. Baby bear 13. Singer Garfunkel 14. Deuce follower, perhaps 16. ____ mater 17. Sugar suffix, scientifically 18. Way off 19. “Meh” 20. Salsas and swims 21. “To see,” si? 22. “Stop!” 24. Messrs. Draper and Sterling, say 26. Iso_____ (certain map feature) 28. Author Wharton 29. Put back to work 30. Electrolyte component 31. Photographer Dorothea _____ 32. NYP’s upstairs neighbor 33. “To have” in Rio 34. Film awards org.
36. Archaeology’s department 41. Pothead’s delight? Briefly. 44. O.G./M.D.? 46. Above, poetically 47. Pennsylvania port city 48. Wilder’s “___ Town” 49. Chinese prefix 51. “____ Jail” 53. Biofuel? (Abbr.) 54. Opening 56. “Science Guy” Bill 57. Doze 58. Trap 59. Midsummer T-shirt, perhaps 61. - (abbr.) 63. “Duck Hunt” console 64. Swiss peak 67. Difficulty 71. Feathery accessory 72. Mike Bloomberg, for one 74. Gin flavorer 75. Grant 77. Languor 78. See 68-down 79. ___ alai
80. Queen of Scots 82. Cross inscription 84. “You ___ my fire/the one desire” 85. Piercing tool 86. “Casablanca” femme 87. “Outer” prefix 88. “Closer” group, briefly 89. Dorm authority figures 90. Evil Empire fighters 91. Sunset time, to Shakespeare 92. Mar-Nov adjustment DOWN 1. Ace Nadal 2. Russian daily 3. Broadway-7th Ave. line 4. Where the puzzlemaster’s title may be found 5. Fuss 6. Render safe 7. Continuum 8. “Blue!”, briefly 9. Sticky stripper accoutrements
10. Witch’s circle 11. Operator 12. Man made ridge 15. Connecting points 16. Some refreshments 23. Tour de France divisions (abbr.) 25. Hold up in the street 27. It may be beat after death, idiomatically 33. A clan’s colors 35. Does as one might in the Mug 36. Certain machine bit 37. “Notion” group Kings of ____ 38. Modern Persia 39. Use as evidence 40. Lucky one in Lyon, perhaps 41. Throw 42. Big name in TV online 43. Blood foe, perhaps 45. Musician accompanying “Lord of the Rings” 50. Logophile’s bible, perhaps (abbr.) 52. Children’s game
with a Charley horse and a bread basket 55. Pavarotti for one 60. Let back in 62. Ubiquitous pizzeria
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
71. Gets outta there 72. Cause for an “It’s European!!” slangily 73. Actress/athlete Major of Apple’s “1984” ad
75. Open 76. “Hoagiefest” chain 81. “The Greatest” 83. Path, briefly
HUMOR & SATIRE
September 8, 2011
Page 13
OPINIONS
After summer in the city, a senior’s return to Vassar Alanna Okun
I
Humor & Satire Editor
was less than super-pumped about moving to New York City for the summer. I’m from Boston by birth and Poughkeepsie by choice, and as a small, strange, illogical person, I strongly identify with both of those small, strange, illogical cities. New York had always lurked at the edge of my mind—like, I could get there by train or bus from wherever I happened to be, but it was too far and too expensive and too sprawling, and I’d just as soon eat sharp cheddar two days past its expiration date and watch So You Think You Can Dance from the comfort of my own bed. I don’t like crowds, I don’t like messes and I especially don’t like paying a thousand bucks a month for the privilege of sleeping in the basement of what used to be a nursing home. But I got these internships in New York— nobody from Boston even answered my increasingly frantic emails—and I knew I’d have to suck it up. I found a sublet and bought some biz-cas pants. I Google Maps’d all the Arby’s in Manhattan (spoiler alert: THERE ARE NONE. CIVILIZATION IS DEAD) and moved in on the day of Vassar’s 2011 graduation. As my friends on campus drunkenly ran around dousing each other in paint and saying tearful goodbyes to our soon-to-be-unemployed upperclass friends, I was busy ducking around corners from my landlord so he wouldn’t know I was semi-illegally squatting. I missed school and I missed home. I accepted the city while believing it wouldn’t ever be mine. I lived on the bottommost floor (apparently the richer, less vitamin-D-deficient upstairs residents referred to us as the “lower level rats”) and my neighborhood was littered with loud, charmless restaurants I couldn’t afford. Marty O’Brien’s was right across the street from Pat O’Brien’s, and you couldn’t swing a $15 shrimp-kebab without hitting a place that specialized in “Asian fusion.” I thought I saw my first actual rat walking from the subway a couple of nights after I moved in, but it turned out to be an errant Upper East Side dachshund puppy that had jumped from its well-coiffed owner’s grasp. “Statue of Liberty!” said owner yelled, headband askew with rage. “Statue of Liberty, get back here right now!” I hoped Statue of Liberty would make it all the way to Central Park, where she (he?) could join a pack of half-feral escapee canines and live off the remains of tourists’
$3.50 gourmet cupcakes. She could finally assume a tougher name, something like Dirk or Armageddon or Bed-Stuy. She got caught before I got to the other side of the intersection. I handed over my first paycheck in exchange for a monthly-unlimited Metro Card and the 4-5-6 train became my first lifeline in the city. I had never regularly used public transit before; it’s a downright clusterfuck in Boston, with trains sometimes arriving every three minutes and sometimes every hour, and cars with no air-conditioning, and four different versions of the Green Line and you just have to pray to the patron saint of the MBTA that you’re getting on the right one. And of course there’s Poughkeepsie, where you have to budget a half-hour buffer whenever you call a cab because maybe Del Roy’s Taxi just doesn’t feel like picking you up to take you to your train on the morning of the only interview you’ve managed to land out of 31 internship applications. THAT HAPPENS TOO. So I was naturally a tad suspicious of the New York subway system, until I started to realize the ease of it, the way the Manhattan grid worked so gracefully and seamlessly— how could I, this broke and orientationally challenged kid, have such access? How was it right that I could get on the 6 by my apartment, transfer to the F at 63rd, and then be at my best friend’s house in the bowels of Brooklyn in time for a soul-healing dinner, no questions asked? I waited for the catch, but aside from the rushhour crowds and the heat of the platform and that biddy who once shoved me out of the way so she could get an open seat in which to read her new Danielle Steel novel, it never came. I could go where I wanted when I wanted, and my summer world suddenly became a lot bigger than the walls of my basement apartment allowed. And once outside those walls, I ran into Vassar people about as frequently as I went through cans of Planters honey-roasted mixed nuts (known in layman’s terms as “pretty much one per day”). In line for the bathroom at Starbucks, at the intermissions of plays, on a dusty Bushwick street corner the day the L train was inexplicably out—Vassar students are as pervasive in New York City as bedbugs. They are running record labels and editing literary magazines and serving kombucha at overpriced freegan establishments. They like to drink forties on rooftops and a disproportionate number apparently spent their summers cat-sitting.
I found it equal parts comforting and disconcerting; no, I am not on my own here; yes, I am routinely no more than two degrees of sexual separation from someone in my immediate vicinity. But such is life. I did a lot this summer. I went to museums on the days they were free. I braved the Rite-Aid walk-in clinic when I (wrongly) thought that I had contracted septic throat. I surreptitiously drank wine in a number of parks. I worked 50-hour weeks and I learned to cook a single dish that involved neither pasta nor eggs. I was harshly reminded that in the non-Vassar world there is nobody besides you to clean your bathroom, that you can’t buy chicken tikka masala with VCash and that condoms will not appear in an envelope on your door as if deposited there by the Birth Control Fairy. I caught and missed trains to Poughkeepsie and rural Rhode Island and I ended with just enough money for one solid round of sake-bombing at Tokyo Express. What I really did, though, was learn that I could build a life. New York had loomed as this dirty, anxiety-inducing monolith for so long—the complete antithesis of cozy, contained Vassar—that waking up each morning and going about my day felt like a very small miracle. Sometimes, it turns out, you have to just frickin’ do it. And now we’re back, and I am a senior, and
Weekly Calendar: 4/21 - 4/27
there is a whole new crop of freshmen to ogle and scorn, and it’s the end of the sesquicentennial year, and they still refuse to let me order grilled cheese with pesto at the Retreat. Over the next nine months we will take classes that make us bang our fists on the table with excitement or frustration or both, and classes that aid our Fruit Ninja scores considerably. We will fall in and out of love over the course of a single rave, but the hickeys won’t fade for at least a week. We will get 20 hours of community service for illegally downloading the first season of Game of Thrones, and we will explain to Security why there are nine people huddled in our closets, and we will ask Squirm repeatedly to take us off their mailing list to no avail. Some of us will declare our majors and some of us will troll Craigslist for apartments in San Francisco or Chicago or Astoria. Some of us will switch roommates and some of us will stay in on Friday nights to study for the MCAT or the LSAT or the GREs or another one of those tests where I don’t actually know what the acronym stands for. Some will leave for London or Moscow, some will leave for home, some will return with new haircuts and tagged photos, and some will stay and nest and wait and look toward May with ragged cuticles. And all of us will be fine. Welcome back, team.
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by Alanna Okun, Humor & Satire Editor
Thursday, 9/8
6 p.m. ViCE Serenading Concert. The perfect opportunity to
Passage” in order to get there. Rose Parlor.
3 p.m. Tea. Things are different now. Rose Parlor.
3:30 p.m. Japan Exchange and Teaching Program Info
7 p.m. A Cappella Preview Concert. Yo, freshmen, think of it
grind with the people who just spent hours systematically pelting you with water and indignity. Outdoor Amphitheatre.
as a Whitman’s Sampler of all the cute quasi-gay dudes you’ll lust after for the rest of your four years here. Villard Room.
Sunday, 9/11 12 p.m. Summerwork - Artwork by Vassar Studio Art Ma-
9 p.m. No-ViCE Kick-Off Show. Time to get your blasé, disaffected sway on. The Mug.
Friday, 9/9 3 p.m. Tea. The Retreat’s been “totally” “made over.” A.k.a. they
somehow managed to find an even less aesthetically-pleasing font for the signs and there’s been a dramatic increase in arbitrary pieces of paper. Big ups on the iced coffee, though. Rose Parlor. 9 p.m. Comedy Preview Show. If you happen to hear a se-
nior English major at the back of the auditorium clutching a Tropicana bottle filled with raspberry vodka and snorting uproariously throughout the duration of the show, it’s not me. Sanders Auditorium. 10 p.m. First ViCE All-Campus Party. The theme is “How to Raise $30,000 Without Really Trying.” Villard Room.
Saturday, 9/10 2 p.m. Serenading. If life gives you serens, make serenade.
Ballentine.
jors. “Oh. I didn’t realize that having your parents pay for you to spend all summer in Bali and the South of France and then taking home a single grain of sand from each of the pristine beaches you visited qualifies as art. My bad.” Palmer Gallery.
Monday, 9/12 3 p.m. Tea. The dirty, barren construction by Wimpfheimer is finally done, which simultaneously makes campus far more beautiful and far less conducive to Land Before Time role-playing. Rose Parlor. 5 p.m. Resume Writing 101. Lesson #1: Nobody Cares That You Were the Treasurer of Your High School’s National Honor Society in 2007. Faculty Commons.
Tuesday, 9/13 3 p.m. Tea. Those flashy new road signs. That trip to Baldwin to pick up your Plan B the morning after a particularly regrettable FlyPeople Mug night just became a whole lot more action-packed now that you have to navigate “Swift
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
Session. “So is there ANYONE here who doesn’t want to go to Japan just so they can get Pokemon Plaid before it’s released in the U.S.? Anyone?!” Faculty Commons.
5:30 p.m. Bannon McHenry ‘52 Lecture: “Matthew Vassar’s Palace of Learning: Main Building and Its Architect.” It’s totally a myth that the halls of Main were built so wide in order to accommodate giant kegs or ladies in hoopskirts; they were meant to be large enough for an entire fellow group to hold hands as they vom in tandem. Taylor 203.
Wednesday, 9/14 3 p.m. Graduate School Fair. Wait you guys, I thought a fair was supposed to be fun and have cotton candy and rides and maybe even a petting zoo, not fill you with the unmistakable roar of failure and despair. UpC. 3 p.m. Tea. I’ll give you a hint: They are large, and filled with beer, and we can’t have them anymore. Also they provided our generous founder with the revenue he needed to create this institution of higher education and have been a staple of college life and history for the past 150 years. But like, NBD. Rose Parlor.
ARTS
Page 14
September 8, 2011
Post-Sept. 11 Muslim identities explored in art, film Photo courtesy of latest-bollywood-and-hollywood-movies.blogspot.com
Lacy Dent
Assistant Arts Editor
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fter the screening of his film Mooz-lum, an event that was a part of the series “Islam in the American Imagination 10 Years after 9/11: A Campus Community Dialogue,” writer-director Qasim Basir left a teary-eyed audience with some encouraging words: “As a collective people, if we all try to do something, we can make the world a better place,” said Basir. Through the film screening, campus-wide discussion and artist exhibition sponsored by the Africana Studies program, the series seeks to explore a highly topical issue: American perceptions of Muslim populations post-Sept. 11. Basir was inspired to start making films after a near-death car accident in 2002. He reasoned that he had not accomplished enough in his lifetime thus far. Shortly after his epiphany, he decided to make his contribution to the world through film. His film Mooz-lum, starring Danny Glover, Nia Long and Evan Ross, explores the tensions that arose within the American community after the Sept. 11 attacks. Tariq, the star of the movie and autobiographical sketch of Basir, struggles with his identity as both a Muslim and an American college student. One of the major issues that informed both Basir’s talk following the screening and the discourse of the campus-wide discussion is the negative way Muslims have often been portrayed post-Sept. 11. “Never have I seen Muslim people portrayed as human beings,” said Basir. Muslims have been represented by inaccurate stereotypes in the media as early as the 1920s, many depicting Muslims and Arabs as a violent-stricken people with a thirst for power and terror. And just last summer, the romantic comedy Sex and the City 2, dominated the box office but stirred a lot of controversy from both critics and viewers for its belittling portrayal of Muslim society. Such a daunting reality has given artists like Basir the goal of fighting this social stigma by producing more positive, truthful representations of Islamic life.
“Mooz-lum,” a film by Qasim Basir, was screened at Sanders Spitzer Auditorium as a part of the series “9/11: A Campus Community Dialogue” in honor of the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attack. As a second part of “Islam in the American Imagination,” visual artist Khaliah Sabree discussed her latest artwork entitled “Transcending the Veil of 9/11” on Thursday, Sept. 1. Her work will remain on display in the Aula until Sept. 11. Complementing the efforts of Basir, Sabree’s work is highly informed by the reverberations of the Sept. 11 attacks. Her pieces, filled with bold brush strokes and alarming colors, tell stories of sadness, anguish and pain. Many of the works have been created on standard, door-size blocks of wood. According to Sabree, they are metaphors for everyday doors. “It’s like stepping through a door, you have to get through a struggle to move on into the light,” she explained. In a series that includes three paintings exploring form and space, Sabree refrained from using any color. “The turmoil is at the top of the painting within the sky; the tragedy happened
within that space. The towers are the form,” she said. While in graduate school working on her theme of space and form, the Sept. 11 attacks overtook Sabree’s work. During this time she produced many dark and melancholy pieces. “I could not paint in color, there was just too much pain and turmoil. There was so much talk of death and notions of caves and mountains,” said Sabree. In one piece Sabree depicts many dead bodies wrapped, shrouded and tied in large white sheets as is a common Islamic practice. Sabree sees it her responsibility to paint in light of true Muslim culture and tradition. “It seems as if a small segment of negativity has overwhelmed us. We as Muslims have all been put in one basket,” Sabree explained. “However, as an artist you are on a journey and things happen that oppose you as an artist. I have been able to continue on my journey seeking light.”
Back in 2002, Sabree made her way to Mecca, the center of the Islamic world and birthplace of the founder of Islam, Prophet Muhammad. While there, Sabree and her husband worshipped at one of the most sacred edifices in Saudi Arabia known as the Ha’ba. Her time there inspired her more recent work in “Transcending the Veil,” where she implemented a mixture of photography, painting and drawing to reproduce four distinct pieces of the Ha’ba. “Mecca was a spiritual journey for me. There were so many people all gathered together in one place,” Sabree spoke of her experience. “There was no race that I didn’t see. Everyone was there for one cause, the service of God.” In one depiction of the Ha’ba entitled “Angels,” Sabree uses warm hues and soft brush strokes to relay the tranquility of the place. “There was such an angelic presence in that setting. You could just feel the burning away of these wordly things in people who were trying to reach a higher spiritual level,” Sabree said of her painting. In another depiction of the Ha’ba, Sabree experiments with photography. The edifice and the people joined for worship outside are highlighted and strongly visible in comparison to the sky and the grand city that stretches out beyond it. Here, Sabree chose to leave things out by darkening everything around the edifice. “In this piece I wanted to explore a disintegration of self by taking the focus off of who you are,” Sabree explained. She said many people who visit Mecca get distracted by the large city and shops and tend to forget the reason why they came. For artists Basir and Sabree, their Muslim faith has brought them on a journey that is bigger than themselves. Their work relays the pain and struggle that has accompanied them over the last 10 years, with a hope for a better future. Although changing the attitudes and perceptions of a people is a hard task, they have not kept silent. “Art is a way of expressing those things that you can’t always or don’t want to do verbally,” Sabree said.
Modern Art Exhibition highlights collectors’ tastes Jack Owen
Guest Reporter
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Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News
fter entering the first room of the Francis Lehman Loeb’s (FLLAC) summer exhibition, A Taste for the Modern, pulsating colors and daring shapes, bold contours and values immediately leap off the walls, and the viewer must take a step back in order to digest the whole space. However, it is only after stepping up to the works of masters such as Matisse, Picasso and Miró that one begins to fully comprehend what an incredible collection the College has put on display. The idea and direction of the exhibition was driven by James Mundy, the Anne Hendricks Bass Director of the FLLAC and was organized by Patricia Phagan, the Philip and Lynn Straus Curator of Prints and Drawings. Phagan explained, “The exhibit was a chance for Vassar students to see world-class works they would have to go to Manhattan to see.” At the same time, it provided insight into the practice of modern art collecting. A Taste for the Modern, which was on exhibit throughout the summer until this past Sunday, Sept. 4, was comprised of a wide variety of the Loeb’s 20th-century modern pieces. However, what made this exhibition particularly special was that every piece, in a way, was a reminder of Vassar’s roots and how the College has grown to be the institution it is today. Each work was a gift from one of three alumnae, Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller ’31, Edna Bryner Schwab ’07 and Virginia Herrick Deknatel ’29. Subsequently, the exhibition was divided into three open rooms, displaying the works collected by each donor in their respective space. The Loeb’s high ceilings and spaciousness were the perfect place to display these striking modern pieces, and having a room devoted to each collector gave the exhibit a smooth flow. “Ms. Rockefeller was quite well known for being a trustee and chairman of the board at the Museum of Modern Art [MoMA],” said
Phagan, and her experiences at the MoMA undoubtedly shaped her taste in art and collecting habits. A highlight of her collection, as seen at the exhibition, include Henri Matisse’s stencil “Le cow-boy,” 1947, a bold cut out featuring two dark figures atop thick vertical linkes of blue, yellow and black. As well, Phagan mentioned Joan Miró’s etching “Young Girl Skipping Rope, Women, Birds,” 1947, as a stand out with its simple lines and monochromatic color scheme. “Blanchette gave so many works to Vassar, and she really did inject the collection with abstract expressionism with this new art that was going on in New York,” Phagan said. Schwab also donated a generous amount of art to Vassar, including 51 modern pieces in 1967. As a nationally recognized writer, Schwab found post-impressionist and modernist works especially intriguing. Her collected works as seen in the exhibition include Paul Cézanne’s lithograph “Les Grand Baigners,” 1896-7, and John Marin’s crayon over watercolor “Coast Line,” 1917. Deknatel, who partnered with her husband in collecting, gave Vassar 30 pieces, including Pablo Picasso’s “Glass, Guitar, and Musical Score,” 1922-3, the collection’s first cubist oil painting by the artist. Bryner’s section of the exhibit also featured two other bold works by Picasso, including the linoleum cuts “Nature morte á la boutelle,” 1962, and “La chapeau á fleures,” 1963, both of which are pivotal examples of Picasso’s unique view of composition. While Rockefeller was quite wealthy because of her family name, the other two women were, surprisingly, not nearly as affluent. “Schwab and Deknatel show us that you don’t need a lot of money in order to buy great objects,” Explained Phagan. A Taste for the Modern offered a particularly special opportunity to viewers, as the collecting journeys of each alumna had never been explored prior to the exhibition. “This exhibition gives current Vassar students the chance
The Francis Lehman Loeb’s Art Center modern art exhibit, A Taste of Modern, ended this past Sunday, Sept. 4. It featured artworks by painters such as Pablo Picasso, donated to the College by alumnae. to learn about three Vassar grads who began collecting art,” added Phagan. Of course, one can also appreciate that these three audacious and independently minded women collected works based on their distinctive tastes, purchasing pieces that many considered to be inadequate because of their modern style. Avis Berman, an independent writer and art historian who has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and Smithsonian gave a closing lecture on the exhibition that highlighted some of the pervasive sentiments toward modern art during the early- to mid-20th century, proving the sophisticated taste of the Vassar alumnae. In reference to the works of Matisse, Berman said that they were “incomprehensible to American eyes.” Recognizing such dissuasion
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toward modernism causes one to further appreciate collectors such as Rockefeller, Bryner and Deknatel who embraced the movement. “Vassar has always been well known for its forward, progressive thinking,” said Phagan. “These three women learned a lot about critical thinking, which is such a large part of the Vassar experience,” she added. Such an education surely caused them to be more open to different ideas, and in this case, different styles of art. Thus, the Taste for the Modern exhibit stands as a testament to the strength of a liberal arts education. The experiences of these influential alumnae certainly can inspire students to utilize their critical thinking skills in a way that will help them act as creative trailblazers in the future.
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Library exhibit recognizes poet Elizabeth Bishop ’34 Shruti Manian
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lass cases containing reams of handwritten notes, with many scribbled corrections, flank the Thompson Memorial Library gallery space. These old, yellowing pages give a neverbefore-seen insight into the work of one of the country’s most celebrated poets and a muchloved Vassar alumna: Elizabeth Bishop ’34. The exhibit will be on display until Dec. 15th. Bishop is one of the most important poets of 20th century American literature, having won nearly every renowned literary prize in her liftetime—including the Pulitzer—and inspired countless writers, notably Robert Lowell. A part of the College’s renowned literary tradition, she would have marked her 100th birthday this very year. That her 100th birthday coincides with Vassar’s sesquicentennial only makes the occasion all the more momentous. “It is a happy coincidence, can I explain it as anything else?” said Associate Director of the Library for Special Collections Ronald Patkus. There are numerous celebrations being held to commemorate Bishop’s 100th birthday; many of these are taking place in New York City itself. “We have the largest repository of Bishop’s papers in the world, so we had to observe this anniversary in a way that honored her special connection to Vassar,” said Patkus. The unique exhibit features her manuscripts and drafts of her work, her publications, her journals and her correspondences. For example, the exhibit begins with an original copy of one of Bishop’s unpublished poems and her letters to poet Robert Lowell. Weaved amid Bishop’s work are the books of ten other authors. These scholars wrote anthologies, biographies and other such retrospectives that investigate Bishop’s work, life and widespread influence. Each utilized Vassar’s extensive and impressive archives on Bishop to explore a facet of her life and poetry that enriched their work. “We invited 10 scholars to help curate the exhibition. Through the exhibit, we can meet the scholars, see the work they looked at and their final scholarly output. We can see how
Acclaimed poet Elizabeth Bishop ’34, above, would have turned 100 this year. The Thompson Memorial Library will hold an exhibit of her work and host a symposium featuring Robert PInsky on Sept. 24. Vassar’s collection of Elizabeth Bishop’s work has helped scholarly study,” said Patkus. The books are arranged in chronological order, and the last case holds a rough, work-in-progress draft of another scholarly book. The College also created and released a special catalog meant to accompany and document the exhibit. After a preface and short essay, the catalog proceeds to detail all the works of the exhibit—picturing the content of each display case, listing its authors and conveying other pertinent information. Further accompanying the exhibit are three videos that each feature a Vassar professor from the English Department reading and providing a detailed analysis of three of Bishop’s poems. “Having professors give a commentary adds a dynamic aspect to the exhibit as opposed to just having books and other material,” said Patkus. Along with the exhibit, Vassar will also be hosting a symposium on Sept. 24. The symposium will feature Robert Pinsky, one of the
most respected interpreters of Bishop’s work, giving a lecture discussing Bishop’s many literary achievements. Two panels featuring scholars who have written extensively on Bishop will follow, each on Sept. 24. The first panel will discuss their experiences editing Bishop’s work, and the second will discuss their experience teaching her work. Bishop’s years at Vassar chronicle a singular period of development in her prose and poetry. In fact, one of Bishop’s major influences, Marianne Moore, was introduced to her by a librarian at Vassar in 1934. One of the most significant artifacts in the exhibition are the incomplete poems Bishop was working on, as well as numerous early drafts of her finished and often famous poems. “It is amazing to see Bishop’s work in progress over a period of months and sometimes even years,” said Patkus. Honing her craft, Bishop worked for numerous campus publications including The Miscellany News while she was at Vassar. Junior year, she even
started her own literary magazine on display at the exhibit: In its first issue she protested the misogyny of the literary establishment. Patkus stresses that the symposium as well as the exhibition can be remarkable experiences for students as it gives them the opportunity to meet a number of prominent literary scholars and enthusiasts. The exhibit hopes to attract an audience within the immediate Vassar community and beyond. “Even several decades after her death, people are still interested in her work. Regardless of her connection to Vassar, people are still going to want to read her and understand her work better,” said Patkus. “It is Marvellous,” 1940s
It is marvellous to wake up together At the same minute; marvellous to hear The rain begin suddenly all over the roof, To feel the air suddenly clear As if electricity had passed through it From a black mesh of wires in the sky. All over the roof the rain hisses, And below, the light falling of kisses. An electrical storm is coming or moving away; It is the prickling air that wakes us up. If lightning struck the house now, it would run From the four blue china balls on top Down the roof and down the rods all around us, And we imagine dreamily How the whole house caught in a bird-cage of lightening Would be quite delightful rather than frightening; And from the same simplified point of view Of night and lying flat on one’s back All things might change equally easily, Since always to warn us there must be these black Electrical wires dangling. Without surprise The world might change to something quite different, As the air changes or the lightning comes without our blinking, Change as out kisses are changing without our thinking.
Lecture to reveal Renwick’s original Main Building design Emma Daniels Guest Reporter
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Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution
ny student in Vassar’s everpopular Art 105 class would surely relate to the oft-emphasized idea that 19th-century architecture is not as unique as the architecture of other eras—when designing a building, most architects of the time simply took a model and expanded from that base. A smattering of buildings didn’t fit that architectural generalization, however; and one of them stands right here on Vassar’s campus. Main Building, erected between 1861 and 1865, although loosely characterized as “Second Empire” style, was based on no real model. The building is therefore classified as an important building not only to Vassar College, but also to the history of architecture in general. On Tuesday, Sept. 13, Adjunct Professor at Fordham College of Liberal Arts Bannon McHenry ’52 will give a lecture expanding on this idea, entitled “Matthew Vassar’s Palace of Learning: Main Building and Its Architect,” from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in Taylor Hall 203. The lecture is sponsored by the Art Department and the Program in Urban Studies. James Renwick Jr. (1818-1895) designed Main building in 1861. He is known primarily for St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, but he also designed the Smithsonian building in Washington, D.C. as well as the Free Academy Building in the City College of New York and various other art galleries, schools and churches. He designed five national landmarks, one of which is Main Building, designated as such in honor of the Col-
The Renwick Gallery, pictured above, is a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, located in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian was designed by James Renwick Jr., who was also the architect for Main building and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. lege’s 125th anniversary. The designs of Renwick’s other buildings, however, were based on specific architectural types. For example, St. Patrick’s Cathedral is clearly Gothic, and the Smithsonian Institution Building a castle-like combination of Romanesque and Gothic styles. His decision to help Matthew Vassar erect the literal foundations of his new and original idea of a women’s college with an original building design is thus a fascinating one. “There is no model for a women’s college, so that’s why it’s such an odd and original building. Matthew Vassar was asking people to send their daughters to stay in this place,” Professor of Art Nicholas Adams com-
mented, adding ,“so it had to look like something they would be safe in, so that’s one reason it has this rather imposing grand character.” Closest in style to the second empire style, the building possesses a certain grandeur not just in appearance, but also in function. At the time of its construction Main housed the entire college, including dormitories, libraries, classrooms and dining halls. One thing that McHenry will be addressing in her lecture is the relationship between Vassar and Renwick. Although Renwick was a prolific architect, he is not widely studied. In fact, McHenry is one of few art historians who specializes in his work, thus she is more knowledgeable than most people—even those on the Vas-
sar campus—about Vassar and Renwick’s collaboration. During the 1th century, however, Renwick was considered what the Encyclopedia of American Architecture describes as “one of the most successful American architects of the his time.” Although he was not formally trained as an architect, Renwick garnered his skills from his father, and through a broad cultural education that included architectural history. McHenry majored in art history at Vassar when she graduated in 1952, and is now a devoted alumna who frequently visits campus. She is also a vehement advocate of the art history program at Vassar—“It was a strong department then and now,”
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she declared. She also emphasized Matthew Vassar’s devotion to the study of art at the College: “He was insistent on having an art gallery right in the Main building, and also purchased a large collection of 19th-century American paintings upon the College’s foundation, which remain a mainstay of the gallery today.” The lecture materialized when Adams ran into McHenry on campus. She explained her recent lecture she had given on Renwick in New York, and he had the idea to adapt it for a Vassar audience, in honor of the College’s sesquicentennial. “I was very enthusiastic to have someone speak who has an idea about what Matthew Vassar had in mind in regards to Main building, knowing that she is one of the few people who specialize in Renwick,” he commented. When asked about what to expect from the lecture, McHenry said she hopes to talk about the partnership between the two men. “It was a very happy working arrangement between two extremely practical, intelligent and forwardthinking men,” she commented. “Renwick understood what Vassar wanted and was able to put it into marvelous architecture.” Renwick’s precise expression of Vassar’s vision is what makes Main one of the most important buildings on campus, and one that any Vassar historian or student should be eager to learn more about. This lecture is definitely a good place to start. “From my perspective, the reason for this lecture is very simple: The more we know about this building, the better,” Adams said.
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September 8, 2011
O’Connor a filmmaker, comedian extraordinaire Adam Buchsbaum
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Arts Editor
iel Files ’11 last year to both shoot and edit the films. “I like making the videos, I like writing the sketches and I do like performing in front of a live audience,” O’Connor said. “Acting— there’s very few things that compare to that kind of performance and being before an audience. And getting a good reaction from an audience is a pretty unparalleled experience.” He prepares meticulously, even obsessively, he admits, for his own films. He has a small journal he fills with notes for each film. O’Connor likes to deliberately play with differing film styles and genres. “I’d like to make a movie in any genre I can think of,” O’Connor said. He gave an anecdote about Martin Scorcese replying in an interview that his classic film Raging Bull is not a boxing movie, but a movie about a man. O’Connor has shot a film on 16mm film; a black-and-white, H.P. Lovecraft inspired horror short; and a grittier, more handheld looking short that follows, as he summarized it, a boy and a girl running off together. He spent this summer shooting yet another short film with Schuman, and for class this summer will make a documentary about one Chester Davis, a French-and-Indian war
Alex Schlesinger/The Miscellany News
im O’Connor ’12 began film young. “Back in the day—10 years old—best birthday gift I ever got was a Steven Spielberg LEGO Movie Maker set,” he said. “I made these little stop motion movies.” The set jumpstarted his fascination with the medium, an interest that has continued all the way into his major: film. “I had those VHS tapes of Star Wars and I’d watch them over and over and over again,” he said. Set on studying film, O’Connor applied early decision to Vassar after an overnight and a friend’s tour of the Film Department. “It was less like all of a sudden I thought, ‘Wow great! I wanna go here.’ It was more like, ‘Well, I’m going to go here.’” The Activities Fair led to his discovery of the Filmmakers Club. He was at its first meeting, as was Eric Schuman ’12. Schuman would go on to become his partner-in-crime, his collaborator on many short films on campus and off campus. The club excited O’Connor, giving him a chance to work with upperclassmen on their short films, and by his sophomore year he joined its Executive Board as its equipment
manager, along with Schuman. Both O’Connor and Schuman now serve as presidents of the club. “It was a pretty natural progression,” O’Connor noted. “It was always something that I’ve definitely wanted to do. I wanted to be president from that first meeting.” O’Connor also joined comedy group the Limit when he was a freshman. He’d done improv comedy previously in high school, but never had done sketch comedy. At his audition, two members of the Limit invaded, played some games along with him, and they picked him out. “They were just like, ‘Hey you! Come audition for us,’” O’Connor said. “I spontaneously auditioned, got in my freshman year and I’ve been doing that ever since.” The group is very collaborative, often contributing and changing each other’s written material and skits. The opening montages that start each show allow O’Connor to flex his film ability. “The Limit’s been known for these really crazy, fastly edited spectacles where your eyes are melted out of your sockets,” he said. This music-video, zany style fits well with the wacky, absurdist tone of the Limit’s sketch comedy. O’Connor worked heavily with Dan-
Artist of the Week Tim O’Connor ’12 poses with film icon John Wayne. Connor is president of the Filmmakers Club and a member of the Limit, an improv group. re-enactor who also happens to be Santa Claus. He is simultaneously editing the film he just shot and writing the script for another short film he hopes to shoot next semester. He even has written a full-length, 120page script after taking Introduction
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to Screenwriting last year. It must be clear by now: his multiple busy, creative pursuits are truly not that different at their core. “All the creative things I do merge together,” he noted, adding, “The art I’m interested in is storytelling.”
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Final Harry Potter flick put a spell on me Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 David Yates [Warner Bros.]
Katharine Austin Senior Editor
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y return to Vassar delayed due to Hurricane Irene, I did what any normal person would do—I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 for the third time. How could I resist? Weeks after dressing up as Luna to join fellow Potterheads at a midnight showing, I was experiencing severe Potter withdrawal symptoms. Thankfully, Deathly Hallows provided the cure, once again offering me a satisfying and magical conclusion to 10 years of my life and the highest grossing film franchise in history. The final installment, directed by David Yates, finds the golden trio Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) still on the hunt for horcruxes: the magical objects that allow the Dark Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) to achieve near-immortality. The search leads the group of friends back to their wizard school Hogwarts, and subsequently a final showdown between good and evil epic enough for the record books. Speaking of record books, Deathly Hallows marks the franchise’s most recordbreaking installment. Among its many accolades, it achieved the record for biggest midnight showing, single day and weekend. It also currently sits at number three on the list of highest grossing films of all time with a worldwide gross of almost $1.3 billion.
And the numbers certainly reflect the film’s quality. It may not have been necessary for the filmmakers to split J.K. Rowling’s last book into two films, but Deathly Hallows sure packs in a lot of action considering most of the film takes place over the course of only one day. Much of this action may not have been present in the books, but this upgrade works well and enhances the emotion and energy of the story—as opposed to acting as a distraction, as some of the changes from the books often do. In visual effects Deathly Hallows outdoes itself. Sitting through the entire end credits, I can attest that at least half of them must have been the number of visual effects houses enlisted to work on the project. I cannot imagine how much money or time was spent just to make Voldemort’s nose. Visually stunning creatures people the film, from trolls to dragons to dementors to enchanted statues. And the wandwork truly enchants—the visuals of the spells give a tangible charge to the picture. Most remarkable of the film’s visual effects are probably the shocking images of a destroyed Hogwarts: the fictional place Potterheads have come to call their second home. Its utter devastation sets the tone for the entire film. Paired with the masterful visual effects comes the series’ standard breathtaking cinematography. One scene at the wizard bank Gringotts sports such incredible camera work that watching it felt like enjoying a roller coaster ride. (Maybe it will be the next attraction at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.) Visuals aside, the acting in Deathly Hallows is perhaps at its strongest. While the Harry Potter series boasts one of the most
talented ensemble casts in film history, with almost every acclaimed British actor gracing the cast, in Deathly Hallows Alan Rickman steals the movie with his portrayal of Snape. I must confess that I am not a Snape fan, but Rickman brings a never-before-seen vulnerability to the role in one of the most tear-inducing scenes of the film and the entire franchise. The film’s score ties all of these brilliant elements together, giving Deathly Hallows its emotional punch. While every Harry Potter film features an amazing score, enlisting such master composers as John Williams, the soundtrack to Deathly Hallows by Alexandre Desplat is one of the series’ best. Some cues match the action in their epic proportion and others are so emotionally charged that they leave me wanting to curl up, clinging to my book copy of Deathly Hallows, and cry. Now that’s true magic. If I have anything negative to say about Deathly Hallows, it is probably the film’s epilogue, which takes place 19 years after the final battle. To avoid spoiling anything for those not in the know, I will simply say that—in the book and the movie—the epilogue seems unnecessary to the story and ties things up a little too neatly for my taste. Most disappointing to me, its edging on the ridiculous and unintentional humor takes away from the significance of the ending. Or maybe I dislike the epilogue to Deathly Hallows because I do not want the film to end. Not just because the movie wows, entertains and pulls at my heartstrings, but because it means that there are no more films to transport me to Harry’s wondrous world. At least I have Pottermore to distract me from my Post-Potter Depression.
Hits-On-The-Hudson The Temptations Saugerties, New York Sunday, September 11th, 5:00 PM Tickets: $20 In conjunction with the Bardavon Theater, HITS Inc. will be hosting a performance by the legendary Motown group, the Temptations. This multi-Grammy Award winning vocal group first gained acclaim as one of the most popular acts to record under the Motown label. Known for their expansive repertoire including R& B, doo-wop, funk, disco and soul, the group is still going strong. With hits like “My Girl,” “I Can’t Get Next To You,” and “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” there’s no denying that you’ll be shakin’ your tail feathers from the start of this show.
Concert Series: FromVienna to Naples Stormking Saturday, September 10th 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm Free with paid admission After walking through Stormking’s statuesque sculptures and 500 acres of stunning landscape, enjoy an afternoon concert with Krista Bennion Feeney (violin), Daniel Swenerg (baroque guitar and lute) and Clara Rottsolk (soprano). The group will journey musically from Vienna to Naples, ending with a few Neapolitan sons and Tarentellas. —Rachael Borné, Arts Editor
Murals inspire collaboration, confidence, community it all back home. What comes next, though, is the quotes, the words, the message. Transmitting ideas through images is an integral part of the Middle Main Revitalization project, simply because it encourages people to pay attention to their environment, see the issues at hand and maybe even start conversations to address them. Weaver explained, “You put these everyday people up, and you build a confidence in each individual as well as the place that they live in. They’re proud to be there, which can force a lot of communication.” Originally, Tochigi and Weaver hoped to use actual photographs of community figures in their mural; however, because of licensing issues, they had to settle with animated characters. Their initial brainchild was inspired by the work of French street artist JR. In his project “Face2Face,” JR went to the Middle East to paste massive portraits of Israeli and Palestinian men and women face to face in public spaces. When asked about the installations by curious onlookers, JR would simply respond, “Before you get mad, can you tell me who’s who?” Although they couldn’t use images as realistic as photographs, Tochigi’s and Weaver’s message inspires a sense of self-assuredness and fosters investment nonetheless. Because the murals are by nature a public project, the artwork comes to life on the street, the hard work necessary to create a final product is clear for all to see. “I want to show people what the process is. How you get to the end result,” explained Tochigi. Both Tochigi and Weaver emphasized the degree to which many young people in Poughkeepsie
Photo courtesy of Boogie Tochigi
MURALS continued from page 1 Each is surrounded by text bubbles containing quotes from members of youth in the area who dance at M*Power Center for Cultural Fitness. “I was looking for something uplifting and positive,” explained Tochigi, adding, “I wanted that kind of energy, with fun, curvy, round and soft imagery.” One of the mural’s characters proclaims, “Diverse people. Many beliefs. One community,” while another shouts out, “The peace and love in this city is imminent to manifest.” Because Tochigi took quotes directly from folks living in the area, she helps inspire in passers-by a sense of confidence and self-recognition. According to Weaver, this type of association is essential to the success of a public art project. He explained, “If you’re gonna put things up in this area, it has to be something people will be receptive to, something they’ll respect,” adding, “Painting trees won’t make that connection.” The nearby mural reading, “Poughkeepsie Revitalization,” fosters that same type of connection through its sheer majesty. Created by local artist Nestor Madalengoitia, the mural features a diverse group of Poughkeepsie locals. In order to draw the public in, Weaver explained, “You need to speak the language they’re speaking,” something seen in the familiar and recognizable faces, quotes from people living in the neighborhood, and eye-catching colors. The initial magnetic force of the murals comes from the associations embedded within, the fact that onlookers respond with, “Oh, I know him, I know her.” The artwork brings
In the picture above, Boogie Tochigi adds some spray paint to one of the murals gracing Main Street as part of the Middle Main Revitalization project. Vassar’s own Darrin Weaver, better known as TC, joined Tochigi to contribute the mural. expect results to be instant: “As soon as they have to put forth some soft of effort, it’s done,” she added. Weaver testified to this, explaining, “It’s therapeutic for kids to see the whole thing come together step by step.” Not only did the project allow people to witness the creative process blossom in real time, it also facilitated collaboration between local artists, members of the downtown community, and outside organizations. Bike and Build, an organization devoted to biking across the country and participating in public housing
projects along the way, was highly involved in the beautification of Middle Main. Vassar student Elysia Glover ’11 was route leader to the group that stopped in Poughkeepsie this summer. Of the quote mural, she explained, “I found it incredibly powerful, as it not only adds color and life to an otherwise blank stretch of wall, but it can be used to start a conversation, if only between the mural and passersby.” This type of conversation makes concrete the collective experience of living in downtown Poughkeepsie and also makes way for feel-
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ings of solidarity. If nothing else, the project taps into a well of creativity present throughout the Middle Main area and plants the seed for future revitalization efforts. The murals pay homage to everyday faces, the ideas of real, tangible individuals, and are created by local artists deeply invested in making the downtown a more stable place. Weaver concluded with the bottom line of the project: “Every single person is important. As a people, everyone is important. A community is a collection of everybody in it.”
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September 8, 2011
Women’s soccer builds ‘Camp Vassar’ welcomes 2015 on strong 2010 season Kristine Olson
Andy Marmer Sports Editor
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ome August each year Vassar student-athletes participating in fall sports arrive for preseason training before classes resume; it is a time on campus that many refer to as “Camp Vassar” with a schedule defined by early morning and midafternoon workouts for the relatively fit and willing. Besides working out and improving fitness before the season starts, moving in early at Vassar has other perks for a freshman, including, but not limited to, choosing the preferred side of the room and taking the largest closet. On a deeper level, preseason also influences the relationships athletes will form with Vassar’s campus and staff, other athletes and eventually their fellow groups and the general student body. According to various athletes from the Class of 2015, the advantage of arriving early to train for a sport is that there is a guarantee you will meet a group of people with a common interest, purpose and goal. Being a part of a team can also guarantee a group of people to sit with at meals, avoiding the potentially awkward social situations that dining halls present and freshmen dread. Preseason also provides additional time to adjust to a new routine in a new environment with the help of older student-athletes. Because they have already had to balance a schedule of classes, practices, studying and socializing, more experienced student-athletes are able to reassure their freshman teammates as they adjust to college. With a week of Camp Vassar under their belts before their fellow freshmen arrive on campus, freshman student-athletes are generally confident in providing assistance to their peers and parents when they get here. One freshman shared that he was able to help his hallmates set up their Internet access after having figured out how to set up his earlier that week. But there are things Vassar student-athletes do not experience, or experience differently, due to the time committed to arriving early, practicing and participating in team-bonding activities. One example of how the college experience of a freshman student-athlete differs from his or her peers’ is during
Tim Serkes/The Miscellany News
year removed from one of the most successful seasons in program history, capped off by an appearance in the Liberty League Championship Game, the Vassar women’s soccer team is out to build on last season’s successes. The Brewers seek to do this despite the graduation of two of the top players in the program’s history: forward Carolyn Demougeot ’11 and midfielder Allison McManis ’11, both three-time All-Liberty League selections. While the challenges it faces will be different, the team is preparing for the daunting road ahead as a new squad. “We’re not trying to replace [the Class of 2011],” insisted Captain Keiko Kurita ’13, “we’re just playing differently.” The Brewers, led by sixth-year Head Coach Richard Moller, will rely on a talented contingent of newcomers as well as an experienced veteran squad to complete the transition from successful team to successful program. Explained goalkeeper Ali Higgins ’13, “It’s not good enough anymore to make the Liberty League playoffs.” She continued, “Last year that was our goal, now we want to win. Going forward, that’s going to be our expectation: to do better than the previous year.” Higgins will be a crucial part of the program’s continuing growth. Last year, she allowed just nine goals in 11 games, while recording 40 saves. While the then-sophomore keeper had a number of good games, none were more impressive than her outing against then-No. 10 William Smith College in the Liberty League Championship Game. The Herons blasted 19 shots over the course of nearly two hours—90 minutes of regulation plus two, 10-minute overtime periods—but Higgins with her nine saves kept the ball out of the net. Although the Brewers were denied the title, losing 4-3 in a shootout, they pushed one of Division III’s top teams to the brink. The rematch of last year’s championship game is planted squarely on the Brewers’ minds. “I think we’re all looking forward to William Smith,” assured captain Tessa Verbanic ’12, voicing a sentiment echoed by her teammates. “I hope they’re ready.”
The Brewers will host the No. 3 nationally ranked Herons on Oct. 15 at 2:00 p.m. Although the Brewers lost a talented group, they return a number of superstars, many of whom found the back of the net in the previous year’s campaign. Gavriella Kaplan ’14 leads the returning scorers with four goals last year; the speedy midfielder has already notched one this year in a 2-0 victory over rival State University of New York at New Paltz. Captain Alix Zongrone ’12, whose primary responsibilities lie on the defensive end and in the midfield, also scored three times last season. Kurita also contributed a great deal offensively; although she only mustered two goals, her eight assists last year led the team. Still, if the first few games are any indication, the story of this year’s team may be the freshmen. All six players from the Class of 2015 started the Brewers’ opening three games this season, with Kelsey Domb ’15 contributing a goal in the victory over New Paltz and another in the team’s 2-1 victory over Lasell College. Domb explained her and her classmates’ role, saying, “It’s our job to compliment their talents and also add our own special talents to the team.” While the Brewers have a number of talented players, for this year’s squad, the whole may be greater than the sum of its parts. “I don’t think anyone was prepared for how good we were going to be when we got together,” said Zongrone. “I don’t think we were prepared for how well we were going to play together.” With a roster full of talented players who interact well on the pitch, the Brewers believe they have a squad with enormous potential yet again. “It was very evident from the first minute [of the Brewers’ scrimmage against William Paterson University] this team has the ability to do something special,” summarized Higgins. Verbanic has no doubt that the potential will be fully realized, and that this year’s squad will finish the season firing on all cylinders. “We’re ready to take down the Liberty League this year,” she said. “We’re coming for blood.” She added one final sentiment, though: “I hope William Smith reads this.”
Assistant Sports Editor
Cross-country, two of its players above, is one of the many fall sports whose athletes move in early for preseason training. Many athletes call it Camp Vassar. Move-In Day. While most freshmen move in to the sound of Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars blaring on stereos in the dorms as eager student fellows and house teams scramble to assist them with their luggage, studentathletes move in with less pomp and circumstance to mark their arrival. Although living alone seems daunting to some at first, many freshman student-athletes find other athletes living down or across the hall with whom they could socialize and explore campus. With the time and exposure the preseason provides, where does this leave general freshman orientation and fellow groups? Some athletes, once they get to orientation, find it to be redundant, a “filler of gaps” as one freshman athlete put it. In contrast, another freshman remarked that she tried to participate in as many activities with her fellow group as she could. Now she wishes
she had had time to engage in more orientation activities because she connects with her hallmates and fellow freshman differently than with her teammates. It may be the case that orientation is a “filler” for freshman athletes. Yet for freshmen intent on meeting their dormmates and classmates (because they, unlike certain teammates, will be around all four years), there is a general acknowledgement that orientation and fellow groups are still important to an incoming freshman student-athlete’s introduction to and first year at Vassar. Especially at a liberal arts college, it seems appropriate to note that preseason provides a particular kind of orientation, one that has the potential to enhance, rather than supersede or eliminate the allcampus move-in and orientation experience.
Bard, RIT join Liberty League as Hamilton moves on Corey Cohn
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he 2011-2012 academic year brings a new look to the Liberty League, with the departure of founding member Hamilton College and the introduction of two new schools, Bard College and Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). These changes, which were first announced in 2009, offer a fresh sense of stability and competition for the 16-year old conference. Director of Athletics and Physical Education for Vassar College and President of the Liberty League Dr. Sharon Beverly explained that Hamilton’s decision to leave the Liberty League, as well as the possibility of the University of Rochester doing the same, instigated the search for new members. Hamilton College left in order to fully incorporate its athletics program with the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC). The University of Rochester is still currently a Liberty League member, but some of its teams also compete in the University Athletic Association, leading to the speculation. On the loss of Hamilton, Beverly wrote in an emailed statement, “Hamilton’s decision to depart the Liberty League was probably best for both them and the League. Although Hamilton
was a full member in both the NESCAC and the Liberty, they never acknowledged their membership in the Liberty League nationally, which hurt the League.” She cited an example from a few years ago, when Hamilton’s women’s soccer team won the championship and most of the recogntion was directed towards NESCAC, when in fact Hamilton’s soccer program then participated in the Liberty League. Vassar’s Associate Director of Athletics, Kim Culligan, remarked, “Hamilton College is a great competitor, a good rival and an excellent institution.” The Continentals will also remain occasional opponents for the Brewers, something that Robin Deutsch, Vassar’s Assistant Director of Athletics for Communications, Marketing and Promotions, made sure to emphasize. “Hamilton isn’t going away,” he said. As far as the new additions, Beverly explained that 10 schools initially applied for Liberty League membership. After four finalists were selected, representatives from the institutions each gave presentations and interviews during a session at Hobart College attended by all the athletics directors in the Liberty League. In selecting the two new members, Beverly wrote, “We compiled pertinent statistical data in regards to admissions standards (SAT/ACT
scores, selectivity), geographical data on student body, size of the institution, number of sports offered, size of staffing for the athletics dept, etc.” Ultimately, Bard and RIT were offered invitations into the conference. Beverly further commented on why these two schools stood out from the rest. “In terms of the departure of Hamilton, we sought to find schools that shared our academic commitment.” She added that, athletically, “The other hope was that new members would help fill the void for sports losing a competitor … Bard and RIT sponsor most of the sports we were seeking.” The athletics directors at Bard and RIT shared the same motivation in joining the Liberty League as the League had in inviting them. Director of Athletics for Bard Kristen Hall wrote in an emailed statement that the College recognized the chance to join “peer institutions” and that “the opportunity to become a part of the organization was in line with the vision for the Athletics Department.” Executive Director of Intercollegiate Athletics for RIT Louis Spiotti, Jr. wrote in an emailed statement, “For some time we had been considering the idea of identifying a league that fits more with the profile of our university,
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both athletically and academically.” Once RIT was invited to join the Liberty League, Spiotti added, “we jumped at the opportunity.” Bard previously competed in the Skyline Conference, based in the New York City area. RIT was a member of the Empire 8, which mostly features schools located in upstate New York. Although few would question that the two new conference additions share the academic esteem of their fellow Liberty League members, it remains to be seen how competitive their sports teams will be. However, Culligan and Deutsch believe there is no reason to worry. Culligan, by way of Vassar’s competitive history with Bard, made special note of the commitment Bard has made to their athletics program, particularly in their staff, led by Hall. While she admitted that Vassar, which joined the Liberty League for the 2000-2001 academic year, took some time to improve athletically, she was adamant in saying that the two new schools would make the necessary adjustments. “[Bard and RIT] are going to elevate their athletics just as everyone else has,” Culligan said. Deutsch added that the two new League See LIBERTY on page 20
SPORTS
September 8, 2011
Page 19
Men’s Soccer off to strong beginning Ranking the NFC teams A for 2011 season Nathan Tauger Online Editor
Photo courtesy of Shane Donahue, Vassar Athletics
fter a season that included a disappointing 1-5-1 Liberty League record the Vassar men’s soccer team is starting the new year off on the right foot. In their first three games, the Brewers have jumped out to an impressive 2-0-1 start, including an 8-0 thumping of State University of New York Old Westbury. Vassar started the season strong with a 1-1 draw against Methodist University. Unsurprisingly, it was the two captains, Ross Macklin ’13 and Zander Mrlik ‘13, leading the way. With just over 11 minutes to go in the first half, Macklin delivered a clean corner kick to the charging head of Juliano Pereira ’14, resulting in the only Vassar goal of the game. Though Methodist evened the score in the 57th minute, Vassar maintained a nearly impervious defense, led by Mrlik, who was seemingly everywhere on the pitch. These were all good signs for a markedly different Vassar squad. “We lost three seniors, six or seven starters to transfer or dropping,” explained Mrlik at the close of the last 8 a.m. pre-season practice. “Obviously it hurt us, but guys have stepped up, [like] our new outside backs Jake [Rabin ’14] and Evan [Seltzer ’14]. Dante [Varotsis ’13] has been great.” “The difference has been positivity,” Varotsis said in a later interview. “Everyone came in this year and instead of bollocking at someone every time they made a mistake we’ve been constructive. That’s changed the attitude of a lot of players.” The new attitude showed in the Brewers’ second game against Mount Saint Mary College on Sunday, Sept. 4. Vassar shot 29 times, compared to just nine shots from the Knights. Reflecting on the assertive offensive performance, Varotsis said, “We’re very dominant possessors of the ball, that creates a lot of chances—we just need to finish.” Only one Vassar shot met the back of the net—a low shot by Rob Manukyan ’14 in the 68th minute—but opportunities for Brewers goals were present throughout the match. While the Brewers may have had difficulty finishing against Mount Saint Mary, they had no such troubles in their most recent contest, Tuesday Sept. 6 against SUNY College of Old Westbury. Seven different Brewers combined for eight scores as Varotsis led the way with two. Also finding the back of the net were Pereira, Logan Matheny ’15, Eric Geisse ’13, Sam Erlichson-McCarthy ’12, Casey Rice ’13 and Robert Torrence ’15. Overall the Brewers
The men’s soccer team improved to 2-1 after an 8-0 victory over Old Westbury. Captains Zander Mrlik ’13 and Ross Macklin ’13 look to lead the Brewers to an improved Liberty League finish. registered 29 shots, 16 of which were on goal. As had been the case once before, the Brewers’ plans were affected by the weather as the game was stopped in the 72nd minute due to rain—this previously happened to the Brewers on Aug. 27 when their scrimmage against the Coast Guard Academy was moved up due to Hurricane Irene. Tom Wiechert ’15, along with Matheny and Justin Mitchell ’15, are the three freshmen who have received the most playing time for the Brewers. “Our three forwards are small fast guys,” said Wiechert, “I’m a big guy so I bring a big target to the field.” “We’re adding to the talent pool. We had nine freshmen come in, and normally we just work on getting these kids developed— generally not every freshman can start,” explained Assistant Coach Tony Flores. “These freshmen could start.” Flores, Mrlik and Macklin attributed the competitiveness of the new class to a team-wide commitment to arrive in shape. “I worked over the summer to be able to do that, the fitness was a good indication from the beginning that I was ready to play. Dedicated,” said Wiechert. The whole team made the commitment to arriving in shape, partly due to a new policy, Mrlik explained. “It used to be that if you didn’t pass the fitness test at the beginning you would just have to do extra work. This
year, you couldn’t play if you didn’t pass,” he said. Macklin added, “Three-quarters of the team ran the two mile in under 12 minutes, which has never happened while I’ve been here.” A conditioned core may be the final piece the Brewers need to break into Liberty League success. Though the team finished with a 7-2 non-conference record, including seven shutouts, they ended with a 1-5-1 Liberty League record, seventh in the nine-member conference. Goalie Coach Chuck Wilder commented on the mercurial nature of Liberty League games. “Those games are so tight, a lot of them were just one goal games, and sometimes the team that played better didn’t get the win,” he said. “We’d hit the crossbar too many times, that kind of thing.” The last bit of uncertainty for the Brewers comes from the goalie position. While Ryan Grimme ’14 started the first game, Gary Clauss ’13 was in the net against Mount Saint Mary. Into the preseason the position was up in the air, with Wilder referring to it as a “battle.” Mrlik remarked that goalkeeping was the strongest unit on the team. “We have two great goalkeepers, Grimme comes from a strong soccer background, and [Clauss] has the leadership,” said Flores. The Brewers next play at Manhattanville College on Sept. 9.
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Andy Sussman
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Guest Columnist
ejoice! The NFL lockout is over, the chaos of free agency has ended and opening kickoff is tonight, as the defending Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers face the New Orleans Saints. Goodness knows how the individual games will play themselves out, but in the meantime, here are my rankings of every team in the NFC. This is, of course, just for informational purposes and is in no way being considered when I contact my bookie. 1. Green Bay Packers: Aaron Rodgers is the best quarterback in football, running back Ryan Grant is healthy and linebacker Clay Matthews’ hair puts Rapunzel’s to shame. 2. Philadelphia Eagles: The newest socalled “Dream Team” certainly won the offseason. The Eagles added cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, wide receiver Steve Smith and cornerback Dominic Rodgers-Cromartie to a team already loaded with stars including quarterback Michael Vick, running back LeSean McCoy and wide receiver DeSean Jackson. 3. New Orleans Saints: Defense will be the key to how successful the Saints play this season. Their offense, led by quarterback Drew Brees, as always appears ready to go. 4. Atlanta Falcons: With the selection of stud wide receiver Julio Jones in the draft this year, the Falcons plan to run a revamped version of the Kurt Warner-led “Best Show on Turf” from a decade earlier, this time featuring quarterback Matt Ryan, running back Michael Turner and wide receiver Roddy White. 5. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Josh Freeman had a fantastic under-the-radar year at quarterback in only his second season in the NFL. 6. Chicago Bears: Quarterback Jay Cutler has to prove that he is more than a game manager, because this defense is not getting any younger. 7. St. Louis Rams: Quarterback Sam Bradford played rather well as a rookie, and the Rams’ defense appears to be the strongest in the weak NFC West division. 8. New York Giants: An unimpressive offseason, as they watched their rival—the Eagles— demonstratively improve. This combined with quarterback Eli Manning’s poor preseason has Giants fans worried. 9. Detroit Lions: It may seem odd to see the Lions this high on my power rankings list, but their defensive line is sterling, and quarterback Matthew Stafford has been very productive when he has stayed healthy. 10. Dallas Cowboys: Quarterback Tony Romo is healthy again and wide receiver Dez Bryant is primed to have a true breakout season. Will their defense follow suit? 11. Seattle Seahawks: Don’t expect another playoff appearance this season, but if quarterback Tavaris Jackson knows anything, it is how to quarterback a team to mediocrity. 12. Arizona Cardinals: Wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald finally has someone to throw him the ball! That someone is quarterback Kevin Kolb, who has lofty expectations despite only starting seven games in four seasons. Still, he automatically makes the Cardinals better than the 5-11 debacle of a year they had in 2010. 13. Minnesota Vikings: The Brett Favre saga finally has ended, and people can now focus on another old quarterback, this one being former Eagle and Redskin Donovan McNabb. They do still have running back Adrian Peterson, though. 14. Washington Redskins: Quarterback Rex Grossman and running back Tim Hightower do not make the most fearsome of offensive duos. At least they got rid of defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth. 15. San Francisco 49ers: Jim Harbaugh is the new head coach, and he used to coach at Stanford University. The best quarterback prospect in years, Andrew Luck, will be eligible next season and is currently starting at Stanford. You don’t need a Stanford degree to solve that equation. 16. Carolina Panthers: The “veteran” quarterback on this roster is second-year man Jimmy Clausen, who struggled mightily last season. If he falters, there is highly hyped but unproven rookie Cam Newton backing him up.
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September 8, 2011
Field Hockey eyes Betty Richey title Bard, RIT add rivalries I to League Andy Marmer Sports Editor
Kat Mehocic/The Miscellany News
n 2010, the Vassar College field hockey team made it its mission to win the annual Betty Richey Tournament for the first time since 1995. This year, the goal has changed just slightly: Defend the title. “Last year we wanted to bring Betty home,” explained senior Captain Emily Maier, referring to the championship trophy. “This year we want to keep Betty home. Hopefully we just do our best and fight hard like last year,” she continued. Head Coach Cara Dunn took great pride in last year’s accomplishment. “We hadn’t won it since 1995,” she stated. “To win it last year created a competitive drive within our program and showed opponents that we shouldn’t be taken lightly,” Dunn wrote in an emailed statement. Last season’s tournament title was one of the very few bright spots for a team that managed just three wins in 17 contests and was outscored 57-21 over the course of the year. Despite their recent struggles, the team believes they have what it takes to reverse the tide. Dunn wrote, “They know what they’re capable of and they’re ready to make the necessary changes to be more competitive within the Liberty League.” Perhaps most essential in this transition will be the team’s mentality, noted Dunn. She wrote, “The team dynamic has been the drive of our program. Each individual team member’s attitude and mentality is equally important. Practicing drills and strategies will never matter if the team dynamic isn’t strong. This year there is a solid understanding of what our common goals are and that, in turn, will create success.” In the preseason, the team placed more of a focus on bonding. Captain Rebecca Smith ’13 clarified, “We worked a lot on bonding and talked about more personal things this year.” Maier added, “I feel like once you know the person you can play with them better.” Along with an added stress on the personal side of the sport, the Brewers have adopted new tactics. Whereas in previous years Vassar relied on a more individually focused game, one which saw the team attempt to play the ball long down the field and pressure their opponents into mistakes,
The women’s field hockey team defeated Keystone College 4-3 behind a hat trick by Maura McCarthy ’12. The Brewers will compete this weekend in the annual Betty Richey Tournament. this year’s team is focusing more on controlling the ball. Maier explained, “This year we’re working a lot more on passing and playing as a team.” Smith elaborated, “Our goal is to draw our defenders in with short, quick passes.” The changes introduced at first may seem to come out of left field, but there is a catalyst, a new addition to the program in the form of Assistant Coach Jen Ascencio. Ascencio, a 2011 graduate of Manhattanville College, brings levity, technical skills and a fresh look to the Brewers program, as the replacement for longtime former Head and Assistant Coach Judy Finerghty, who will now focus entirely on the women’s lacrosse team. For Dunn, the hiring of Ascencio was a no-brainer. “I’ve gotten to see [Ascencio] compete as an athlete and as soon as I saw her name pop up as far as being interested in the program, I knew that’s who we needed.” The players have had a little fun at the expense of their new assistant coach. Maier recalls goading her new coach about Ascencio’s lack of goals against the Brewers last season, “I told her, ‘We really shut you down last year,’ and she admitted she really had a bad game against us.” When Ascencio brought her tournament MVP plaque to practice one day (from the 2009 tournament) Maier assured her, “This year, one of us will win
that.” While Betty Richey is implanted firmly in the Brewers’ minds, they do have other lofty goals. “We really want to be .500, and we definitely want some Liberty League wins,” said Maier. Both goals will be challenges for Vassar, as the team has not finished over .500 since 2000 and has won just one Liberty League game since 2005. Prior to the team’s opening game, a 3-1 loss to Hartwick College, Dunn entered the locker room and found the word “Win” written on a white board. Maier confessed to authoring the word. She justified her actions, saying, “That’s all we wanted so badly. All we wanted was a win out of it. No excuses, we didn’t want to hear anything about weather or the referees, we just really wanted to win.” Although the Brewers came up short in their first match, they rebounded with a 4-3 victory over Keystone College, led by a hat trick by senior Maura McCarthy. Vassar will look to continue their early season momentum this weekend, hosting Smith, Manhattanville and Bay Path Colleges in the Betty Richey Tournament. “Last year, that was the high point of our season,” said Smith. “Once we won I think for a little bit we thought we were indomitable.” The Brewers certainly hope success in this year’s tournament will yield the same feelings of invincibility.
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never in doubt. Behind Rupert, Eliot Gerson ’15 (20:09), Yaron Teich ’13 (20:22) and William Healy ’12 (20:23) finished second through fourth, giving the Brewers a solid lead. Although a pair of New Paltz runners as well as one from Stevens finished fifth through seventh, Evan Russek’s ’12 (20:51) eighth place finish ensured Vassar’s triumph with a team score of 18. Stevens narrowly edged New Paltz 54-61 to finish second. Both squads of Brewers will next run on Saturday, Sept. 17 at the Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute Invitational. Women’s Volleyball Nets Two Victories Competing over the weekend in the Cortland Red Dragon Classic, the women’s volleyball team compiled a 2-2 record. The Brewers started off the season dropping a tight five-set contest to Nazareth College (21-25, 25-22, 22-25, 25-22, 14-16). Amy Bavosa ’12 led the way with 17 kills on 37 attacks, while Chloe McGuire ’13 notched 13 kills on 35 attempts. Hillary Koenigs ’13 contributed 53 set assists. In their second game of the tournament, the squad rebounded with a sweep of Bible Baptist College (25-18, 25-23, 25-22). Jessie Ditmore led the way with 11 kills on 18 attacks. Day Two of the tournament did not fare well for the Brewers, as they lost their first set against Richard Stockton College 25-12. Although the Brewers rebounded with a victory in the next set, they were still defeated 26-24 and lost the match 3-0 (25-12, 26-24, 25-17). Vassar, though, managed to end the tour-
Tim Serkes/The Miscellany News
ross Country Races to Victory at Annual Invitational The Vassar women’s and men’s crosscountry teams captured their seventh and ninth straight Vassar College Invitational Championships, respectively, this past Saturday, Sept. 3 at the Vassar Farm. The men’s race was won by alumnus Andrew Utas ’09 in 19:46, but among the studentathletes Justin Rupert ’12 led the way, completing the 6k in 20:07. Nichole Wischoff of State University of New York at New Paltz took home the women’s title, completing the 5k race in 19:22. The day began with the women’s race, which came down to a tight contest between Vassar and New Paltz. Although the Hawks struck first with Wischoff ’s victory, Vassar placed runners in the two through five spots—Aubree Piepmeier ’14 (20:01), Samantha Creath ’12 (20:15), Kelly Holmes ’13 (20:28), Chloe Williams ’14 (20:30)—to seize the edge. New Paltz attempted to regain the advantage, finishing runners in sixth, eighth and ninth, while a runner from Stevens Institute of Technology took the seventh spot. With four runners finished from each side Vassar held a 1424 advantage over their cross-river rivals. Tiffany Marchell ’13 (20:53) finished 10th to seal the Brewers’ victory with Hannah Ziobrowski ’12 (21:00) and Emily Garber ’14 (21:10) rounded out Vassar’s recorded finishers. New Paltz placed their final scoring runner in 12th place, making the final outcome Vassar 24, New Paltz 36. Stevens finished third in the 10-team field with 105. The men’s race, on the other hand, was
nament on a high note, conquering Ithaca College 3-0 (25-20, 25-20, 25-19). Ditmore once again led the way with ten kills, with Bavosa and Cebe Loomis ’13 contributing nine each. Loomis also had a .471 attack percentage while Koenigs notched another 36 assists in the match. On the defensive end, Bavosa led the Brewers with nine digs, while Ditmore and sophomore Aoife Feighery had six and five, respectively. On the back of her strong performances throughout the event, Bavosa was named to the Cortland Red Dragon All-Classic Team. This weekend, the Brewers will host the annual VC Invitational in the Athletics and Fitness Center.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
LIBERTY continued from page 18 members “may be in different places athletically, but they are still very worthy competitors.” He added emphatically, “Teams are going to be sadly mistaken if they think Bard won’t sneak up on them. Bard and RIT will be taking this very seriously.” Still, transitioning into the new conference will not only encompass competitive changes. Culligan noted how Bard and RIT will also have to adjust to new schedules. For example, “[In the Liberty League,] men’s and women’s basketball play on back-to-back days,” she explained. “Not all leagues do that.” At the same time, the addition of these two schools will instigate some changes to the scheduling system. For the first time in Liberty League play, regular matches will be held that have two teams playing each other at a neutral site (the neutral site still being within the Liberty League and rotating between home courts). For instance, on Saturday, Oct. 15, the Vassar women’s volleyball team will play Skidmore College and Union College at RIT, while RIT hosts Bard and Skidmore. With the two new members also comes a decline in non-conference opponents. Deutsch remarked that coaches have had to make “more prudent scheduling decisions” as a result. The Liberty League’s expansion also impacts the playoff system. Although these changes won’t be enacted for another two years, some sports that had difficulty qualifying for the NCAA Championships will have the opportunity to earn automatic bids; the winner of the Liberty League will be granted an automatic bid into the NCAA Championships. Previously, the conference did not have the requisite number of teams to earn an automatic qualification, so championship berths were granted based on factors such as win-loss records and strength of schedule. Another interesting possibility associated with these two teams in particular is the development of rivalries within the conference. Bard College, which is only about 25 miles from Vassar, is easily the closest Liberty League competitor the Brewers have ever had. Meanwhile, RIT joins cross-town rival University of Rochester. While both pairs of schools have already established a significant history with one another on the playing field, everyone involved is excited for how Liberty League play will strengthen the ties. Spiotti wrote, “There is a lot of respect [between RIT and the University of Rochester]. We look forward to enhancing this rivalry.” Hall mentioned that, beyond the geographic proximity, there is a personal connection between Bard and Vassar. “Several of our current student-athletes have former high school teammates and friends on Brewer teams,” she wrote. “So the [rivalries] that will develop in the future will certainly be positive rivalries.” Beverly herself acknowledged, “[Bard’s] proximity to Vassar and academic profile are the closest to align with us within the conference.” She also wrote, “I’m sure [Bard will] become a member of the rivalry between the ‘downstate’ schools (Skidmore College, Union College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute).” Still, there is little doubt that whatever increase there is in competitiveness will be rooted upon a friendly foundation. Hall and Spiotti both emphasized their determination to lead the Raptors (Bard) and Tigers (RIT) into the Liberty League showing the utmost respect for their opponents. Hall wrote, “Our goals are to offer competitive experiences with a high level of gamesmanship and professionalism as we learn more about the programs in the conference.” Spiotti shared a similar sentiment, writing, “We want to conduct ourselves with pride and dignity and be a credit to the league.” As far as the Liberty League as a whole, however, these changes ultimately appear to make conference play more intriguing, especially as Bard and RIT establish themselves in what Culligan called the “pecking order” of the Liberty League. Culligan added that the Brewers will soon learn, “They can’t not play their best and expect to win Liberty League games. You can’t ask for more than that.”