The Miscellany News | November 3, 2011

The Miscellany News Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com

November 3, 2011

Volume CXLV | Issue 7

Council commences VSA review

Troubling posts on SayAnything raise alarm

Dave Rosenkranz

T

Ruth Bolster

Assistant Features Editor Mia Fermindoza/The Miscellany News

S

tudents and administrators alike have noticed a number of postings on SayAnything, an anonymous Vassar blog, detailing feelings of hopelessness and depression. The College has taken notice that some posts on the site may demonstrate warning signs for serious depression or suicide.

“There were a couple of things [written on SayAnything] that indicated that someone may be in trouble,” noted Dean of Students David “D.B.” Brown, “And that was worrisome because we really don’t have a way of knowing who is making these postings. But what it does do is heighten our awareness of taking care of each other.”

A poster on Oct. 12 wrote: “I am depressed. I’ve been in therapy for years, am on medication, have a really good network of support here, and yet I feel like I keep asking way too much of them ... I could kill myself right now. Oh VC, you are such a beautiful place. You are full of life. I am struggling to keep up with you, to keep sane. I want to learn how to live.”

The post, and others like it, have generated concern within the Vassar community; many commenters wrote to express See SUICIDE on page 8

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

Four students enjoy the unexpected preview of winter weather this past weekend, building a snow fort on the Library lawn. The heavy snow almost meant the cancellation of the scheduled Halloween programming.

Snow poses safety concerns, challenges for Halloween plans Joey Rearick News Editor

L

ast Saturday, as the campus prepared to celebrate Halloween, a snowstorm swept over the Arlington area, caus-

ing Dutchess county officials to declare a state of emergency. As inclement weather continued throughout the day, causing periodic blackouts and dangerous conditions on campus, student organizers and administrators deliberated as to whether to cancel events scheduled for that night.

Halloween programming has

long been a source of income for the senior class, which charges a fee for admission to the annual dance-party event held in the Villard Room. Class officers and other senior volunteers depend upon revenue from the party to raise money for class events, whose costs far outweigh the budget allocated to the class by See HALLOWEEN on page 4

News Editor

he Vassar Student Association (VSA) has begun discussing the possibility of reviewing and restructuring its governance. The topic came up for the first time this year on Oct. 23 , in a VSA Council meeting, and has since wound its way through several major VSA committees. Although this year’s conversation has only just begun, several Council members have already put together ideas about what the ideal student government can look like.

VSA Vice President for Operations Jenna Konstantine ’13, whose job within the VSA is to oversee internal affairs, facilitate communication and maintain governing documents, thinks that the VSA, because of its structure, represents students poorly. “What can we do to make people as relevantly represented as possible?” asked Konstantine, highlighting her opinion that students who identify most strongly with something other than their house or their class aren’t well represented by a 23-person Council composed of 14 residential presidents and four class presidents. A student actor, for example, might not be heard because his or her concerns don’t fall neatly under either heading. “We’re always looking to make changes to improve representation,” said Konstantine.

Class of 2015 President Benedict Nguyen ’15 agreed with Konstantine with regards to representation. He thinks that, although each class is about the same See RESTRUCTURE on page 4

Senior project to revisit classic ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’

Break policies restrict campus work hours Divya Pathak Reporter

W

ith at least 60 percent of Vassar students receiving financial aid, on-campus employment is essential for many. However, with recent changes to the policies that govern when and how much students can work over October Break, some students have lost the opportunity to

Inside this issue

5

FEATURES

Vassar Haiti Project 10 years later

earn extra money to put toward their tuition, books or VCash.

Reasons for the changes include keeping hours in line with the amount of money apportioned for students’ income by limiting the number of hours students can log and giving those who started working late in the semester an opportunity to make up See BREAK on page 8

7

FEATURES

Reporter

E

dward Albee’s landmark play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” shocked audiences in 1962 with its bawdy humor and irreverent language, its unflinching portrayal of dysfunctional marriage, and its stark depictions of sexual repression and longing. Although these elements may seem tame by today’s standards, the cast and director of the Drama Department’s upcoming production agree that Albee’s work still has the ability to alarm its viewers.“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” will be performed at the Powerhouse Theatre from Nov. 10 to 12 at 7 p.m.

The production is a senior project for all four of the play’s cast members and its director, Molly Shoemaker ’12. “Virginia Woolf” has been a completely nonhierarchical collaborative effort between the cast, crew and director where all involved have a valued voice.

As one cast member, Jake Levitt ’12, pointed out, “Molly has created an atmosphere of dialogue where there’s no division between actor and director; we’re talking through

Local farm on cheese and food education

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

A student employee mans the circulation desk at the Thompson Memorial Library.

Changes to policy meant that some students could not work over October Break.

Matthew Hauptman

Jake Levitt ’12, center, along with Evan Glenn ’12 and Nicole Wood ’12, rehearse the Drama Department production of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” it together.”

Albee’s play tells the story of an unhappy married couple and takes place over the course of a single night. An associate history professor at a small New England college, George returns home from a faculty party with his intoxicated wife, Martha, the daughter of the college’s president. George and Martha invite a new biology professor and his timid wife, Nick and Honey, to their house after the party. Once at home, Martha and George continue drink-

14 ARTS

ing and engage in relentless verbal and sometimes physical abuse in front of the younger couple.

Nick and Honey are simultaneously fascinated and embarrassed, but decide to stay in George and Martha’s home for the duration of the night. The abuse eventually escalades to the point that it targets the unexpectant young couple.

The idea of bringing this play to Vassar began with a series of conversations between Shoemaker and See WOOLF on page 16

Jomama Jones to perform in concert

Page 2

The Miscellany News

November 3, 2011

Editor in Chief Molly Turpin Senior Editors

Katharine Austin Erik Lorenzsonn Aashim Usgaonkar

Contributing Editors Katie Cornish Carrie Hojnicki Jillian Scharr

News Joey Rearick Dave Rosenkranz Features Danielle Bukowski Mary Huber Opinions Hannah Blume Humor & Satire Alanna Okun Arts Rachael Borné Adam Buchsbaum Sports Corey Cohn Andy Marmer Photography Juliana Halpert Madeline Zappala Online Nathan Tauger Social Media Matt Ortile Managing Qian Xu

As part of the fervor of the 1944 presidential elections, several Vassar students joined President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his fmaily at his nearby home in Hyde Park to monitor the election results, present with him when he learned of his victory, ushering in his fourth term in office.

This Week in Vassar History 1894, Nov. 4 The New York Times reported that a recent petition by “over 400 students” for the wearing of caps and gowns at Commencement had been rejected by the faculty, “on the grounds that the custom is too mediaeval in spirit and that the cap and gown tend to separate the student from the world.”

1895, Nov. 9 In spite of “unpropitious weather” the first woman’s field day in America was held in “the oval in the garden” which had been laid out for the track events, under the supervision of Professor J. L. Moore. Events included the hundred yard dash, the running broad jump, the running high jump and the 220 yard dash. “All this time the rain had dripped down slowly but surely.

Even the cartridges for the starter’s pistol grew so damp that they would not go off.”

1903, Nov. 2 Several Vassar students were at lunch at Mrs. Brittan’s boarding house on Grand Avenue when their landlady, answering the doorbell, discovered a large, grey tailless monkey on her veranda. Mrs. Brittan called the police after several attempts, including, according to The New York Times, a “flying wedge formation” by the students failed to chase the monkey away.

A Poughkeepsie saloon keeper, John Vanderburgh, having learned that the monkey he’d thought was on its way to the country with Vanderburgh’s father was at Mrs. Brittan’s, arrived on the scene, only to find the monkey was now atop

By Dean Emeritus Colton Johnson

Mrs. Brittan’s chimney. A neighbor, Mrs. Charles Nixon, coaxed the monkey down to an upstairs window with a piece of cake and, seizing its leg, held it until the owner could secure it.

The students were late for their afternoon recitations. The New York Times 1939, Nov. 2 President MacCracken announced that the College had received a $17,500 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation for theater research based on the records, productions and experiments of the Federal Theatre Project, which was closed down in June. The FTP’s director, Hallie Flanagan Davis, returned to the College to direct the research. The study had four goals: production of a summary of the project’s four years; publication of bulletins disseminating techniques introduced by the project; completion of various other research projects and indexing the FTP records.

1962, Nov. 5 A group of seniors found Guy Fawkes hiding in President of the College Sarah Gibson Blanding’s cellar poised to set fire to the house. Thereafter, “crowds of students…pushed into the President’s home. With a trumpet, waste baskets, cap guns, and other noisemakers, the group ran through the house shouting ‘Let’s save Sarah, Get Guy Fawkes.” After Mr. Fawkes was discovered, Miss Blanding shouted, “Shouldn’t we try him?

Shouldn’t we hang him?” Miss Blanding then rewarded her noble rescuers with cookies. The Miscellany News

1968, Nov. 3-9 Vassar students were among the 700 women from 22 Eastern colleges who participated in Coeducation Week at Yale. Approved by the Yale administration under strong undergraduate pressure, the project was intended, according to Aviam Soifer ’69, the head of the student steering committee, to allow “the sexes to meet over coffee, over lunch or whatever, and just get accustomed to each other.”

“I just came to see what its like to go to school with men,” Vassar sophomore Jean Brenner ’70 explained as she prepared to move into the room vacated by Frank Knoblauch, one of over half the Yale undergraduates who volunteered to give up their rooms for the project. “The idea,” Mr. Soifer explained, “is to take the male-female relationship out of the absurdly pressured situation of the weekend date. A lot of the guys think of women simply as objects, or dumb broads, but they’re human beings, too.”

Yale President Kingman Brewster, Jr. cited the success of “Coeducation Week” on November 14th when announcing that the university would admit 500 women as freshmen the following September. The New York Times 1970, Nov. 8 Before a crowd of some 300 spectators the Sarah Lawrence Gremlins defeated the Vassar Big Pink in six-man flag football, 49-42, in Poughkeepsie.

“The half-time entertainment included Vassar’s three-piece marching band comprised of a trumpet, a wax[paper]-covered comb and two trash-can lids.” The New York Times

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Assistant Features Ruth Bolster Jessica Tarantine Assistant Arts Charlacia Dent Shruti Manian Assistant Sports Kristine Olson Assistant Photo Carlos Hernandez Assistant Copy Jessica Grinnell Crossword Editor Jonathan Garfinkel Columnists Brittany Hunt Michael Mestitz Tom Renjilian Andy Sussman Reporters Emma Daniels Jesse Hartman Matthew Hauptman Bethan Johnson Bobbie Lucas Burcu Noyan Jack Owen Alicia Salvino Leighton Suen Photographers Alex Schlesinger

ADVERTISING POLICY

The Miscellany News (1) reserves the right to reject or edit any advertising copy at any time; (2) will not accept advertisements that promote discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, sex or sexual orientation, nor will it accept advertisements of a political nature or advertisements that promote products or services illegal in the State of New York: (3) will print every advertisement with the word “advertisement” above it; (4) shall not be liable for failure to print, publish or circulate all or any portion of any issue if such a failure is the result of circumstances beyond the paper’s control.

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.

November 3, 2011

NEWS

Page 3

Roellke under evaluation in role as dean Bethan Johnson

D

Reporter

ean of the College Chris Roellke is currently undergoing an evaluation of his role as dean as a standard and required component of his five-year contract. In the evaluation’s initial stages, Roellke’s performance will be subject to inquiry by a faculty committee and a small amount of student input. President of the College Catharine Bond Hill will decide whether to reappoint Roellke later this year.

Roellke joined the Vassar community in 1998 as a professor in the Education Department. He was eventually appointed chair of the department, and, in 2007, dean of studies.

After Judy Jackson, the former dean of the College, left in 2008, Roellke moved into the dean of the College office. Since then, Roellke has endorsed the gender-neutral housing policy and emphasized the importance of plans for faculty residential engagement.

As dean of the College, Roellke oversees and coordinates activities that directly impact the quality of student life. This involves overseeing Health and Security, the ALANA Center, Campus Dining, Career Services, Student Employment, LGBTQ Life and Residential Life.

The Vassar College governance suggests a strict course of action. It stipulates that a faculty committee, composed of three tenured professors who work in the Dean of the College Office organizations and three faculty elected at large

representatives, will be formed to conduct the review. The faculty committee will then request a written statement from the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Executive Board. This statement will present the student body’s view of Roellke’s effectiveness. After the committee reviews Roellke’s tenure, it will submit a recommendation to Hill. Hill will ultimately make the final decision, with the Board of Trustees approval, and only needs to take the committee’s recommendation under consideration.

Some involved in the review process are concerned by its nature. VSA Vice President of Student Life Charlie Dobb ’12, whose duties in the VSA parallel Roellke’s in the College, will submit the VSA’s written review of the dean.

However, due to the College Governance’s unclear language, Dobb thinks that Vassar’s policy is focused on the wrong people. “As a student, I am frankly a little frustrated with [the review process] because the dean of the College is the chief student affairs officer at the College... should be accountable to the students. His job is really about the students,” Dobb explained, adding that, in spite of this, the faculty committee maintains the final word. “There is no guideline as to how little or how much weight they are to give [my recommendation].”

Despite this, Dobb and the rest of the VSA Student Life Committee are working to ensure that student voices are prominent in their report by holding open committee meetings

on Thursdays at 1:45 p.m. in the VSA conference room. “If students feel strongly that they want to be involved in it, I encourage them to show up the committee or email me,” said Dobb. His other goal is to investigate the pros and cons of Roellke’s involvement in student life organizations, explaining, “I’m thinking of this review as ‘What does he need to know from students to effectively do his job?’”

“I look forward to my review as dean of the College with eagerness and optimism.

Reviews of this type stimulate an excellent opportunity for reflection, assessment, goal setting and exchange of ideas for the future,” Roellke wrote in an emailed statement.

Another aspect of this fall’s dean evaluation is the initial phases of a student-led push to change the Vassar College Governance to give students a more prominent voice in evaluation systems. According to Dobb, members of the VSA have approached various administrators, including Roellke, with the desire to alter the current system in favor of something more direct. Although any possible future alterations would take years the current attention on this issue has the potential to inform subsequent dean of the College evaluations. Until then, Vassar will continue to use the existing governance to decide if Roellke should be reinstated as dean of the College, meaning that the process will take months. Hill should announce the College’s decision later this year.

Smashing conference honors history, alums Leighton Suen

S

Reporter

Sexist graffiti discovered in Davison

Only weeks after homophobic writing was discovered on the walls of the Davison House basement, sexist vandalism was found in a Davison bathroom on Monday night. “The graffiti said something to the effect of ‘Vassar is full of C--TS,’” wrote Dean of the College Chris Roellke in an emailed statement on Tuesday evening. He continued that the Campus Life Response Team (CLRT) would meet on Wednesday morning to discuss the incident in the context of other negative remarks toward women this semester. Davison House President Doug Greer ’14 noted that Davison would host an open house team meeting on Wednesday at 8:15 p.m.

“I would kind of want to handle it the first way we handled the first incident,” said Greer. “The response went really well, and I think this issue is just as important and offensive as the last issue.”

Greer added that CLRT was a helpful resource earlier in the semester and looked forward to working with them again. “They had people at our all-dorm meeting, they offered the services, they were very present,” he said. “I can’t imagine them not being present during this.”

“I cannot predict recommendations coming from CLRT as every incident is contextualized.

I can imagine, however, that an increased focus on education and dialogue is likely,” wrote Roellke. “It is disappointing, to say the least, that we still experience this sort of thing.”

“What I would like to see is a similar gravity of response, not just from Davison, but from the school,” added Greer. “I don’t think one issue is more important than the other.” ­—Molly Turpin, Editor in Chief Housing change punishment debated

Courtesy of Vassar Media Relations

mashing History: 150 Years of LGBTQIA at Vassar is a three-day event which will take place on Nov. 3 to 5 at various locations within Vassar College. The conference seeks to commemorate both Vassar’s unique LGBTIQA history, and the accomplishments of Vassar alumnae/i who have, according to the Smashing History blog, served LGBTIQA communities through “activism, archival work and public history, the arts, community organizing and outreach, education, journalism and the law.”

The event was inspired by the sesquicentennial celebration of Vassar’s founding, and chiefly organized by the Women’s Studies Program, the Campus Life LGBTQ Center, and student activists from Queer Coalition of Vassar College (QCVC), TransMission and Act Out! The event also allows members of Vassar’s LGBTIQA community to assemble and “imagine transformative futures for Vassar, liberal arts education, the Hudson Valley community at large, and the world.”

“I believe the LGBTQIA community at Vassar is an integral part of the school’s history and identity,” stated QCVC President Kevin Choe ’12. “The upcoming Smashing History Conference highlights the influential role that past and present LQBTQIA students have played in shaping not just our little world here in Poughkeepsie, but also the world beyond.”

“I’m very excited about the Smashing History event,” wrote co-President of Act Out! Chris Ewing ’12 in an emailed statement. Act Out!, which is a political advocacy group that promotes full legal ACT OUT equality for LGBTIQA individuals, has organized and participated in protests, awareness campaigns, political actions and fundraising at Vassar for years.

“Too often we forget about Vassar’s queer history and the people who helped make Vassar the more accepting place it is today,” Ewing explained. “This event should not only raise awareness of that, but foster discussion on a number of queer issues that alumnae/i are working on.”

“It has also been a great way to bring the queer orgs together to work on something really important,” Ewing continued. “I especially appreciate the LGBTQ Center and QCVC for taking on the leadership roles and for making sure that this event is as inclusive as possible.”

Treasurer of QCVC and Main House President Jeremy Garza ’14 is more than enthusiastic about the upcoming conference. “The inception of this event occurred during my first semester at Vassar College when I took a queer studies class with Professor [of English] Hiram Perez, and as a class we began the mobilization of people and resources to make Smash-

News Briefs

Angela Mazaris ’98, left, and Shannon Wyss ’95, right, will moderate panels for Smashing History, an event inspired by the sesquicentennial about the role of the LGBTIQA community at Vassar. ing History a reality,” he began. “Much of my academic work and personnel dedication to queer activism has been cultivated, tested and reinforced by the planning and actualization of this major lecture event. Over the summer, I was a…Ford Scholar, and [the] basis of my research pertained to planning this event, archiving Vassar’s Queer history and laying the foundation for the creation of a queer studies program at Vassar.”

Garza, with Steve Lavoie ’07, Jason Wu ’07, Shannon Wyss ’95 and Jennifer Brody ’87 moderating, will be the panelists for Plenary I, “What is the Future of Queer Studies.” The session, which is happening from 3 to 4 p.m. in the Villard Room on Nov. 4, will, according to the Smashing History blog, go in-depth into issues such as “the significance of queer studies to existing academic disciplines and modes of inquiry” and “the advantages and disadvantages for locating queer studies within or formally affiliating queer studies with Women’s Studies.” Plenary II, “Activism for the 21st Century” will occur 15 minutes later in the same location.

The panel, which consists of Joseph DeFilippis ’89, Jean Redmann ’77, Michael Silverman ’91, Joseph Tolton ’89 and Professor [of Political Science] Sarita McCoy Gregory moderating, will seek to answer questions surrounding “the biggest blind spots in U,S,-based LGBTIQ activism” and “the influence of the civil rights movement on the development of gay liberation movements,” among other things.

On Saturday, Nov. 5, Plenary III “Recovering Lesbian History” will occur from 10 to 11:15 a.m. on the 2nd floor of the Students’ Building. The panel, consisting Cristina Biaggi ’59, Jennifer DeVere Brody ’87, Anne MacKay ’49, Yvonne Welbon ’84 and Angel Mazaris ’98 moderating, will discuss issues like the ways Vassar created space for lesbians, and, according to the Smashing History blog, “how… the College respond[s] oppressively to or silence lesbians.”

Plenary IV “Generations: Intimacy, Friendship, and the Politics of Sex from the Cold War to the Present” will occur from 1:45 to 3:15 p.m. on the same day and location. The panel, consisting of Nancy Dean ’52, Lita Lepie ’70, Bradford Louryk ’00, Kiana Moore ’02, Abby Tallmer ’83 and Ann Northrop ’70 moderating, will raise questions such as “how have different generations of students understood their sexualities” and “how college life introduce[s] new opportunities for experimentation or new modes of disciplining and repression across different generations.”

Aside from these talks, Smashing History will also include many other events over the course of the three days. A complete schedule is available on the Smashing History blog at http://blogs.vassar.edu/smashinghistory “So much of my Vassar life has been wrapped around conceptions of this event, that I can’t believe it’s finally happening,” concluded Garza. “I truly believe that this event is the sesquicentennial event of the year.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

On Oct. 27, Director of Residential Life Luis Inoa sent an email to the student body in which he provided “pertinent information” for the weekend leading up to Halloween. In the email, he discussed guest passes for persons visiting Vassar students over the weekend, and included a brief description of gatherings that qualify as “unregistered parties” subject to disciplinary action. At the end of the email, he included a short, italicized note about just what such disciplinary action could entail for students living on campus: “Also, you should be aware that a logical consequence of causing a disruption along the lines of an unauthorized party in the houses may be reassignment to a different house.”

At the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council meeting on Oct. 30, that small addendum was the subject of an extended and passionate discussion. VSA Vice President for Student Life Charlie Dobb ’12 presented the issue to his fellow representatives, describing Inoa’s statement as a new policy guideline that will be broadly applied to cases in which students are caught hosting parties in the dorms. He said the decision to install this guideline was made without consulting the VSA and betrayed the College’s stated commitment to cooperation between students and administrators. “This is an abuse of our joint governance,” he said at the meeting.

Many other Council members echoed his concerns, asserting the policy did not reflect the best interests of the student body and questioning its rationale. Dobb said that Inoa had told him the decision came about after a yearlong discussion and that the Residential Life Office felt “the punishment [for hosting parties in residential houses] was not strong enough.”

President of Raymond House Sam Brucker ’14 said he felt the policy diverged from other Residential Life disciplinary procedures, which typically stress consideration of the circumstances in which any transgression is committed. “It’s a prescribed sanction for a given action that seems to contradict their previous dogma that everything depends on context,” he said.

Dobb urged the Council to consider making a public statement criticizing the guideline. He, Brucker and other Council members will take part in an ad-hoc meeting on Wednesday to compose a resolution opposing the policy change.

Once drafted, the policy will be vetted by the VSA Student Life Committee and submitted for approval to the entire Council on Sunday.

—Joey Rearick, News Editor

NEWS

Page 4

VSA Council assesses need for restructure

Transcare assists in Halloween EMS calls HALLOWEEN continued from page 1 the Vassar Students Association (VSA). But as late as the evening of Oct. 29, the event and the profit expected to result from ticket sales at the door were jeopardized by the conditions outdoors.

Class of 2012 President Pam Vogel ’12, in conjunction with her class council and several College administrators, held meetings at the beginning of October and on Wednesday, Oct. 26 to finalize details for the event. But the planning that emerged from those meetings did not include a specific contingency plan for serious snow, she said.

“We didn’t know if the event was actually happening or not on Saturday,” said Vogel. Regardless, the senior class advisor, Assistant Dean for Campus Activities Teresa Quinn, urged the seniors to continue preparing the event. “Terry was great,” Vogel said. “But that was really all we could do—set up like it was happening. Then, around four, we took a break and went home.”

She advised those working with her to charge the electronics they needed to communicate, in case intense weather conditions caused parts of the campus to lose power.

Sure enough, power was lost shortly thereafter in the Town Houses and the Watson apartments, which house faculty members.

Dean of the College Chris Roellke informed students about the outages in an email, noting, “several tree limbs have fallen on Raymond Avenue.” He assured students that Buildings and Grounds was “working hard to clear roadways and pedestrian paths,” but made no assurances that the events planned for latter that night would take place.

Vogel rushed back towards the Villard Room after experiencing the blackout in the Town Houses, where she lives. When she reached Main Building, she was met by a contingent of

administrators, including Director of Residential Life Luis Inoa and Dean of Students David “D.B.” Brown. The group seriously discussed the possibility of canceling the night’s events because of logistical concerns and worries about students’ safety in the weather.

“The general attitude from everyone was just to try to continue with the evening’s events,” Vogel said. “But when we had the power outages, it became clear that cancellation was on the table.” She pressed the administrators to avoid that option, and eventually, all agreed to move forward with the Villard Room party and another Halloween gathering scheduled to take place on the second floor of the Students’ Building.

Another potentially devastating incident occurred around 6 p.m. For a few minutes, the power in Main Building faded in and out, causing concerns that the party would be unable to play music or otherwise utilize electricity. But power soon returned in full, and the party occurred as scheduled.

Then, just as the Villard Room began to fill, a fire alarm went off, requiring the evacuation of Main Building. This might have caused an abrupt end to the party, but Vogel and her team were prepared after last year’s SexyCentennial, which ended early for the same reason. “After that event,” Vogel said, “we had a plan to keep the party going even after [the alarm] happened.” After fire marshals established there were no safety concerns, the party continued. According to Vogel, cash receipts at the door exceeded $3000, not counting V-cash payments or ticket sales made during the previous week.

The weather also complicated other matters on campus. Administrators were especially concerned about the way the poor conditions might exacerbate an issue that they always confront when the campus celebrates Hal-

loween: excessive alcohol consumption among students. Because the county was experiencing a state of emergency, its Emergency Response Vehicles were in high demand; they could not be counted upon to respond to all instances in which students drank so much they required medical attention. Roellke asked students to consider this issue and to behave accordingly.

“Dutchess County emergency responders are busy assisting members of our community during this emergency,” he wrote in another email. “It is imperative that the Vassar community recognize the importance of these emergency resources and that we do our very best to minimize our need for these services.”

Vassar College Emergency Medical Services (VCEMS), a group of students trained to respond to medical emergencies on campus, shouldered most of the load in responding to alcohol-related incidents despite adverse conditions. “The weather affected our duties quite dramatically,” said Captain of VCEMS Sam Black ’12. Because of the weather, VCEMS was unable to use Security vehicles that are normally available to them on large party nights. Team members responded to many calls on foot or in their single EMS vehicle, but were unable to field calls in the Town Houses because they deemed the roads from campus too dangerous to travel. For calls from the Town Houses, VCEMS immediately contacted Transcare, an independent EMS contractor, to assist those in need.

In all, EMS responded to 11 calls on Saturday night, all of them alcohol-related. This represents a slight decrease from the 12 incidents reported during last year’s Halloween celebrations, and a significant reduction from 2009’s 16 EMS incidents. According to Black, only two students were transported to the hospital this year for alcohol-related reasons.

Kozol to give lecture on education, race Bobbie Lucas Reporter

O

ne of the most prolific and respected scholars on educational issues in the United States, Jonathan Kozol, will be speaking at Vassar College on Thursday, Nov. 3 at 5:30 p.m. in the Chapel. The title of his talk will be “Education Under Siege: Race, Poverty and the Mania of Testing in Our Public Schools.” Professor and Chair of the English Department Christopher Bjork said, “If I were to put together a list of the speakers I would like to invite to talk with Vassar students, Jonathan Kozol would be at the top of that list. He has the unusual ability to shock, inform and inspire an audience—all at the same time.”

Kozol’s work has challenged the theory that racism and elite privilege are an ongoing but subtle phenomenon in the world.

Instead, he explains the ways that poor minority schools are underfunded and receive less attention than largely white, suburban schools. Kozol asserts such a system perpetuates social inequality and demonstrates that certain promises of the civil rights movement have not been fulfilled. He also attempts to provide a powerful message to young activists to work to create a better society.

“He is an activist whose passion derives from experiences working with disadvantaged students in the classroom, which makes him the best variety of public intellectual; rather than theorizing about the various reforms needed in the public edcuation system, he understands the root cause to be lack of decent resources and teachers for all students and relentlessly works to raise awareness and make the public school system more egali-

tarian,” stated Nicholas Pauley ’14, who helped moderate a discussion with Kozol yesterday.

“Kozol is a prophetic figure.

His works are so important, particularly at a time when the gap is widening between the haves and the have-nots. The political and emotional implications of this growing problem affect our understanding of the United States as a democracy,” Assistant Dean of Campus Life Rev. Samuel Speers said. “He is a particularly good fit for Vassar students because of his combination of his own life story with his decades long commitment to what it means to be a teacher for change.”

Kozol’s books are used as required reading in multiple departments for several courses offered at Vassar. The Political Science, Sociology, Urban Studies, Psychology and Education Departments all teach his work.

Bjork believes this is because Kozol is able to “transcend disciplinary boundaries” more than most other authors.

Speers and Bjork have been working together to bring Kozol to Poughkeepsie for more than two years. Kozol addresses issues that affect children, parents, teachers, community leaders and anyone with an interest in public education. “The subject of his talk is so important now, given the emphasis on assessment and accountability that has infected our public schools. We hope Kozol’s visit will initiate a dialogue that will continue long after he leaves campus,” declared Bjork.

Kozol’s upcoming lecture will serve as a kick-off event for several campus-wide discussions surrounding the current state of pre-college education and its

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Courtesy of Christopher Bjork

RESTRUCTURE continued from page 1 size, they are not represented equally on Council. “There’s an imbalance here which is something that could be improved,” he said, referring to the fact that there is only one freshman on the VSA Council. Although this issue was central to his campaign, in an emailed statement, he conceded, “after serving on Council for four weeks, I’ve been able to see that the issue isn’t as simple [as that].”

Main President Jeremy Garza ’14, thinks that the VSA’s greatest problem is its complexity.

“The VSA has been seen by the campus at large as a kind of joke because it’s so bureaucratic, and wrapped around itself,” said Garza, explaining that the VSA’s sheer size frequently impedes communication and slows down progress. He cited how, during last Sunday’s Council meeting, it took the VSA Council over an hour to choose this year’s Founder’s Day Committee co-chairs— a fact that he finds frustrating. “I really hope that we can streamline the VSA,” added Garza.

Restructuring, although new to this Council, is actually an old topic that springs from last year’s VSA. From February to May 2011, the VSA Council led by President Mat Leonard ’11 was determined to reshape Vassar’s student government. After weeks of discussion, they proposed a plan to create a new Council with more representatives from classes and fewer from houses sitting directly on the Council.

Students would elect two Class Senators and one Class President to the VSA Council, and House Presidents would sit on the Residential Council. The Residential Council would then appoint three of its members to the VSA Council to speak on their behalf. The Executive Board would remain unchanged. Last year’s Council voted on this amendment, but it failed to win a two-thirds majority by one vote.

Later, the proposal was presented as a referendum, which passed. Ultimately, however, the Judicial Board ruled that the referendum’s passage was unconstitutional because it did not offer students the option of abstention. An appeal was filed, and the Judicial Board ruled in favor of its previous decision: The referendum was unconstitutional.

Class of 2014 President Michael Moore ’14, a vocal proponent of last year’s proposed amendment, is excited to continue the conversation this year. “We are trying to make the VSA live up to the expectations of the students and the College by making ourselves the most efficient that we can,” he said, adding that he hopes to make restructuring a perpetual component of the VSA. “We are a fluid student body, and our government should reflect that,” said Moore.

He hopes that the VSA will create a group composed of at-large students, and VSA Council members, whose exclusive purpose will be to make changes to the VSA government. The existence of such a reform committee would also address the VSA’s concern it isn’t inclusive enough.

“I think that [such a group] would contribute to making this a long-term, dedicated process, and it would help pull in student voice.”

Although Council members believe that restructuring is important, they also recognize that it comes with an opportunity cost. “If the government is so focused on changing, that it’s not fulfilling it’s current role, then it has failed,” said Moore, warning that if the VSA focuses on restructuring itself, then other issues might get pushed to the wayside. Konstantine agreed that the VSA needs to find a balance between restructuring and opportunity cost, and also a balance between direct and indirect student input. “There are many extremes that I don’t want to have. I don’t want there to be the situation where we present to the student body this government that we’ve created and say, ‘Do you like this or not?’ I also don’t want this to be a situation where we say ‘Okay, tell us what you want. We’re here for you, but you have to make this up yourselves,’” said Konstantine.

Although this process has only just begun, Council members seem optimistic about its future. “The question always remains, ‘How can we do better?’ or ‘What more can we do?’ I think it’s good that we’re taking a look at ourselves,” said Nguyen.

November 3, 2011

Jonathan Kozol, pictured above, will deliver a lecture on race and poverty in the U.S. public school sytem on Thursday, Nov. 3 in the Chapel. impact on higher education. Associate Director of the Learning, Teaching and Research Center (LTRC) Natalie Friedman has planned a series of follow-up events to Kozol’s talk, including a student panel that will address the role that testing and the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act have had on their educational experiences. “I am interested in having broad discussions on campus about how we might be experiencing the legacy of NCLB on Vassar students from all kinds of schools and environments,” Friedman said, “especially since NCLB is now 10 years old—that means our freshmen have grown up and been educated for their entire lives under this law and its attendant testing requirements.

I think Jonathan Kozol will have interesting things to say about

the current state of education, and his remarks will then allow us to explore these issues and questions in different venues.”

In December, administrators and faculty expect to plan a similar event called The Intellectual Buffet, which, they hope, will become an annual occasion.

Pauley hopes “that Kozol will remind us all of the efficacy of public education done well; it can create real social mobility and tangible benefits to people’s lives. Apparently, this truth is something that local legislatures have been content to ignore recently, and it is a truly troubling trend that requires instant correction. Mr. Kozol presents the unfortunate reality of public education as a system quite capable of changing for the better. All we require is the will to change it.”

FEATURES

November 3, 2011

Page 5

VHP commemorates 10 years, seeks nonprofit status Jill Scharr

V

Contributing Editor

Courtesy of the Vassar Haiti Project

assar’s sesquicentennial year also marks the 10th anniversary of the Vassar Haiti Project (VHP), a group that started in 2001 as a small committee and is now in the process of applying for tax-exempt status as a 501c nonprofit.

This year’s Freshman Parents Weekend, at which the VHP holds its principle sale, the group commemorated their 10 years with their largest sale of Haitian art to date, as well as a dinner for past and present members of the organization and those in the community who assist them. VHP also participated in Vassar’s first annual A Day at Vassar. Members of the Poughkeepsie community were invited to campus to attend classes and lectures, take tours of the grounds, and—thanks to the VHP—buy Haitian art.

The VHP began in January 2001 as the brainchild of Director of International Services and Special Projects Andrew Meade and his wife Lila Meade. Both Meades have a personal connection to the country—Lila’s mother and part of her family have lived in Haiti since the 1920s and Andrew’s father, a member of the diplomatic core, was stationed in Haiti for several years. “Something about Haiti gets under your skin. It got under our skin, and we loved it,” said Andrew Meade. “The art communicates that as well, so we fell in love with [Haitian] art too.”

After years of purchasing and appreciating Haitian art on a personal level, the Meades decided to establish an organization that would purchase Haitian art and bring it to Vassar and the surrounding area for resale. The money made off this second sale would then go to support an educational project in Haiti.

Said Andrew Meade, “I walked into the office of then Dean of the College Colton Johnson [and] pitched the idea to him ... I may have been out of my mind, but fortunately he thought

Members of the Vassar Haiti Project sell Haitian art in the College Center. The organization, celebrating its 10th anniversary, is the brainchild of Director of International Services and Special Projects Andrew Meade and his wife, Lila. it was a great idea!”

The earliest VHP members established contact with Chermaitre, a village in Haiti’s mountainous northwest, and devoted the funds of their first art sales to supporting its primary school and particularly the school’s lunch program.

The VHP started small; Meade recalls that there were only about seven people at the first few meetings, two of which were students— “and one of them was my intern so she didn’t have a choice,” he joked.

But Kalyani Iyer ’06, who joined the VHP as a freshman in 2002, said that Lila and Andrew Meade made up for the early lack of manpower. “I was drawn to the passion and energy that the Meades brought to this project...

Over time, the group grew to be a big family,” she wrote in an emailed statement. “By the time I returned from JYA, I was glad to see that what had started off as a very small group had become a community.”

As Director of International Services, Andrew Meade was able to reach out to many students, particularly internationals. But others were drawn by the art itself: “I saw a painting that was so beautiful—I really hadn’t seen anything like it, the colors and the style. I love art so immediately I was like ‘Where did that beauty come from?’ and the owner had bought it from the VHP,” said alumna Carly Ritter ’05. “[They] told me they were having a booth at the Arlington Street Fair. So I volunteered to help.”

“I think 2005 was a turning point,” said Ritter. “That sale doubled previous sales. It was very successful; many people came because it was right in Main Building.”

An increase in student involvement ignited the project that had begun as two people in love with Haitian art. Now the group holds several sales per year both at Vassar and in association with high schools

and churches in Greenwich, Conn. and New York City. And the group’s funds support an initiative to bring fresh water to the village, provide a nearby medical clinic and undergo a reforestation project.

“It being our 10th year, we have more initiatives running simultaneously than we’ve ever had before,” said Fiona Koch ’12. “It’s really grown in terms of what we’re able to take on and that has to do with an increase in membership, even over the four years I’ve been here, certainly over the past 10 years.”

Along the way, it became impossible for Lila and Andrew Meade to run the burgeoning organization on their own. “In order for Lila and me to stay sane we had to turn it over, we had to let go and allow the students to take on big chunks of it,” said Andrew Meade. In 2009 the VHP applied for official Vassar Student Association (VSA) organization status.

Though VHP needs no financial sup-

port from the VSA, being an official campus organization streamlined logistics such as advertising, reserving spaces and recruiting new members.

Therefore, the VHP was well established at Vassar long before the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010. 80 percent of the artists connected to the VHP lost their homes, which affected the production and, for a short time, the subject of the art. “[Haitian artists] are interested in spirit,” observed Andrew Meade, explaining that this spirit is often symbolized by a kite. “So one thing you will see more now after the earthquake is kites always soaring always going high. They’re not so interested in the things that happened; they’re interested in how people reacted to things that happened, how Haitians got back to living.”

The past year has been the organization’s busiest yet, not only because of the earthquake. With an email list of over 100 students and connections throughout the northeast, the VHP is applying for status as a 501c taxexempt nonprofit, which will allow it to expand even further.

“We need to build another clinic closer to the community,” said Koch, after members of the VHP visited Chermaitre in April 2010. “[The first one]’s too far…too much of a hike for people without a car, especially if they need medical assistance.” To that end, she continued, “We’re collecting funds for that more comprehensively than we did for the last clinic because we learned a lot from that clinic.”

Andrew Meade reflected on the VHP’s 10-year growth: “Initially it was a project about raising money and awareness for Haiti and Haitian art,” he said, “and along the way it became about engaging students with Haiti…about teaching students how to work with those from very different backgrounds, to make a difference far away by taking action here.”

Greens Free Market strives to reduce waste on campus Jessica Tarantine

T

Assistant Features Editor

Rachel Garbade/The Miscellany News

he term “free market” normally brings to mind vague notions of invisible hands and graphs showing how to maximize profits.

Vassar’s own Free Market does not attempt to equate marginal revenue with marginal cost, but instead tries to maximize the reduction of waste.

Located in College Center 235, the Free Market opened in Spring 2011 as a part of the Vassar’s Greens On Campus Zero-Waste Campaign. It currently maintains hours from 12p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Friday and Saturday.

“One of our goals is to have all of the useful things people would normally throw out be reused within the College. What you put in the wastebasket here actually goes to an incinerator. So your trash is being burned in this huge facility and released into the air,” explained one of Free Market’s managers and founders, Ani Kodzhabasheva ’12. “People do throw out some really useful things sometimes,” she said.

The store relies on student donations to keep the Market’s inventory well stocked. Items in the Market include stacks of books and clothes.

Though shoppers aren’t required to donate before they can take an item, it is encouraged.

“We have a rule that you can’t take more than three items per day. But we haven’t really needed to enforce that,” Kodzhabasheva said.

The store remains busy and although traffic has slowed slightly since the opening day, the stream of customers seems constant. “You get little pockets of people, but it’s pretty steady.

A lot of people come in and check it out,” said Free Market student worker Emily LavieriScull ’15.

The Market is also entirely run by student

volunteers. Green’s co-President Jillian Guenther ’12 explained that this was part of the goal in creating the store in line with the Green’s overall mission. “The Greens have four ‘organizational priorities’ which we use to guide all our actions and campaigns. They are: run action-based, goal-oriented campaigns; build leadership; facilitate community; and meaningful collaboration,” said Guenther.

The Greens have a well-supplied volunteer base. “We have many people willing to volunteer here, even more than we need,” said Kodzhabasheva.

“The store seemed like such a good idea, and I wanted to help out,” said Lavieri-Scull of her decision to volunteer there.

According to Kodzhabasheva, the feeling of community and working together was also a goal of the project. “There is of course much more than [the reduction of waste]; its about creating community, and creating a space to share,” she said. “We created a space where we can pool our resources.”

While the project was doing well, getting it started was not without its challenges. “It was a very long process to get the Market established,” said Kodzhabasheva.

The process of creating the store began in Fall 2010. While the Greens were already certified by the Vassar Student Association (VSA) and so didn’t need VSA approval for the Free Market, it did have to get the administration’s approval and find a space to house the Market.

“The administration was like, ‘This could be so dirty,’ and ‘You might not be able to run this.’

How were we going to clean it and sustain it?

So we had to convince them we could do it as a responsible group,” explained Kodzhabasheva.

After getting approval from the adminis-

Shoppers peruse the offerings at the Free Market, open from noon to 5 p.m. on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays in College Center 235. The market was introduced by the Vassar Greens to curtail waste. tration, they had to find a viable space. “As anyone who’s tried to start a new space on campus knows, it’s pretty difficult to find a room. So, when we came up with the proposal we had to go ask [Assistant Dean and Director of Residential Life] Luis Inoa. He said that it could be a fire hazard. We were thinking about empty dorm rooms on the fifth floor of Main. But it turned out we couldn’t because the fire sprinklers don’t go up there,” said Kodzhabasheva referring to Main’s towers.

“But we were happy about [the location being here] because the College Center is a very central location.”

In addition to serving as the physical base for the Free Market, the space is also the meeting place for all the Green’s activities. “The store serves as a concrete community space for the

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Greens and its campaigns,” said Guenther.

The Greens’ work off-campus mirrors the intent of the Free Market. Guenther said, “Off campus, we are working to improve the Dutchess County Solid Waste Management Plan. Currently all our trash goes to incinerator which is bad for health and air quality, as well as being financially irresponsible. This past Friday, we held a rally for Zero-Waste in Dutchess County, organized by Luke Leavitt and some community members.” The rally worked to educate the community about the effects of the incinerator.

Working to reduce waste both on and off campus the Greens serves as a reminder that some of the best things in life are free.

FEATURES

Page 6

Saperstein speaks out on bullying Alyssa Aquino

Tour guides provide student perspective Thomas Lawler

T

Guest Reporter

our guides at Vassar give prospective students their first real glimpse of Vassar life; they are in the interesting position of being both spokespeople for the administration as well as students. On their busiest days, the tour guides at Vassar are charged with the responsibility of introducing the school to upwards of 1000 guests.

Throughout the academic school year, the roster of tour guides is comprised of 14 to 17 sophomores, juniors and seniors. “The Admissions Office tries to create a group of people that represents the campus as best as they can,” said Jake Levitt ’12, a tour guide.

Senior Assistant Director of Admission Paola Gentry is head of the tour guide program at Vassar. “We invite all first and second year students in the spring to apply for the position,” said Gentry. A tour guide at Vassar is a paid job, not limited to those on workstudy. Gentry responding, said, “Here at Vassar, we recognize the importance of our tour guides and the vital contribution they make to prospective students and their families’ experience when they visit our campus.” Classifying the position as a job, though, entails additional accountability and professionalism by the students when giving tours.

The application process to become a tour guide for the College is extensive and competitive. Each spring 50 to 60 students apply for an average of three positions. The selection process includes a written application, a round-table discussion with a small group of applicants and admissions officers, and finally a one-on-one meeting with an admissions officer. Laura Pucillo ’12, who has been a tour guide since her sophomore year, wrote in an email statement, “The application process I think works well for finding the best possible people for the job. It allows the admissions officers to meet with the potential tour guides multiple times and get to know their personalities.”

Once chosen, Vassar tour guides go through an intense training session before the start of classes. The training is broken into three categories: shadowing tours, co-leading tours with experienced tour guides and participating in an informational program. “Tour guides are expected to know the facts about the school,” said Gentry, “and be able to access them when out on a tour.” Each year the training changes and the tour guides meet with different departments, usually 15 to 20 academic, administrative and athletic departments a year in order to prepare themselves for any possible

Emily Lavieri-Scull/The Miscellany News

“I

Reporter

am probably the weirdest person that you will meet,” Jesse Saperstein stated on Wednesday, Oct. 26. He then put on a jester’s hat and did a dance, vocal effects included. The real point of the speech, though, was the topic of bullying, and how, no, it doesn’t stop at the playground.

Saperstein’s speech was aptly titled “Redefining the Square Peg and Widening the Round Hole,” and was the first major lecture ACCESS has sponsored since it was certified by the Vassar Student Association a few weeks ago.

Saperstein was something of a celebrity for the time he spent hiking the Appalachian Trail, a 2,178-mile journey extending from Maine to Georgia, which he completed in seven months, nine days. At 28, Saperstein published a book called Atypical: Life with Asperger’s in 20 1/3 Chapters.

Saperstein has Asperger’s Syndrome, a mild form of Autism that is characterized by impaired social skills, repetitive behaviors and, often, a narrow set of interests. To say he grew up with Asperger’s would be misleading; Asperger’s wasn’t recognized as a formal disease when Saperstein attended high school. “To them [fellow classmates], bad social skills and being mean wasn’t a disability,” said Saperstein.

In high school, Saperstein dealt with his disorder by becoming the class clown. However, the same tactics weren’t applicable at Hobart and William Smith College: Attempts at humor in the middle of a lecture weren’t met with laughter, but rather with shouts of ‘Sexism!’

Calling every girl on campus wouldn’t result in a date, like it had in high school.

To combat the rejection from his peers, Saperstein became involved in HIV/AIDS activism. He recalled how he successfully brought Joey DiPaolo, an HIV activist, to talk at his school. “I wanted the moment of heroism to last,” Saperstein explained.

In a desire to replicate the acceptance that came with heroism, Saperstein hiked the Appalachian Trail to raise money for Camp TLC, a free summer camp for teenagers living with HIV/ AIDS. He kept an online journal to chronicle the journey. The trek—filled with constant transition periods that forced Saperstein outside his comfort zone—was an emotional roller coaster.

“I was always leaving, always saying goodbye. It drove me crazy,” Saperstein admitted.

Saperstein sums up what he does with a sentence: “I combat bullying through the most unorthodox means possible.” He says this while holding up a picture of him skydiving. “What does this have to do with bullying? Nothing at all,” he joked. He then said that the chances of dying from skydiving are smaller than the chances of bullying, a statistic he wants to change: “I started writing my book because I wanted to combat problems with bullying.”

Saperstein’s speech on his experiences with Asperger’s was met with general enthusiasm, especially his focus on living as an adult with Autism. One co-President of ACCESS, Frances Vhay ’13, remarked, “A lot of people who don’t know about Autism, they do immediately think about children. On the Internet, I saw a poster.

‘If you think someone doesn’t have Autism, think again.’ And it was a poster about people of all different colors, doing all types of things and there is no one look to Autism. But all the people were children.”

Co-President of ACCESS Zoe Gross ’13 said, “I’d love to have people come and present on disability and the arts--to get into the disability culture of it more, someone to talk about disability studies as an academic discipline.”

Saperstein prefaced his story with a statement: “There’s a saying within the Asperger’s community: ‘When you’ve met one person with Asperger’s, you’ve met one person with Asperger’s.’” Saperstein, though, acknowledged his success: “The book has its title because I am atypical compared to my neurotypical (a.k.a. non-Autistic) peers. But my successes with Asperger’s Syndrome have been freakishly atypical when compared to my adult peers.”

November 3, 2011

Max Morris ’14, far right, directs a tour group of prospective students and their parents. The training process for becoming a tour guide is rigorous, involving shadowing and departmental meetings. question. “The training process works well because it not only informs the guides about the info needed for the actual tour but also provides information about specific programs and departments so they can accurately answer the questions that students and parents often have,” stated Pucillo.

The number of visitors to the campus fluctuates immensely, with large increases in guests around the time of Vassar application due dates and the College’s decision release dates. Depending on the month, there can be as many as three tour times a day with multiple tours at each time slot. Gentry organizes the schedule to fit student’s academic classes and workload. Normally, a tour guide might lead one tour every week or every other week.

During school breaks tours continue; however, the number of guides working and the number of tours a day is reduced. Levitt worked as a tour guide for two summers in 2009 and 2010. “Over the breaks, tour guides assist with more office work in Admissions,” said Levitt. Sarah Zickel ’14, who recently worked as a guide over October Break, wrote in an emailed statement, “I’d have to say the biggest distinction is the effect the lack of students has on the tours.”

The tour guides at Vassar are conscious of the role a college tour can play in a high school student’s decision to apply and see themselves

as representatives of the school. Michael Mestitz ’12, who is now in his third year as a guide, said, “The most rewarding part about being a tour guide is seeing a student who would love Vassar and watching them realize they would love Vassar.” Pucillo echoed this sentiment, saying, “It’s great to think that I could play a large role in someone’s decision of where they are going to spend a very important four years of their life.”

A personal benefit that tour guides gain from their job is the acquisition of career skills. Gentry acknowledged, “You are developing time management, you are learning how to speak to a variety of different audiences, how to handle groups, how to think on your feet.” Levitt, Mestitz and Pucillo, all of whom will graduate this coming spring, reaffirmed Gentry’s words. Pucillo wrote, “It definitely teaches you how to be professional early on in your college career, which is a really great skill for later on when you are applying for jobs.”

The application to become a tour guide for the following school year is released in April.

Paola Gentry said, “Tour guides tend to selfselect themselves.” She encourages any first or second year student interested in being a tour guide or anyone who believes that he or she can contribute to a prospective student’s introduction to the school, to apply.

Biagi brings yoga sensibility to Italian Jack O’Brien

Guest Reporter

After an extended sojourn in India, Visiting Assistant Professor of Italian Laura Biagi has returned to Vassar College. Biagi was invited to return to Vassar this fall to teach elementary and intermediate levels of Italian, as well as a senior seminar entitled The Arts and the Spiritual an Italian Culture.

Fourteen years ago, Biagi was a language fellow in the Italian Department. “As a language fellow I was really supported within the department…surrounded by a very supported group of people,” said Biagi. She went on to obtain Masters and Ph.D. degrees in performance studies at New York University. Upon completion of her program, Biagi returned to Vassar to teach for a year, after which she departed for a journey to India.

Biagi has spent the last two years in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu researching and teaching yoga. She worked and studied at the International Center of Yoga Education and Research (ICYER). And she now teaches yoga to faculty and staff at Vassar. Biagi explained the true dynamic of instructional yoga, saying, “Yoga allows us to explore the relationship between art, spirituality and healing.” She elaborated on how different the classroom of yoga is from that of Italian, particularly in the sense that “with yoga, you don’t have to grade … there is no anxiety or stress … I like that.” Biagi explained how her working environment in India was based on

self-reflection, thought and relaxation. “It was very different,” she said, “from the stress of a collegiate introductory language class where students learn new vocabulary and grammar concepts on a daily basis.”

She used this analytical description of yoga instruction as a springboard into an interesting discussion about her philosophy on education. “What I truly believe,” Biagi said, “is in the effort; the amount of work that one dedicates to a particular subject or skill.” She continued, “What a student needs to know is, as long as you do your best…success will follow.”

Biagi thinks that in our society today, particularly in the field of education, there is an overemphasis on the grade or final result. She drew an interesting parallel between some of her yoga students in India, who possessed an incredibly natural level of flexibility, and as a result, were able to do the poses with little effort.

“In my instruction of Italian,” she explained, “I always have students who have grown up speaking the language and are fluent.” She added, “Similar to the inherently flexible yoga students in India, oftentimes these language students with a previously acquired knowledge sit back and do not put forth an effort.”

This creates an obvious difference in skill levels, and as a result, she said, “It is only fair if I grade based on an individual’s best…not on how a student compares to his classmates.”

Biagi very explicitly stated that what should truly be valued in the classroom is the effort

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

that is put forth, regardless of the final product. “Even though students with natural abilities may not have to work and still receive an A, the students who do work hard should be recognized,” she said.

Biagi also discussed her views on the special relationship between individuals, in particular that of students and professors. She began by explaining how many assume that the student is inferior to the professor, and that a clear hierarchy exists in the classroom.

“This could not be farther from the truth,” she stated. “In fact, people are even. The professor has a quality and role that asks for respect, but fundamentally, the teacher and the student are the same level of being ... What differentiates teacher from student is a level of experience,” Biagi clarified, “not levels of superiority and inferiority.” Biagi believes that this relationship is what makes the educational process at Vassar so unique. “Here, there is great potential for intergenerational exchange,” she said. Vassar College facilitates this unique interaction between teacher and pupil: “These special interactions between teachers and students don’t really exist in Europe, where I am from…professors are not as talkative.” There is less sharing of information between two individuals and more rigidly defined roles of student and teacher.

Biagi concluded, “The true difference between professor and student is life experience, or qualities that a student hasn’t acquired yet.”

November 3, 2011

FEATURES

Page 7

Sprout Creek Farm, creamery provide delicious cheeses Sarah Begley

S

Columnist

Sarah Begley/The Miscellany News

tanding in front of a table of cheese in Sprout Creek Farm’s market, a visitor can look through a large window into the creamery where milk is being processed into the very same cheese. Turning 45 degrees to the right, the visitor can see through another window into the barn where farmhands are milking cows, goats and sheep.

Director of the farm Margo Morris called this setting an opportunity for “passive education,” because it allows customers to see the process of cheese making from start to finish. Decisions like these are integral to the philosophy of Sprout Creek Farm, Inc., which functions primarily as an educational farm. “In everything we do,” Morris said, “we try to close the loop.”

Cheese from Sprout Creek Farm is good enough to wind up in unexpected places: a Whole Foods in Connecticut, the renowned Murray’s Cheese Shop in New York, even prestigious Manhattan restaurants like Gramercy Tavern and Per Se. The farm does swift business selling its 13 varieties of cheese in its onsite market on Lauer Road off of Noxon, but for Morris the profit isn’t really the point. Sprout Creek Farm is above all an educational venture, meant to teach students of all ages about food, farming and sustainability.

The creamery provides financial support for the educational operations of the farm. As Morris explained, “Everything has a production element but also an education element.” In summer, students ages six to 18 participate in 10 weeks of residential camps where they learn about food issues and life on the farm, and throughout the school year the farm provides programming for various institutions that request their services.

Summer campers take part in daily chores such as milking the cows and goats, cleaning and gardening. They visit the creamery to learn from cheese maker Colin McGrath, a CIA graduate. They plan and prepare their own meals with food from the farm, which means they eat better, as Morris explained, “Because they’re proud of it and they know what’s in it.”

In between chores and hands-on learning, students attend classes on food issues in rooms dotted with books like The Omnivore’s Dilemma. “Depending on the group,” Morris said,

The Sprout Creek Farm houses its own creamery that produces artisanal cheeses that make their way to the renowned Murray’s Cheese Shop in New York City and touted restaurants like Per Se. “they may have a seminar on something like food security, or for younger kids, something about the environment. It may have a social aspect, or it may have to do with appreciating your local topography.”

School-year programs cater to the needs of the academic institutions involved, which makes each experience unique. Morris said, “Because we don’t offer canned programming, it keeps us flexible and it keeps us moving.”

In the past, students have donated food from the farm to soup kitchens in the Bronx and to the Lunch Box in Poughkeepsie. Morris said

this helps them recognize the issue of hunger.

“They go to places where people are deprived,” she said, “and they ask, how did we get to this situation? And they begin to understand their privilege and to redefine their community as including elements like animals and plants, not just people.”

Over the course of their time at Sprout Creek, Morris said that even the pickiest of children come to appreciate the adult flavors of the 13 varieties of cheese made in the creamery.

“We send them away with these expensive palates, which brings up a social dilemma.

In a sense, Morris is lucky to have achieved enough success to face a dilemma like this. The project has come a long way since she began in 1982 in Greenwich, Conn. while working as an English teacher at the Convent of the Sacred Heart. Along with her colleague Sue Rogers, she felt that farming experience would supplement students’ education in a way that families no longer do.

“Schools were supposed to be institutions that enhanced what was being taught in the home,” she said, “but they never caught up to the fact that kids weren’t learning any of these basic skills in the home anymore.”

The program began as an after-school activity, but over time expanded so much that Morris and Rogers decided to acquire their own farmland. They obtained the deed to Sprout Creek Farm in 1989 and moved the entire operation to Poughkeepsie in 1990. Until recently, the farm had still been under the ownership of the Society of the Sacred Heart, but several months ago it was spun off as a private organization and received assets of its own. This means they can now receive public funding and donations from private corporations that cannot donate to religious organizations.

In the farm’s early days, sustainability was less important to many Americans than it is now. “The educational programs are based in agriculture and the environment,” Morris explained, “and as you can imagine, when we started this in 1982 no one was talking about either of those things. Agriculture had become agribusiness and food was wrapped in plastic.”

Now, as more people become interested in these issues, the farm receives more and more attention. Students from Texas, Seattle and even Europe make their way to the camp programs in summertime. Several Vassar graduates have also worked at the farm, including Christine Gavin ’05 and Patrick Helman ’05, who have both spent most of their time since graduation at Sprout Creek.

Both the educators and the students find value in splitting their time between intellectual pursuits in seminars and physical labor on the farm, an approach that Morris called “agriculture as classroom.” This fosters the kind of education and collaboration that students may miss out on in school. On the farm, Morris said, “You have a goal and it’s not a ‘leadership’ role, it’s just ‘let’s get this done so we can eat.’”

Students with professors for parents call Vassar home Alyssa Aquino

W

Reporter

Cassady Bergevin/The Miscellany News

hen students apply to college, many think, “Nothing in state—I don’t want to give my parents any bad ideas.” But for some students, escaping their parents was not possible, or even desirable, as they searched for colleges. The Class of 2015 alone has seven students with Vassar professors for parents.

Vassar College offers generous tuition assistance to faculty children. Amelia “Mia” Livingston ’15, the stepdaughter of Professor of Classics John Bertrand Lott, said, “Vassar does half the tuition of other places. No matter what I decided, everything was going to be all right.”

When asked if the tuition deal Vassar offers for the children of professors affected her college decision, Livingston replied, “A free tuition is hard to turn down, no matter where you’re going.” She paused, “Vassar is an awesome school, so why would I?” Sam Plotkin ’15, son of Professor of Political Science Sidney Plotkin, said that Vassar’s music program was a factor in his decision [Disclosure: Plotkin is a guest reporter for The Miscellany News]. A future music composition major, he said, “The [music] faculty here is amazing.”

For him, the prestige of Vassar’s intensive music program, and the added benefit of reduced tuition made the school a done-deal.

The reduced tuition—or the school’s elite reputation—was not the overwhelming factor in the all-important college decision for some other students.

Charlotte Andrews ’14, daughter of Associate Professor of Psychology Janet Andrews and Associate Professor of French Mark Andrews, said, “[Vassar] feels like home, and I love that I go to college at home because I never wanted to get away from home.” Like Livingston, An-

drews applied Early Decision 1.

There’s something about growing up on a campus that makes it dear to you. “I first moved to Poughkeepsie when I was five. I guess that was the first time I learned what a college was.” Livingston, growing up, was one of the house fellow children. “It was just so cute and the perfect environment to grow up in because there were other house fellow kids all the time and it was a big bubble where we could be a big, happy family.”

Livingston, Andrews and Plotkin spent time growing up on campus—all of them attended Wimpfheimer Nursery School, Vassar’s lab pre-school. Livingston and Andrews even met each other on those playgrounds, and grew up as close friends.

The all-important question, however, remains: ‘Don’t you want to go away for college?’

Or: ‘Your parents are on-campus!’

Livingston conceded, “That’s half the reason why I took the gap year, so I could go off to Europe and be crazy, my parents aren’t going to catch me. That definitely toned everything down a lot.” But on the topic of her father being on-campus, “I don’t see my dad everyday, only when I go out of my way to see him.” Livingston also has no plans to take a class with her father. “For one thing,” she explained, “I don’t speak Latin. That’s probably the bigger problem than the fact that he’s my dad.”

Plotkin shared similar sentiments. “I’d probably take one of his classes, but a different section with a different professor. I think it would be weird because he is different when he’s in teacher-mode.”

Andrews, though, is about to declare a French major and plans on taking a French class with her father next semester: “I think my parents would prefer if I didn’t take classes with them, but it’s hard to avoid because that’s

Professor of Psychology Janet Andrews, left, works in her office with her daughter, Charlotte Andrews ’14. The Class of 2015 alone has seven students who are also the children of faculty members. the only [French] class I can take next semester.” Mark Andrews concurred. “I hope that this can be avoided,” he wrote in an emailed statement. “If it does turn out to be important to her major, this will be a matter for her to discuss with her academic advisor.” On the inevitable topic of the nepotism that could arise with such arrangements, Andrews said, “They have some concerns with it, but Vassar in general is fine with it.” The school, however, will not let Mark Andrews be his daughter’s major advisor: “I think that’s the unspoken ‘we don’t do that,’” Andrews quipped.

Charlotte Andrews, though, loves having her parents on-campus. She explained, “It’s great

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

having my parents here because they know everything. They’re kind of like my second advisors, but really my first advisors, because they help me way more than my real advisors— they’re my parents, after all.”

She does acknowledge that having a parent on campus can sometimes cause difficulties, telling the story of a classmate who asked Andrews to tell her mother to be lenient with him.

“I told him ‘No. Go fail,’” she remembered.

Plotkin spoke about having a father who is beloved among the student population: “I don’t want to be known because the majority of people had a class with my father. I want to be known for me.”

FEATURES

Page 8

November 3, 2011

Food not Bombs founder Henry aims for social change Danielle Bukowski Features Editor

B

ringing tales of protest, arrest and successful meals served, Food Not Bombs (FNB) co-founder Keith McHenry spoke to Vassar students on Oct. 26. The organization, which distributes vegetarian and vegan meals, is a vehicle for social change that has spread rapidly since its modest beginnings in Boston in the 1980s.

Vassar was just one of McHenry’s stops on the Elect to End Hunger and Poverty Tour, and in addition to the lecture he showed a clip of his work to bring FNB to Nigeria and handed out literature about the organization. The lecture was organized by the Vassar Animal Rights Coalition (VARC) and co-sponsored by Hunger Action, SlowFood Vassar and the Vassar Greens.

McHenry gave an overview of the group since its inception, when the organization was just a couple of friends giving out the excess food from organic markets and food stores to

housing projects and the homeless. McHenry and other FNB leaders have been arrested on multiple occasions for giving out food without a permit as well as using their organization to protest civil injustice, the treatment of the homeless, military spending, war and the death penalty. The group has set up its stand with food in front of government buildings and corporate offices, working to repeal laws it deems unjust. Most importantly they strive to make sure everyone has a meal to eat.

In his lecture, McHenry mentioned that there had been a thriving Food Not Bombs chapter in Poughkeepsie for a while, and postulated that student interest combined with the recent Occupy Poughkeepsie movement would help bring about another chapter. He emphasized that FNB is not a charity, but “a non-violent direct action group. We do want to change society—we are not a soup kitchen.”

VARC co-President Alan Darer ’14 was enthusiastic about McHenry coming to Vassar.

“I met Keith McHenry and heard him speak at

the Animal Rights Conference in L.A., and he is one of the most humble and inspiring people I’ve ever heard speak,” Darer said.

Said McHenry of their commitment to meatless meals, “We wanted to show that we were serious in our goals for nonviolence: The slaughter of people is not the only form of violence, but it’s peace for all life.” The environmental impact was another factor.

Both Darer and co-President Kacey Kogachi ’12 were enthusiastic about FNB incorporating the diet into social justice issues related to humans. “I hope the lecture [brought] more of an awareness in terms of social justice issues and more participation on campus—from VARC, the Greens, Hunger Action—about how these social justice movements are all really connected. Oppression of minorities, the environment, non-human animals is still all oppression,” said Darer. “We want to promote the message in the work they do: of human rights, animal rights and environmental justice,” said Kogachi.

“Hunger Action got involved because we’re

QPR, Counselor on Call offer support in suicide prevention SUICIDE continued from page 1 similar feelings as well as to offer support and kind words for the original poster.

Said Brown, “What was encouraging...was the kind of response that that person was getting from other anonymous people—seek help, here’s who you can go to, we care about you. It sounds like people are trying to reach out, but it is tough, because you don’t know who you are reaching out to.”

The website is specifically geared toward members of the Vassar community; however, it remains a separate entity from the school. Because there is no direct affiliation, administrators have no control over the site, and therefore no way of knowing exactly who posts on the website. They also cannot legally formulate a policy to deal with suicidal statements. Only if someone makes a threat against the school online can the College respond by calling the police and administrators and locking down the campus. If a student makes suicidal comments to a friend or school employee, they are referred to the Vassar Counseling Service at Metcalf.

Although the posts are anonymous, Vassar nevertheless provides resources such as the Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) suicide prevention program to teach members of the community how to help others with suicidal thoughts.

“On our campus, it is important to encourage anyone who feels suicidal to meet with a counselor from the Vassar College Counselor Service so that they can receive professional care and/or support, even if that means walking the student over yourself,” wrote Dr. Christopher St. Germain, a counselor at Metcalf, in an emailed statement.

St. Germain directs the QPR program, which provides training to administrators, faculty, staff and students that is aimed at recognizing the warning signs of suicide. Furthermore, the QPR program equips participants with strategies to ask others about suicide while providing them with the resources to suggest in a time of crisis, such as the number of the Vassar 24-hour Counselor on Call.

The program itself centers upon three steps: questioning the individual, persuading them to get help and referring them to the proper resources.

All faculty, staff and students are encouraged to participate in the QPR program, and it is a required part of house team training. Sessions are held once a semester and people can contact counseling@vassar.edu for information. The next QPR training, specifically geared toward staff, faculty and administrators, will be held on Dec. 16.

Though everyone who exhibits suicidal behavior is encouraged to seek help, with the advent of anonymous Internet forums such as SayAnything, it is often difficult to ensure that those who need help the most are in fact receiving it.

“Individuals having suicidal thoughts can present very differently from one another. There are several emotional and situational factors that may be at play. While there are some behavioral clues and situational clues that may alert us that a student may be encountering distress, the most effective way to find out if someone is thinking about suicide is by asking them,” wrote St. Germain.

Such behavioral clues include increased alcohol

and drug use, unexplained irritability or anger; examples of situational clues may include failing several classes or experiencing a significant break up.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately one in 10 adults living in the United States reports suffering some form of depression. Since suicide is the second leading cause of death among U.S. college students, special attention must be paid to depression on college campuses. Depending on the number of symptoms displayed, those diagnosed with clinical depression are either described as suffering from major depression or “other” depression.

Specifically, those who are diagnosed with major depression generally report experiencing five of eight possible symptoms, which include but are not limited to feeling down, depressed or hopeless; having trouble falling asleep; and having little interest or pleasure in doing things. Those who meet the criteria for “other” depression typically display two to four of the symptoms of major depression in addition to feeling specifically either depressed or hopeless or having little pleasure in doing things.

Acording to the CDC’s 2008 survey detailing the number of adults who meet the criteria for depression, young adults aged 18 to 24 are most likely to report suffering from “other” depression.

Although not everyone who is depressed is suicidal, prolonged depression, in addition to a sudden change in behavior and statements revealing a desire to die, could be an indicator that someone is experiencing suicidal thoughts.

Moreover, Vassar’s counselors and administrators take these warning signs seriously and encourage students to seek help.

Brown noted, “What it does do, for those who are in the administration, is sharpen our antenna, or ensure that we are reaching out to anyone who might be in trouble. Occasionally a person may say something that indicates who they are or where they are. Without infringing on their anonymity, we would notice that, and we could be more attentive in that way.”

There are options for concerned students who want to reach out to these anonymous posters.

“The best approach for anonymous settings in which people communicate the potential of self-harm is to make them aware of the safety net that Vassar College has created for them,” stated St. Germain. “If a student suggests that they are thinking about hurting themselves over a blog, providing them with essential resources may help to save their life.”

A few possible resources include: the Vassar College Counseling Service (845.437.5700); the 24-hour Counselor On Call, via the Campus Response Center (845.437.7333); and National Suicide Hotlines such as 1.800.273.TALK or 1.800.SUICIDE. Other possible people to speak with include house advisors and student fellows. However, students are encouraged to contact the counseling service first if they are having thoughts of self-harm.

“If you are feeling like you may harm or kill yourself, tell someone,” encouraged St. Germain, “If you want, tell a friend, or a student fellow, house advisor, roommate, band mate, parent, tutor, counselor.

Let someone know. There is always someone who will listen.”

really interested in issues of food justice, and while, yes, [VARC focuses] more on animal rights and we are more people-oriented, we’re both interested in having food distributed in a good and healthy way for a lot of different people,” said co-President of Hunger Action Hillary Frame ’14. In reference to a FNB Poughkeepsie, Frame said, “We have not considered opening a chapter here; it has never come up although it’s something to discuss. He’s trying to really do a good thing for a lot of people in the healthiest way, and that’s great.”

VARC and Hunger Action agreed with McHenry’s message: “Nobody in the world has to go hungry.” They hoped that students took away an activist spirit from the lecture. “I have a feeling that [a chapter] will be one of the outcomes of his coming to speak here,” said Kogachi, although whether an existing group or new one would support it she couldn’t say. Said Frame, “There is enough food on the planet to feed everyone…it just doesn’t get to the places it needs to go.”

Students, professors react to policy’s consequences BREAK continued from page 1 hours during break.

One explanation for these changes stems from the increasing length of October Break. Director of Financial Aid Michael Fraher wrote in an emailed statement, “In its original format October Break started at midnight on a Friday and ended at midnight on the following Tuesday with the normal academic schedule commencing on Wednesday morning. The intent was to give students a brief reprieve, and a chance to get caught up, from the hectic pace that is synonymous with the start of the fall term, particularly for first year students acclimating themselves to college life.”

“Classes were suspended but administrative and academic services were to remain in place and faculty would keep normal office hours,” Fraher added. “In that context students maintained their normal student employment hours. Over time October Break evolved into its present format with a significant exodus of students from the campus, but most services remain in place (the Library curtails hours but not to the extent that it does during Spring Break).”

Some students that were not part of this “exodus” had different experiences when it came to the situation with their oncampus job. Meaghan Hughes ’15 works as the office assistant for the French Department in Chicago Hall as her Federal Work Study and stayed on campus over break, but did not work since all academic departments close. “Honestly I wasn’t too upset because field hockey kept me very busy during the break anyway, so I got to take some time off from work as well as school. I already work eight hours a week so I’m earning as much as I can,” Hughes said. “If my situation was different, and I felt that I needed more money, it probably would have been a hassle to go through Student Employment to try to get a job. It does frustrate me a bit that there is a limit to how much I can earn, but I understand that it isn’t financially feasible to allow students to rack up an obscene amount of hours.”

Like Hughes, Laura Livingston ’12 has a job in an academic department. A research assistant for Assistant Professor of Biology Lynn Christenson, Livingston has worked since the beginning of the year. She stayed on campus over October Break but did not work at either her usual job or at a different job. She said, “Several of my friends worked at the gym because they couldn’t work at their usual job for whatever reason.” Regarding the changes in work policies over break she said, “I wasn’t particularly upset by the changes, but it would have been nice to

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

work over break. I just didn’t understand the reason, I was only given a notification that I could not work. I understand it may be difficult for those who work for professors who leave during break, but I think if a student is on break and is staying here, that student should be able to work his or her on-campus job.”

On the other hand, Byron Todman ’15 did have the opportunity to work over break. He holds a non-Work Study position as an overnight hosting intern for the Office of Admission and could keep this position over October Break, however, in order to work at his job over break, he did have to go through the Student Employment Office. Looking at the bigger picture, he said, “I think that students should be allowed to work over break without question; however, first priority should be given to students who, up until the break period, have not worked their full hours because they weren’t able to start exactly at the beginning of the school year or for other reasons could not get their full weekly hours.”

Those affected by these changes are not limited to students. Professor of Biology Jennifer Kennell has one research assistant that did not stay on campus. “In the past, however,” she said, “I’ve had a lot of international students as assistants and October Break is the perfect time for them to work and get in the lab, but technically they’re not allowed.”

Though the policy changes affected some professors, others didn’t seem concerned. Assistant Professor of Physics Brian Daly said, “I had not planned for significant work for my research assistant over break, so the changes did not adversely affect my projects.”

As for her opinion on the situation, Kennell said, “I think students should get the necessary hours allotted them and if to fulfill that they need to work over break, then, yes, they should be able to work over break. At the same time, it’s not necessarily a matter of hours, just the amount of financial aid money allotted; this is also tricky since different jobs on campus pay different amounts.”

“I haven’t noticed much of a change since this new policy besides it being more public. I think the changes are good since a lot of students start working late and they can make up the hours. It’s fair to the student,” Ferraro said.

“As part of the change in administrative responsibility we are continuing our review and evaluation of this and other aspects of Student Employment to improve processes and equity in the placement and payment of students.”

Fraher said.

OPINIONS

November 3, 2011

Page 9

Miscellany News Staff Editorial

Council should conduct review with caution, transparency I

n the last two Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council meetings the Council has returned to a self-review process that may lead to large or small changes in the VSA’s structure as the year moves forward. Such efforts inevitably lead to comparisons to the Council’s efforts to restructure the VSA last spring, and the lessons of that process were a prominent theme in the preliminary discussion of review and restructuring at the Oct. 23 VSA Council meeting. However, this year’s process might be better termed as an audit or self-review rather than restructuring outright. The Miscellany News Editorial Board would like to voice its support for the self-review approach that the Council is taking. This decision shows the student body the VSA’s attempt to better serve its constituents. If the VSA aims to be accessible and as fully representative of the student body as possible, then the place to start is with selfreview that takes into account the opinions of the members of the Council and of the VSA at large alike.

We are encouraged by the steps the VSA has taken thus far. First, we appreciate that the Council has begun its auditing process in October of the academic year. By publicly starting now as opposed to in the spring, the Council should be able to conduct thorough and unbiased research, asking themselves and the student body if anything needs to be adjusted before they set forth with any concrete changes.

The Council should keep this open mindset throughout the audit, understanding that the current Council structure may not warrant any significant changes and that the ultimate decision should reflect the current student body’s needs and desires.

Beyond this, the VSA must not forget their duties to the student body as they engage in this audit. As Vice President for Finance Jason Rubin ’13 noted on Oct. 23, the Editorial Board cautions the Council to consider the opportunity costs of this process. What other worthwhile plans may fall by the wayside if Council devotes excessive amounts of time to this review? On this front, we suggest that the VSA open up its negotiations to a body comprised of students outside of the Council who can put forth unbiased observations and questions as to how the VSA is actually serving its constituents. Such a body would also take some of the burden of review off the VSA Council itself and allow it to focus on its primary concern: representing the student body.

We should be aware of how our student government aligns with the values of the College’s joint governance as well as how any actions or changes may fit into the student government’s role as outlined by its constitution. This is a particularly pertinent opportunity considering that the College is also taking a critical look at itself in its Governance review. While student representation on joint committees is well de-

Letter to the Editor

Gender balance data, debate reifies binary W

e were concerned by several implications made by the Oct. 27 article “VC admissions balance applicant gender ratios.” Firstly, we felt that the interpretation of the data represented by the graph on the front page was not inclusive of all possible reasons for dissatisfaction about the gender ratio. The graph presented the poll result that roughly 60 percent of Vassar women are either “very dissatisfied” or “somewhat dissatisfied” with the gender balance at Vassar. The article quoted two female students who supported a narrower gender gap, and the article also implied that all dissatisfied female students shared this viewpoint.

No students who were satisfied with the gender ratio were quoted.

The article posits that “many Vassar students demand a greater male presence on campus” before discussing the statistics gathered in the senior survey. We would like to present the possibility that some dissatisfied female students might want more women at Vassar, or more people who do not fall into the binary groups “women” or “men.”

One quoted student remarked, “I think we benefit from having guys on campus.” This is, for most people, true, but we would also certainly benefit from having more diversity of gender identification in general.

The article’s language itself reveals the binary; it often presents “women” and “men” as diametrically opposed categories with no overlap, space in between or room outside of these groups. Terms like “gender ratio” and “gender balance” coupled with data and a graph representing the “male-female balance” at the College contribute to the societal misconception that there are only two genders and actively erases the existence of people outside these groups.

Finally, we are interested in the College’s official policy about con-

sidering gender as a factor in admissions. The article states, “the acceptance rate for female applicants was 12 percentage points lower than that for male applicants.” Later on, in response to a question about whether “the treatment male students receive [amounts] to affirmative action,” David Borus remarked, “schools have begun to pay more attention to gender when thinking about diversity on campus, but the comparison to the treatment underrepresented students receive is not quite accurate.” We agree that the treatment of male students is not and should not be considered affirmative action, particularly given the privileged position men hold in society. But since it is not affirmative action, and not like treatment underrepresented students receive, what is it?

There is reference to how “the campus is [socially and academically] healthier if we’re at or around national norms in terms of gender.”

Does the College have research to back this claim, and if so, why was it not a part of this article? As stated above, the Senior Survey indicates that there is dissatisfaction with the gender makeup of the campus, but as the article has presented it, it does not specify what kind of dissatisfaction there is or from where it stems. We would appreciate a thorough presentation of the College’s position, reasoning and data on this topic so that we can better understand the policy surrounding the disparity in acceptance rates for people of different genders.

Thank you, Faren Tang, Angela Rhoads, Rachel Ritter and Kaylee Knowles —Tang, Rhoads, Ritter, and Knowles are Women’s Studies majors and members of Feminist Alliance.

fined within the current College Governance, the position and authority of the Vassar Student Association itself is more vague. Considering the influence of the VSA’s own governance on the lives of students and on student organizations, as well as its large financial responsibilty to students through the distribution of the Student Activities Fee, the Vassar Student Association could stand to be better defined in Vassar’s Governance as a whole. We hope that members of the VSA Executive Board who sit on the Governance Review Committee can benefit from the simultaneity of these reviews.

In discussing a VSA audit, it is impossible to forget the rather controversial nature of last year’s efforts. To this, we reiterate that student input and overall transparency should be, as they were not last spring, the keystones of any review or changes to Vassar’s student government. The VSA is a democratic system that should not attempt to rapidly force changes upon the student body from the top-down.

As we found last year, this sort of approach was met with confusion, resistance and chaos.

Changes to a system of governance are a serious undertaking that require input from a maximum number of constituents.

It is also impossible for us to discuss this issue without mentioning The Miscellany News’ own role in providing student constituents with information regarding the audit process and changes that may stem from it. We ac-

knowledge that this was an area of weakness in our reporting last spring when we only began to seriously cover the drastic proposed changes in governance after it was, we might say, too late.

We will be watching the VSA with a keen eye as this year’s audit process continues, reporting in an honest and unbiased manner on any and all conclusions that are reached and changes that are proposed. If the Editorial Board feels that any of these discussions are at odds with the VSA’s greater service to the Vassar student body we will not hesitate to use this space, our staff editorial, in making our opinions known.

Even as we continue to comment here, we hope that students will recognize the separation between the updates presented in the News or Features sections and this platform.

We approve of what the Council has undertaken so far and we encourage the VSA to continue forward with the same transparency.

Frequent updates, made through campus-wide emails, tabling and the VSA’s website and Twitter feed, will maintain positive and effective communication. We look forward to the next findings report from the VSA and hope that these suggestions can be taken seriously in future negotiations.

—The Staff Editorial represents the opinion of at least two thirds of the 21-member Miscellany News Editorial Board.

Fair elections provide alternative Tim McCormick Guest Columnist

T

he Occupy movement has been the top story of every news outlet for some time now.

Everyone from CNN to Al-Jazeera has dedicated at least some time to showing the drama which has been unfolding at Zuccotti Park, Oakland and beyond. From the rag-tag bunch of protesters that slept that first night on Wall Street, the movement has taken on a truly national and even global character.

With all the success the Occupy movement has had in terms of getting people out to protest, the problem becomes what to do with those protestors. While the obvious main reason the people—or the 99 percent—have gone out to claim their rights is the massive income inequalities and the political implications of this inequality. But the makeup of the 99 percent is diverse enough to include Ron Paul supporters, communists, and every conceivable view, cause and belief system under the sun (save, I suppose, for neoliberalism and similar views). Nearly everyone occupying a location today believes that wealth is concentrated in too few hands today, and that because of this concentration of wealth, politicians are being influenced to the detriment of the people.

To go to Zuccotti Park (or Hulme Park, the nexus of Occupy Poughkeepsie) is to hear that we need to “end corporate personhood,” enact “campaign finance reform” or to more broadly “limit the influence of corporations.”

But many people have many solutions as well as different priorities, and the ones that everyone seems to agree on have already been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. What, then, can these protesters rally around?

Fair elections (otherwise

known as “clean elections,” or the less sexy “publicly financed elections”) offers an alternative to the current system of campaign financing which most people can get behind and which can truly change how our elected representatives fund their campaigns. Instead of allowing representatives at the state and federal levels to seek large campaign donors from rich individuals like the Koch brothers or from corporations like Wal-Mart, those seeking election would have to go into the communities they represent and ask for the donations from the people themselves. They would not be able to ask for large donations or donations from special interests groups.

In return, once they’ve received enough support, they would be eligible for federal or state funding (depending on the office they are running for), which would match the money they received asking for campaign funds, usually at something like a 4:1 ratio.

These funds would not be gathered via an extra tax; they would be gotten through the sale of unused radio wave stations. As a result of implementing such a system of campaign finance, representatives would truly be able to do their jobs: representing the people in their constituency

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

without being beholden to the money of special interests. Corruption would likely decrease, and policies that are popular with the American public, but stymied by special interests, such as environmental regulations (ones which could have prevented the BP oil spill, for example) could finally be enacted.

Fair elections are not just a pipe dream or a lofty theory.

Several states and municipalities such as Arizona, Connecticut and New York have already implemented systems for publicly financed elections, and several other state legislatures have bills in the works. The Fair Elections Now Act has gone through the U.S. House and Senate a number of times, but has been defeated, something which cannot happen again in the face of so much anger against the one percent who benefit from a lack of such policies. So, when hearing about the Occupy movement, or wanting to be a larger part in this historic social movement, know that alternative systems exist, and that people are organizing each and every day to make sure they become reality.

—Tim McCormick ’12 is a poltical science major. He is president of Democracy Matters.

ADVERTISEMENT

OPINIONS

Page 10

November 3, 2011

Incumbent Tkayik best Students must consider what choice for Poughkeepsie vote in local elections means Sabrina Sucato Guest Columnist

S

ometimes it can be hard to remember that there is a city outside of Vassar.

Sure, we all know that Bacio’s is across the street and that the Vassar Shuttle will take us to the mall, but that’s pretty much the extent of a typical Vassar student’s interaction with Poughkeepsie.

Yet, there is in fact a community that exists just outside of the College’s grounds. Residents of Poughkeepsie have to live, work, eat and shop in the area. Right now, they have something else to do too, something which could affect how Vassar students interact with the city. They have to vote.

The elections for mayor are right around the corner, with two candidates as the main contenders. On the one hand is current mayor, John Tkazyik, a Republican.

His opponent is Ken Levinson, a Democrat.

Tkazyik, 32, has led the city for four years already and wants to continue for a second term. He should, with all he’s done for the city. Take it from me, someone who has lived in Poughkeepsie her entire life.

When I was younger, there were many places in this city that were extremely run-down. There still are, but the improvements under Tkazyik’s leadership have been extremely helpful in turning this place around.

Take Main Street, for example. During my childhood, it was definitely not one of the better places in this city. Recently, though, it has been completely revamped.

There are so many new high-end restaurants, like the Artist’s Palate and Brasserie 292. A new Associated Supermarket has also been added, making things more

convenient for residents around that area.

Before that, most people only got groceries on one of the supermarkets on Route 9.

Another renovated area in Poughkeepsie is down by the waterfront of the Hudson River. There are multiple award-winning restaurants down there, like Amici’s, Mahoney’s and Shadows on the Hudson.

That area is also home to the train station, a place known to many Vassar students, which was also updated in recent years.

Besides Tkazyik’s efforts to improve city life through renovations and new businesses, he has also made it a goal to crack down on crime in the community.

According to the Poughkeepsie Journal, violent crime is down 30 percent in the first half of this year compared to the same time last year. He also wants to continue to work with police to catch drug dealers and criminals in the area to make the community safer for its inhabitants. To help with this, he instituted a Cash for Tips program to make it easier for people to report knowledge of illegal gun possession.

Not only has Tkazyik done all this for Poughkeepsie, but he is also a local member of the community himself. He lives in the Hudson Valley and helps to run his family’s restaurant, Andy’s Place. Tkazyik knows what should be done for Poughkeepsie. He has the experience and a plan to continue with his previous reforms.

Another term could only improve upon all of these accomplishments and help to reform Poughkeepsie even more.

—Sabrina Sucato ’15 is a student at Vassar College. She attended Poughkeepsie High School.

Hannah Blume Opinions Editor

T

his Tuesday is Election Day in Dutchess County. Though the event will elude most Vassar students, some will undoubtedly flock to the polls and cast their ballots aside local residents.

There has rightly been much campus dialogue in recent years on Vassar’s strained relationship with Poughkeepsie wherein we routinely, and sometimes mindlessly, praise all acts of community engagement. We are told to go out, to get involved and, in this case, to vote.

But here’s a question that is rarely asked of Vassar students: What grounds do we really have to vote in local elections?

Local voting isn’t just a figurative, ideological act. It influences the bedrock of people’s lives—the property taxes that residents and business pay, the number of cops patrolling the streets, the schools educating children and the judges whose verdicts reshape lives. Not to mention garbage-pickup every Wednesday. This is the stuff that life is made of.

Are we, in the Vassar bubble, really entitled to affect these decisions? Truthfully, I really don’t have a clear answer.

Perhaps fewer answers may be exactly what Vassar needs.

ADVERTISEMENT

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Are we, in the Vassar bubble, really entitled to affect these decisions?

For all of the anxieties that arise from our relationship with the surrounding area, many seem hasty in their call to vote. It seems wise to first ask the simple question: Why am I voting?

What are the stakes for me? Is my vote more than symbolic?

Should a senior, who will likely leave the county come May, influence lasting decisions?

What about a freshman who doesn’t know Market from Main Street? In most cases, the Vassar students’ tenure in Poughkeepsie is transient.

Lydia Biskup, the Republican candidate for councilwoman for Ward Six, which includes Vassar’s campus, expressed her doubts about student voting to the Miscellany News last week.

“With local elections, I do take issue—as do many voters—to college students mobilizing to vote in local elections,” she said. “Students do not live here permanently; they are here for a short time, and then go back to their homes…they don’t have a vested interest in the community.”

While it seems possible that

Biskup feels threatened by the liberal Vassar vote, her point is well taken.

Political Science Professor Sarita Gregory cites the 30-day residence requirement to rebut the argument that college students are temporary. She reported to the Miscellany in an emailed statement that the requirement is actually “met by most college students after their freshman orientation.” Students should know the facts about their eligibility to vote, but they should also approach it with a big dose of humility just after their freshman orientation.

Those that encourage local voting often apologize for its lack of glamour. In many ways, local voting is unsexy and gritty, but this is why many young, idealistic students may find it most appealing—their ability to take part in and romanticize the real world.

In local elections, every vote counts. Come Tuesday, consider what your vote really means.

—Hannah Blume ’13 is Opinions Editor. She is a sociology major.

November 3, 2011

OPINIONS

Page 11

VC should join community, workers in local Occupy Poughkeepsie movement Bill Crane

Guest Columnist

T

his past Saturday brought the heaviest snowstorm to hit Poughkeepsie in October since 1987. If you had been down to the East-West Arterial and Market Street at Hulme Park, then, you would have seen six or seven community members at Occupy Poughkeepsie huddled under their tents, determined to weather the storm.

I have to admit that while I was down at the occupation on Saturday, I did not stay with them while they kept the occupation going. I was, however, there with my comrades from the International Socialist Organization (ISO) to lend our solidarity and exchange stories, and we plan to go back there as often as we’re able to.

Out of the current cities under occupation by demonstrators, New York City, as well as Oakland, Boston and Denver, have attracted the most attention from the country and the world. This is for good reason—Wall Street was obviously the first and largest place to be occupied in the movement. But unfortunately, occupiers in the other cities have received more than their share of police violence and repression.

Behind the Occupy movement is a simple cry for social and economic justice. The masses of American people have been fed up with ongoing corporate greed that has had control over our supposedly democratic nation for way too long. Money has always been plentiful when the banks need it (they have been repeatedly bailed out for trillions of dollars by Bush and Obama) or when our government needs it to conduct brutal occupations overseas, but it never seems to be there for the things working-class Americans care

about—affordable healthcare and education, jobs and benefits being just the most basic of those. In this respect the Occupy movement is a welcome and necessary development— and one that the one percent should have seen coming.

In this sense, the spread of the movement is just as important—and even maybe more important—than the occupation of Wall Street.

Wall Street is important as a symbol as center of the largest banks that are responsible for the current financial crisis, the occupation of other cities and towns raises the question of whether it is becoming a true movement of the 99 percent. The slogan that has been so popular in New York—“the banks got bailed out, we got sold out!”—is not just for those fortunate enough to be in Zuccotti Park or those who have been able to visit it. It is one that can and should be taken up by all Americans who feel disenfranchised economically and politically by the current system, from sea to shining sea.

Though Poughkeepsie is not large on the radar of the Occupy movement, as with everywhere the occupation here speaks to large grievances of the city’s population against the ruling one percent of society. The occupation site is central in the working class neighborhood of Poughkeepsie, which has been the site of ongoing economic devastation since IBM shed thousands of jobs in 1993.

As Kira Woodworth, a community member and my comrade in the ISO wrote for our paper, Socialist Worker: “The African American and Latino communities that live near and around Main Street were hit particularly hard, and the neighborhood has borne the classic scars of a one-sided class war for some time: abandoned buildings, dilapidated parks,

homelessness, and high rates of unemployment and violent crime.”

Thus it was a very encouraging sign that one of the people I met at Occupy Poughkeepsie on Saturday was a former member of the Puerto Rican nationalist group, the Young Lords. It is incredibly important that people of color here and everywhere begin to take part in the Occupy movement, and they are beginning to, most notably at Wall Street, where among the various working groups are ones for people of color, and to “decolonize the 99 percent.” Their participation transforms this into a truly broad-based social movement.

It is incredibly important for Vassar students to head down to the occupation when we can, regardless of our race, gender or sexual orientation. After all, any of us who have taken out massive amounts of student loans (like myself) to afford Vassar are also suffering from the economic domination of the one percent. It is well known that many Vassar students don’t care about the community they are surrounded by. But we can begin to change that—instead of going down to New York to participate in the more prominent occupation there, the occupation of Poughkeepsie should be a call for us to get involved here, in our own community.

By doing this we can begin to make connections with others involved in the movement right here, and thus begin the long, but incredibly rewarding, job of building a social movement that includes workers and Vassar students that can shake the system to its foundations and build a new one based on human need rather than corporate greed.

In honor of No-Shave November, what’s your favorite facial hair?

“Muttonchops with a goatee, but severed in the middle.”

Ethan Slater ’14

“Frida’s eyebrow.”

Hannah Tatar ’12

“I like hair right under the eyes...

Cheek hair.”

—Bill Crane ’12 is an Asian studies major.

Big media must check its bias in coverage Juan Thompson Guest Columnist

T

he Occupy Wall Street protests and their counterparts across the country are a manifestation of the anger and frustration of the American people. An anger and frustration rooted in the economic inequality that has been washing across this country for decades. And finally, thousands of Americans are taking their struggles and legitimate concerns to the heart of America’s financial center and expressing their desire for change like never before.

But they’re fighting a two-front war. On one side stand the economic and political elites who will never relinquish their perches of privilege and power without a battle. And on the other side stand their media apologists who, with each passing day, show themselves to be shills for those they are supposed to be covering.

I first became aware of Erin Burnett in 2009 when I saw her on Real Time with Bill Maher.

On the show, Maher took her to task after implying that wealthiest Americans are suffering just as much everyone else. Now, a couple of years later, Erin Burnett is the anchor of CNN’s newest cable talk show Erin Burnett Outfront. She was previously at Citigroup and after that as anchor on CNBC. Before debuting her show last week, Burnett was asked if she was going to be more opinionated in her new capacity; she said yes.

Burnett made her opinions abundantly clear last week during her coverage of the Wall Street protesters. She was mocking, dismissive and oozing with condescension. She

ridiculed the bongo drums and crazy outfits.

She lectured the protesters on how TARP— the government program that bailed out the financial services firms—returned a profit for the government. She, as described by the Baltimore Sun’s David Zurawik, snorted that the encampment in lower Manhattan had “kind of a Tent City meets Woodstock kind of feel.”

It is not surprising that Burnett has used her position to trash the protesters and their motives. They are calling themselves the 99 percent and she is clearly in the top one percent. She worked at Goldman Sachs.

She is marrying a Citigroup executive. And the coming-out party Time Warner—CNN’s owner—hosted for her new show was filled with many influential Wall Street characters including JP Morgan Chase’s chief executive Jamie Dimon. The people she should be covering are her friends and former colleagues.

It is impossible to expect her to be objective.

She has a conflict of interest that does not hinder her from defending those people in her circle. And she is not alone.

Fox Business Network’s Charles Gasparino called them uninformed. Yes, Gasparino. They are ignorant. They’re not nearly as smart as the titans of Wall Street who pushed the nation and the world to the brink of economic disaster with complicated derivative schemes, which even many of them could not understand. They aren’t nearly as intelligent as the financial geniuses on Wall Street whose only suggestion for how to improve the economy is “cut regulations and taxes.” The United States is brimming with anticipation

for the next brilliant idea Gasparino’s buddies will shove down the country’s throat.

Gasparino and Burnett are but two mere examples of the corporate media’s complete failure to cover these issues. Sure they are elitist, detached propagandists waging an arrogant and deliberate campaign of misinformation in an effort to quell dissent. But they aren’t alone.

A quick trip to mediamatters.org shows example after example of news organizations disparaging a genuine grass roots movement.

For far too long the middle class, working and poor citizens of this country have been left behind and left out. Those people at the top of the economic ladder privatize the profits and socialize the losses. They, with their reckless behavior, pushed the country into economic disaster. The government bailed them out. What happened next? The government sought to cut social programs that benefit everyone else while not raising taxes on those who can most afford it. Was anyone on Wall Street arrested? No. But 700 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge were.

This is the story that should be being told by our media. Instead we have elites covering elites. These people dine and socialize with each other. It’s like the fox guarding the hen house. The fourth estate is the gatekeeper.

They should guard the masses against the never-ending campaign of elites to dominate society. But in the United States our media is in bed with the economic and political elites and they do their bidding everyday.

—Juan Thompson ’13 is a political science major.

Elodie Browning Blakely ’12

“Joe Dirt-style.”

Roni Teich ’13

“Obviously, really unruly sideburns.”

Chloe Horowitz ’13

“Complete beard.”

ADVERTISEMENT Jonathan Bix ’14 —Juliana Halpert, Photography Editor Alanna Okun, Humor & Satire Editor

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

OPINIONS

Page 12

November 3, 2011

Bottled water marketing Current political, social indignities tactic targets Latinos prompt America’s time for outrage Alli Crook and Caitlin Krown

T

Guest Columnists

o Tap That, a campaign of the Vassar Greens dedicated to reducing bottled water use on campus, commercial scams and unregulated corruption are expected of all major bottled water companies. From images of mountain springs and false promises of a healthier, cleaner product, bottled water companies have designed a product so cleverly that many are now convinced that they cannot live without it and are willing to pay for something that is literally free.

Recently, bottled water corporate king Nestlé has started a new kind of marketing tactic: targeting minorities.

Depending on where you live in the country, you may know Nestlé bottles by a number of names such as Arrowhead, Calistoga, Deer Park, Ice Mountain, Ozarka, Poland Spring and Zephyrhills. Nestlé has a new brand of bottled water called Pure Life that takes water from a public water source, filters it, bottles it and sells it at thousands of times the price without releasing information regarding the quality of the product they are selling. Meanwhile, public water treatment facilities are required to release reports concerning the cleanliness of tap water.

But the injustices of this company go far beyond typical corporate nonsense.

Nestlé uses a variety of tactics to target the Latino minority in their marketing.

Underprivileged Latino families are especially vulnerable to such advertisement, as they often come from places that don’t have access to clean drinking water. Nestlé exploits this in a number of ways. They run campaigns that specifically target Latino mothers and utilize Latino celebrity endorsements.

Furthermore, the main Pure Life store in New York is located in a neighborhood in the Bronx that has one of the highest concentrations of Latinos. It is also one of the poorest communities in the country. These are families that can’t afford to spend money on such a useless commodity, and yet Latino families spend three times as much on bottled water each year (an average of one percent of their annual pay check). They are purchasing an unsustainable product from unethical companies who lie about their product.

Nov. 2 was a national day of action facilitated by Think Outside the Bottle, an organization that aims to hold corporations accountable for their practices and misdeeds. Vassar’s Tap That participated by holding a water taste test in the College Center and by hosting a screening of the movie FLOW this evening. These actions and this campaign are not just another hippie, green protest, but an appeal to a larger audience and a larger social injustice and exploitation that is occurring. Tap That has been in contact with other on campus groups, such as Poder Latino, to help facilitate a larger movement for justice. In line with the Occupy Wall Street protests, there is something about this campaign that should appeal to a range of groups calling for corporate accountability and a larger value on humanity, not equity. Drinking bottled water is not only an individual’s waste of money, but money given to support an industry that is filled with social injustice and corruption.

—Alli Crook and Caitlin Krown are coordinators of the Vassar Green’s Tap That committee.

Jon Bix

I

Guest Columnist

n 2010, the book Time for Outrage! was published by 94-year-old Stéphane Hessel, a member of the French Resistance, a survivor of Nazi torture and concentration camp imprisonment, a diplomat, and a drafter of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Composed of fewer than 29 less-than-half-sized pages of writing, Time for Outrage! is a condemnation of the global greed which has put a stranglehold on our world and the indifference of today’s youth which allows it to take place.

Hessel’s outrage comes from the destruction of much of what the resistance against Fascism and Nazism stood for: the belief in the right of all human beings—whether Jewish, Palestinian, black, poor, etc.—to live dignified and productive lives. The destruction of this belief is nowhere more apparent than in the United States, and the American conservative movement is trying as hard as it can to destroy it even further. It continues to pursue policies of neo-liberalism, strengthening powerful private market forces and destroying the power of the democratic state to empower its citizenry and create a more just society.

Inequality has reached past the levels of the Gilded Age, and our politics is dominated by money with regard only for profit instead of the common good. 46.2 million Americans, including 16.4 million children, 27 percent of African-Americans and 26 percent of Hispanics live in poverty. That means they live in a family of four which has to live off of, at most, $22,350 a year. Around half of these people must live on $11,175 a year or less—for sustenance, shelter, health, safety, clothing, transportation, education, child care and any other need or want. This causes physical and emotional pain and handicap impossible to describe. About 14 million people are unemployed. We live in a society with mass imprisonment (prisoners are disproportionately black and Hispanic), where people such as Troy Davis are executed, where racism and xenophobia have just become law in Arizona and Alabama, where people are legally discriminated against because of gender and sexual orientation.

We have, however, reached a potentially monumental turning point in history. We are stuck in a recession, where we will remain until we accept the failure of neoliberalism. Many Americans have finally decided to mobi-

lize themselves under the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has spread throughout the United States, from Chicago to Fargo to Los Angeles to Washington D.C. to Ft. Lauderdale. Unions, national progressive movements, organizations and politicians, left intellectuals, and community organizations have also joined, and opinion polls show that widespread anxiety and anger have translated into a majority positive view of Occupy Wall Street.

As students of an elite liberal institution, we are uniquely privileged with the ability to improve the world.

We are not yet full adults. While some of us have parttime jobs, athletic commitments, artistic endeavors and other activities which take up much of our time, we have plenty of free time as well. We do not have the responsibilities which come with full-time jobs or families. But like adults, we can comprehend how unjust our world is, how privileged we are, and how to do something about this injustice. However, many of us are stuck in a mode of thinking without acting, or, we simply don’t care. As young people, we have succumbed to “’mass media… [which present us] a worldview defined by the temptations of mass consumption, a disdain for the weak, and a contempt for culture, historical amnesia and the relentless competition of all against all,‘” as Hessel writes. We could worry about social justice, but instead we worry about the next iPhone or Droid. We ignore structural failings and blame individuals.

Or, we don’t know how we can make a difference. It doesn’t take going to Occupy Wall Street; Occupy Poughkeepsie, which can be found on Facebook, is taking off.

One can join an activist club making a difference on and around campus, whether it’s the Greens and their sustainability campaigns, the Dems and their political campaigns, GAAP and their Vassar Workers’ rights campaign, or something else. The more inwardly focused individuals among us might need some more incentive, which fortunately, Hessel illuminates for us: “indignation. This is a precious thing. When outraged, as I was by Nazism, you will become militant, strong, and engaged. You will join the great course of history as it flows toward greater justice-greater freedom.” There are more than enough indignities to choose from. If now is not a time for outrage, then when?

—Jon Bix ’14 is a political science and sociology major.

Crossword by Jonathan Garfinkel ACROSS 1. “Right now!”, medically 5. “Rocky Mountain fresh” 10. Cartoonist Thomas ____ 14. Ones running en Pamplona 16. Main artery 17. Certain ray 18. In the works, say 19. Any ism 20. _____ alia 21. “The difference is drinkability” 23. Some steaks 25. Tee-shirt revolutionary 26. It may be electric 27. Whence one might be able to see

Russia from one’s backyard 31. “___ Lay Dying” 34. ___ Lingus 36. Headless Anne 37. Bombay Sapphire, for one 38. Mil. rations 40. Mix 41. Regarding 44. Holy ___ (Vatican City) 46. Boot maker 47. What Pablo may be reading 48. Mouse’s home 49. ___-wolf, “mother” to Romulus and Remus 50. Hurricane in the pacific

Answers to last week’s puzzle

52. Shakespearean villain 54. Scandalized former employer of Dennis Kozlowski 56. Mas’ partners 57. Some high perches 59. Alcoholics Anonymous enlistee 60. “Gimme ___!” (Philadelphia cheerleader’s cry, perhaps) 61. Take too far 62. Poe’s “The Masque of the ___ Death” 64. “I didn’t need to know that!”, briefly 65. Cool, calm, and collected 70. “Give yourself a good name” 75. French actor Delon 76. Outspoken 78. Commercial partner of “Barrel” 79. Madrid royal 80. “For good _____” 81. Singer/pianist John 82. Seine crossing 83. Whether it’s Light, Regular, or Ice, it’s always terrible 84. Sicilian spewer DOWN 1. Shank, say 2. Vegan staple 3. Yanks slugger 4. Implement 5. Stash 6. ____ Cloud 7. Miner’s product 8. US-1 and others 9. “Sexy ____” (Beatles tune) 10. Itty-bitty prefix 11. Against 12. British submachine gun 13. Does before feathering, perhaps 15. Adhesive 17. ______ High Life 22. African nation governed from Accra 24. Stacks of paper 27. They may be a “Situation” 28. Elise carmaker

29. Burning 30. Google founder Brin, and others 31. Major general and defense minister to Octavian 32. Girls given name from the emerald isle 33. Not versed, say 35. To inhale and exhale 39. US Navy ___, ___, Land Forces (commando corps) 42. Layer 43. Tic-tac-toe win 45. Crept 50. Some bags 51. Actress Watts 53. Bear, en Chile 55. “Miles away from ordinary”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

58. Convey (an emotion) 63. Home of Exeter and Plymouth 64. The tube, to a Brit 65. Asian ones threaten the Great Lakes 66. It’s not butter 67. Common street name 68. 1/8 of a gallon 69. Certain explorer 70. Stop 71. Mystery author ____ Stanley Gardner 72. Comedian Williams 73. Elite school near Windsor 74. 99 Luftballons singer 77. Briefly bankrupt finance company

HUMOR & SATIRE

November 3, 2011

Page 13

OPINIONS

The perfect LikeALittle Mr. Bouchard’s rules for post: your how-to guide staying healthy this season Arick Wong

W

Guest Columnist

e’re past the first half of the semester; Camp Vassar is over and the reality of schoolwork has officially kicked in. Readings, lab reports, papers, and textbooks have become the bane of our collective existence, and what’s a better way to blow off frustration than by writing voyeuristic posts about that special someone in your Intro to Jaded Liberal Arts Studies course? Whether it is due to sexual or academic frustration, there has been an influx of LikeALittle posts in the past few weeks for your personal procrastination indulgence.

For those students who are unfamiliar with the wonders and terrors of, LikeALittle, it’s a website for anonymous flirting in the style of Craigslist Missed Connections. However, because you’re not allowed to use names, there’s a twist: everyone is automatically assigned a fruit name. Like many others, I had never even heard of a lucuma before LikeALittle. This year, some of the posts have been charming; others seem like bad lines from a Star Wars roleplay pornography (see: “DV, I’ll make you my daddy.”) Here’s a guide to writing the most effective (or at least the most not-totally-creepy) LikeALittle posts: 1. Keep it classy.

LAL stands for LikeALittle, not LathropAnalLoving. While it can be relatively cathartic to write about your sexual frustrations, there’s a an all-too-fine line between flirting and being an actual sex offender. Avoid such charming statements as “Cutie in my freshman writing seminar... Are you into boys? I’d swallow your load any day.”

2. Be tactful.

Flirting is meant to be cute, not disrespectful. There’s nothing that’s more of a turn-off than an offensive comment. This website is meant for flirting, not snide comments or complaints. Save that for SayAnything. I’d stay away from anything remotely resembling a post I recently saw: “hot Japanese freshman, can I get you with a side of rice?” Oy.

Jean-Luc Bouchard

3. Specificity is key.

There’s nothing more frustrating than reading a LikeALittle that you think is about you but then again could be the three hundred other people who have the same flannel shirt as you. If you’re referring to the sad hipster girl in the corner of the Mug, BE SPECIFIC. Note her sweater patterns, shoe size, and whether her glasses resemble Woody Allen’s or Harry Potter’s.

I

3. Drink Listerine.

Guest Columnist

t’s that time of year again. No, not when the memory of the gruesome murder you witnessed as a child comes back to haunt you in the form of violent night-terrors. I’m talking about flu season! It seems like everyone and their maid is getting sick these few days. Well never fear, Vassar, because I’ve got just the tips to keep you healthy!

1. Isolate the sick.

4. Don’t write about yourself.

Come on, guys.

5. Don’t obsessively post about the same person.

This just calls for a restraining order.

I might be a bit worried too if I see a series of posts saying “Blonde guy liked at The Retreat,” “Blonde guy liked at Rose Parlor,” “Blonde guy liked at Main Third Floor shower,” “Blonde guy liked at Under His Bed Ew Why Are There So Many Dust Bunnies Here.” Sometimes, caring is creepy.

Why spend all day avoiding a diseased-one’s handshake or spray of mucus when you can simply remove them from daylight? See a sneeze?

Encounter a cough? Call Security and have the tainted dragged from class like animals. The new Blight Chamber (located in the basement of Lathrop) provides all the luxuries a deathly sick student could ask for—a floor and a ceiling! Don’t let emotions or qualms about human rights get in the way of imprisoning a best friend or loved one.

They’ll thank you once they’re released back to the surface world—after a mandatory three-year quarantine, of course.

2. Eat as much Deece food as you can.

6. Using initials can sometimes be misleading.

Oftentimes, there are other people with the same initals as you. In order to avoid confusion, it’s better to put in some details. Here is a typical example: “Get at me, AB.” This post was obviously written about Abigail Baird.

Nothing prepares your body for the onslaught of microbial massacre like a double-helping of the now tri-weekly fish and chips! It’s chock full of Vitamin F, tastypods and electroberries!

Just down the stuff. It was originally advertised in the 1920s as being able to prevent tuberculosis, before the biased liberal media pushed the CEOs into the mud of integrity and forced them to eat the dirt of progressivism. I say, if it was good enough for a flapper, it’s good enough for me!

4. Vaccines are evil.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that shoving a tiny knife filled with liquid into your arm isn’t healthy—and I know, because I am not a rocket scientist! I take my medicine the good old-fashioned way: the ears. Besides, vaccines were invented by the French, and since I have the single Frenchiest name on campus, I’ll consider myself the resident expert, until Monsieur Baguette McFromagepants gets accepted into the Class of 2016.

5. Doctors are inherently terrifying.

When you’re sick, you’re already under a tremendous amount of stress. The last thing you need is a six-foot-seven man in a blood-stained lab coat yelling at you in a foreign accent, as I can only assume all doctors do. As a child, I was blessed with parents who never took me to a doctor, and I’d sell my duct tape leg brace and lemon juice contact lens solution before going to some quack. Be your own doctor—you’ve survived this long on your own instincts, might as well keep trusting them.

ADVERTISEMENT

7. Be playful.

It’s a website made for flirting, and there’s nothing more attractive than wit (besides someone who’s willing to pay for your Bacio’s). You’re not allowed to use profanity on the website, but there are definitely ways to get around it. If life gives you lemons, make sexual euphemisms about it.

Now that you have this comprehensive guide to writing LikeALittle posts, go write about that biddy you spotted at the Halloween party- you know, the one dressed like slutty zombie Steve Jobs- even if you two are apples and oranges.

Weekly Calendar: 11/3-11/9 Thursday, 11/3 3 p.m. Tea. “Hey brah, it’s finally No-Shave November!”

Rose Parlor.

3:30 p.m. Oxford/Cambridge Information Session.

Crumpets. Monocles. Tutorials. Constitutional monarchy.

You’re welcome. Faculty Parlor.

5:00 p.m. Jumpstart Your Internship Search.

Your options for this summer include: your dad’s law office, your aunt’s PR firm, your third cousin’s boyfriend’s mechanic’s estranged wife’s zine, Arby’s. Faculty Commons.

Friday, 11/4 3 p.m. Tea. “Thank God, broseph. I’ve been waiting to grow these sweet muttonchops all year. My stupid whiny girlfriend doesn’t like them, but just let me do me, y’know?”

Rose Parlor.

6 p.m. A Cappella ’til You Puke. Hey, at least it’s honest.

Retreat.

by Alanna Okun, Humor & Satire Editor

8 p.m. Philaletheis New Works Festival. Student theater ’til you puke. Rocky 312.

Saturday, 11/5 8 p.m. Women’s Chorus Concert. Ave Marias ’til you puke. Chapel.

9 p.m. Dormal Formal. Freshmen grinding while wearing their prom outfits ’til you pu- okay this isn’t funny anymore.

Jewett.

Sunday, 11/6 10 a.m. Fair Trade Bazaar. You can finally tell everyone that at least YOUR ironic poncho wasn’t made using the labor of Cambodian refugee orphans, unlike some former squash opponents of yours you could mention. Aula.

2 p.m. “Go Away and Never Come Back: A New Play.” Starring that guy who used to work at UpC who would always tell me that I looked like Molly Ringwald, just because I have fake red hair and scowl a lot. Sanders Auditorium.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Monday, 11/7 3 p.m. Tea. “Nice, broseidon, you’re going for the chops? I thought I’d try for something edgy, like a Dali or a fu manchu.” Rose Parlor.

7:30 p.m. “Dance in America” Lecture. Topics include “Stanky Leg” and “Dougieing: Please Just Stop.” Kenyon Dance Theater.

Tuesday, 11/8 3 p.m. Tea. “You’re a frickin’ inspiration, brohannesburg.”

Rose Parlor.

10 p.m. Trivia Night. Question #4,815,365,135: How early is too early to start blasting Christmas music? Bonus question: How Jewish is too Jewish to start blasting Christmas music? Mug.

Wednesday, 11/9 3 p.m. Tea. “Yeah, can’t wait for all the hot underclassmen tail I’m inevitably going to get. Sucks about your girlfriend, bromosexual-life-partner.” “Yeah.” Rose Parlor.

ARTS

Page 14

November 3, 2011

A diva in her own right, Jomama Jones to serenade Vassar Jack Owen

T

Reporter

Courtesy of thenewgay.net

he identity of diva has become a mainstay in the American pop-cultural imagination, as Beyonce, Rihanna and Lady Gaga are now household names. Jomama Jones, a sultry superstar of a performer, embodies the diva identity with her killer legs, loud pipes, dangerously high heels and a larger-than-life persona.

“There is something about her that immediately reaches people,” said Daniel Alexander Jones ’91 of his alter ego, Jomama Jones. “She creates a very welcoming atmosphere.”

Jones, who describes himself as an “interdisciplinary artist,” will perform his program An Evening with Jomama Jones this Friday in the Chapel at 8 p.m., an event considered one of the highlights of the three-day conference Smashing History: 150 Years of LGBTIQA Vassar.

Smashing History serves as a celebration of LGBTIQA communities at Vassar throughout the ages with prominent guest alumnae/i guests, panels, performances, workshops and exhibitions.

Jones first conceptualized the alter ego of Jomama when he was 25 years old. However, he initially included her in only a couple of performances, rediscovering her many years later in his forties. “She became an interesting counterpoint to me, being at that time a kind of super fabulous soul superstar that helped me to explore themes around gender and power,” Jones expounded. “She returned as an older, wiser figure, and now in my forties she has become a way for me to speak from my highest self about issues related to identity.”

Jones, an Africana studies major, now teaches at Fordham University as the head of the Playwriting Program. He has performed in cities all over the world, including London, Dublin, New York and Boston.

“He has been a really big name for a really long time,” said LGBTQ Center Intern Jeremy Garza ’14, who organized the event. Garza,

Jomama Jones, the altar ego of Daniel Alexander Jones ’91 pictured above, croons during one of her energetic performances. Jones will perform in the Chapel on Nov. 4 at 8 p.m., as part of Smashing History. along with other students and faculty, were bothered that the College’s sesquicentennial events failed to acknowledge Vassar’s rich queer history.

Jones insists that Jomama is an essence entirely separate from himself. “She pushes Daniel out of the way completely,” he said with a laugh.

“She is able to talk about anything, whereas I may feel reticent in some area around the issue I’m talking about,” he explained. “She just goes for it, and people tell her things and share with her in a very intimate way.” And Jomama, in spite of her diva-like qualities, is apparently an incredibly warm and understanding person.

“She is a worldly wise, world-traveled performer who is also a kind of spirit worker,” said Jones. “That may seem a bit strange to say, but

because she has been through so many highs and lows throughout her career, she has developed a very deep love of humanity without being blind to the challenges that we all face,” he added.

Jones’ own experiences growing up may have indeed influenced Jomama’s captivating personality. “I grew up in a pretty workingclass, racially and culturally diverse environment, and while I did experience bullying and anti-gay sentiments as most young people still do, I was also surrounded by a lot of love and interest in my individuality,” explained Jones. “Like most young people, my big challenges came when I stepped out into a broader world, and I had to learn how to be true to myself in circumstances that were

welcoming and others that were really difficult,” he added.

While Jones insists that Jomama is a full being on her own, he acknowledges that her performance style has been influenced by soul megastars like Dionne Warwick and Diana Ross.

“Lena Horne and Josephine Baker also come to mind, even though they’re from a much earlier era,” said Jones. “There’s something about the way they carried themselves and their concern for humanity as a whole that is similar to [Jomama], and their love of sequins,” he said with a chuckle.

Similarly, because Jomama is such a complete persona, Jones says that although she draws on aspects of drag performance, he does not think of her as drag. “Technically, yes, I’m a man putting on the performance of a woman, but no more than an actor would take on any role,” he said. In turn, Jones sees both the merits and problems of traditional drag performance. “I think drag suggests our capacity for transformation, and that the ideas about our identity in terms of gender particularly, which seem fixed, may not be so fixed,” he explained.

“But I also think there are ways in which drag can be associated with a very warped sense of what the feminine is; that’s not always the case. The concept of transformation is where its power truly lies.”

Garza, who saw the program at Symphony Hall in New York City last year, gushed about Jomama’s upbeat and professional performance.

“There is classiness and professionalism in this act and persona that you have never seen before,” he said. “It’s just full of energy, and it’s not crude at all. It’s just very on point.” Jomama will be performing entirely original songs, two of which are already on iTunes.

And spectators should be ready to have the spotlight turned on them. “They can expect that they will not be a passive audience,” Jones said. “Jomama will want to have a conversation with them!”

Alum turned professor collaborates with students Shruti Manian

A

Assistant Arts Editor

Jonah Bleckner/The Miscellany News

s a young sophomore at Vassar College, when Tyler Rowland ’00 took his first sculpture class, little did he know that someday he would be teaching the very same class.

Rowland is now an adjunct professor of art at the College.

Rowland came to Vassar intending to pursue a degree in creative writing. However in his sophomore year, he chanced to take a sculpture class and found his true calling in creating art that literally captured the depth of objects. “It just clicked with the way my mind works. The way things exist and understanding their three-dimensional structure was important to the way I perceived objects,” said Rowland. Rowland has family members who are plumbers, shoe-makers and even chemical engineers. Given this background Rowland considers it natural that he was drawn to the materiality of objects and found that sculpture gave him the perfect outlet to express his perspective.

Associate Professor of Art Peter Charlap remembers Rowland as a student. “Tyler always wore a baseball cap,” Charlap said. “One day we went out to draw and when we looked at the work Tyler’s drawing had these weird dark shapes on both sides. I couldn’t figure out what they were so I asked. ‘That’s the brim of my cap,’ he said.” Rowland brought this unique perspective into everything he did even after he left Vassar.

After graduating from Vassar in 2000, Rowland went on to graduate school in Boston.

There, Rowland was a teaching fellow at Harvard University and taught at Northeastern University for a short while. In the years that he spent in Boston, Rowland realized that he missed Vassar and its creative atmosphere. “I missed the Vassar mind. The students here are engaged and think out of the box. They try to apply what they’ve learnt to the real world,” said Rowland. Rowland’s own approach to art is very distinctive and eclectic. One of his personal projects, “Artist’s Uniform,” reveals his unconventional and quirky side. “Artist’s Uniform” is an ongoing project that Rowland has

been working on since May 16, 2002. Rowland uses his own clothing to express the continuum that art and life share and create a self-portrait of an artist in his everyday life. Rowland expresses his artistic inquiries and thoughts through his wardrobe. For instance, he spent an entire year wearing pink, and another year wearing zebra print. “I became a monochrome.

My shirt, socks, every article of my clothing would be dyed one color. There was a sense of militant uniformity,” said Rowland. This year Rowland’s clothing and appearance reflect that of Gustave Courbet, an artist that Rowland finds inspirational. With his untrimmed beard, mass of curly hair and choice of clothing, Rowland tries to create a physical resemblance to Courbet.

Courbet is also an integral part of one of Rowland’s longterm projects. Rowland chronicles the history of France from 1848 to 2002 through the works of French artists from the period. First, Rowland picks a painting by a prominent French painter. Each of these paintings is a representation of the French government of the time. Rowland then creates an installation that deconstructs the painting and tells a story of how the painting came into being and traces its history.

Over the summer, Rowland displayed one of the works from this series at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. This installation was inspired by Courbet’s painting “The Stonebreakers” that was destroyed in a fire.

The installation depicts the various materials required to create a work of art and includes objects like a hammer, a measuring tape and a paintbrush. Other than Courbet, this project incorporates the works of numerous prolific French artists like Yves Klein and Daniel Buren. “Each painting represents a change in painting style and there is a sense of realism because it is connected to real life. You see the tools and the activity of work that went into the art,” explained Rowland.

Rowland encourages his own approach to art in his classes at Vassar. Rowland encourages his students to work with new materials and new techniques.

Mary Fenton ’14 is one of the students in

Adjunct Professor of Art Tyler Rowland ’00 transforms his unique approach to art into a teaching tool as a professor. He was recently involved in the Sukkot Project, building two sukkahs on campus.

Rowland’s sculpture class. “Professor Rowland gives us a lot of freedom to do what we want.

He always encourages us to do something that’s never been done before,” she said. Rowland seeks to work closely with his students, involving them in his projects.

One of Rowland’s most significant contributions to Vassar has been the Sukkot Project.

Last year, the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life approached Rowland to design and build two sukkahs. Rowland collaborated with students and built two unusual sukkahs on the Vassar campus. Located outside Aula and Lathrop House, the sukkahs were built with wooden frames and strings and reeds. “The Sukkah represented the fragility and temporary nature

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

of things, through the delicacy of the materials they were built out of,” explained Rowland.

Rowland has been teaching at Vassar for the last four years. However this coming spring is his last semester here. “It feels as though I am graduating for the second time,” joked Rowland. Rowland looks forward to dividing his time between his newborn baby and working on his own projects. As he prepares for an upcoming show in Mexico City, Rowland’s enthusiasm and ambition for the future is happily evident. “The most important work in my life is always whatever I am working on next.

Whatever is on the horizon and percolating in my mind is what is most important to me,” ended Rowland.

ARTS

November 3, 2011

Page 15

Playwrights debut at Hip-hop courses help hone Phil. New Works Fest critical thinking, collaboration Sam Plotkin

M

Guest Reporter

uch of the student theater seen on campus is brought in from outside sources, not work from its very own student body. But this upcoming weekend, Philaletheis’ New Work Festival will feature just that—a staged reading of two original works by student playwrights Kevin Ritter ’15 and Sam Lahne ’12.

Ritter’s work, entitled “Three Greek Plays: ‘Cassandra,’ ‘Calliope’ and ‘Erato’” will go on first on Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. in Rockefeller Hall, room 312, followed by Lahne’s play “Nothing. An Empty Room” on Nov. 5 at the same time and place.

Ritter’s “Three Greek Plays” is composed of three modern adaptations of stories and characters from Greek mythology. In his work, Ritter discusses themes of romantic, parental and artistic love and inspiration, all through the lens of mythology.

His play “Erato” depicts its title character, a muse, struggling to have significant connections with the many poets and artists that she consistently inspires.

In “Calliope,” the title character, another muse, must deal with the harsh reality of her son Orpheus, the famed musician, growing up and falling in love.

The third play, “Cassandra,” shows a juxtaposition of love and destruction as its title character Cassandra, the disbelieved prophet, has her world brought to an end by the man who claims to be her true soulmate.

“I would say that the thing all my plays have in common is their experimentation with language,” Ritter said. “The characters often do not speak as we do in real life. They speak more rhythmically, like a slam poem,” said Jahne.

“This is at once a reference to the verse-style of ancient Greek plays, but also a way to renew these stories for a contemporary audience.”

“Nothing. An Empty Room,” accord-

ing to Lahne, is about “two people dealing with the repercussions of a one night stand, and the two actors who unwillingly perform this encounter and attempt to shape the play towards their own ends.”

He said this play is actually a reworking of an earlier work he wrote called “Jetsam, Flotsam,” which won a playwriting award at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C. Lahne, an Italian and drama double major, recently had another work, a monologue entitled “Killer Klownz Lazerz (Casu Marzu),” performed at the Philaletheis Directing Workshops.

Both playwrights, in fact, have had prior experience writing for the stage.

A pair of Ritter’s short plays were performed in an evening once at his high school in Lakewood, Ohio. Ritter said this particular event will be the longest collection of his work yet performed during the same, one night.

Lahne explained his experience with this particular project. “I’ve been really enjoying working with such wonderful actors,” he said. “Just hearing the words that I wrote out loud is a lesson in what works and what doesn’t—what sounds good and what is totally corny.”

Ritter enjoys seeing the process of executing his play. “The interesting thing about playwriting is that it is at once isolating and extremely social,” said Ritter.

“When I sit down to write for the stage, I essentially hole myself up in my room and figure out what I want to say. But then, I send it off to actors, and sometimes other directors, and they interpret my words for me. My work also becomes their work.”

Each reading will not require any reservations. This will also be the very first time Philaletheis has put on a New Works Festival.

Plotkin is a General Body member of Philaletheis and is participating in the student organization’s New Work Festival.

Charlacia Dent

T

Assistant Arts Editor

he name of the iconic rapper Jay Z constantly punctuates media coverage. We’ve seen the countless Grammy’s, gold and platinum albums, number-one LPs and Billboard-charted singles. Yet many of us fail to look beneath all the fame and appreciate who the real Shawn Carter is.

However, when Professor of English Kiese Laymon was in search of a contemporary autobiography to teach in his classes this year, Jay Z was the first to come to mind. “He has rewritten his life for us 12 times, and we are still interested. It’s fascinating to see how he was able to spin his autobiography into global dominance,” Laymon said.

In part, this has been the job of Laymon, when he took on the task of infusing hip-hop culture into the Vassar curriculum. There are many people who fail to realize that hip hop is a multifaceted genre with ties to numerous backgrounds and experiences. “People are using hip hop to revolt, sell items, work out their relationships with themselves; it’s everywhere,” Laymon said.

Even so, many people still look down upon the genre, generalizing the style to one stigmatized Black culture with negative roots. This explains why teaching hip hop in the classrooms has not been highly revered nor accepted by academia and traditional methods of pedagogy. But according to Laymon, there are invaluable skills, both personal and artistic, that hip hop has to offer the world.

Laymon first realized that he wanted to use hip hop as a springboard for academic insight after teaching the course called Narrative of the Underground. The last two weeks of the course explored how hip hop moved from an underground to a global force.

“The kids were really into it. It crystallized everything that we had been learning about. It wasn’t about hip-hop appreciation, or how cool rap is. I thought that for freshmen coming in, ‘What better way to explore local communities and local culture?’ Create a global residence via hip hop,” Laymon explained. Shortly after, Laymon’s freshmen writing seminar Hip Hop and Critical Citizenship was born, laying the foundation for other hip-hop influenced classes to follow.

“I’m very attracted to what the best of hip hop

has managed to do. The best hip-hop artists are just doing things with words that you don’t see even the best journalists, authors and professors doing.

It is much more profound than what you see in the best of other art forms. As a kid that appealed to me,” Laymon explained.

In his hip-hop creative writing courses, Laymon is highly focused on creative imagination. Instead of focusing on the individual writer, Laymon has incorporated joint projects and performances into his course structure. This is because, as Laymon explained, hip-hop culture speaks to more than one struggle and identity. One voice is the voice of millions and that voice works as a connective tool.

“I want my students to be responsible for the projects that they are putting out. My students are performing and receiving multifaceted criticism.

You have to be responsible for what you create. If you can’t defend what you write in the face of critics then maybe you shouldn’t be creating this art,” Laymon said.

Many of the students that Laymon has taught have gone on to do profound work as journalists, filmmakers, producers, writers and artists. In many ways it is a testament to how he takes his students on a journey, not only to understand the lives of rappers like Jay Z, but to discover themselves and what they have to offer the world. “It feels good and I appreciate being able to study something that not completely conventional. Jay Z is talked about in my neighborhood and even here at Vassar. Just knowing about how he became successful makes me think about my own story,” said Martha Lino ’14, a student in Laymon’s Shawn Carter class this semester.

Many of the in-class assignments are centered around autobiography. The students have written songs about where they are from to popular Jay Z tracks, and imitated the autobiography of James Baldwin, the famed writer. They’ve even tried to reduce one of Jay Z’s 30-track albums to an 11-track album, thinking critically about which songs are truly representative of his autobiography.

“I want the students to able to use a creative and critical lens to explore their lives and the lives of other people around them,” Laymon said. “And imaginatively come up with ways to make their lives better.”

Peng’s performace to explore Asian dance traditions Emma Daniels

I

Reporter

Courtesy of Cheng Peng

n the first rehearsal for “Autumn Songs,” an upcoming dance performance in the Shiva, Cheng Peng ’12, the choreographer, handed his dancers a Chinese brush, ink and paper, instructing them to paint as they feel. Of this activity he explained, “I conceive the brush as an extension of one’s body and because the diluted ink can really trace movement, painting is kind of a dance, a documentation of one’s body movement.”

“Autumn Songs,” which will take place on Saturday, Nov. 5 at 9 p.m. in the Susan Stein Shiva Theater, will feature dancers Simone Levine ’13, Mickey Maher ’12, Ellen Xie ’13, Emily Dunuwila ’12 and Peng himself.

The performance showcases the types of movement Peng has studied since he started to dance his freshman year at Vassar. In choreographing the dance, he focused primary on Chinese modern dance, which is influenced by tai chi and Butoh, a conceptual form of Japanese modern dance that is centered on slow, hyper-controlled motion and traditionally performed in white body make-up.

Butoh often involves a type of playful and grotesque imagery, addressing traditionally taboo topics in particularly strange or extreme settings.

“In terms of movement and style, it’s a mixture of my previous experimentations and at the same time it emphasizes my dance experience at Vassar,” Peng noted.

The dancers have worked once a week with Peng since September, and for most of the dancers the experience working with Peng has been vastly different physically and emotionally from their experience in Vassar dance classes and other Vassar dance programs like Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre or FlyPeople.

Instead of the westerm modern, jazz and

ballet dance styles emphasized in many Vassar dance courses, the movement and style favored

by Peng corresponds with Eastern dance technique.

“In the Western world, dance is about how human can conquer nature, about working against gravity. The higher you can jump is not important in these dances, though; in these dances, the dancers go down to the floor, sink into the earth and acknowledge they are a part of nature,” Peng said. The painting exercise was a way illustrate this very idea to the dancers, as they moved in communion with the ink and external forces surrounding them.

The painting exercise as well demonstrated the notion that dance as an art form is something that transcends the need to define movement within specific confines.

Although Peng is now well-versed in many aspects of technical dance, he didn’t start dancing professionally until his freshman year of Vassar. He emphasized that if one looks at the idea of dance as a broad concept, though, numerous experiences he had before coming to the College acted as informal training for his future as a dancer and choreographer.

Particularly, he mentioned that doing tai chi and martial arts in high school influenced his understanding of bodily expression and movement. In addition, Peng explained that his experience playing in a rock band, painting, singing and studying film have all contributed to his work in dance, as they all in some way or another involve a dialogue between space, time, sound and the body.

All of his knowledge will be incorporated into “Autumn Songs.” The piece is a narrative performance divided into six chapters: prologue/previous life, end of summer/birth, autumn moon, autumn wind, autumn coldness,

Cheng Peng ’12, above, borrowed from Chinese modern dance while choreographing “Autumn Songs.”

The dance performance, which will feature four other student dancers, will take place on Nov. 5. autumn sorrow and end of autumn/death, occuring consecutively in a fluid sweep.

The piece doesn’t only embrace Eastern dance forms, but also extends to other aspects of Asian culture. As an Asian studies major who focuses on Buddhism, Peng was interested in incorporating Buddhist ideology into the piece, specifically the link between humanity and nature.

“The narrative focuses on transmigration and rebirth,” he noted. “It starts with the general depiction of natural phenomenon in autumn and gradually shifts towards pure emotion.”

Peng thinks the audience will consider the piece particularly noteworthy because

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

its tone is different from most dance performances at Vassar, and in the United States in general.

He noted the difference between art in the United States and in China. “Although I have limited perspective on United States art, it seems that it is related to entertainment, and is about the American ideology of the pursuit of happiness,” he said, “whereas in China, historically, art is related to personal expression—expression of conflict, of yourself, of the eternal world, of catharsis, of escape.”

“In ‘Autumn Songs,’ dance expresses a strong sense of suffering, but suffering is seen in a beautiful way.”

ARTS

Page 16

November 3, 2011

Albee’s classic continues to Hochla at home on musical, dance stages resonate today Jasmine Timan

W

hen Thomas Hochla ’13 was nine years old, he was already cast by professional theater group to play the role of Kurt in “The Sound of Music.”

Hochla fell in love with music at a young age; his mother was a musician and a music teacher, and he initially learned to play the piano without any sort of formal training.

At first Hochla would go through the piano books as he pleased. He played a mixture of mostly classical and folk tunes, but he soon incorporated church music and modern tunes into his musical repertoire.

“I started playing from Reader’s Digest Classics: Family Songbooks. You know, it’s those types of songs that you could sit around and sing with your family, which my family does still,” Hochla chuckled.

He also sang for multiple choir groups including the church choir, which has influenced his view as an artist today. Hochla saw performing in his church as similar to doing a performance on any other stage: stand and deliver.

“If you mess up, yes it’s awful and you may have disappointed someone, but it’s not going to help anyone by you feeling badly,” he said, adding, “You just keep going.”

Hochla matches this love for performance with his drive in the rehearsal room. In fact, Hochla states that he loves rehearsing in the dance room more than performing on stage.

“You work and work and work towards the performance. I love the feeling of how dance can kick your butt everyday no matter how good you are,” Hochla explained. “Or how I could play or sing a five-note scale over and

over again, and I would never do it perfectly.”

While some may see this outlook as discouraging, to Hochla it’s what drives his passion. As someone whose everyday life on campus is kept busy with activity, he takes art as a challenge and a much-needed constructive outlet.

Hochla has undoubtedly devoted an incredible amount of time to practicing. He is currently enrolled in both ballet and modern dance technique classes, practices twice a week with the entire Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre (VRDT) company, and performs in a handful of the pieces that will be showcased in the upcoming VRDT “Final Showings.”

“I enjoy being able to physically exert myself in the pursuit of art,” he explained.

In addition, Hochla’s work with the Mixed Chorus, as leader of Catholic Mass and as musical director of “Altar Boyz” requires strong time commitment and dedication.

Interestingly, Hochla’s involvement with both Catholic Mass and “Altar Boyz” ties back to his personal and spiritual beliefs and origins. “Playing Mass is definitely a part of my individual faith journey, and a way that I have stayed centered for many years,” he explained.

Hochla explained his role in “Altar Boyz.” “It is my responsibility to teach the notes and guide the direction of the music for the whole show. I am there to bolster and help communicate, in music, Mike Gracaffa’s vision for the show as he is the overall director,” Hochla wrote in an emailed statement. “It has been a wonderful opportunity for growth for me this semester.”

He’s also keen to note that despite its comical, parodic ap-

Courtesy of Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre

WOOLF continued from page 1 Levitt. Both were deeply interested in Albee’s body of work. Levitt, who plays George, was especially drawn to the playwright’s treatment of domesticity and “living room dialogue,” a type of writing often found in plays that take place in domestic spaces. It refers to the kind of conversations people have in the privacy and sanctity of their own homes.

But Levitt also pointed out his interest in the play as it fits into Albee’s larger body of work. He explained, “We wanted to look at ‘Virginia Woolf’ in relation to Albee’s other plays, his newer ones.”

The actors in the upcoming production all believe that Vassar students will find interest in “Virginia Woolf,” one reason being that the play takes place on a college campus. By focusing on the lives of two professors and their spouses, moreover, the play exposes an aspect of collegiate life that may often seem impenetrable and opaque to students and thus all the more intriguing.

“That breach of privacy is just as palpable today as it was back then,” said Evan Glenn ’12, who plays Nick in the production.

But in peering into the lives of adults in academia—in breaching their privacy—students may find that they have more in common with the play’s four characters than they would initially expect.

Accordingly, the cast and crew hope to illuminate some of these unlikely similarities. For starters, the play’s examination of abusive relationships and excessive drinking may resonate with students in deeply personal, unsettling ways.

More generally, though, “Virginia Woolf” looks at the different ways in which people hide their true selves in public domains, the ways in which they let loose in private ones, and the instances when these two seemingly private arenas converge.

The play’s set designer, Aaron Green ’12, noted that Vassar students often do whatever they can to make each other feel comfortable and equal, to foster an environment of acceptance and inclusion.

But that hypersensitivity, Green added, may often cause students to feel nervous about expressing their true opinions, out of fear that they might offend. Students are sometimes inclined, then, to put up excessively polite facades.

Nicole Wood ’12, who plays Honey, suggested that her character and Nick are more concerned with their outward appearances and the ways they present themselves to others, largely because they are still climbing the social ladder.

George and Martha, on the other hand, are probably less concerned with social graces because of their longstanding marriage and equally longstanding presence at the college. And indeed, the play’s frequently acerbic dialogue boldly dismantles the pretenses of polite conversation. “It brings everything to the fore,” said Green. Elizabeth Crabb ’12, who plays Martha, agreed. “In this play we show the vicious, but also the sincere,” she said.

As Crabb’s remark acutely suggests, there is love to be found in each couple’s relationship, despite the abuse and torment that run rampant throughout the play. Even the bitterest exchanges between George and Martha are indicative of a special intimacy that the two figures share—a kind of intimacy that rests upon brutal honesty, an ability and uncompromised willingness to expose each other’s weaknesses but also to expose each other for who they really are.

Of course, George and Martha’s efforts to humiliate and ridicule each other take devastating turns by the end of the play. The final scenes of “Virginia Woolf” have baffled audiences, leaving them to wonder what the future holds in store for George and Martha, but also for Nick and Honey.

Is the ending tragic? Do the characters reach catharsis of some sort? Will the two couples use their hardships to become stronger, or are the two marriages irreparably damaged after just one night?

These tropic questions that audiences were asking nearly 50 years ago may not be so different from those audiences will ask next week, as so many of the themes the play explores still ring true today.

Guest Reporter

Thomas Hochla ’13, pictured above, is currently directing the musical “Altar Boyz” for Future Waitstaff of America, to take place in December. proach to Christian-oriented music, the show remains respectful to religion. “The show is not a slam against religion,” he said. “It reminds us that we each have some beliefs that get us through the day.”

During the day Hochla looks forward to the collective breakthroughs in the classroom, or the silent presence of fellow artists solely focusing on their art.

It’s not unexpected that Hochla chose to major in music at Vassar. In high school, he planned to join a piano conservatory after graduating, but changed his mind due to his self-proclaimed lack of skill in memorizing mu-

ADVERTISEMENT

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

sic scores.

But then as a Questbridge scholar student, Hochla felt confirmed in studying music at a liberal arts college, rather than just solely studying piano, after Vassar provided him with a scholarship package.

When asked about his plans after graduating, Hochla cringed at the idea of being a senior in a year’s time. “I definitely want to study music in grad school, I just don’t know what I’ll do exactly,” he said.

But he does know one thing.

“Art is something that will exist regardless of whether I do it or not,” he said.

ARTS

November 3, 2011

Page 17

Ides of March mediocre, politics as usual Yen Nguyen

I

Guest Columnist

des of March isn’t bad enough for me to headline this review with “Beware the Ides of March!” as much as I’d love to ironically; and it’s not good enough for a headline stating “The Ides of March is the Ride of March!” either. Besides, it’s not even March so I don’t even know why you would have suggested that. The Ides of March is a political thriller that’s a little better than mediocre, settling itself comfortably in the race for nonexistent Oscar award, Most Passable.

Three-and-a-half stars. Review over—but wait! I’ve got room to say the word March a few more times, so here we go.

Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) is a young and idealistic campaign manager working for Obama-analogue Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney) in the weeks leading up to the Ohio primary. He’s a media genius who commands the respect of the entire campaign staff, and the entire Democratic party and the press. He even comes to a sexy, sexy understanding with equally idealistic intern Molly Stearns (Evan Rachel Wood) because, come on, he’s played by Gosling.

It’s squeaky-clean politics all the way down until one small coincidence reveals a scandal just waiting to be made public, and Stephen’s idealistic worldview shatters, to put it lightly. If you can’t guess what type scandal it is, let me remind you that it’s a movie about a politician and that I mentioned an intern character in the synopsis.

To be fair, since you have to be moderately nice to something before you criticize it, the latter half of the movie that deals with political backstabbing, frontstabbing and a surprising number of reversals of fortune comes out relatively close to the $10 worth you’re probably spending to see this movie.

Campus Canvas

(If you are a senior citizen, congratulations on your savings of $2.50.)

It’s everything you would expect from an American political thriller, addressing a whole laundry list of mistakes that politicians always try to avoid but have, historically, always done. Stephen, who whimsically declares early on, “I’m married to the campaign,” finds his commitment to such a silly statement pulling him further and further away from his beliefs as he juggles sudden revelations of poor character in the people he had once respected and his need to have the better candidate win. It’s a fairly entertaining story about the inevitable danger of mixing personal desire and the common good.

Despite being a movie about political corruption set during primary elections, and released in the year 2011, it doesn’t do anything new with the “an idealist cracks” storyline. There are quite a few important scenes where Stephen confronts or is confronted by the more jaded and cynical politicos that he’s been working with all this time, only to have them slap him around and tell him that while he may be smart, he’s not that smart.

The thing is that you can take the “jaded and cynical politicos” and make them businessmen or entertainers or anything else and the movie would essentially be the exact same thing except with different jargon.

Points go to the movie for being about politicians after all, but no points for not straying from the template.

This is not to say that the movie isn’t effective at telling such a story. For instance, the previously mentioned scenes of slapping around are generally good and sometimes great, due to Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti’s great skill at playing paranoid and manipulative, respectively. Both

of their characters are frighteningly boring career politicians with mean streaks, making them the most realistic and compelling characters in the entire movie.

Clooney and Gosling are less so, but you can believe them as the people you always think of as the smartest ones in the room, so that relationship-turned-conflict is solid as well. It’s good, satisfying drama, even if it is played far too straight; you’ve just seen it all before.

In the end, that’s what bugs me most about Ides of March. In a time of great political confusion, it’s kind of a waste for a political thriller to rely on the genre conventions set by The West Wing. There must be some unwritten rule that all American political fiction written after that show needs a tortured first half where everyone’s running around being Aaron Sorkin’s special brand of clever and clean-cut; the problem is that we have come to accept with much fear and reservation that politics is actually a messy and volatile business. There’s just no transition that exists between the ideal political world that they open with and the one that the movie wants to portray by the end… so there is none.

The screenplay continues to be couched in the language of a political fable, and while every scene conceivably works well on paper, the end result of so much pedantically constructed back-and-forth dialogue is a movie that jerks its way from one section to another and doesn’t add up to greater than a sum of its parts. So basically it’s a decent, if slavish retelling of an old story that is also completely irrelevant despite appearances to the contrary. It won’t gain or lose anything from being seen during a completely different real world context, though, so maybe wait for this one to come out on DVD (in March?).

A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

submit to misc@vassar.edu

CIRCA 1986 Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art September 2011 through July 2012 An exhibition of contemporary art showcasing 47 international artists who became popular during the vibrant artistic period between 1981 and 1991. The works on view attempt to reflect a decade that was highly tumultuous for the art market. Included in the exhibition are works of neo-expressionists, neo-surrealists,and neominimalists. Each piece not only is representative of an important art historical time, but also comes from the collection of prominent New York collectors. Thus, the exhibition takes an intimate perspective on the period, capturing works by the artists the collectors themselves saw as most innovative and captivating.

Electronic Arts Intermix Circa 1971: Early Video & Film from the EAI Archive Dia: Beacon September 2011 through September 2012 Dia: Beacon presents an exhibition of early works of video and film by members of the Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI). The exhibit celebrates EAI’s 40th anniversary as an organization with rich roots in a diverse range of media artworks. The EAI’s collection is recognized across the globe as being incredibly extensive.

Historically, the organization has functioned as a valuable resource for artists interested in conceptual art, performance art, site art and process art. No doubt the works highlighted in the show will show the foundations of expressive and underground media in the United States.

Bill Maher Nov. 13 at 7 p.m.

UPAC $55.00 Surely any politically conscious and cynical Vassar student would jump at the opportunity to see Comedy Central political commentator, author, movie director and actor William “Bill” Maher. Maher is famous for his political incorrectness, specifically aimed toward bureaucracies, religion, the greed of the wealthy and sociopolitical subject matter. His honesty is unflinching, producing big laughs and garnering him a whopping 21 Emmy nominations.

50th Anniversary Exhibition: 5+5: New Perspectives Storm King On view throughout the 2011 season

I’m currently working on the other mitten but this particular pattern has been such a wonderful project. The pattern is based off of a traditional Nordic design, knit on needles so delicate and thin that they bend and snap without a careful touch. When the pair is done, they will be so thick and warm. I’ve never been mathematical but there is something of an engineering aspect to fiber arts that gives a great sense of satisfaction in my finished products. I have also included some of my handspinning on a drop spindle; handspinning has deepened my relationship with knitting, for it allows me to be there with

the material for so much more of its production and life. Fibers are alive, each one depending on the breed of sheep and the way it’s used.

Feeling them move through my hands as I spin or knit becomes a meditative process, when I feel connected to myself and the animals that produce the wool. My dream is to raise my own sheep and go all the way back to the beginning but for now I have seven pounds of newly shorn Romney fleece waiting to be washed and carded—put your nose in the bag and you can still smell the barn.

—Zoe Van Buren ’13

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Storm King celebrates its 50th year anniversary by inviting 10 artists to present new works at the sculpture park. The pieces were constructed with special attention to their sites so they can be appreciated in relation to the environment in which they stand. New works have been installed on the museum patio, tucked within the hill, and on the museum hill. The installations include a mirror fence, a huge stainless steel telescope, a grass covered roof, an intricate grouping of bamboo shoots and a sculpture of car tires, among others.

—Rachel Borné, Arts Editor

SPORTS

Page 18

November 3, 2011

Erlichson-McCarthy takes on new role in senior year Corey Cohn

S

Sports Editor

Courtesy of Sam Erlichson-McCarthy

am Erlichson-McCarthy ’12 never recorded a game-winning goal in his collegiate soccer career before this past week. In fact, he had only scored one goal, period, in his previous three years on the Brewers. But in Vassar’s last two regular season games of the 2011 season, the senior went on a tear, scoring the deciding goal in a 3-0 win at Union College on Oct. 26 and in a 1-0 victory over Bard College on Oct. 29 in overtime.

Erlichson-McCarthy’s increased point proficiency reflects his new responsibilities this season. “I started taking on an attacking role this year,” he said, noting that he previously functioned primarily as a defensive player. “This is the best week I’ve had points-wise [over the past four seasons].” Erlichson-McCarthy had four goals in the regular season.

But this individual triumph isn’t what stands out to Erlichson-McCarthy, who was named the Liberty League Offensive Player of the Week.

With the victory over Union, Vassar secured the fourth and final playoff seed in the Liberty League Championships, marking the first time they have qualified for the postseason since 2002. “The team goal was always to make the playoffs,” Erlichson-McCarthy remarked. “That always came first.”

He added that, from a mental standpoint, the last two games provided a much-needed boost.

“We started the year really strong, and expectations went through the roof,” he recalled. “In the middle [of the season], we went through a rough patch.” (The Brewers started the year 7-2-1 before going four straight games without a victory.) Regarding the last two contests, Erlichson-McCarthy said, “The Union game was huge in terms of confidence, and Bard helped continue that momentum.”

Erlichson-McCarthy observed over the past three years that confidence has consistently been one of the biggest issues for the team. “It might have to do with the stigma of Vassar,” he suggested. “You think of Vassar and you don’t usually think of athletics in particular.” Commenting on the overall strength of the Liberty League, he concluded, “We wanted to know we belong, and now we know.”

Sam Erlichson-McCarthy ’12 of the men’s soccer team, pictured above, recently scored the deciding goal in two different games—against Union College on Oct. 26 and Bard College on Oct. 29 in overtime.

Nevertheless, the Brewers faced a formidable foe on Wednesday in their first playoff game in nine years, the No. 1 ranked St. Lawrence University Saints. (At the time of publication, the result of this game was not available.) Fortunately, Vassar had plenty of experience this season playing top-ranked opponents, including one previous matchup against St. Lawrence.

The Brewers lost that game 1-0 on Oct. 1, but Erlichson-McCarthy recalled that their perseverance almost gave them the edge. “It could’ve gone either way,” he said, noting that the deciding goal was scored on a corner kick that went straight into the net—a rare occurrence.

Going into the rematch, Erlichson-McCarthy remarked, “We had a great performance. We have to try to think less about rankings and try to repeat [what we did the first time].” He

added that the team’s play against the supposed best of the best has proven that “we can beat anybody.”

With the Liberty League playoffs’ one-anddone format, any game can easily be the last for Erlichson-McCarthy. As with many senior athletes, this isn’t a comforting thought, for soccer has played a big part in his college experience.

This influence began with Erlichson-McCarthy’s initial decision to become a Brewer after graduating from Loomis Chaffee High School in Windsor, Conn. “My college search centered on being recruited,” he shared. “[Then-Assistant Coach] Nate Gibboney was active in trying to get me to go here.” A subsequent visit to the campus, during which he was hosted by high school teammate Jimmy Worboys ’11, helped convince Erlichson-McCarthy that Vassar was

the place for him. He especially appreciated the sense of camaraderie evident within the team’s internal structure. “There was no sense of seniority,” he said. “We were all very close friends—as soon as I got here, I felt very welcomed.”

The positive social atmosphere has continued to develop as Erlichson-McCarthy’s career has progressed. This year, he is living with four current or former members of the soccer team.

But soccer has reaped other benefits outside the social realm. Erlichson-McCarthy commented that his commitment to the team, while taking many hours away from schoolwork, has nevertheless helped to keep him on a scholarly track. “It’s definitely influenced my academic experience in that I’ve learned to practice better time management,” he said. With a busier schedule, he explained, he feels more driven to do his work. Erlichson-McCarthy earned Liberty League All-Academic honors in 2009 and 2010.

Of course, playing collegiate soccer improved his skills on the field as well. In particular, he has noticed development in his in-game vision. “[In the past,] I was more of a defensive and distributive player,” he said. “Instead of making the killer pass, I focused on making shorter passes and switching the field.” Now, on the other hand, Erlichson-McCarthy contributes more on the offensive side. “Once we get into the final third of the field, I can actually make that key play [to help us score].”

Although Erlichson-McCarthy imagines he’ll still be playing soccer in some form in the future, he knows what his main objective will be once he graduates in May. “It’s all about finding a good job,” he said. Fortunately for Erlichson-McCarthy, he already has work lined up through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as a Financial Institution Specialist after completing an internship this past summer.

Still, he deems post-Vassar life to be “exciting, but a little scary as well.”

It wouldn’t be surprising, therefore, to see Erlichson-McCarthy translate what he learned as a Brewer into the real world. Collaboration is both essential and rewarding. “It’s such a good team feeling,” he said, “to be moving towards a goal.”

Sports culture embraced by College administration Kristine Olson

D

Assistant Sports Editor

ean of the College and Professor of Education Chris Roellke and Faculty Athletics Representative and Professor of English Mark Amodio each has a unique perspective on the relationship between athletics and academics at Vassar College.

For the past two years, Amodio has been elected to the NCAA-mandated position “to serve as the liaison between the Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs and the Athletics Department,” explained Amodio.

As someone who is involved with both academics and athletics at Vassar, Amodio expressed, “I wish that dialogue existed more between faculty and student-athletes—a dialogue initiated from both sides.”

Roellke’s philosophy could serve as a foundation for this dialogue. “As an educator, I believe athletics are an extraordinary educational tool. They teach you about your strengths and weaknesses, how you fit into a community seeking a common goal, how to handle adversity, as well as the limitations of your teammates.” Roellke continued, “You learn to draw out the best of those around you, how to navigate challenges toward a common goal and to rely on others when you’re not at your best.”

Sports have been an important part of Roellke’s life, and still are. As a student at Wesleyan University (1983-1987), Roellke played first base and forward for the baseball and basketball teams, respectively. Today, he plays intramural basketball and hardball for the Dutchess Country Pirates.

His path to Vassar was influenced by the College’s holistic view of student life. Roellke shared, “I was attracted to Vassar as an educator because of the whole student experience it provides. Vassar tries to value all of the ‘co’curricular pursuits of its students.”

Regarding the stigma that Vassar lacks a sports culture, Roellke argued, “there is a sports culture by the nature of having sports at Vassar, and the culture will continue to grow as Vassar athletics develop.” He added, “There is also an athletic culture evidenced by the investments made by the College in athletic facilities.”

He conceded, however, that it is a culture students may not be familiar with. “We’re in an interesting context,” said Roellke. “One that simultaneously tries to nurture a balance between academics and competitive development.”

Amodio agreed that Vassar’s sports culture, while present, is complex. “I think the answer is yes, one exists, but how that fits into the larger culture at Vassar is being worked out right now,” he said. According to Amodio, and evidenced by Vassar’s archived history of athletics, “the Vassar sports culture now is not the same as it was 20 to 30 years ago. Back then athletics was kind of an afterthought. It seems to me that there’s been a shift to not necessarily increasing the culture, but a shift in that students are seeking high-level athletic experiences to complement their academics.”

Amodio suggested that this change is partly a reflection of a larger societal shift that expects the accessibility of athletic facilities. Despite this, Amodio asserted, “Vassar will never be a place driven by athletics; it will never be an Amherst [College] or Williams [College],” and continued by stating, “That doesn’t mean the two worlds [of athletics and academics] can’t coexist.”

In surveys Roellke and the administration have received, “athletic facilities are ranked very high, whereas student interest in particular sports or the athletic events at Vassar are ranked much lower, which signals that there’s not a tremendous amount of commu-

nity centered around athletics and sports,” said Roellke.

Amodio concurred. “I would describe the athletic experience here at Vassar as a component that does not dominate the overall academic experience like it does at schools known for their jock culture,” shared Amodio. “I see our athletic programs moving toward a balanced experience with little to no expense to the other components of the academic experience.”

Roellke noted the sensitivity of the tension of competitive athletics overriding the other components of the Vassar academic and social experience. “Athletics should not be the sole driving force of college life,” asserted Roellke, continuing, “No one will get into Vassar based on athletics. Athletics is an element of diversity, people here are multitalented; and [Vassar educators] believe in educating the whole students, which includes a wellness component.”

He added that the student-athletes embrace their dual role. “The commitment of our student-athletes is impressive, and I’m proud to have been one; but they’re scholars first.”

Roellke emphasized that the athletic facilities are built for the College, not just for student-athletes. “It’s unfortunate that people see the facilities and think they’re geared toward varsity sports,” he said.

Vassar’s original establishment as a women’s college may relate to the present views on athletics’ role in a liberal arts education, Roellke stated: “Our history is without a doubt female, but many of those first female students were athletes, and those female-athletes were trail blazers.” He mentioned that he has a baseball card signed by one of Vassar’s first baseball players from the 1860s. “Vassar has a strong track record of commitment to and competitiveness in sports evidenced by field days and the first women’s baseball team,” claimed

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Roellke. “In no way do, or have, competitive sports delegitimize our women’s history; in fact, sports were always an important part of Vassar’s curriculum. Education takes place in athletics, and I think our earliest Vassar women knew that.”

It is this kind of thinking that Roellke believes sets Vassar apart from the thought of what education meant for women at the time of the College’s establishment in the 1860s. The expectation then, and now, is that women can do what men can do. “It wasn’t a finishing school to teach women how to be proper wives and to find wealthy husbands; some did do that, but it wasn’t the expectation,” he said.

Amodio added that he has seen the development of athletics at Vassar from the bottom up, and noted that “athletics have grown in a natural, conservative process here at Vassar.” In Amodio’s perspective: “The Athletics and Fitness Center stands as a good example of where Vassar College stands on athletics now ... It’s a quality facility but it’s not over the top.”

This approach to the construction of the athletic facilities seems to reflect a long-standing way of thinking about athletics and physical wellness at Vassar as a component of the liberal arts education in terms of “beautiful strength.”

This term derives from the Vassar Encyclopedia, which shares, “essential to Vassar’s educational plan [is]: ‘A sound mind in a sound body is received as a first truth among educators.’” And concerning athletic facilities: “Vassar’s building was the first and perhaps the only one ever designated for the inculcation, in women, of ‘beautiful strength.’” This notion is appropriate to Vassar’s traditionally all-female, as well as its contemporary, co-educational identity as a liberal arts institution dedicated to the diverse, holistic interests and pursuits of its students.

SPORTS

November 3, 2011

Page 19

Club teams an active part of VC sports Corey Cohn and Andy Marmer Sports Editors

Broooers prepare for World Cup

Nordic Skiing: General Interest Meeting

The Nordic Ski Club will host a General Interest Meeting Monday, Nov. 7 at 9:00 p.m. in the Rose Parlor. Mariah Shones ’14,

Andy Sussman

T

Andy Marmer/The Miscellany News

Vassar’s resident quidditch team, the Butterbeer Broooers, are in the process of preparing for this year’s International Quidditch World Cup. The No. 33 Broooers will be competing in Division I this year, which marks the first time the World Cup has been split into two divisions. The Broooers have been pooled with No. 6 nationally ranked Texas A&M University, No. 18 University of Miami, No. 55 New York University and No. 102 Ithaca Community quidditch teams. The Broooers, who finished fourth at last year’s World Cup, will play three games on the first day of the tournament, Saturday, Nov. 12 and are guaranteed to play at least one game on Sunday, Nov. 13. The top three teams from each of the 12 groups will advance to the single-elimination tournament.

This year’s World Cup will mark the second consecutive year the event is held in New York. After last year’s event attracted 46 teams to DeWitt Clinton Park, 100 teams are expected at this year’s tournament on Randall’s Island. The Broooers competed in the first-ever World Cup five years ago, losing to Middlebury College. At this year’s event, an alumnae/i game will be held, with teams wearing blue and gray uniforms in honor of the inaugural matchup.

Last year, the Broooers advanced to the tournament’s semifinals, where they lost to eventual champion Middlebury. The Broooers competed in the Philadelphia Brotherly Love Cup earlier this year, where they defeated State University of New York at Geneseo, before falling twice to Stony Brook University. The Broooers also participated in tune-up friendlies against Yale University and the New York Badasslisks.

The team can be found conducting their final pre-World Cup practices on Josselyn Beach.

Above, the Vassar Butterbeer Broooers compete in last year’s International Quidditch World Cup. This year’s tournament, in Randall’s Island in New York, showcases more teams than ever before. the club’s president, commented, “No experience is required.” Shones also explained that the club provides skis for its members.

Nordic skiing, also known as cross-country skiing, differs from its Alpine counterpart in that it involves moving across the snow, rather than down hills. Exclaimed Shones, “It’s a great opportunity to meet new people and frolic in the snow.” For more information on the Nordic Ski Club, contact Shones.

Polo Recruiting

It’s not too late to join the Vassar Polo team! The new men’s squad is still actively recruiting, while the women’s team will consider taking new members next semester. Anyone interested should contact team Captain Sarah Leung ’12. Vassar Polo holds practices two to three times a week at Gardnertown Farm, which is located about 35 minutes from campus in Newburgh.

The Polo team also has a newly updated

website this year, complete with photos, player biographies and team merchandise.

The team is being sponsored this year by Gladiator Polo.

Rowing Running Rent-A-Rower

In varsity club news, the Vassar rowing team is offering its members as physical laborers for students and faculty. In the RentA-Rower program, one can hire a rower for an hourly fee to help perform manual tasks, including raking leaves and moving. The money raised helps fund the rowing team, which, as a varsity club, does not receive funding from the Vassar Student Association. For more information, contact Jessi Panico ’12.

The rowing team’s fundraising efforts are highlighted by the semiannual Erg-a-thon, in which the rowing team ergs for 24 consecutive hours in the College Center. The Erg-a-thon will take place in the final weeks of the fall semester.

A celeb divorce with athletic ramifications Sam Scarritt-Selman

A

Guest Columnist

fter 72 days of an almost certainly loveless marriage, Kris Humphries, a free agent power forward, and reality TV starlet Kim Kardashian have opted for divorce.

From what I’m told, if you are the type of person that is shocked by this development, you probably still knew this day was coming, just not that it would happen so soon. This seems more than a little premature, especially considering that holding onto a storyline for far too long is somewhat of a reality TV pastime. Certainly, they could have stayed together for at least one season of Keeping up with the Kardashians, right? Now, I consider myself an amateur when it comes to reality TV, but after hastily Wikipedia-ing the entire Humphries-Kardashian saga, I believe I have learned several key lessons, which I hope make for some salient points that all of us can take to heart.

This might be the end of the zeitgeist as we know it.

From what I understand, the HumphriesKardashian wedding was a really big deal to a lot of people. It was an immensely elaborate, multi-million-dollar event. There was a massive bidding war for photo rights. It was made into a four-hour E! special. In brief, a lot of people invested a lot of effort in thinking that this was a monumental moment. Yet it was clearly a constructed farce, elevated to the status of cultural importance by people who let themselves believe that reality television is the same thing as reality on television.

Doesn’t this 72-day marriage force the viewer to confront the reality of the lie? Even if you are self-aware in your suspension of disbelief, it must be hard to see all of the orchestrations and impure motivations and still be able to care about these characters engaging in en-

NCAA teams inexplicably shift leagues

tirely staged interactions.

Kris Humphries is deserving of your sympathy.

If you want to get a sense of who Humphries is and how great things were in his life, look no further than the words “former power forward for the New Jersey Nets.”

That, my friends, is a man of constant sorrow. If he re-signs, he plays for the Nets; otherwise, he wasn’t good enough for one of the worst teams in the NBA. Humphries probably looks at himself in the mirror, thinks to himself, “I’m not even good enough to be the current power forward for the New Jersey Nets,” and cries as he miserably sips his way through his protein shake. Great news, Humphries, your “wife” is leaving you! I feel bad for the guy. Dating a Kardashian was really one of best things that could have happened to him.

It’s also worth noting that Kris Humphries also recently lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in a hedge-fund scam. Needless to say, if you see a 6’8” white man with a look of despondent rage on his face walk into a KMart, knock things indiscriminately from the shelves and proceed to light fire to everything he owns, take it easy on the guy because it’s probably Humphries.

Kim Kardashian is a kingmaker in the world of sports.

Humphries might be overcome with heartbreak, sitting on a lawn chair, staring vacantly into the night sky as he chain-smokes Marlboro reds and blares “All by Myself” on repeat on his iHome, but, in a sense, he did have his moment in the sun, and not a lot of people can say that. His dalliance with Kardashian coincided with the single most productive stretch of his otherwise wholly mediocre basketball career. And, if there is one thing history has shown us, it is that there

is a very strong correlation between dating a Kardashian and maximizing your athletic potential.

Running back Reggie Bush won a Super Bowl under Kardashian’s watch—after she left him, though, he lost his Heisman Trophy, became riddled with injuries and is now an underperforming running back for a winless Miami Dolphins team. Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Miles Austin came out of nowhere and had several record-setting performances, while dating Kardashian. After they split, he has failed to meet expectations. Los Angeles Lakers forward Lamar Odom married Kim Kardashian’s sister Khloe in 2009. Different sister, same results. Odom went on to win back-to-back NBA championships and the 2011 Sixth Man of the Year award. At least Odom had the good sense to remain happily married. Wise athletes hold on tightly to their Kardashians and never let go, for once the magic’s gone, it’s gone.

So, Humphries, I understand why you are reportedly “devastated” and “willing to do anything to make it work.” Your career will undoubtedly spiral downward, you will probably be laughed out of the NBA, and there’s an outside chance you will finish your career playing in a former Yugoslavian state. On the bright side, though, wasn’t that a fun ride?

For one magical basketball season, you performed well beyond your own capabilities, were somewhat regarded as above-average and, on your next contract, you will earn slightly more money than you’re actually worth. That’s Kardashian magic at work. I don’t know whether it is something mystical or if they simply know more about sports than the rest of us and are uncannily shrewd evaluators of talent. All I know is that “Who’s dating a Kardashian?” has become a reliable predictor of on-the-field success.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Columnist

here are some things in this world that, no matter how smart you are, you’ll never fully understand. What is dark matter? Who shot Tupac and Biggie? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? And of course, which school is in which conference for college football? Realignment began to take place a year ago, but now virtually no team is guaranteed to remain in its present conference.

Here is a primer as to the moves that have been officially announced this year or possibilities reported by major news outlets, because quite frankly I know I could use a list and I’m sure others would appreciate it, too. Keep in mind that as this article goes to print, rumors continue to swirl, and we are most certainly not done with realignment.

Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC): Let’s start out with a conference that is relatively cut and dry. Currently, the ACC has 12 schools, and none of them are seriously considering leaving the conference. In addition, both University of Pittsburgh and Syracuse University have officially declared that they will be leaving the Big East for the ACC as soon as they are able. The ACC has said while it is pleased with its new 14-team league, it also would not be opposed to expanding even further to 16 teams.

My Thoughts: Remember when University Maryland was considered the northern limit for the ACC? I half expect the Toronto Argonauts to join because, hey, they’ve heard of the Atlantic too.

Big East: Oh, boy. I’ll try to keep this as concise as possible. As I mentioned before, Pittsburgh and Syracuse are definitely leaving. Additionally, both University of Connecticut and Rutgers University want to move to the ACC. Also, University of West Virginia announced last week that it was joining the Big 12. If the Big East had 16 football teams like they do basketball teams, they could afford to lose three to five schools and still have a legitimate conference. However, only eight of the 16 schools that are currently a part of the conference have football teams, meaning that an already weak football conference would be utterly decimated unless it adds at least as many teams as it’s losing. Thus, the Big East has reportedly invited Boise State University, Navy and Air Force to join the conference only for football, as well as Southern Methodist University and the Universities of Houston and Central Florida for all sports. Assuming that all these schools accept their invitations and only the schools guaranteed to leave defect, the Big East will have 11 football teams, still one short of being able to have a championship game. The conference is reportedly considering adding Temple University and/or University of Memphis as well.

My Thoughts: The Big East is such a pathetic football conference that the region “East” is considering changing its name.

Big XII: Yes, the Big XII now has 10 teams and the Big Ten has 12 teams. Good, I’m glad we got that out of the way. Last season, the Big 12 was the big loser, when both the Universities of Nebraska and Colorado defected to the Big Ten and Pac 12, respectively, and the developments this year seem no more promising. Despite the incoming arrival of West Virginia and Texas Christian University, the Big XII will definitely be losing Texas A&M University and most likely University of Missouri to the SEC. My Thoughts: The strange thing about the Big XII is either it will be the second-best football conference or it will cease to exist as we know it. There is no in between, Southeastern Conference (SEC): The best football conference virtually every year has nothing to be concerned about. In fact, it has already added Texas A&M and is most likely going to add Missouri, as the conference’s official website briefly reported before being taken down. The SEC is a lock to have at least 14 teams within the next two to three years.

My Thoughts: The SEC is looking to move into the NFL, with the Indianapolis Colts and Miami Dolphins being relegated to Division III.

SPORTS

Page 20

November 3, 2011

Winter weather wreaks havoc on weekend schedule Andy Marmer

I

Sports Editor

Celia Garrity/The Miscellany News

f there was one lesson to learn from this weekend in Vassar athletics it was this: Snow and fall sports do not mix.

Men’s and women’s soccer each wrapped up their season this past Saturday with games that kicked off at noon and 3 p.m., respectively.

After clinching the No. 4 seed in the Liberty League playoffs this past Wednesday with a 3-0 victory over Union College, the men’s team honored their seniors in their last home game against Bard College. The Brewers overcame a slow start to prevail 1-0 in overtime, on a gamewinning goal from this week’s Miscellany News Athlete of the Week, Sam Erlichson-McCarthy ’12. This past Wednesday the Brewers faced No. 1 nationally ranked St. Lawrence University in the Liberty League semifinals. As of publication, results were not available.

The women’s team also honored their seniors prior to the team’s home game against Union College. With the game starting at 3 p.m. the weather provided a number of difficulties.

Offense and defense both proved challenging as the ball slogged across the snowy field and players struggled to change direction on the moist pitch. Although the weather added difficulties, Union managed three second-half goals, en route to a 4-0 victory.

The Liberty League Cross Country Championships, hosted by Vassar, were similarly affected by the weather. Although the women’s race managed to conclude prior to the inclement weather, the men’s race an hour later was run in horrid conditions.

In the women’s race, the five Vassar scoring runners finished in places 10-15 (with a runner from Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute [RPI] breaking up the five Brewers). Kelly Hol-

mes ’13 (10th place, 23:22), Viviane Ford ’15 (11, 23:25), Harper Cleves ’15 (12, 23:31) and Elizabeth Forbes ’12 (13, 23:34) led the Brewers across the finish line, earning Second Team All-Liberty League honors in the process. Samantha Creath ’12 (15, 23:41) followed closely behind to give the Brewers a team total of 61 points. St. Lawrence University won the championship with 23 team points, while RPI finished third with 95.

Snowy weather and a wet course marred the men’s race. Although the conditions proved dangerous and hampered the timing system, causing delayed results, St. Lawrence won the race with 29 points. Vassar, led by Sam Wagner ’13 and Zach Williams ’12 (fourth and fifth, respectively, 26:29, 26:30) finished second with 64 points. Both Williams and Wagner were named First Team All-Liberty League, while Will Healy ’12 (13, 26:56) was named Second Team All-Liberty League.

Women’s volleyball and men’s and women’s rugby were both adversely effected by the weather. The women’s volleyball team—the one fall sport to play its games indoors--had their Senior Day postponed from this past Saturday to Tuesday Nov 1. The delay, though, proved no hindrance as the Brewers swept Kean University 3-0 (25-15, 25-20, 25-22). On Friday, the Brewers take on No. 1 seed Clarkson University in a Liberty League playoff game.

Rugby also didn’t face negative consequences from the weather. Although the Metropolitan New York playoffs were postponed, both Vassar teams advanced to the Northeast Rugby Playoffs. The men’s team by virtue of their No. 1 seed in the tournament—based on their 6-1 regular season—have earned a bye to the semifinals. The women’s team will compete in the quarterfinals, traveling to the University of Rhode Island on Saturday, Nov. 5. The

The women’s volleyball team squares off against Kean University on Tuesday, Nov. 1. The team swept Kean 3-0; the Brewers will play the No. 1 seed Clarkson University on Friday in a playoff game.

Brewers will host both the men’s and women’s semifinals and finals on Nov. 12 and 13. The top three women’s teams and the top men’s team all advance to Nationals in the spring.

A few teams managed to get their games in before the snow. The field hockey team was dropped by Kean last Friday, 4-1. Freshman Enya Cunningham scored the team’s lone goal, while Maggie Brelis ’15 mustered a season-high 17 saves.

Also on Friday, men’s and women’s swimdive started their respective seasons with victories. The men’s team overcame Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 160-119, while the women

also persevered over WPI 155-131.

The men’s team was led by Jack Smart ’12, who earned victories in three events, Greg Sullivan ’12, who set a new school record in the three-meter dive, and Mathue Duhaney ’13, who earned two victories in sprints. The women’s squad won 10 of 14 events en route to the victory. Shannon Sara ’13, Caroline Shannon ’12 and Sydnie Alquist ’13 all won two events for the Brewers. The women’s team also took the top three spots in diving.

Next week we will welcome a litany of different sports into this space as squash and fencing open their seasons.

VCXC Tournament a success despite October snow Kristine Olson

D

Assistant Sports Editor

Courtesy of Vassar Athletics

espite a year of planning and preparation for the 2011 Liberty League Cross Country Championships, Vassar’s cross country Head Coach James McCowan and the Athletics Department administrators could not have foreseen a snowstorm in October. Nor could they have predicted it would hit during the women’s 6k competition and cover the men’s 8k course in several inches of snow before the start of their race.

The main obstacle McCowan, Athletics Director Sharon Beverly and Associate Athletics Director Kim Culligan had anticipated in preparation for the championship meet hosted at Vassar on Oct. 29 was heavy rain. Areas of the course, located on the Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve, had experienced flooding and turned marshy earlier in the season, leading McCowan to attempt to repair the course with the aid of Vassar’s Building and Grounds crew.

When their efforts proved futile, private contractors were hired to reconstruct major areas of the Farm course with funding from the College. Reconstruction, which will be evident to frequent walkers and runners on the Farm, was completed just in time for the Liberty Leagues.

“Each championship has its own dynamics,” stated Beverly. “This one is time intensive,” she said with a smile, alluding to more than the issue of the course. “This is a sport that you have to know the intricacies about; and this meet comes off well when we host it because [McCowan] is knowledgeable and hands-on,” explained Beverly.

With regard to how tournaments are run, “I’m not the sole director,” said McCowan. “[Beverly] and [Culligan] take on the administrative responsibilities, which is a nice feature of this department. Coaches are able to focus on coaching,” stated McCowan, adding that he still likes to be a part of the organization process.

Even so, preliminary preparation for championship meets is assumed by administrators.

“In the summer, Kim was already sending me information packets on Liberty League planning; so the groundwork was already underway,” shared McCowan.

Vassar’s experience planning and hosting

The men’s cross country team slogs through the brumal elements during the 2011 Liberty League Cross Country Championships at Vassar Farm on Oct. 29, finishing second to St. Lawrence University. championship competitions has been growing since the Brewers began competing in the Liberty League in 1999. “We meet with coaches each year before hosting a Liberty League competition to get their feedback about prior experiences hosting or attending championship competitions,” said Beverly. “We meet with people from Facilities, Sports Information and Equipment about their perspectives, too—what went well, what we can do better, that sort of thing,” added Beverly.

Athletics administrators and coaches also brainstorm what they can add to championship competitions hosted by Vassar. For the Liberty League cross country meet, general features included a “Vassar Brewers” banner originally bought for soccer and new Event Staff t-shirts; special features for cross country included, above all, the major improvements to the course. The logistics of planning the cross country meet also included practical features that improved the experience (for runners and staff alike), such as the use of a portable public address system, timing chips (so runners don’t have to worry about maintaining their position after their race for scoring purposes) and tape labeled “Vassar Athlet-

ics” to mark the course.

When it comes to the course specifically, McCowan stated that he likes to be hands-on with the maintenance throughout the process of planning. “I got a lot of help from the Building and Grounds/Prentiss crew to paint the lines for the course and to mark the roots on the trails in the woods in order to make sure everything was clear, safe and up to NCAA regulations,” said McCowan. McCowan also likes to have set-up completed before the day of the races so visiting teams have time to preview the course.

Still, McCowan completed the finishing touches the morning of the meet with the aid of Associate Head Coach Ron Stonitsch and Assistant Coach Meghan Young, as well as Beverly, Culligan and the Sports Medicine staff.

Other logistics included: tent set-up, championship packets created by Sports Information, portable timers secured a year in advance, and the names of the entries collected six weeks in advance in order to purchase bib numbers and so Sports Medicine knows how many participants to prepare supplies for.

Earlier in the year, it was Culligan’s responsibility as Tournament Director to compile

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

essential information: start times, procedures, information about hotels and restaurants for visiting schools, and more. Culligan even booked rooms at the local Days Inn a year in advance for the visiting coaches.

For Beverly, food should never be overlooked. “The momma comes out in me,” said Beverly, smiling. “I want to make sure our event staff have food. So we’ll have a tent with juice and snacks for them,” she said.

At the end of the day, McCowan and Beverly attest that teamwork and experience form the basis of logistical preparation in order to successfully host a Liberty League championship.

“It’s a little different for everyone,” said Beverley concerning specific logistical planning.

“A nice thing about Vassar is that the faculty, coaches and students will come to the Farm to cheer each other on,” she added, speaking to the element of spectatorship that adds to the success of a competitive event. And despite wind and snow, faculty, students and family did make a showing.

Athletics administrators and the Sports Medicine staff also provided tremendous support for the cross country teams. Student event staff workers were even stationed along the course to keep things running smoothly and in the right direction, and they cheered for all the competitors along with student friends of the athletes, a few alumnae/i and a hoard of Vassar parents—all of whom banded together along the Farm road to cheer every runner in to the finish line.

Despite bizarre, unpredictable conditions— and partly because of them—the Liberty League Cross Country Championship was a success. Vassar women finished second (61 points) to St. Lawrence University (23 points) and the men finished second (64 points) to the Saints (29 points) as well. The women ran in a pack to cement the solid finish with five runners finishing between 10th and 15th place.

The men’s team on the other hand was led by two top-five performances with Sam Wagner ’13 and Zach Williams ’12 placing fourth and fifth, respectively.

Snow may not have been a part of the initial game plan, or a desirable condition, but it made for an exceptional day for cross country running made possible by the long-term efforts of the Athletics Department and cross country coaches.