The Miscellany News | September 15, 2011

The Miscellany News Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com

September 15, 2011

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

Volume CXLV | Issue 2

Changes to Patrol disputed

VC prison programs canceled

Joey Rearick

Bobbie Lucas

Assistant News Editor

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Courtesy of Josh Lopez, Tar Sands Action

mid a swirl of competing rumors, Campus Patrol has altered its duties for the new school year, changing its focus from monitoring outdoor areas to making rounds inside dormitories. While administrators contend that the change is intended to foster safety and improve communication among students, speculation that patrollers now have to report other students for disciplinary infractions, such as alcohol consumption, has resounded across campus.

The Campus Patrol has long been one of the more atypical employment opportunities available on campus.

Founded in the early 1970s, the Patrol boasts an extensive history as a student-run operation that aims to improve security on campus without direct oversight from the College. In the past, Patrol members surveyed outside areas on campus, seeking to prevent or report threats to student safety. Although patrollers are employees of the College and are paid like any other student-employment position, the Patrol’s website boasts that it “functions independently of the college administration.” Patrollers cooperate with Security officers, but do not follow their directives.

Patrol, however, requires a large financial investment from the College. In the past, its members worked See PATROL on page 4

SWAT officers arrest Luke Leavitt ’12 and another protestor at a sit-in in Washington, D.C. on Friday, Aug. 26.

Leavitt and three other Greens members traveled to the capitol to protest the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

Students protest pipeline plan Four Greens members arrested States, from North Dakota to the Gulf Coast. But when he reflects on his brush with the law outside of the White House on Friday, Aug. 26—getting his hands cuffed in zip ties, being escorted by a U.S. Park Police officer to a police van and

Erik Lorenzsonn

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Senior Editor

uke Leavitt ’12 had never been arrested prior to his visit to Washington, D.C. to protest the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that may soon span the Central United

waiting in a stiflingly hot processing center for hours on end—he describes it as a casual affair.

“The whole arrest experience was less glamorous than it might seem,” said Leavitt, who was See KEYSTONE on page 7

Guest Reporter

ue to changes in the Department of Corrections this year, Vassar will not offer a course that has inspired students for decades. Vassar prison programs offered students and professors a unique opportunity to learn, teach and interact with incarcerated men in two Hudson Valley correctional facilities, Green Haven and Otisville.

“The Department of Corrections recently rejected the dialogue programs that have been running for over three decades and demanded a program reformatting because ‘the classes lack educational value for the incarcerated men,’” explained Professor of Africana Studies and Religion Lawrence Mamiya, the program’s organizer.

Mamiya still hopes that Vassar’s relationship with local prisons will continue in a different way. When asked if he had any plans for a new program format, he responded, “If the faculty would each teach one of their five courses that comprise their course loads in prison, we could build a new program. We need to fundraise and organize the faculty. Ultimately the ball is now in Vassar’s court.” Vassar now needs to fight for the class and prove why it should be reinstated.

For Allison Tilden ’12, who participated in the course twice, the answer is simple: “The dialogue groups cost the Department of Corrections nothSee PRISON on page 4

10 years later, Vassar UCDA awards sesqui web presence remembers Sept. 11 Katharine Austin Senior Editor

Ruth Bolster

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

The Vassar community gathers for a candle-lit vigil to honor the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. A moment of silence was also held in the Peace Garden.

Inside this issue

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NEWS

VSA charters Dining Review Committee

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dd one more reason to celebrate to Vassar’s long list of sesquicentennial festivities. The University and College Designers Association (UCDA), the first and only association for professionals involved in the creation of visual communications for educational institutions, accorded Vassar with two Awards of Excellence in its 41st annual design competition: one for the sesquicentennial website, 150.vassar.edu, and the other for the Vassar home page, which changed its design in honor of the College’s sesquicentennial.

The UCDA received nearly 1100 entries for their consideration this year from print and electronic media, awarding only 199 of them. Of the 123 nationwide entries in the electronic category, the UCDA gave awards to only five websites. Two of those five went to Vassar.

Those responsible for the websites are honored by UCDA’s commendation of their work. “We have been producing very high quality Vassar websites for a long time, and receiving recognition for that is gratifying to say the least,” Director of Web Development Carolyn Guyer wrote in an emailed statement. “I personally am immensely proud of our web experts

14 ARTS

Drawings on display at the Lehman Loeb

Courtesy of Vassar College

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Assistant Features Editor

here are few days that an entire nation can collectively recall. Over the course of the past 10 years, the date Sept. 11 has become synonymous with the 2001 terror attacks in New York, Washington D.C., and Shanksville, Pa. Each year, this date and what it signifies invokes memories of grief, fear and how these horrifying incidents brought out

the best in certain individuals and communities. With Vassar less than 90 miles away from New York City, these events have left their particular mark on both students and faculty alike.

During the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, it is not uncommon for people to reminisce about where they were when reality as they then knew it was upended. In September 2001, Jillian See SEPT. 11 on page 6

The award-winning Vassar home page displays a different historical image every day, including the four above, as part of the sesquicentennial celebrations. here. They are top-notch professionals in the field.”

The Office of Communication’s Web Development team consists of Guyer, Assistant Director of Web Development Megg Brown, Senior Web Designer Chris Silverman, Web Designer Ray Schwartz, Web Designer Alex Marvar and Web Developer Morgan Gange.

“Chris Silverman, the lead designer on the projects—along with all of his colleagues in the web area—is consistently amazing in his creativity and response to the communications challenges he’s presented,” Vice President

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for Communications Susan DeKrey wrote in an emailed statement. “One can see his contributions to the College throughout Vassar’s web presence.”

The sesquicentennial website’s home page, also known as Vassar 150, offers an array of historical photos that visitors to the site can browse and share in varying ways. The page also provides links to histories of most of Vassar’s departments and programs, written by the departments; a memories section featuring submissions by Vassar alumnae/i; various See AWARD on page 3

Childrens Media Project an outlet for youth voices

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The Miscellany News

September 15, 2011

Editor in Chief Molly Turpin Senior Editors

Katharine Austin Erik Lorenzsonn Aashim Usgaonkar

Contributing Editors Katie Cornish Mitchell Gilburne Carrie Hojnicki Jillian Scharr

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

Assistant News Joey Rearick Dave Rosenkranz Assistant Features Ruth Bolster Jessica Tarantine Assistant Arts Charlacia Dent Shruti Manian Assistant Photo Carlos Hernandez Crossword Editor Jonathan Garfinkel Columnists Brittany Hunt Michael Mestitz Tom Renjilian Andy Sussman In September 1943, the Vassar community found itself enlisted in the World War II war effort, drafting all students into action to play a vital role. The previous year’s Vassar Summer Institute also met to resolve problems civilians might encounter during wartime.

This Week in Vassar History 1812, Fall Matthew Vassar rented a basement room in the County Court House and opened the first oyster saloon or restaurant in the village of Poughkeepsie, peddling beer by day and tending the oyster saloon at night.

1824, Sept. 16 The Marquis de Lafayette was entertained by the village of Poughkeepsie. Matthew Vassar was one of the hosts.

1878, Sept. 19 Two young Japanese women, Shigeko Nagai and Sutematsu Yamakawa, enrolled at Vassar.

Japan’s 1868 Meiji Restoration inaugurated an era of modernization, mandating that “Knowledge shall be sought throughout the world so as to strengthen the foundation of imperial rule.” In 1870, a large Japanese delegation touring the United States, England, Germany and France and studying how Japan might modernize its political, economic, and social systems, had included a group of Japanese girls who were intended to remain in the visited countries as students.

1895, Sept. 20 As it began a new academic year, the college was again filled beyond its capacity.

In four years, the entering class had nearly doubled, from 120 in 1891 to over 200, of whom about 80 could be accommodated on campus. The renovated Windsor Hotel

By Dean Emeritus Colton Johnson

was to be home for another 80, along with a matron and several teachers, and some 40 other freshmen were housed in homes near the College.

No funding for a new recitation hall or a new residence hall was in sight. The New York Times 1923, September The Vocational Bureau was established under the Dean’s office, with its own secretary. Originally the Teachers’ Registry, it was later called the Occupation Bureau.

1918, September Health authorities realized that the deadly strain of influenza seen in increasing numbers in the military since March was spreading widely among the civilian population and that many countries around the world were on the brink of an unparalleled flu epidemic.

In strict quarantine since the opening of college, Vassar students raised $600 for influenza relief work in Arlington, made masks and swabs in the Red Cross workroom at the college, collected clothes and blankets, made layettes and every morning squeezed hundreds of oranges in the basement of Students’ Building.

1929, September A Vassar student was sent to Spain for her junior year. Vassar was the first college to have a junior year in Spain.

1936, Sept. 19 The New Yorker published a cartoon by Helen Hokinson, showing a mother speaking to her trunk-packing daughter: “I hope, dear, you won’t come back from Vassar with a lot of ideas.”

1950, September Four displaced persons from Eastern Europe, from Latvia, Estonia, Hungary and Yugoslavia, attended Vassar on scholarships provided by the trustees and with support from funds provided by donations from every student in the College.

1962, September The board of trustees determined late signouts should last until 2:30 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, but only until 1:30 a.m. on Sunday through Thursday nights, because “A 2:30 permission when places close at 1 a.m. invites conflict with the college’s standards.”

1968, September Twenty men sponsored by local companies, enrolled in chemistry, physics and mathematics courses on a trial basis, becoming the first male students enrolled at Vassar since the college enrolled veterans after the World War II. 1969, Sept. 15 The college launched a $50 million comprehensive capital campaign, the largest in Vassar’s history.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

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September 15, 2011

NEWS

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VSA to seek student input on dining Award of Aashim Usgaonkar Senior Editor

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ith Aramark’s food-services contract with Vassar up for renewal next year, the Vassar Student Association’s (VSA) leadership will gauge student opinion on campus dining to inform negotiations leading up to this renewal. Led by the Campus Dining Review Committee, the audit will include focus groups, town-hall meetings and surveys leading up to its release in February.

VSA Council approved a charter for this committee at its last meeting on Sunday, Sept. 11, in an attempt to make its initiatives transparent to the larger student body. “We thought it was important that the student body know exactly what the structure of the committee was, how it would meet and who was sitting on it,” said VSA Vice President for Student Life Charlie Dobb ’12, adding that the charter was a conscious effort by Council “to be more intentional with its initiatives and to create standards to be held accountable to.”

Approved unanimously, the charter delineates the committee’s purpose, structure and composition among others. Joining Dobb on the committee are Assistant Dean of the College for Campus Activities Teresa Quinn, Director of Campus Dining Maureen King, Assistant Vice President for Budget and Planning David English and a string of students— both on VSA Council and at large.

While the committee is closed due to issues of confidentiality, Dobb stressed how it will reach out to students with varied concerns and perspectives in an attempt to rope in as wide a range of opinion as possible; in fact, the committee is hiring an outside mar-

ket-research specialist in order to design the research.

The primary method the committee will employ is the creation of six “focus groups,” each with 12 to 15 members. “There will be one group of faculty, one group of students with special [dietary] restrictions and potentially one group of student athletes to name a few,” said Dobb, explaining the rationale behind the groups and thier selection. “We wanted all these voices at the table to make sure that we can get an as-broad-as-possible student voice on these issues,” he added. In addition to the focus groups, the committee plans to host programming within the residential halls, along the lines of study breaks, to engage residents in conversation about dining.

Finally, sometime before the semester ends, relevant administrators—including English, King and Quinn—plan to host a town-hall style meeting for all interested students, again continuing the attempt to hear student’s views before the contract-renewal discussions commence the following year.

To supplement the qualitative data collected through the semester, the audit group will also collect quantitative data to add to the alreadyexisting survey results garnered through the years by the Campus Food Committee and Aramark. That data will also supplement and contextualize the student opinion surveyed through this fall.

“This is a great way to get voices that usually aren’t in the room to play a part in the decision-making process,” said Dobb. “People are so passionate about this issue, and we really want to take advantage of that during

this process.”

“We’re lucky because we have a good headstart on this issue,” noted Dobb, outlining the timeline the committee has put in place for the audit. The focus groups are set to be held during the end of October, as are the surveys and dorm events. Then, through November and winter break, the committee will synthesize the data—blending voices with numbers—and release its findings to the College community by February.

The format of the information presented in the audit will largely depend on the nature of the data collected. If some points stand out as major issues, the committee will make concrete suggestions to the Office of Finance and Administration (the negotiators of the contract); otherwise, it will present a general discourse about points that came to the fore front during the research.

The research will be funded in part by the VSA’s funds, in addition to support from the Dean of the College division. “We don’t project the costs to be too high,” said Dobb, claiming that the entire operation should be under $1,500. The primary expenditures will be the the fees of transcribing the focus group discussions, as well as that of incentives given to members of the focus groups to attend and participate in the meetings. The consultant will be donating her services, so the cost to the committee would only be covering her expenses. “Since we’re planning to use this format more than once this semester, the money can also be seen as an investment,” highlighted Dobb, as the students who have been trained under the specialist can organize further audits free of charge.

Seniors make changes to Serenading Dave Rosenkranz

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Assistant News Editor

Alex Schlesinger/The Miscellany News

ast week, the Class of 2012 Executive Board led by Senior President Pam Vogel ’12 executed several changes to Serenading in an attempt to promote a more positive spirit.

However, these changes yielded mixed results.

The biggest change to Serenading didn’t actually happen during the event, but the night before. Last Friday evening, pizza parties sponsored by the Senior Executive Board, Dean of the College Chris Roellke’s Office and the Campus Activities Office were held in each dorm. Seniors were invited to return to their old dorm and meet the freshman class.

“We’ve been advertising to all the seniors and freshmen to get together in their houses, or former houses, to meet each other and get to know each other,” said Vogel, adding, “We’re hoping to create a little more of an atmosphere of welcoming for the freshmen and a kind of brotherhood and sisterhood between them and the seniors.” Vogel emphasized that the goal of the pizza party was to minimize the gap between the senior and freshman classes because the combination of social and geographical separation can sometimes be too great to overcome.

Although the parties were well intentioned, their success was limited according to some students. “As far as the pizza party, it was a good sentiment, but it still ended up with a bunch of the seniors hanging with one another, and a bunch of freshmen hanging out with one another. And there wasn’t much real mingling between the two,” observed Jewett House President Clatyon Masterman ’13. He added that more planning could go a long way. Noyes House President Deborah Steinberg ‘14 echoed Masterman’s view, saying, “we [the Board of House Presidents] talked about having a little more structure for next year.”

The second change to Serenading was increased emphasis on eliminating negative outbursts during the song performances on Ballentine Field. According to Vogel, several emails were sent on behalf of the Senior Executive Board to the entire senior class which discouraged booing during the presentations. The goal was to prevent dorms from being forced off the stage. “A lot of the negativity associated with Serenading comes from the Ballentine performances where se-

Students partake in Serenading festivities on Saturday, Sept. 10. The event culminated on Ballatine Field with each house performing a song for the Class of 2012, as is Vassar tradition. niors booed the dorms and prevented them from finishing their songs and just generally responding in a negative way instead of in a positive way. So this year we’re really encouraging seniors to show their support for things they like rather than when they dislike something,” commented Vogel. The emails entailed suggestions to lighten the mood on Ballentine: The audience was asked to sing and dance along if they felt inspired, or remain silent if not.

Unfortunately, although the seniors were more-or-less well behaved, the underclassmen seemed not be. Many freshmen left immediately, or soon after their performances.

Only about half of the participating freshmen were present when the seniors announced that Noyes had won for the second year in a row. “That made it difficult to promote this image of positivity when half the houses weren’t really in on that,” said Masterman.

Steinberg also felt that “the booing mentality was still there. Like, if someone would start booing, someone else would yell stop booing! The fact that they had to say that hurt

the overall mood.”

Although the College banned condiments from the event three years ago, this year, as always, ketchup and mustard rained from the sky, particularly near Cushing and Noyes Houses, the first two dorms on the Serenading track. However, Steinberg was cautiously optimistic, noting, “Because this senior class had been the last one to get really heavily bombarded by all the condiments and things, they were the ones who were still really bitter.”

Nevertheless, Vogel is modestly happy with the results. “Getting the ball rolling, so to speak, with smaller events like the pizza parties is half the battle—now that we’ve done that, and seen the results, we can work together to give next year a running start and lots of constructive feedback,” wrote Vogel in an email statement, emphasizing the potential this year’s changes have for the future of Serenading. “I am hopeful that what we were able to do this year with the event will signal the beginning of a greater shift in the spirit of Serenading for years to come,” she added.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Excellence for Vassar 150 AWARD continued from page 1 multimedia, including a collection of sesquicentennial-related and vintage videos; a timeline of the College’s history; and a listing of all the sesquicentennial events happening on campus.

“One design feature I love about this site is the 150 logo that has about a dozen or so variations on some Vassar topic,” Guyer wrote. “They are really fun, and the lead designer, Chris Silverman, came up with it.” Silverman and the other web designers also developed the photo feed, the timeline and the Memories section, which uses a customized WordPress installation, specifically for the sesquicentennial website.

“These kinds of things aren’t readily apparent to the average visitor because the graphic design and navigation make the experience coherent and fluid,” Guyer explained.

The other award-winning website is Vassar’s home page. In celebration of the College’s sesquicentennial, a different photo from Vassar’s past has been posted to the site every day. As the public face of the College, however, the website’s design still had to satisfy certain parameters.

Guyer explained, “The college homepage must do everything we have always needed it to do. That is, express Vassar in all its variations and superlative aspects to an audience as broad as the entire world,” particularly prospective students, “as well as to the campus community.”

Both of the websites were in phases of development and design for the sesquicentennial for over a year while the Web Development team worked on various other projects. The work of the Web Development team usually calls for a collaborative effort; “It’s a small, tightly knit group that shares everything they do with each other. They critique and assist each other all the time,” wrote Guyer. The time and effort required to design the sesquicentennial website and the changes to the home page, however, called for a break down of labor into sub-projects among the team and aid from the greater Vassar community.

“Far more than our Centennial celebrations in 1961, this Sesquicentennial has relied almost entirely upon the efforts of members of the Vassar community: staff, students and faculty along with responsive alumnae/i,” Professor of Art and co-Chair of the Sesquicentennial Committee Susan Kuretsky wrote in an emailed statement.

“This award represents serious professional recognition of the extraordinary creativity, ingenuity and sheer hard work of a group of colleagues who tend to work behind the scenes.”

After the sesquicentennial festivities conclude and Vassar commences its 151st year, the fate of both websites is undecided. While plans are not yet finalized, the Web Development team hopes to keep the sesquicentennial website online, at least temporarily, and then archive most of its material. “We’ll undoubtedly leave the 150th anniversary site live for some time,” wrote Guyer. “No decision yet on how long, but the content can continue to be enjoyed, so we wouldn’t remove it.”

As far as Vassar’s home page, its sesquicentennial-themed design is still uncertain once January rolls around. “We don’t think we can continue the photo-a-day effort, which is very time-consuming to coordinate and prepare,” Guyer explained.

According to its website, one of the key messages of the UCDA is “Design Matters—elevating the importance of design and designers and their impact on education.” The College’s two UCDA award-winning websites certainly fulfill those guidelines. “[The Web Development team’s] efforts have allowed all of us to connect more closely with each other and with the college’s past and present, so it’s great to see them getting applauded with such an honor,” wrote Kuretsky.

DeKrey agreed with Kuretsky’s sentiment.

“They tell great stories about the college and members of its community,” she wrote. “Each of the many photos on the sesquicentennial site tells its own story and collectively they say so much about the history of Vassar.”

NEWS

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September 15, 2011

Edwards gives address to Mamiya seeks resolution 2012, 2015 at Fall Convocation to impasse over program Dave Rosenkranz

Assistant News Editor

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his year’s Fall Convocation ceremony, which took place on Wednesday, Sept. 7, marked the ceremonial beginning of the 20112012 academic year and welcomed the Class of 2015 to the Vassar community, and offered yet another opportunity to educate the Class of 2015 on Vassar’s sesquicentennial — a term freshmen are still getting used to. Convocation began with a resounding note from the Chapel’s organ—played by the Music Department’s Adjunct Artist in Music Gail Archer— and a processional of the senior class. The event’s three main speakers, Vassar President Catharine Bond Hill, Vassar Student Association President Tanay Tatum ’12 and Professor of History Rebecca Edwards, marched in towards the end and joined Archer on the stage.

After everyone was inside and seated, the Convocation Choir performed “How Can I Keep from Singing,” as arranged by Dan Graves. Director of Choral Activities, and Professor of Music Christine Howlett chose the song because she felt it symbolized the Vassar student. “The text discusses transcending the struggles and challenges of life through love and friendship,” wrote Howlett in an emailed statement.

Once the musical performance was finished and applause died away, President Hill gave her opening remarks. “The constant thread throughout Vassar’s history is the way in which those who have worked and studied at Vassar have defined the institution,” began Hill, establishing remembrance and innovation as the afternoon’s theme.

Hill went on to talk about Professor of History Lucy Maynard Salmon who, between 1887 and 1927, pioneered the “go to the source” research style that, in Hill’s words, has become a “cornerstone in Vassar’s approach to education.” Hill also described the 1914 Convocation, Vassar’s first, and the 1961 Convocation, which opened Vassar’s centennial year, and used both as milestones in a short retrospective analysis of Vassar’s history. She closed by saying that Vassar’s founding principles, those of leadership and fearlessness, “are sure to continue to endure and to continue to enable Vassar to evolve and thrive.”

Next, Tatum rose to the podium. She gave a brief congratulations to the Class of 2015, and then quickly turned her attention to the se-

nior class, giving words of encouragmet to its members about thier future after graduation.

“You will own the real world once you graduate,” said Tatum encouraging her classmates to embrace their potential. She later added that they should avoid apathy, which, in her words, is “lame and overrated.”

In her speech “Character of American Sunlight,” Edwards highlighted the intellectual potential in story-telling. “I think most learning takes place through stories, like those of Convocations past; stories that help us—nudge us—to see our experiences as part of a larger landscape ... Activities that may seem unintelligible or pointless or flat, with history, acquire an added dimension of meaning.” She continued by briefly recounting her own story, the story of her childhood and adolescence during the Cold War, and many of the experiences which led her to an important conclusion later in life: “There are complicated histories, and there are silences. To inquire into the relationship between stories that are taken as truth and those that are suppressed or unspoken, is to inquire, I think, into fundamentalism, one of the great problems—perhaps the great problem—your generation faces ... It emerges from what Vassar’s first great historian, Lucy Maynard Salmon, called ‘the proneness of the human mind to seize half a truth and remain content with it.’”

Edwards concluded her speech with a poem called “Hermit Crab” by Mary Oliver, and some encouraging words. “We don’t give up the search for whole truths, and we don’t give in to that inner fundamentalist. If we at Vassar can cultivate those qualities among ourselves, then we’re headed in the right direction for the next 150 years.”

After Edwards returned to her place on stage, the senior class came together for the recessional, once again accompanied by Archer on the organ. The audience, made up of mostly freshmen, followed. Outside, a few faculty members and administrators stood on a makeshift stage and promptly serenaded the exiting students with convocation classics such as the “Hygiene Song” and “Vassar Without a Freshman,” a tradition that mirrored the students’ own serenading event.

After the singing was over, the freshman class gathered in front of Main Building for their first photograph as the Class of 2015, concluding Fall Convocation 2011.

PRISON continued from page 1 ing. There is no harm in it. For me, it is more of a ‘Why not?’ than a ‘Why?’” Vassar founded two different prison programs: The “Bridging the Gap” program at Otisville Medium Correctional Facilities which began eight years ago, and a dialogue group at Green Haven Maximum Security Prison which was the original prison program founded in 1979. Usually, around eight students are accepted into the Otisville class and 18 students are accepted into the Green Haven program.

Once there, the Green Haven students split up into two different groups and remained in separate classrooms for the remainder of the semester. Both programs received no funding and their only expense was the prison van, originally paid for by the Vassar Field Work Office, to transport the students and professors to and from the prisons.

The Department of Corrections took over the transitional services program after a planned strike by the incarcerated men 10 years ago, and refused to allow them to have further input in the curricula. Since that time, regulations have gradually become stricter.

Even with new regulations, Vassar continued the prison program until the end of last year.

This year, the Department of Corrections canceled the class altogether because it wants more traditional and vocational-based classes to be offered to inmates instead of the more cerebral and open-ended liberal arts classes typical of Vassar. The program creators are looking for a greater variety of classes to be taught by multiple professors using textbooks, giving tests and assigning college papers. In order for the classes to continue, Vassar must reformat their course offerings and propose a curriculum that pleases the Department of Corrections.

This past year, Vassar did present a modified curriculum to the Department of Corrections in which the incarcerated men could, like Vassar students, receive college credit for the discussion classes.

Mamiya said the department turned down the revised format because “they [the Department of Corrections] said the dialogue groups seem more like ‘rap sessions’ and [that] the credits probably would not be accepted by other colleges.”

Mamiya then proposed to teach a new

course on criminal justice at Green Haven on Thursday evenings and at Otisville on Fridays. He has not yet heard back from either correctional facility. However, Otisville did turn down his request to teach Sociology/ Religion 268, entitled Sociology of Black Religion, at the prison. Although the enrolled Vassar students expected interaction with local prisons to be a core element of the class, it is now being offered on the Vassar campus as a typical 200-level course. Otisville and Green Haven declined to have the course taught at their prisons because they are both looking for a range of stable, diverse academic courses. The department’s hope for a more academic curriculum poses another problem for Vassar: the need to find funding to cover the cost of textbooks for the incarcerated men, estimated to be $2,500 per course (10-15 men per class).

“The [prison] class was unsustainable in its current form because it relied heavily on one professor,” said Zoe Van Buren ’13, head of the Vassar Prison Initiative, an organization committed to raising awareness about issues related to the prison industrial complex by working in conjunction with the academic prison programs on campus. “The department wants real college classes with textbooks, so our goal for this year is to find grants to get funding to reinstate the classes.”

Vassar’s role in the dialogue groups was in the form of community input, bringing a voice from outside the prison’s walls. They would explain to the men about prevalent issues that they wre not exposed to in their sequestered state. These topics ranged from current events to technological advances, and students who participated in the discussions all say that both they and the incarcerated men with whom they interacted were deeply impacted by the experience.

“Just as we define ourselves as Vassar students, the men in the prisons define themselves as guys who participate in the program,” said Tilden. “All of the concrete learning happens outside of the classroom with Mamiya. The main point of the dialogue groups is conversation and understanding.

The open dialogues allow the incarcerated men to have space and feel empowered and in control. There is not another moment in their day that they can feel that way.”

Students express Patrol concerns through social media PATROL continued from page 1 frequently and with flexible schedules, accumulating much more pay than typical student employees. Indeed, the group advertises unabashedly on its website that it is “the best paying job available to Vassar students.” As a result, adminstrators across the College’s divisions considered ways to better employ the Patrol so the group could justify its funding.

In light of this, the Drug and Alcohol Education Committee (DEC), a group of administrators, faculty and students formed under the Dean of the College office, proposed a shift in the duties of patrol last year. The Committee’s proposal sought to bring the Patrol inside residential buildings to foster a culture in which students take a larger role in enforcing the College’s social regulations.

Associate Director of Residential Life Richard Horowitz, who sat on the Committee and helped shape its proposal, said Vassar students often don’t communicate their discomfort about behaviors like excessive noise or drinking directly to each other. To wit, a limited security force struggles to provide consistent enforcement.

“They [students] had to largely try to ignore such harmful behaviors because of the lack of ongoing enforcement and the Vassar community doesn’t encourage informal peer-to-peer resolution of such things due to the fear of ostracism or being harmfully labeled or perceived,” he wrote in an e-mailed statement.

He added, “The many calls made to Security last year about behaviors such as loud music served as evidence. It was suggested that the reason for this situation was the extremely limited amount of on-

going enforcement of behavioral expectations and the belief that students have removed themselves from any related leadership role.”

To rectify this situation, the Committee suggested the Patrol system be modified to act as a student-led source of security within the dorms.

The college administration decided to enact the proposal before the beginning of this school year.

Now, patrollers are expected to walk through the dormitories where they are posted to identify threats to security, such as vandalism or suspicious persons. They will also encourage communication between students; if a student tells a patroller someone is playing music too loudly, the patroller will encourage the complainant to approach his peer directly rather than call in a noise complaint to Security.

The new Patrol design, however, has been met with negative reactions from the student body. Some, learning of altered duties of Patrol, assumed the College was redirecting the timehonored student organization to indict other students for behavioral infractions. In a meeting at the beginning of the year, seven student leaders who supervise Patrol met with representatives from the DEC to discuss the new initiative.

After that meeting, four resigned.

“I really don’t know why they quit,” said Associate Director of Student Conduct Batia Epelbaum, who was present at that meeting and helped devise Patrol’s new responsibilities. She asserted that no patroller is supposed to report another student for the possession of alcohol.

If a patroller observes another student holding a beer in a hallway, she said, “They might say something to them, like, ‘You might want to put

that away.’ But that’s it. We’re not looking for them to be a documenting authority.”

But that policy is not reflected in much of the dialogue among students. On the popular Vassar social media site SayAnythingVC some users insisted that the changes represent a covert attempt by the college administration to make students report each other. Others charged the patrol was being forced to act as a security force because the College refused to pay for professional security officers. Horowitz, in a move atypical of administrators, engaged detractors on the site, identifying himself and stating the rational behind the changes. Trying to reach out to angry opponents of the new Patrol, he wrote, “I can understand why students might oppose participating in upholding any of VC’s behavioral expectations to the slightest degree as students have removed themselves from the executive branch of VC’s governance over the past five to 10 years. It’s actually the only part of governance at VC that isn’t shared.”

Still, students voiced strong concern. Epelbaum said she was mystified by the allegations.

“There’s a lot of misinformation on SayAnything,” she said. “When I explain it to students and they understand that it is a student to student thing, they soon become positive about it.”

VSA Vice President for Student Life Charlie Dobb ’12 expressed similar confusion at the response the new Patrol design has received from students. “I’ve never seen a situation in which there were such disparate stories,” he said. Students have approached him, expressing concern about policies that the administrators have explicitly disavowed. “Some kind of communica-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

tion breakdown happened here,” he said. “Something about the content got lost in the shuffle.”

He thinks that the DEC may have been nervous about issuing a detailed mandate to an organization that has been historically directed solely by students. As a result, he said, unspecific guidelines issued to patrollers may have contributed to unjustified speculation. “I think the administration might have been better off issuing a more clear proposal,” he said. “But I don’t understand why there has been so much confusion on this issue.”

Last week, patrollers began their new duties.

The operation is still in a transitional phase; patrollers do not yet have desks to sit at between walkthroughs and the staff is not full. But the Patrol’s remaining leaders are moving forward with operations, hoping to leave recent controversy about their organization behind. Supervisor Hunter Furnish ‘13, said, “At first, like everyone else, I was very much against the idea of all of the changes [the administration] wanted to make, largely because it infringed so much upon what Patrol has been for decades, both with responsibilities and culturally. However, after having more open discussion and conversations about it I became much more optimistic.” The past few days have been extremely busy for Patrol’s supervisors as they conduct trainings for new and old staff about their responsibilities within the dormitories. “We’re still in that growing pains transition stage,” said Furnish. “Patrol is not weak right now, though, just adjusting. In fact, our roster is larger then usual and filled with patrollers who want to work, so I’m really enjoying that side of things.”

September 15, 2011

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Politics strain relations between students, Poughkeepsie Mary Huber

Features Editor

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Eric Schuman/The Miscellany News

o the average Vassar student, Poughkeepsie might as well be a world away. Students here casually refer to the “Vassar Bubble,” and Vassar College has been on the Princeton Review’s list of “Town-Gown Relations Strained” every year since 2008.

One potential reason for those strained towngown relations is political. Dutchess County is traditionally Republican; currently the Dutchess County Legislature has three times the number of Republicans as Democrats. The 19th and 20th Congressional Districts of New York have had Republican representation for most of the past 20 years.

Vassar, on the other hand, has a left-leaning reputation. According to David Davis-Van Atta, Director of Institutional Research, incoming freshmen at Vassar from 1990-2006 were more liberal than the average student at peer institutions such as Williams, Bryn Mawr, and other liberal arts schools, and he believes there is no reason to suspect that that has changed.

Vassar students as a whole are also more involved politically than their peers. Seniors in 2010 reported their participation in a political group was slightly higher than those at peer institutions for each year of college.

It is no surprise that there have been tensions in the political arena.

Those tensions came to a head in 2009, when Town of Poughkeepsie Republican Committee Chairman Thomas Martinelli challenged Vassar students’ votes in a local election on the basis of residency. Knowing that students move each year, Martinelli claimed that the students’ current addresses didn’t match up with the addresses under which they were registered.

The students eventually cast their votes, although many accused poll watchers of voter intimidation. Dutchess County Election Board Commissioner Frances Knapp (D) said of the incident, “I believe the hostility was partisan and Vassar students were targeted as a block to suppress voter turnout for Democrats.”

Erik Haight (R), Dutchess County Election Board Commissioner, disagreed with Knapp’s assertion that the 2009 elections included voter intimidation or suppression. He said, “Students are well within their rights to vote here, and parties or candidates are also well within their rights to challenge those votes... There have definitely been some challenges in Town of Poughkeepsie elections and in some of the

Vassar students gather to vote in the 2010 New York State midterm elections on Nov. 2. Political differences contribute to the tense relations between Poughkeepsie residents and the student body. other districts where Vassar students vote.”

He also said, “I imagine in those years with higher student turn out you’ll have more tension. Candidates from both parties take votes very seriously.”

Knapp had a bleaker view of the political situation. “I believe we have every reason to be worried this year once again,” she said. “The county Republican Party views college students as supportive of Democratic issues and candidates so they will continue to intimidate voters and college students to suppress voter turnout.”

Republicans may have reason to take Vassar students’ votes seriously. Said Jonathan Wood ’12, Treasurer of the College Democrats, “I’m from Southern Georgia, which is always red, and sometimes I think, ‘What is the point in my vote?’ But we could make this a blue county. It’s already a blue town.”

Of course, even if every eligible Vassar student did vote for the Democratic candidate, it would probably make little difference, as the majority in recent regular elections has been much larger than 2,000 votes. However, the College Democrats also campaign beyond Vassar.

“I think with the whole vote debacle, people

saw us as college kids knocking on their doors and trying to get them to vote blue,” continued Wood, “We want to show them that we’re not just people who vote for Democrats then go home and don’t care about the local community.”

For just that reason, the College Democrats have begun to incorporate community service into their schedule of usual activities. “That’s a new part of our agenda,” said College Democrats President Tess Dernbach ’12. “With individuals we’ve never felt disliked.”

Said Wood, “I think there’s a frustration out there that we aren’t more involved, that we’re not doing more… There’re more people doing fieldwork and getting involved. I think things are turning around, but there’s still a stigma to get over.”

Dernbach concurred, “It’s kind of a new thing; we [students] haven’t always been that involved before. But people want us in the community. Well, maybe not Republicans, but most people do.”

However, many of those interviewed have resisted painting strained town-gown relations as strictly a red vs. blue issue. “I don’t know if Town of Poughkeepsie can be considered a conservative district. There are more Demo-

crats here than Republicans,” said Haight.

Though he played down the fact that Dutchess County as a whole generally votes Republican, Haight pointed out an interesting phenomenon: the immediate vicinity—Town of Poughkeepsie—actually leans Democratic.

This implies that if Vassar does have tense relations with the local community, the reasons are not entirely political.

College Democrats have had few issues canvassing in the local area, while some volunteer student groups that work in Poughkeepsie find they still experience tension despite their lack of a political agenda.

Stephanie Mischell ’12, the President of Hunger Action, stressed that most of her interactions with Poughkeepsie residents were positive, however she realized not all residents appreciated Vassar’s role in the community.

“I don’t feel like there’s often people who don’t like us [as individuals], but there are some who aren’t fond of Vassar as an institution,” she said, “Sometimes people will be like, ‘I’m not a big fan of Vassar, but I love you guys.’” She continued, “I’ve sometimes felt like I’ve had to apologize, like ‘Sorry so many people have been fired, and that we [Vassar] own so much of the town.’ But people, at Vassar and elsewhere, are doing a lot in the city.”

She referenced the layoffs of 13 Vassar employees, also in 2009, in response to economic crisis. The decision sparked the creation of a new student group, Campus Solidarity Working Group, and hunger strikes by three students in an attempt to cancel the layoffs. The strike ended 89 hours later, after administrators assured the students that most of those laid off had found new positions or retired.

Wood was similarly interested in bringing Vassar students as a whole closer to Poughkeepsie. “I think there’s been a culture here of ‘Oh, I just don’t go there [to Poughkeepsie],’” he said, “And I think we need to realize, yeah it’s fallen on tough times, but there are lots of opportunities to get involved.

“We need to focus on asset-based community organizing,” added Dernbach, “Instead of saying, “Oh, this is wrong, this is wrong.” Look at the diversity here. You have people form the Caribbean and Latin America and Asia, and black and white people. How wonderful to have an advantage like that.”

“I think things are getting better,” Dernbach concluded, “though there’s a lot of room for improvement.”

Office of Health Education expands programming Jessica Tarantine

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Assistant Features Editor

assar’s drinking culture has always been­ —in a word—diverse: Some students never drink, others have two and are pleasantly buzzed, and others overindulge every weekend. In response to this heterogeneous partying culture, the Office of Health Education (OHE) and Residental Life subsidiaries have expanded wellness programming to include not only education to those who drink and alternatives to those who don’t, but also far-reaching programming to target overall wellness unrelated to drinking.

The largest sponsor of the Wellness Program on campus is the OHE, headed by the Director of Health Education Renee Pabst, who sees wellness as something that must be approached holistically.

“Wellness is such a vast sphere that includes emotional, physical, intellectual, environmental, social and spiritual health,” Pabst said.

With a lot of ground to cover, Pabst stated, “The Office continues to work and develop new programs based on what are the most prevalent wellness issues for students.”

For the upcoming year this means perfecting programming such as Meatless Mondays, the Halloween 5k Fun Run and the Wellness Wagon, Vassar’s own version of Cash Cab, where students can hop on a golf cart and ride to their destination while answering health related question.

Amidst these lighter programs, the Office of Health Education also offers programs that are more serious in nature, such as the Bystander Intervention program.

“Bystander Intervention is one of the lead-

ing ways in which colleges are educating their students to lower incidents of sexual assault, relationship abuse, alcohol overdose and other high-risk behaviors,” Pabst said. Vassar’s Bystander Intervention programs include the Red Watch Campain, a training educating students on the signs of alcohol poising and the Step Up Program providing information on when to intervene in cases of interpersonal violence.

While these training sessions tend to be open to the campus at large, the Office provides for a greater collaboration with the houses and more personal outreach through the Wellness Peer Educators (WPE) program, where WPEs are assigned to one or two house, not necessarily his or her own.

“As a Wellness Peer Educator, my job entails interacting with every facet of the Vassar community from housing to dining to events in Walker,” said WPE of Jewett Travis Hungreder ’13.

Pabst more formally explained it: “Many of our Wellness Peer Educators are sought out in the house for information and consultation, so even though this is not programming—it is education and assistance within the house.”

Wellness Peer Educator Peri Akchurin ’12 said that having a WPE assigned to each house was especially important for access. “Having a representative from the Office of Health [Education] in each dorm is important because it helps spread information evenly throughout the houses and gives most students a face to associate with the office.”

Noyes WPE Sten Chan ’12 offered, “Each of the Wellness Peer Educators is assigned to a house on campus, with the goal of creating a stronger bond between house teams and the Office of

Health Education.”

This bond between house teams and the OHE often leads to House Calls, a program where members of the OHE come to the house directly and have interactive information sessions.

Requests for these programs can come from House Teams for their residents or themselves, House Fellows for their residents, coaches or captains for their sports teams, or other student organizations. The majority of House Calls are lead by WPEs. “Sometimes I will work with specific sport teams or organizations to do a House Call or Training,” Pabst said. But she still felt that the bond could grow stronger, “I would like to see collaboration grow with the houses and OHE in areas of wellness programming, in study breaks but also in providing larger on-campus programs that promote wellness.

Hopefully, with the establishment of the Residential Wellness Council (RWC) this liaison will grow stronger.”

“The RWC was created in response to increased student demand over the past few years for places and activities that are alternative to parties and support health and wellbeing,” states the Council’s proposal, penned

by Assistant Director for Residential Wellness Programs Terrence Hanlon.

The Council, advised by Hanlon, will be comprised of two members from each House Team, one student fellow and one house officer, as well as any students who choose to participate.

In addition to supporting general wellness activities on campus, Council members will work with House Teams and the Office of Health Education to solidify the relationship between the OHE and the houses and offer

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

support for programming.

Wellness Peer Educators remained optimistic about the success of the program. Chan said, “I feel [the relationship] will now greatly be helped with the inception of the Residential Wellness Council.”

The Council will also offer support to already existing Wellness programming such as the SuperFun Committee, established last year by the House Teams of Strong and Raymond.

Unlike the educational programming offered by the OHE, the SuperFun Committee aims to present drug- and alcohol-free spaces for students that center on fun and relaxation rather than education.

“The main goal of the SuperFun Committee is to provide events that represent a side of fun that you don’t always get on the weekends here at Vassar,” said SuperFun Committee spokesperson Ruth Bolotin ’13 in reference to the weekend drinking that occurs on college campuses like Vassar’s. “It’s a way to watch a movie, play board games, do charades or go on a scavenger hunt and meet awesome like-minded people in the process.”

But even with their well attended events offering coconut cupcakes, the SuperFun Committee and wellness programming in general still faces some problems. “One of the challenges of SuperFun is changing people’s perceptions of ‘alternative programming,’ which is a phrase we don’t really like to use,” Bolotin said.

“People have this negative connotation that alternative programming is something lamer than ‘normal programming,’ whatever that is, when really we’re just trying to give everyone more options on the weekends.”

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September 15, 2011

Ford Scholars engage with faculty through projects Danielle Bukowski

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Features Editor

Carlos Hernandez/The Miscellany News

he Ford Scholars Program pairs enthusiastic students with professors to do engaging research in topics that span the globe.

Although most scholars stayed on campus this year, their projects were international in focus, from Chinese translation and assisted reproductive technologies in developing nations to curriculum development and Liberian literature. The Ford symposium on Sept. 21 from 3 to 5 p.m. will showcase the work done by students and faculty.

“It was an eye-opening experience,” said Laura Lebow ’12 of working with Assistant Professor of English Dorothy Kim in creating a digital-editions archive of medieval manuscripts. One of the few projects to work offcampus, Lebow and Kim traveled to the British Library in London to look at 13th-century British manuscripts.

Kim has been working on the digital encoding project with colleagues for a few years. She said, “The project is a collaborative of old media and new media. So there’s an editing rule we have that anyone going to do their own encoding and editing needs an understanding of the primary material.” Lebow is familiar with the language of the texts, and knew how to handle manuscripts after taking the Detectives in the Archives class in Special Collections.

“I went to Brown [Univesrity] to learn XML encoding right after my last final in the spring,” said Lebow. “A lot of what I did was tag literary devices…in England I was looking at early South English legendaries, which are really intimidating even with experience.” Lebow described the digital map the collaboration is creating, which would add critical footnotes and interactive maps to go along with the medieval manuscripts: “So if a saint is mentioned, it might tell about where she was from, or if they stop at this Church it would show that on the map.”

Although Lebow was intimidated by the prospect of being on her own in the library on her first day, she said, “They really don’t dis-

As a part of the Ford Scholars program, senior Laura Lebow, pictured above, worked with Assitant Professor of English Dorothy Kim over the summer to digitize archives of medieval manuscripts. criminate between students and scholars there, so as long as you had references, they let you do your thing … It was just really cool to be around scholarly people,” Lebow said. She was able to look at the 14th-century Pearl manuscript, which contains the original “Sir Gawain and the Green Night” and the poem “Pearl,” after meeting a researcher at lunch. “Basically he said, ‘Why don’t you look over my shoulder, because that’s the closest you’re ever going to get,’” explained Lebow.

“Laura went to a conference with me, too, to see what it was like to be a part of the academic world,” said Kim. “I’m really interested in Ford, and think it really is the best way for an under-

graduate to study in my field, to see what goes on and really understand what it would be like to continue with this in grad school.”

Kim’s last Ford scholar is now studying medieval literature at Cornell University, and Lebow is considering going on to graduate school as well. “[Ford] is a tough program to do, but it was an amazing opportunity for me. I got to study at the British Library before receiving my bachelor’s degree,” Lebow said.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Eréndira Rueda also went off-campus for her Ford project. She took on her research assistant Amanda Friedrich ’13 as a Ford scholar to develop a new course stemming from her interest in the dif-

ferent conceptions of childhood. “I am teaching a course now for the first time called Commercialized Childhoods, which was part of my research interest for a while,” said Rueda, “and figured [developing the curriculum] was a perfect opportunity for a Ford scholar, as she could help me out and it would give her experience.”

Friedrich went through a lot of databases collecting materials and information. Rueda said, “Together we figured out the readings to do, which was especially helpful because Amanda has taken my course, and is familiar with my teaching style, and she would tell me that this reading would be too boring or too much work.

This exchange was really good for the course development.”

“I also like Ford because it gives an opportunity that often under-represented students wouldn’t otherwise get, this experience of working on a program with a professor,” said Rueda. Director of Ford Scholars and Professor of Political Science Katherine Hite said, “The key historical objective of the Ford scholarship is that it encourages historical minorities to take part in the life of a professor.” The students also have the ability to pursue their own research, often translating that into their theses during senior year.

The students will be presenting their experiences shadowing professors at the symposium next week in the Alumni House. There will be two poster sessions in which students share their research, and then Noor Mir ’12, John Joyce ’12 and Lebow will share their oral presentations. Hite hopes that students come out to see what their peers have done, and will encourage them to apply for the program in February.

“Just being able to talk about [my research] will be a good litmus test for teaching,” said Lebow. Rueda said, “I am excited for the symposium. I was in L.A. so not able to participate here, so it will be nice to hear what else went on in the program.” Said Rueda, “Ford was just a sort of natural fit for this kind of sociological project...And the students love Commercialized Childhoods so far!”

College commemorates anniversary of U.S. tragedy at the time, he vividly recalls the immediacy with which the College responded to the emotional needs of the students, faculty and staff.

“The College quickly set up an information center in the Villard Room to serve as a resource for students, faculty and families,” noted Roellke in an emailed statement. “I also recall an emergency faculty meeting in Rockefeller Hall, as there were questions about the College’s ability to hold classes.”

Televisions were set up in the Faculty Lounge, bringing students and staff uninterrupted news coverage of the events, while phones were placed in the Villard Room, allowing members of the Vassar community to contact loved ones and friends. Additionally, a counseling service was quickly mobilized, offering group therapy sessions as well as individual conferences. Acting in many ways as surrogate parents for those residing in their dorms, the House Fellows also played a key role in lending students emotional support. In 2001, Brown served as the faculty House Fellow for Lathrop House and noted the frequency with which he met with students in informal groups.

“Anyone could come and speak with us. A lot of students really just wanted to be with somebody,” stated Brown.

In the following days and weeks, teach-ins and faculty discussion panels in the Villard Room helped shed an intellectual light on the motives behind the attacks. However, the outpouring of spiritual and emotional support continued. Candlelight vigils were staged outside of the Chapel, and flowers were left at the base of the great tree in the center of the Library lawn. Students and faculty would also

steal away to the Peace Garden that lines the path from the College Center to the ACDC for a few moments of quiet contemplation.

From this tragedy rose a heightened sense of community that in many instances brought out the best in faculty and students alike. Just before the attacks, there was a number of students who were interested in creating a Muslim student alliance at Vassar, with the group’s first meeting being planned for the week of the 11th. Yet in the immediate aftermath of the Sept.

11 events, an Islam-phobic wave swept most of the United States, often resulting in unjust profiling among many in the American Muslim communities.

“These students were feeling very uncomfortable. It wasn’t a very large group, but it was a new group, and they were really feeling vulnerable and kind of uneasy,” noted Brown.

In light of this, the Jewish Student Union offered their support to the Muslim students by conjoining their meetings. As Brown stated, “They were making it clear that there is a ‘we’ here, that there is a Vassar ‘we.’”

Although it has been 10 years since the attacks, students and faculty tried to recapture this sense of camaraderie, or an unbreakable “Vassar ‘we,’” over the weekend. They offered one another emotional and spiritual support through an evening candlelight vigil and various informal discussions.

Just as their counterparts facilitated student conversation 10 years ago, Main House Fellows Sarita Gregory and Molly McGlennen hosted a campus-wide ice cream social in the Aula last Sunday with the intention of having students share their memories of Sept. 11. Before the discussion, students were invited to view the art-

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

SEPT. 11 continued from page 1 Quint ’04, a Philadelphia native, was just beginning her sophomore year at Vassar. Like many, her memories of that day were dominated by the confusion, and eventual shock inspired by the unfolding events.

As she recalled in an emailed statement, “I first heard that something was up from somebody at [the All Campus Dining Center]—after the first attack—but at that point it still seemed like an accident. By the time I got back to my dorm it was clearer that something bigger was happening. Phones weren’t working.

We heard rumors of a plane down in Pennsylvania and it was downright scary. For much of the day, we were all glued to the TV in the multi-purpose room and since a lot of kids had parents who worked in Manhattan, there was a great deal of panic.”

Dean of Students D.B. Brown also remembers the particular hardships of that day. “We had something like 10 students whose parents worked in the World Trade Center,” began Brown. “My memory is that all 10 of them survived, but some were missing for a while and they were found in hospitals and different places. So not only was the school traumatized, but we had some specifically traumatized students.”

One student’s mother in particular, as Brown later noted, was missing for over a week before she made herself known in one of the New York City area hospitals.

Dean of the College Chris Roellke was attending a meeting for educational outreach at the Collin’s Field Station when he first heard a rumor of “fires” at the World Trade Center.

A House Fellow in Raymond House

President of the College Catharine Bond Hill delivers a short address to Vassar community members gathered to observe a moment of silence on Monday, Sept. 12. work of Khalilah Sabree, whose series of paintings entitled “Transcending the Veil of 9/11” has been displayed in the Aula since Aug. 31.

In the discussion, students and House Fellows shared their memories of that day.

“We wanted it to be a non-pressure conversation that would allow students to engage in a number of medians,” noted McGlennen. “We just thought it would be an appropriate moment to bridge what was going on outside of the school with what was going on in the houses.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

The Sept. 11 anniversary events also included a candlelight vigil sponsored by the Religion Department that evening, as well as a moment of silence in the Peace Garden on the morning of Sept. 12.

Although the events of Sept. 11, have forever etched themselves in the collective conscious of the entire nation, Vassar continues to move forward, sustaining bridges of communication between students and faculty, as well as preserving a sense of community within the College as a whole.

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September 15, 2011

Page 7

D.C. sit-in signals opposition to Keystone XL pipeline the means,” said Guenther. “And if I could have gone and didn’t, I would have been upset with myself.”

Guenther and McEntire decided to travel together to Washington one week after Leavitt’s participation, arriving on the night of Sept. 2. “I had a lot of plans that fell through,” said Guenther. “So I called Jake up at 8:30 the night before and said, ‘Hey, do you wanna go to D.C.?’”

Upon arriving in Washington, D.C. the night before protesting, all participants underwent a mandatory training session courtesy of Tar Sands Action. “It was four hours of training,” said Leavitt of his own experience. “They addressed the layout of the protest, the philosophy behind it…and the legal issues and troubleshooting, like if an arrest happened.”

Arrest would be a guarantee for the protestors who held their ground, since they would be violating a law that makes it mandatory for all pedestrians on the White House sidewalk to remain in motion. When Leavitt underwent training, he initially was concerned about the impact his arrest would have on future job and graduate school applications. As it turns out, his fears were for naught: “[The arrest] was the severity of a traffic violation.”

On the morning of Sept. 3, Guenther and McEntire gathered with fellow activists in Lafayette Park before making their political stand in front of the White House gates. Guenther recalled being impressed not only by the sheer number of activists present, but also by how Tar Sands Action handled the wiredrawn logistics of the affair. “It was hectic,” she said.

“There was the legal team running around making sure everyone had the legal team [phone] number written on their arm in sharpie. There were some people who just came, so [the legal team] had a crash course in training for those who hadn’t been

Courtesy of Josh Lopez, Tar Sands Action

KEYSTONE continued from page 1 released after paying a $200 fee to the U.S. Parks Service.

Leavitt was among 1,252 other activists from around the globe—including fellow Vassar Greens members Ethan Buckner ’13, Jillian Guenther ’13 (co-president of the Greens) and Jacob McEntire ’14—who were arrested for participating in a sit-in in Washington that lasted from Aug. 12 until Sept. 3. The activists were gathered in protest of a proposal by TransCanada, a major Canadian energy corporation, to route tar sands from Alberta to refineries in Texas via a 1661-mile pipeline.

Ever since TransCanada’s proposal was unveiled in 2008, opposition to Keystone XL has been intense; environmental groups, national lawmakers, communities along the pipeline’s proposed route, climate scientists, a cavalcade of labor unions and nine Nobel Peace Prize recipients—including the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu—have declared their dissent. This diverse body of opposition cites the manifold red flags the pipeline raises: the danger of spillage, health risks to landowners near the pipeline, possible water supply contamination and the high carbon footprint associated with tar sands.

Leavitt and Guenther each heard about Keystone XL from emails they received from 350.org, a website on climate change run by Bill McKibben. The renowned environmental activist is one of the leaders in the fight against the pipeline and a primary organizer of the sit-ins.

“The more I learned about [the pipeline], the more and more things that were so wrong about it,” said Guenther.

When the students learned that McKibben was working with the grassroots activism group Tar Sands Action to organize the sit-in, they were instantly on board. “We had

U.S. Park Police officers escort Jacob McEntire ’14, cuffed in zip ties, outside of the White House. McEntire traveled to Washington, D.C. to join other activists in protest of the Keystone XL pipeline. The protests ran from Aug. 12 to Sept. 3. there the night before. They had a lot of logistics to do.”

McEntire recalled meeting a man from Puerto Rico that morning, who spoke to protestors about how he came to show solidarity with their plight; the governor of Puerto Rico recently proposed a similarly controversial pipeline for natural gas on the island.

“I expected most of the people there to be in this [American] liberal spectrum,” said McEntire. “But he was an activist with a global perspective.”

The protestors promptly marched into their positions after the lastminute adjustments: One row held signs and placards while two other rows sat cross-legged on the sidewalk.

“I ended sitting next to two elderly women,” Guenther said. “One woman was so nervous. She was holding onto

Caterina Fake betters digital selfexpression with sites Flickr, Etsy Danielle Gensburg

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Guest Reporter

t’s no surprise that Vassar has an impressive list of alumnae/i, from famous actresses like Lisa Kudrow ’85 and Meryl Streep ’71 to prominent poet Elizabeth Bishop ’34 and CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Chip Reid ’77. Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake ’91 is a more recent alumna, and a person of interest for the modern, tech-savvy student.

A technological genius, Fake graduated from Vassar in 1991 as an English major. Having attended Smith College her freshman year, she decided to transfer to Vassar after being attracted to the school for a number of reasons: “I really appreciated the size of the school, which was not too big so I got to know a lot of my classmates and professors,” Fake said. “I also liked that it was near New York, where I spent a lot of time.”

Associate Professor Emeritus of English Everett Weedin’s Shakespeare course was Fake’s favorite class at Vassar, and it taught her important lessons.

“He was famous for having failed an entire class, and he certainly didn’t give out As easily,” Fake said. “I had to really think and really work. So I doubled my efforts, and ended up getting an A for both terms.

The class itself was full of brilliant students. It was a fantastic course.” While at Vassar, Fake was also involved off-campus and worked at the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, N.Y., a book and art studio originally founded in 1974 to provide an alternative space for artists to create and share their skills.

Fake is still in touch with the Vassar community despite her busy schedule. “I was actually just at Vassar last week, helping the [Alumnae and Alumni of Vassar College] Office and communications with digital programs.”

20 years after accepting her diploma at the top of Graduation Hill, Fake is now the successful co-found-

er of one of the best online photo sharing websites in the world: “Flickr is about people’s self-expression and creative work, community sharing, collaboration and many of those things were nurtured at Vassar.”

The idea for Flickr, according to Fake, evolved over a long period of time: “There’s a myth that ideas are born in a kind of ‘eureka’ moment of an inventor coming upon an idea all at once. But it’s not really how they come about. Generally they involve a lot of people and require many failed ideas along the way before arriving at the ‘right’ idea. Flickr came about in this way.”

Aside from Flickr, Fake is also the Chairman of the Board at Etsy (a website that shares and sells handmade and vintage items) and co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Hunch (a site that is mapping every user on the Internet to every entity and their affinity for that entity to create a “taste graph”). In addition to all of these technological initiatives, Fake continues to maintain a passion for art and writing.

“I’ve exhibited a lot of art and have published many articles and short stories. I had started out wanting to be a writer and an artist.”

With such an impressive résumé, the most important piece of advice Fake offers to current students is to learn for the sake of learning. “I am not sure how grading works at Vassar these days, but never work for grades. Always work for learning,” she said. “I always knew, independent of my grades, if I was succeeding or failing, if I was learning or if I was just going through the motions. You can have learned more in a class you ostensibly failed than in those classes where you get an automatic A.” With websites such as Flickr and Etsy, Fake has offered the world the opportunity to continue to share and learn from one another. “Never let other people grade you,” she added. “Grade yourself, and be a tough grader.”

her banner so tightly [and] was narrating everything that was happening to make herself feel better.”

Guenther and McEntire were eventually arrested, an experience almost identical to Leavitt’s: zip tie, police van, $200 fine and all. Perhaps the most trying part of the ordeal was the extensive waiting involved. “Lots of waiting,” commented Guenther. “Jacob wasn’t even arrested when I got out, so I had to wait for him.”

McEntire praised the conduct of all the law-enforcement agents at the scene representing the US Park Police: “There was a SWAT team there,” he said. “Big muscular guys. They were all just so nice.”

Almost two weeks have now passed since the protests ended, which have given the students ample time to reflect upon their experience.

Leavitt, for one, finds it strange that the protests were compared to the practices of civil disobedience associated with Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement.

“While there was urgency, there was no threat of violence,” said Leavitt.

“Not to sound cynical, but this was civil disobedience-light. It was a very different situation than what it’s framed as sometimes.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Leavitt also believes that the protests highlight problems of inclusion and access in grassroots activism.

“Not to be the voice of leftist skepticism, but there’s a lot of under-representation of native communities who were directly affected. Their autonomy is eroded by the pipeline; that’s an issue that wasn’t talked about as much, and it is really an issue that they’ve been dealing with for years.”

The Vassar students who were involved were happy that they participated, but can only hope that their message made an impact. “I think it was successful,” said McEntire. “I’m just worried about whether it will be enough.”

The U.S. State Department is currently reviewing TransCanada’s proposal, and will make a decision on the pipeline’s construction before the end of the year. Unlike previous cases, where President Obama had to compromise on environmental issues with the legislature, this decision falls solely on his administration.

“The protest was definitely successful in bringing this issue into a national presence,” said Guenther.

“Hopefully more people are aware that this is Obama’s choice, and that there is a right answer.”

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Page 8

September 15, 2011

Wine and Food Festival spotlights local vendors’ fare Sarah Begley

Guest Columnist

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Sarah Begley/The Miscellany News

ast weekend, the Dutchess County Fairgrounds became a paradise for foodies and wine enthusiasts as they gathered for the 10th annual Hudson Valley Wine and Food Festival.

The festival celebrates the products of mostly local, small-scale vendors, though some came from as far away as Arizona.

Fine Cooking magazine, one of the event’s sponsors, touted the Festival as an opportunity to appreciate the Hudson Valley’s “rich tradition of combining its agricultural bounty with culinary excellence.”

Those in attendance were abuzz with excitement, but if you looked closely at the vendors in their booths, you might have detected a certain anxiety. They’re in competition, after all—not only with each other, but also with larger companies. They can’t afford not to market themselves at events like these, because that would mean missing out on potential customers. Additionally, most small-scale producers face the problem of pricing: Why would a consumer spend $8 on a jar of local organic jam when he or she can buy a mass-produced version at Stop & Shop for less than half the price?

While some of the vendors present at the festival have storefront properties where they sell their goods, others primarily do business at farmers’ markets and events like these. The Amazing Real Life Food Co., a cheese producer located in Pine Plains, splits its sales between wholesale and retail. The company is Whole Foods-certified, and in addition to selling to specialty food stores in the Hudson Valley, vendor Rory Chase said, “We sell our products at about 15 farmers markets per week.”

Winding Drive Jams and Jellies, based in Woodbury, Conn., also does a lot of business in small markets. According to the company’s website, husband and wife Ron Pinto and Fran Adams founded the company when Pinto’s job

in sales and marketing was eliminated. “We’re a new business,” Pinto said, “we’ve only been around for three years. We don’t have a storefront, but we sell through events like this.” Is it worth the time to make such long trips? “Sometimes it is,” he said, “sometimes it isn’t.”

Some companies are even smaller and more specialized. At a booth labeled The Original Bavarian Beer Nuts, a vendor explained that consumers could not order the product online because there is no website. “My friend owns the company and sells the nuts out of his home,” the vendor said.

Many of the businesses do operate primarily on the Internet, however. Blue Heron Acres, a Pennsylvania-based company that raises and sells American Wagyu beef, has a storefront, but, according to their vendor, “Online is the largest sector of the business. We attend food and wine events because that’s the audience that will be interested in our products, but it’s not the majority of our business.”

Other booths were essentially extensions of restaurants. Hyde Park Brewing Company sold bottles of its eight ales and lagers, with provocative names like Big Easy Blonde and SOB: Special Old Bitter. They’ve brewed the beer on premises for 15 years, and selling their products at food and wine festivals is really a side business to the restaurant. Similarly, vendors from Capa di Roma Restaurant, of East Hartford, Conn., sold bottles of their signature pasta sauces, which they’ve marketed through grocery stores for the last 10 years.

Financially, many of these companies seem to struggle. Cereghino Smith Wine is a relatively young winery in Bloomington, N.Y. that operates out of a barn. When asked whether the majority of sales came from wholesale or retail, the vendor raised an eyebrow and replied, “What sales?” In truth, the company does reasonably well—they sell their wines to many shops and restaurants in New York City

The Dutchess County Fairgrounds plays host to the 10th annual Hudson Valley Wine and Food Festival, which provides many financially strained businesses a forum to display their products. and State—but the flippancy of his reply indicates just how difficult it is to make a profit as a small business in the food industry.

Yet in flavor and quality, there’s no denying that most of these products surpass those you would find at a supermarket. The pecan beer nuts were sweet, salty and soft with freshness that would fade in a plastic container sitting on a shelf. The raspberry hot sauce sold by Arizona-based Wild Coyote Hot Sauces makes Tabasco seem one-note. And compared to the maple cream sold by Mapleland Farms, packaged frosting would taste like toothpaste.

For many of these small businesses, the challenge is to connect with consumers who are willing to spend a little bit more for quality products. Luckily for them, the rise in popular-

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ity of the Slow Food movement may help attract socially conscious customers and foodies alike.

Walbridge Farm Market, in Millbrook, N.Y., would especially appeal to those concerned with the politics of food. In their store, they sell cuts of their all-natural, pasture-raised, hormone-free Angus beef, as well as farm fresh eggs, dairy products and other seasonal products.

As vendor Cheryl Giles explains, the fact that their food is both fresh and local means it’s better for the environment as well as the consumer: “When you buy chocolate milk at Walmart and the expiration date is in two years,” she shrugged, “you know there’s something wrong there.”

OPINIONS

September 15, 2011

Miscellany News Staff Editorial

Campus must strive to maintain integral link Prison program nourishes educational values A

fter recent discord between Vassar’s academic prison programs and the Department of Corrections of the State of New York, the prison visit component of several courses, including the Green Haven Correctional Facility and Otisville Correctional Facility internships and Religion 268: The Sociology of Black Religion has been indefinitely removed. While the courses will remain in this semester’s curriculum, the students will no longer learn alongside incarcerated individuals on weekly trips to surrounding facilities.

Although nearly all of us on The Miscellany News Editorial Board are unaffiliated with Vassar’s prison programs, we feel the issue is important to all Vassar students and members of the Vassar community. It affects not just the students enrolled in the course, but these programs influence the very nature of the entire Vassar curriculum and the direction of our institution’s pedagogical goals.

Therefore, it affects all of us as Vassar students.

Beyond this, the benefit to the incarcerated individuals almost goes without saying. Not only do these individuals have an opportunity to engage in critical discussion and broaden their worldview, but such educational opportunities also lead to reduced rates of recidivism and facilitate smoother reentry into society.

Elsewhere in the paper (See “VC prison programs canceled” on page 1) we report on the nature of the program and the specifics of its cancellation. Suffice it to say that the longstanding relationship between Vassar College and these local prisons was emblematic of an educational style that we consider essential to the foundation of a liberal arts education.

We value the traditional seminars and inqui-

ries at which Vassar excels, but we also value the sort of learning that comes from experience, from relationships and from human interaction—the kind that we must step out of the classroom to find. This has been a pedagogical theme at the College throughout its history. Vassar has several examples of these types of classes, internships and programs as well as student organizations, but arguably its most successful is its 32-year relationship with the Green Haven Correctional Facility.

Vassar College has led the way in terms of prison reform and prison education.

The effort to deconstruct the social barriers to higher education is a valuable project of which we are proud to be a part. We appreciate this spirit and hope to see Vassar continue to take an active interest in this movement.

However, aside from prison reform, this issue is larger than just the Vassar-Green Haven relationship. It is about all such relationships. It is about redefining what it means to be a student and what it means to be a teacher. Through the Vassar-Green Haven relationship and initiatives like it, Vassar actively declared itself as part of a larger community of learners and Hudson Valley residents. This sort of education doesn’t just happen in a classroom on campus. We want Vassar to grow beyond the educational boundaries of its walls and welcome others within as well.

We understand that neither the Vassar faculty nor administration is to blame for the elimination of this program. As previously mentioned, a change through the Department of Corrections necessitated the cancellation. However, we urge Vassar to continue to nurture this powerful relationship. From

the classes themselves to the reunions held yearly in the AULA for former incarcerated individuals and students, the interactions between Vassar and Green Haven have consistently been more than a program. It was a relationship that has spanned over thirty years that we do not want to see end with the Department of Corrections’ decision.

As Professor of Religion and Africana Studies Lawrence Mamiya has said, the proverbial ball is now in Vassar’s court. If the program is to continue, Vassar must continue to reach out, redesign and negotiate in order to keep this important tie. And we as a College should show our support and enthusiasm for Vassar’s academic prison programs, and for like-minded efforts such as the Vassar Prison Initiative.

We always talk about the ‘Vassar bubble’ and point to various student and administration—headed endeavors to build relationships with the rest of Poughkeepsie.

Meet Me in Poughkeepsie and organizations like Hunger Action are excellent programs that we strongly support, but the VassarGreen Haven program was an example of these relationships reaching even as far as the curriculum. This is a depth of interaction that is essential to the maintenance of Vassar’s superior educational standards.

We ask students to write to the New York State Department of Corrections and to tell the Vassar administration that this class is an invaluable part of our academic curriculum.

And we ask administration to continue efforts to reinstate the prison class program.

Opinions Editor

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onight, at 6 p.m. in the State of Texas, Duane Buck will be put to death.

Buck was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend and her friend in a Houston apartment back in 1997. But in the days leading up to his execution, some important players are urging Texas officials to spare Buck’s life.

Last Monday, Linda Geffin—a former Texas District Attorney and a prosecutor on Buck’s case 10 years ago—wrote a letter to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles claiming that Buck’s case may have been “tainted” by “unconstitutional considerations of race,” referring to a physiologist’s testimony that Buck was more likely to be violent again because he is black.

And more, last week, Buck’s survived shooting victim, Phyllis Taylor stepped forward urging Governor Rick Perry to grant clemency. “This execution would only add to my pain, and it wouldn’t give me closure,” she wrote in a letter to Perry, “I feel that he deserves a fair trial.”

But as the Republican race for the White House heats up, it seems doubtful that Governor Perry will answer her plea.

Especially when considering that Taylor wrote her letter the same day as the Republican debate at the Reagan Presidential Library. When moderator Brian Williams asked Perry about his record of authorizing 234 executions—more than any governor in modern history—during his tenure as Texas’ governor, the crowd erupted with applause.

That number—234—deserves some pause.

It constitutes almost 20 percent of the total

executions in the county since 1976. It averages one execution every 17 days for the last 11 years and more than one every two weeks in 2010. In 2009, Texas saw 24 executions. It was followed by Virginia, which had three.

It includes Cameron Todd Willingham, executed in 2004 after Perry quickly fired investigators who found evidence that suggested Willingham’s innocence after accusations of arson and murder of his three

“There’s no sidestepping the fact that the American justice system is by no means a ‘clear process.’” daughters. It includes Leonard Uresti Rojas, whose court appointed lawyer was on probation with the Texas bar and missed several important deadlines for his client.

And it includes Napoleon Beazley, who was charged with shooting during a carjacking as a minor, at age 17. On the eve of his death, he wrote, “Tonight we tell the world that there are no second chances in the eyes of justice.”

234 is indeed an impressive number, and one that Perry takes pride in. His response to Williams at last week’s debate is chillingly steady: “No, sir. I’ve never struggled

Void left by removal of prison class Zoe van Buren

Guest Columnist

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with that at all. The state of Texas has a very thoughtful, a very clear process in place of which—when someone commits the most heinous of crimes against our citizens, they get a fair hearing, they go through an appellate process, they go up to the Supreme Court of the United States, if that’s required.”

Following more applause, he added, “Americans understand justice.”

But there’s no sidestepping the fact that the American justice system is by no means a “clear process,” as Perry suggested. And the decision to kill a human being should never be so simple.

To Bush, the decision to invade Iraq was a simple one.

In an era when politics, and presidential politics in particular, has become a stage of almost theatrical absurdity, wherein rashness and doggedness are mistaken for “common sense,” I don’t want a man who authorized one fifth of the executions in the United States in the last 50 years in charge of the United States’ military.

To some, including Phyllis Taylor—the woman who is trying to save the life of Duane Buck, the man who nearly killed her 10 years ago—the issue of life is more than a matter of law, crime and punishment. “In order for us to seek heaven one day, we need to find forgiveness within our hearts,” Taylor said in a recent YouTube interview, “that’s just the law of God.” It’s a tragedy that her words were hushed by the applause of Republican primary voters.

tudents returning to Vassar this year may soon notice a subtle absence from campus—one that hasn’t been felt since 1979. For some this new void will be remote, but for many others it will be a worrisome and upsetting vacancy in the fabric of their Vassar educations.

I’m referring to the Vassar Prison Programs, which Professor of Religion and Africana Studies Lawrence Mamiya headed for over three decades, that will be making do without their prison settings this year due to the changing restrictions of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

Over the years, these programs have provided interested Vassar students with a learning environment not be found in any other classes or any other colleges, as students go behind the gates of the nearby Otisville and Green Haven Correctional Facilities to exchange knowledge, experiences and the classroom with currently incarcerated persons. The Green Haven dialogue program and the Otisville Bridging the Gap program bring students and incarcerated men together to discuss issues related to incarceration and to engage in workshops, while interdisciplinary courses in the fall—taught by Professor Mamiya, Professor of Political Science Molly Shanley and Professor of Sociology Eileen Leonard—hold weekly classes within Otisville and the Taconic Women’s Correctional Facility that strive to foster an egalitarian relationship between incarcerated and non-incarcerated students while addressing important themes in social justice.

Unfortunately, New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (NYSDOCCS) has recently blocked these classes from being held within its facilities until they are revised to meet the department’s requirements. Mamiya and his colleagues must now work to expand and rethink the formats of the affected programs—a process that will be difficult and expensive, but, with sufficient resources, could produce an end result that I hope puts Vassar on the track to what has long been a dream for many members of the Vassar community: a full degree-granting program within one of the nearby facilities.

There truly is no educational or emotional experience available in the academic world to match what it is to pass through metal detectors and labyrinthine hallways and into a classroom with some of the most misrepresented people in the country, there to share with you their thoughts on everything from religion to fatherhood to law to psychology. To put it simply, these programs have a tendency to change lives.

There is nothing simple about the state of the American criminal justice system, but these programs have given decades of Vassar students a truly unique opportunity to have their eyes opened and their assumptions challenged, and it is only through such undeniable experiences that one can develop the sophistication and openness of thought, the depth of engagement and the strength of conviction necessary to enter the world as a socially aware and active citizen. This is what it means to have a liberal arts education, and Vassar must nurture this spirit.

These programs help create exactly the kinds of students that Vassar hopes to produce, and now it is time for the College to throw its support behind them in their time of need. Maintaining Vassar’s relationship with the nearby facilities and meeting the requirements of the NYSDOCCS for credit-granting college courses within the prisons will require both financial and petitionary dedication in order to expand and better institutionalize the programs. However, I see no reason to hold back and risk losing a tradition that is not only good for Vassar, but ultimately good for the communities that all the program participants, incarcerated or free, will ever enter.

—Hannah Blume ’13 is Opinions Editor of The Miscellany News. She is a sociology major.

—Zoe van Buren ’13 is President of the Vassar Prison Initiative. She is an anthropology major.

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

Gov. Perry trumpets capital punishment Responsible for one-fifth of executions Hannah Blume

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MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

OPINIONS

Page 10

September 15, 2011

Pipeline offers opportunity to Obama for redemption Jill Guenther

Guest Columnist

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Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

wo Saturdays ago, 247 people sat down in front of the White House. They were placed under arrest within the hour. One by one, they stood up and were cuffed in zip ties

by SWAT members of the U.S. Park Police. I was number 77. Jacob McEntire ’14 was number 196. In August, Luke Leavitt ’12 and Ethan Buckner ’13 were also arrested as part of this act of civil disobedience. The four of us were among 1252 people who risked arrest to protest the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Let me give some background on this pipeline. TransCanada is an international energy corporation that deals with natural gas and tar sands (they call them oil sands). They have proposed an expanded pipeline, the Keystone XL, that would run 1,661 miles from the Athabasca bitumen deposits in Alberta, Canada to oil refineries in Texas. Bitumen is a semisolid form of petroleum (it’s the “tar”) mixed up with sand, clay and water in these ancient deposits. The capacity of the U.S. oil refineries would allow a huge increase in mining of the tar sands, and thereby a huge increase in global carbon emissions.

In the past, tar sands have been considered too dangerous and too expensive to be a viable energy source. To produce a single barrel of oil from the Athabasca tar sands, two tons of the sticky viscous deposit is required. But first, the forest must be completely cleared and any structures of the indigenous communities living in the area must be removed. An average of two tons of soil needs to be removed to access the tar sands, but only if you’re lucky enough to have a shallow deposit. The extraction necessary for deeper deposits uses up to twice the amount of energy. The bitumen needs to be heated and diluted, using up to 4.5 barrels of water for each barrel of oil.

So what’s the big deal about the pipeline?

Why were over a thousand people arrested for this particular cause? This was a rallying point of the environmental justice movement around

the world because this is something we can make a direct difference in. President Obama made a lot of big promises about the environment, which he has not followed through on.

Maybe you can blame Congress and other decision-makers for those disappointments—this time it is Obama’s sole decision. And this time there is a clear correct vote if we want a planet humans can live on in the future.

The Keystone XL Pipeline will only expand the devastation of existent tar sands operations. It will run across the Ogallala Aquifer, compromising the quality of drinking water for people in eight states, as well as the irrigation systems that our entire country depends on for food. Bill McKibben, a lead organizer of the Keystone protests, reminds the press over and over again that “the precursor pipeline has leaked 12 times in 12 months.”

And most damaging—though its effects are invisible to the eye—is impossible to ignore.

Currently, tar sands only account for a very small percentage of global carbon emissions.

However, the pipeline is projected to carry over 800,000 barrels a day of the dirtiest oil our civilizations have ever used. This unconventional oil “produces between three and five times the greenhouse gas pollution of conventional oil production.” The only reason tar sands are currently a small portion of our carbon emissions is that they have been avoided until recently. We are hovering just below 400 ppm of carbon, well above the upper safe limit determined by climate scientists (350 ppm).

James Hansen of NASA says that the construction of this pipeline and the expansion of tar sands operations will be “game over” for the climate. We cannot absorb the increase carbon from tar sands.

Perhaps it’s true that tar sands represent an alternative to dependence on foreign oil (although the oil flowing through the Keystone XL Pipeline is intended for export!). Perhaps it’s true that tar sands are an economically viable source of energy, despite the huge consumption of water, natural gas, machinery and

Above, a U.S. Park Police officer arrests Greens co-President Jill Guenther ’13 at a protest against the Keystone XL pipeline in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 3. Guenther smiled at a remark made by the officer. other resources each barrel requires. But how can we justify the destruction of the landscape, of wildlife and habitat, of people’s homes and communities? The systems in place make it easy to focus on the relative benefits of this unconventional oil. But if you look even briefly into the health effects the tar sands have already had on Canadian indigenous communities—if you look even briefly at a picture of an open pit mine in the Athabasca tar sands—and ask yourself if you would want to live there, maybe these touted benefits will start to crumble.

I sat on the wet sidewalk, sometimes in silence, sometimes chanting, sometimes in song.

There was a wide range of ages from minors to World War II veterans; there were people from many states and with varying political philosophies. It was a quiet voice that started singing “We Shall Overcome.” This demonstration was the biggest in a generation, and perhaps the

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biggest ever in the environmental movement.

As I sang, “deep in my heart, I do believe,” I was reminded that my presence, the sit-in, even the entire movement are all part of something much larger.

This protest was not just about the environment. This movement is not just about the environment. This movement is about justice.

This is about life. We are not done organizing against the Keystone XL Pipeline. And when Obama makes his decision about its permit, we will continue to organize for a society that does not need to sacrifice lives and beauty for the comfort and wealth of a few.

I encourage you to educate yourself further about the tar sands and the climate justice movement.

—Jill Guenther ’13 is co-President of Vassar Greens.

September 15, 2011

OPINIONS

Page 11

One Texan’s case against Rick Perry Katharine Austin

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Senior Editor

o most of the United States, Republican Gov. Rick Perry of Texas only became a blip on their radar when he put his 10-gallon hat in the ring for president. In those few short weeks, he has jumped to the lead in the polls for the GOP nomination and shared enough of his wonky political and personal views to worry even fellow Republicans like Karl Rove and John Cornyn.

As a Texan, Perry—or Governor Goodhair, as the late columnist Molly Ivins and my mother call him—and his politics are not new to me. Nor is his unbelievable ability to win over voters with absolute nonsense time and time again to become the state’s longest-serving governor in history. The thought of Perry running for president makes me shudder not only because I do not agree with his politics but also because I have seen over the past 10 years the many problems he has caused my beloved home state. I also shudder because I almost think he could win with his swaggering, know-nothing cowboy attitude.

If you are unaware of the many reasons as to why Perry is a terrible governor and would make a terrible president, here are some of the highlights.

Perry’s presidential campaign slogan is “Time to Get America Working Again.” Perry often cites the one million jobs Texas added in the decade of his governorship as evidence of ability to do so. Many of these new jobs, however, are low-paying and without benefits. 9.5 percent of Texas’s workforce toils for minimum wage, compared to six percent of workers nationwide. While attending the Iowa State Fair, Perry also mentioned the jobs lost in Iowa since President Obama took office, saying that one in eight Iowans is on food stamps, calling it “a testament to the widespread misery created by this admin-

istration.” In Texas, however, the statistic is closer to one in six, according to the U.S. Debt Clock.

After jobs, one of Perry’s biggest sticking points against Washington is government spending and the recession. He told Iowa State Fair attendees last month, “To be fair, President Obama inherited a bad economy, but he sure made it worse.” Perry also stated the federal government’s need to “quit spending money we don’t have.” Perry’s one to talk, however. In his 10 years as governor of Texas, he increased the state debt 281 percent, according to the Texas Bond Review.

The national debt—funding two wars, two tax cuts, and a stimulus package—rose 234 percent in comparison. And much of Perry’s state spending comes from borrowed funds.

As the Texas Tribune reports, Texas used the federal stimulus to balance its last two budgets. Perry also recently asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for almost $350 million to cover the costs of incarcerating undocumented immigrants in state prisons and county jails.

While Perry gladly accepts federal funding, he often takes pride in rejecting it. He refused to participate in President Obama’s Race to the Top initiative, which provides federal funding for education, because he believed participating “could very well lead to the ‘dumbing down’ of the rigorous standards we’ve worked so hard to enact.” Hardly.

According to the Legislative Budget Board’s 2010 Texas Fact Book, Texas ranks 43rd in the nation with its public high school graduation rate at 61.3 percent. And with Perry’s recent $4 billion in cut for public schools, as the Dallas Morning News reports, the future of Texas’s public education program does not look bright. Perry also continues to support abstinence-only sex education, despite Texas possessing the fourth highest teen pregnancy

rate in the United States.

In addition to his economic track record and his disregard for public education, Perry also disagrees with Social Security, calling it a “monstrous lie.” He equates the government institution to a Ponzi scheme. In his book Fed Up!, he calls the program “something we have been forced to accept for more than 70 years now” that the government established “at the expense of respect for the Constitution and limited government.”

Perry also does not believe in global warming. CBS News reports that while attending the Politics and Eggs Breakfast in New Hampshire last month, he told attendees, “there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects.” And the United States should not spend billions of dollars confronting “a scientific theory that has not been proven, and from my perspective is more and more being put into question.” (But we should spend billions of dollars on two pointless wars, Perry? I digress.)

Even fellow Republicans seeking the GOP nomination, such as Mitt Romney and John Huntsman, accept the scientific consensus of climate change.

From his calling evolution merely “a theory that’s out there” to nearly charging Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke with treason to threatening Texas’s secession from the United States, Perry is just full of controversial politics and opinions with which I do not agree. As former Treasury official Bruce Barlett told CNN’s American Morning this past August, “Rick Perry’s an idiot, and I don’t think anyone would disagree with that.” I can only hope American voters realize it before it is too late.

What’s on your bucket list for Vassar?

“I want to study abroad in London.”

Charlacia Dent ’14

“I’ve done it all, I think!”

Euma Matthews ’13

—Katharine Austin ’12 is Senior Editor of The Miscellany News. She is a film major.

“Going to sleep before 12 a.m.”

Citizens United threatens democracy Johnathan Bix

Guest Columnist

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n 2010, the United States Supreme Court ruled on the case Citizens United v.

Federal Election Commission in favor of Citizens United, a conservative political organization. This ruling has the most dire implications for the health of American democracy since the 1896 Court ruling that upheld segregation under the guise of “separate but equal” in the case Plessy v. Ferguson. In Citizens United, the Court ruled that the campaign donations of corporations cannot be limited, because doing so would unconstitutionally limit free speech. In my opinion, this ruling disguises the difference between individual and corporate speech and power, equating the two and treating expenditure as speech.

In a true democracy, government is elected through the will of a majority of its citizens and is thus responsible to them. Even before Citizens United all politicians as a general body, but especially Republicans, were much more responsive to the 10% richest individual citizens than middle class citizens, and completely unresponsive to poor citizens, as Princeton University Professors Larry Bartels and Martin Gilens have demonstrated in recent studies analyzing roll call votes in the Senate and hundreds of thousands of Americans’ responses to survey questions.

What the Citizens United decision did was cement the United States as a plutocracy, a governmental system where the wealthy rule. The reason: American elections are fund-raising contests more than they are popularity contests or competitions over ideas. It is now more important for politicians to appeal to organized and wealthy interest groups than individual voters, since they matter more for the success of a candidate’s campaign. As University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole noted in his blog Informed Comment “Contemporary political campaigns in the US depend heavily on television commercials… Television advertisements account for 80-90 percent of the

cost of a senate or presidential campaign in the US, and the next presidential campaign will cost each candidate $1 billion. The only way a candidate can win is to fall captive to the billionaires and their corporations…”

Politicians are forced to take the money of these groups in order to stay competitive in their race, and are then beholden to these special interests, and their policy choices will thus reflect what is best for these interests and not for the American people.

“What the Citizens United decision did was cement the United States as a plutocracy, a system where the wealthy rule. ” The Citizens United decision opened the floodgates. Now that there are no limits on campaign contributions from corporations, elections will only get more and more expensive; politicians will be forced to accept more and more money and will only fall further and further into the pockets of special interests.

The primary way special interests are able to contribute to politicians and influence elections are through Political Action Committees (PACs), since they are not allowed to do so directly. The major special interests that contribute through PACs are businesses, such as the Microsoft PAC; labor unions, such as the Teamsters PAC; or ideological interests, such as the EMILY’s List PAC or the National Rifle Association PAC Corporations. Ordinary PACs have contribution limits, but with the Citizens United

ruling came a new class of PACs, dubbed “Super PACs.” The main difference between “traditional” PACs and the Super PACs is that traditional PACs can only give $5000 to a candidate per election and up to $15,000 annually to a political party, while a Super PAC can spend unlimited amounts. They technically cannot spend directly and officially on candidate campaigns, but in practice Super PACs can clearly be for or against specific candidates. Though they have to disclose their donors, wealthy donors can simply form corporations with vague names to hide their contributions from the public eye and potential scrutiny. For example, the Mitt Romney-affiliated Super PAC Restore Our Future has received million dollar checks from the groups Eli Publishing and F8 LLC of Provo, Utah, groups whose backers are unknown. Furthermore, some PACs intentionally disconnect themselves from particular candidates in order to be able to perpetrate greater mudslinging without the fear of a backlash of negative perception, which further poisons the atmosphere of a factual competition of ideas that a democracy should have. An example is the Karl Rove led conservative Super PAC American Crossroads, which has spent over $21.5 million to date. This opaqueness is not the sign of a healthy democracy. Democracy is supposed to be transparent, because without transparency politicians cannot be held accountable.

The Citizens United decision, allowing unlimited corporation campaign donations, supports the antithesis of free speech and democracy. It means that meaningful speech is far from free; it in fact costs substantial amounts of money. It means the country is governed at the behest of corporations and billionaires instead of regular voting Americans. As long as the decision remains intact and Super PACs continue to exist, American plutocracy will dominate and American democracy will be a shadow of its ideals.

—Johnathan Bix ’14 is a member of Democracy Matters.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

O’Mara Taylor’12

“Learn everything.”

Abby Straus ’15

“Snorkeling in Sunset Lake.”

Andrew Rovner ’13

“Getting to the top of Walker Gym.”

Oliver Newman ’12 —Juliana Halpert, Photography Editor Alanna Okun, Humor & Satire Editor

OPINIONS

Page 12

Gays of Our Lives fails to show full range of sexual diversity Emma Russell and Eli Mann

A

Guest Columnists

little over a week ago I went with a group of friends to the ever popular Gays of our Lives, the last event of freshman orientation. As upperclassmen, we had either seen or heard about the show and therefore held certain expectations regarding what the show would communicate and teach about sexuality.

Unfortunately, we were let down. Many of us felt that nothing had been communicated to us besides, perhaps, that everyone at Vassar has a lot of sex. And it’s okay if you do have a lot of sex! But not everyone does—or even wants to.

What makes Gays of Our Lives so important? For some people it may be the fact that they get to see sex acts performed live on stage to add to their collection of Amazing Things to Pull Out In The Bedroom (pun intended). For others, maybe it’s the invigorating atmosphere that accompanies any kind of concert or play or large crowd. For me—as someone who went back to my computer after Gays of Our Lives freshman year to research the word “queer”—it’s the possibility for a comedy-infused learning experience, an introduction to new words and concepts through humor and charisma, an opportunity to see real people talking openly and honestly about their sexuality— without us knowing the gender of the people they are (or aren’t) being sexual with.

I think Gays of Our Lives tries to communicate the important message that there are factors about people’s sexualities that aren’t discernible in their manner or appearance. Upon meeting people, we may try to make inferences based on their gender presentation—“He’s feminine? Must be gay.”—but so often we’re wrong. We don’t know their motivation to be sexually active; how they feel about dating or romance; if they prefer one committed partner, many committed partners or no commitments at all. We don’t know how kinky they are, what their genitals are, if they want to be involved in sexual activity or if they prefer cuddling to sex. These are things you can only learn through getting to know people more intimately.

The most unfortunate part of Gays of Our Lives— despite some long pauses as the mic was run around

September 15, 2011 ADVERTISEMENT

the room that contributed to the crowd growing bored and restless—was this baseline assumption that everyone in the panel was sexually adventurous.

This was clear both in the emcee’s choice to only accept “certain” (sexual) questions from the audience, and in the panel’s (sexual) responses and demonstrations.

Sex doesn’t bother me; I’m a sex-positive and sexual person, myself. What bothers me is when sexuality is presented as one-sided and certain identities are erased. Where was the contribution of an asexual panelist? Why were there no trans people? Why did every question have to focus on sex, and none on romance or emotion? These are important questions to consider in an event that advertises itself as Vassar’s sex and sexuality orientation. To make this claim, I would hope for it to represent as many identities as possible.

Vassar is extremely diverse and its students’ experiences are vast and varied. Not everyone has sex.

Not everyone likes to go on formal dates. Not everyone likes to hook up. Not everyone experiences sexual attraction, or romantic attraction. Some people just like crushing on people. Some people like sex with friends. Some like sex with strangers. Different strokes for different folks—and some may not stroke at all. And that’s okay.

Hopefully in the future the event can do a better job at communicating this, as well as being more inclusive and sensitive to the full diversity of the audience.

And hopefully future events can be more vocal about issues that are implicated in sexual activity, such as STIs, pregnancy and (most importantly) consent.

I’d like to be clear that this is not a criticism, but it is a critique; and I’m hoping it can come across as a balanced one, because I understand that the program was well intentioned and that running a successful orientation event is complicated. Gays of our Lives has the wonderful potential to introduce certain terms and ideas to the incoming class. I’d just really like to see that happen.

—Emma Russell ’13 is an English major. Eli Mann studies psychology and sociology at Suny New Paltz. The authors engage in queer/gender activism on and off of Vassar’s campus.

Crossword by Jonathan Garfinkel ACROSS 1. “NOW!”, for MD’s 5. Market booth 10. “Nova” airer 13. Brings aboard 15. Casual, indifferent 16. One in customer service, briefly 17. “Fame” star Cara 18. 8-Down, for example 19. El Dorado content 20. Tip of the spear, say 22. Bury 24. Sum 25. Metro North and Amtrak, briefly 26. Louvre worry, per-

haps 29. Soulful James, and others 31. Fight for practice 32. Caps, maybe (abbr.)

33. Either of two “Ugly” characters, to Cinderella 37. Flat-topped mountain 40. A long, long time 41. “This parrot is ______! It has ceased to be!”

46. Contenders 49. Cashed in 51. Peanut butter cup producer 52. Big name in the Val-

Answers to last week’s puzzle

ley of the Kings 53. 1040 ID’s 54. Explanations 59. Inscription on a cross 63. Bit of land in a lake 64. Form 67. Miley Cyrus, perhaps (unfortunately) 69. Humored utterance 70. 40-Across component, to Juan 72. “Stop!”, to Blackbeard 73. One with a green thumb 75. Head, briefly 76. Causes resentment 81. Low point 82. Nuptial utterance 83. A-Rod or Texeira 84. Words after “Ready!”

85. Bird sound 86. Some Ed.’s marks, perhaps 87. Henry VIII’s greatest desire DOWN 1. Jewish mourning ritual 2. Diatribe 3. Philosopher Hannah ______ 4. Chinese leader Xiaoping (var.)

5. Camera type (abbr.)

6. Gratuity

7. From ___ Z 8. BA hub 9. “_____ be” (Lennon/ McCartney lyric) 10. For the time being 11. Lacking 12. Baseball and hockey 14. Big name in pointillism 15. Offer 18. M-16’s and AK’s 21. Rump 23. Sports association that didn’t play an ‘04’05 season 26. Classes for highachieving HS students 27. “I smell a ___” 28. Fashion 30. Peter and Nicholas 31. Cause for atonement 34. Dog, cat, or pirhana 35. Message from the Titanic 36. Caviar precursor 37. The briny deep, to Jacques 38. St. Louis-NYC dir.

39. Sault ___ Marie, MI 42. Untidy 43. Meditative noises 44. Stimpy’s pal 45. Actor Harris and others 47. ___ Lingus 48. Aspirin and Advil’s

class 49. Hie 50. Letter before theta 52. Oft-stubbed appendage 55. General with poultry 56. Sick 57. Exam for JD wannabes 58. Revolutionary War hero Allen, and others

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

59. Font modification 60. State name meaning “snowfall” in spanish 61. Swear again 62. ___ and outs 65. With “rest”, 22across-ed 66. Junior naval officer’s rank 68. Macy Gray 69. Santa’s repeated ut-

terances 71. Not these, to Pablo 73. Spelling competition 74. Scottish denials 77. Excellent credit rating 78. San Diego-LA dir.

79. Stone Mountain grp.

80. Rapidly gentrifying Manhattan ‘hood with many tenements

HUMOR & SATIRE

September 15, 2011

Page 13

OPINIONS

An open letter from a freshman The Vassar dictionary: to a beloved friend from home uncensored, for real Brittany Hunt Columnist

D

ear Friend from Home,

I’m all moved in! My room looks great—that leopard-print bedding is so me. Good call. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t suggested that I make my mom buy me the entire Target back-toschool collection. I absolutely love being a freshman!

I already adore all my new girlfriends, especially my roommate, Maria. Last night was wild! They made me take like four shots of raspberry-flavored vodka (it was just like prom, remember? LOL) then we went to a weird place called “the TH’s” where all the seniors live in poorly designed hovels. It was okay, I guess. All the senior girls were wearing sweatpants and glaring at us as they gorged themselves on organic quinoa. Like, put on some heels! There’s a reason all your male friends are leaving you for us younger women! Anyway, I got shwasted and then Maria told me I was fat and that she wished she had gotten to room with Rachel and then I vommed everywhere.

We started classes! Intro to Women’s Studies is really blowing my mind. I had no idea I was so oppressed! This guy in the class, Jerome, and I made out three nights in a row so it was basically like we were dating. He’s really cute. He’s from Idaho and his parents are white supremacists but he ran away from home at the age of 11 and joined a group of mi-

grant soy bean farmers and became an anarchist.

Then we were doing our reading for class together to get ourselves in the mood when I was like, wait, this heterosexuality is totes compulsory so he’s out of my life. Except he’s in my fellow group so I still have to see him every time I pluck my nipple hairs in the communal bathroom.

Being here does kind of make me miss home, though.

The other night I was totally craving my mom’s casserole :-(. Even the all-you-can-eat dining hall can’t master her secret ingredient: Love. Everyone here is really nice and it’s been great to get to start with a blank slate and reinvent myself as a non-consumer vegan who listens to tribal drum music and likes modern art, but you guys at home are the only people who know the real me. The me who did a dance routine to Destiny’s Child’s “Bills, Bills, Bills” in sixth grade for my report on communism. The me who totally started the Crocs fad. The me who accidentally lost my virginity on our senior class white water rafting trip. I still think about Hans and those burly German hands caressing me as we rode the waves and each other in front of our entire graduating class. But I’m ready to start a new phase!

Gotta cut this letter short- Maria just told me if I don’t go sleep on the bathroom floor while she sexiles me, she’ll sell all of my stuffed animals to buy coke. Miss you girly! See ya at Thanksgiving!!

From Vassar with Love, A Freshman

Michael Mestitz

W

Columnist

e’re getting into the swing of the academic year, dear reader. Perhaps you’re returning for your second, third or fourth year, in which case you don’t need my help, and should stop reading immediately in order to go find your hookups from last year and see if they’re still into playing NCAA Division III tonsil-hockey with you.

If you’re a freshman, however, you’re probably lost and doe-eyed, and for many of you those eyes will before long be obscured behind prescriptionless American Apparel black plastic frames as you settle into Vassar culture. Until then, allow me to present my supplement to the annual Misc feature “Meet Vassar College”: ACDC: The dining hall, providing enduring mysteries like “Why are these cookies so delicious?”, “What do vegans actually eat?” and “Where the hell are all the goddamn spoons!?”

Baldwin Health Services: It’s like a walk-in WebMD, with approximately the same accuracy.

Binaries and Constructs: We’re not huge fans of either. Class, race, gender and higher-level math are social constructs that exist only to be torn down with protest marches and catchy slogans. For that matter, words are a social construct, so let me just say ;ewJKLFN DFa7;LFü f’werio ds’;lwe ojf23p98 [fi.

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Email: Your Vassar emails will be disproportionately concerned with campus security threats (muggings, butt-touching and arsenic-laced stuffed kiwi birds) and animals (missing dogs, culled deer and arsenic-laced stuffed kiwi birds).

Founder’s Day: Just the best. Guys, it’s just the best.

Weekly Calendar: 9/15 - 9/21

Hipsters: If I have to explain to you what a hipster is, take a good long look at your iPod full of ambient electro-punk, your upcycled messenger bag made by orphans out of vintage LP covers that you bought in a totally underground little store when your family took you to London, and your favorite oversized checked flannel shirt that makes you look like a 20-something lumberjack in skinny jeans; I have some bad news.

Humor & Satire: This section is, by volume, 60 percent sarcasm, 20 percent Mean Girls/The Devil Wears Prada jokes, 10 percent puns, and nine percent self-loathing*.

Moodle: Actually an acronym that stands for “Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment.” Stores Vassar’s strategic reserve of hastily written and poorly thought-out blog posts.

The Mug: Unofficial motto: “What happens in the Mug stays in the Mug until 2 a.m., when it follows you back to your dorm room and has brunch with you at ACDC the next morning.”

Speaking: If you have spoken in a complete sentence anywhere on campus, or in certain incomplete predicates/sentence fragments, you have offended someone. Good luck, sucker.

Sesquicentennial: Celebrating 150 years of Vassar College and at least 27 points in Scrabble.

Sexuality: There are not enough colors in the visible spectrum to encompass the varying sexualities, identifications, subverted binaries, romantic inclinations, fetishes and Kinsey-scale integers. “Heteroflexible” is apparently a thing, and the presumption for men is gay until proven straight. You have the right to remain FABULOUS. *And 1 percent footnotes.

by Alanna Okun, Humor & Satire Editor

Thursday, 9/15

Saturday, 9/17

Tuesday, 9/20

3 p.m. Tea. Things to do while not writing your first paper

9 p.m. Philaletheis Fall Cabaret. I honestly don’t see how

of the semester. Rose Parlor.

my commentary could possibly top the actual event description on the Vassar website: “Join Philaletheis for our annual Fall Cabaret, this semester’s theme is Caba-Fairy Tale. A night of fun, fairies and maybe some talent too.

Maybe.” Shiva.

3 p.m. Tea. Decide to be a responsible human being and do your reading for your other classes. Rapidly descend into Facebooking and existential despair when you can’t find a single printer on this godforsaken campus that actually, you know, prints. Rose Parlor.

8 p.m. Directing Workshops. Call me when they finally decide to do the right thing and hold directing twerkshops. Shiva.

Friday, 9/16 3 p.m. Tea. Actually attend the meetings of all those orgs

Sunday, 9/18

you arbitrarily signed up for at the Activities Fair. Stop when you realize how not into free-trade vegan chess and Singles Macramé you actually are. Rose Parlor.

12 p.m. International Barbecue. So wait, are they barbecu-

5:00 p.m. Exploring College Family Night. “Hey Mom and

Monday, 9/19

Dad, that’s the dorm where I first found out what ingredients make jungle juice! And that’s the room where I met my future husband and he told me that one of my boobs is significantly smaller than the other! College is great.” Aula.

3 p.m. Tea. Idly consider seducing that cute soccer player

ing in multiple countries at once or barbecuing international students? OR BOTH? TA Lawn.

on your hall. Reconsider when you see him sling-shooting his roommate with those female condoms that always seem to be lurking in the depths of the student fellow envelopes.

Rose Parlor.

9 p.m. Anything But Cloth. Except like, anthrax or fire. Villard Room.

7 p.m. M&T Bank Information Session. “Listen up, liberal 10 p.m. FlyPeople Mug Night. As Gregor Samsa awoke one

morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic flyperson. Mug.

arts pansies, all you need to know is that you will never make enough money in your field of choice to even open an account here.” Faculty Commons.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

5 p.m. Introduction to VCLink. Just as efficient, effective and worthwhile as the old AAVC website, except this time named after an adolescent Nintendo character. Faculty Commons.

Wednesday, 9/21 3 p.m. Tea. Write the Weekly Calendar and minimize all

those pesky Word documents that are apparently supposed to contain “the first five pages” of your “thesis.” Whatever.

Rose Parlor 3:30 p.m. JYA Info Session. “I really, like, want to find myself next semester. As long as it’s someplace where people are white, speak English, are cool with having sex before marriage and don’t eat anything you can find at the Ann Arbor Petco.” Taylor Auditorium.

ARTS

Page 14

Dance dept. hosts three new events Charlacia Dent

Assistant Arts Editor

esquicentennial festivities did not cease with the celebrations that commenced last spring. This fall the Department of Dance has ushered in more excitement with its three public programs including internationally renowned artists Jane Comfort and Company, and dance critics Alastair Macaulay and Merrill Brockway. All programs will take place in the Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater.

“We need something important to celebrate our high quality education,” said Professor of Dance Jeanne Czula.

Bessie award-winner and Guggenheim fellow Jane Comfort kicked things off on Friday, Sept. 2 with her newest piece entitled “Beauty.” The piece used visuals and props as well as dramatic choreography to create a rather unique form of dance questioning unnatural ideals, such as those made possible by cosmetic surgery. The performance examined female beauty through what has been classified as a Barbie lens where movement is analyzed to develop a vocabulary.

Reactions to the piece were mixed, ranging from completely life-changing to slightly confused and controversial.

“It’s very different than what we do here. It is a more theatrical style of dance with more performance art elements than dance theater.

Some people were surprised that it was pure dance,” said Professor John Meehan of Comfort’s piece.

Czula added, “You are in the world of modern dance and some did not recognize it as dance. Her work is not classic, but one of the best things about Jane’s work is that it’s thought provoking. Could you ask for more at Vassar?”

Comfort’s work is very topical, specifically dealing with women’s issues that, according to Czula, “have been suffered by the women See DANCE on page 16

European Drawings on display at FLLAC Shruti Manian

Assistant Features Editor

T

o truly understand art, it is essential to understand the painstaking effort that an artist puts into imagining and creating each piece. This process is exactly what the latest drawings exhibit at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center (FLLAC) will showcase. A Pioneering Collection: Master Drawings from the Crocker Art Museum will include 57 rarely seen works by artists such as Albrecht Durer, Fra Bartolommeo, Anthonie van Dyck, Francois Boucher and Jean-Auguste-Cominque Ingres. The opening reception will be held in Taylor Hall on Sept. 16 at 6 p.m. and the exhibit will be on display at the Loeb Center from Sept. 16 to Dec. 11.

“These drawings are not usually on display. They are in hidden areas of museums and delving into them is like going into a voyage of discovery,” said James Mundy, the Anne Hendricks Bass Direct of the FLLAC. The exhibit showcases the drawings of these gifted and famous artists from the 15th century to the middle of the 19th century.

The sketches give people the chance to understand the inner workings and ideological progression of a piece, the way the artist experienced it. “These drawings were never meant for exhibition, they were meant to help create an idea. They give immediate access to the thought process of the artist, and bring you closer to the inspiration of the artist,” said Mundy.

All of the drawings are part of the extensive collection at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, Calif. The Crockers, an eminent family in Sacramento, collected these master drawings in the 1860s. At the time, Edwin Crocker’s interest in master drawings was considered very unusual for an American.

As a result, the FLLAC’s exhibition marks the first Crocker’s collection has been shown at an east coast venue. “Sacramento is out of the way and hard to get to. So we thought it would be a good idea to expose our public to this rich and deep collection that takes into consideration artists from many European countries, numerous periods and varied techniques,” explained Mundy.

Many of the works in the collection are extensively studied by art history students,

Courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum

S

September 15, 2011

Francois Boucher’s “The Birth of Venus,” 1740, pictured above, is one of many pieces of art on display at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center as part of the exhibit A Pioneering Collection: Master Drawings. including drawings by artists like Albrecht Durer. The collection also includes a particularly unique drawing by Rembrandt, with its thick lines and bold blobs of ink punctuating his preliminary illustrations for the piece.

These minor details provide amazing insight into the mind of the master and give viewers a chance to understand the deeper complexities of his artwork.

“The drawings are a support system to the finished painting. It’s like how it is always lovely to look at a finished house, but it’s fascinating to look at a carpenter at work,” said Mundy. For instance, there is a drawing of an angel playing the lute by Italian artist Bartolommeo, in which the angel’s eyes are looking in different directions as the artist tries to figure out at what angle he wants the subject in the final painting to face.

Amongst the more unusual work on display is a drawing of two dodo birds. This drawing, while comical in appearance, reflects the 16th and 17th century, an era when people sought out unusual and extraordinary specimens.

Another interesting piece in the collection

is a drawing by an unknown artist simply known as the Master of Muhldorf. “Looking at a master drawing is like detective work.

The drawing is actually behind the scenes.

And every artist has his own handwriting— his unique way of drawing,” explained Mundy, adding, “Distinguishing between the different hands and different styles and trying to identify the DNA of an artist’s technique is an experience.”

On Sept. 16 Curator of the Crocker Art Museum William Breazeale will speak of the drawings, their history and significance in Taylor Hall, Room 203. Of course the exhibition holds great appeal for art students, but it is also equally significant to the wider Vassar community. “You don’t have to be a Ph.D. to appreciate the sheets. They are an important aspect of visual culture and if you appreciate beauty and things that stimulate the eye, this exhibit is for you,” explained Mundy.

The exhibit will be on display all through the semester because Mundy believes the works should be revisited again and again.

“There is so much to absorb, that it cannot be done in a single viewing,” said Mundy.

SummerWork exhibit showcases student pursuits Adam Buchsbaum Arts Editor

I

Courtesy of Samantha Shin

n the Palmer Gallery, a piece of artwork made in watercolor and colored pencil hangs on the wall depicting a hawk picking at the fresh corpse of a squirrel while nursery schoolers stand in a group five feet away, watching the scene unfold before their eyes. Their reactions range from muted to concerned to deeply astonished. The red color of the squirrel’s blood vividly leaps from the canvas and catches the viewer’s eye.

“That actually happened,” artist Sam Shin ’12 explained. “I pointed it out and all the kids started asking questions before I realized, ‘Oh, we’re not supposed to talk about death.’”

Shin is one of several students with work currently on display in the annual SummerWork exhibition, on view from Sept. 9 to Sept 24 in the College Center’s Palmer Gallery. The gallery contains the independent artwork of Vassar studio art majors from this past summer. A couple textile pieces, photographs, watercolors, large-scale paintings and even a yarn-based, crocheted geometric work occupy the space.

Shin hoped to explore the way we deal with situations like her painting depicts, where children bear witness to the darker aspects of life, like death and violence. “Once we acknowledge they have an understanding, it’s limited,” Shin said. “How much can we tell them? And how much will they fill it in?”

Shin also has one more painting in the exhibit, illustrating an almost vampire-esque, bold and grotesque creature. The painting explores vulnerability, objectification and sexuality, as the figure poses provocatively—mouth agape, back arched, breasts prominently on display. “I’m pleased the way [the paintings] look so far, but they might be heavy-handed,” Shin explained. “But at the same time that’s part of

The artwork featured above, by artist Sam Shin ’12, graces the SummerWork exhibit at the Palmer Gallery. The exhibition, featuring works by studio art majors, will be on view from Sept. 9 to Sept. 24. what it’s about.”

Turn to your left from Shin’s artwork, and you’ll see two pictures hanging side by side.

These seemingly straightforward pictures of foliage are encircled by a simple white matte. “I do a lot of nature photography...when I say that, most people recoil,” Juliana Halpert ’12 said. “I think the first thing that comes to mind is images of palm trees” (Disclosure: Halpert is the Photography Editor for The Miscellany News).

But Halpert does not explore nature in the standard way. Her work is meant to explore how we romanticize and experience nature.

“It’s not really the natural world or environ-

ment for most of us now, though. It’s more just something we keep on our desktops,” she noted. “It’s a little bit more surreal—fantastical— than real.” Halpert hopes to reveal how we see, rather falsely, a certain mysticism in nature.

This was not the first time artist Halpert put up her work in the Palmer Gallery. But it certainly is a different experience. She still recalls her first exhibition. “I felt embarrassed ... I wasn’t that proud of my work, to be honest, and I didn’t know what was going to be chosen,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s in such a prominent place, they can see it!’” This doesn’t seem unusual. Shin too felt embarrassment at

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

the quality of her artwork, though now she is much more confident.

This exhibit also happens to be Halpert’s first SummerWork exhibition, but now her experience is no longer mortifying. “This is the first time I really feel a strong sense of ownership, and almost pride in my work,” Halpert said. “For the first I am an artist, and I’m producing work.”

Narrowing down what to display wasn’t easy for Halpert, being a photographer. “I probably took 400 photos this summer. Obviously only a few of them, I thought, had any artistic merit,” Halpert said. “And the professors thought even less had it!” she joked.

Charlotte Terry ’12, another photographer, similarly had trouble, having shot at least 600 photos—and that’s just digital. Her works explore an entirely different subject material.

“This summer, I took a trip out to Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia,” Terry said. “I also have a set of photos that are hospital-inspired.”

But rather than photograph the expected subject matter—the feeling and milieu of a penitentiary—Terry did otherwise. “I really like structure and perspective. I like focusing on abstract details I find,” she explained. “I find little odd spots that catch my eye.” Her work zooms in on the more minute, potentially passed-by details of an area’s structure, form and design.

Her pleasure in visiting the gallery is in experiencing, discovering and reacting to the artwork of her fellow students. “We get to reflect on where each of us has been,” Terry said. “It helps inspire you.”

The artwork included in the exhibition is presented by Halpert, Shin, Terry, Pamela Hall ’13, Rachel Lenihan ’13, Samantha Ives ’12, Chelsea Cater ’13 and Leksi Kolanko ’12.

September 15, 2011

ARTS

Page 15

Children’s Media Project offers outlet for youth voices Rachael Borné Arts Editor

I

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

n an age where the youth of the United States is constantly bombarded by compelling media messages, whether through the Internet, radio, on television or in magazines, finding an outlet to express one’s voice to the public has become an increasingly difficult pursuit.

In 1994, filmmaker Maria Marweski recognized the predominance of technology in the lives of Poughkeepsie youth and created Children’s Media Project (CMP), a non-profit organization devoted to providing digital resources and teaching critical thinking skills to young people in the community.

“I loved teaching filmmaking as a medium for personal expression,” Marweski explained in an emailed statement, adding, “Especially with young people who still have access to their creativity.”

At the time of the organization’s genesis, Mareweski showed significant foresight, as media and technology were just beginning to gain full speed: “I think Maria was ahead of her time when she formed CMP in 1994,” explained Nicole Fenichel-Hewitt, the organization’s Executive Director. “Now we’re at a time when everybody acknowledges that media is not going away; it’s going to become more and more a part of all of our lives.”

Located in the heart of downtown Poughkeepsie in the historic Lady Washington Firehouse, CMP offers invaluable technological resources to the community with the hope that life and workforce skills come hand in hand with media literacy. Participants do everything from filmmaking to radio broadcasting, magazine-making to animation. Each project requires that students understand the process from start to finish, do effective research and have the confidence to communicate messages important to them.

“They have to step out of their comfort zones, be challenged to take positive risks and find themselves developing skills that they never tested before,” explained Fenichel-Hewitt.

This past summer, CMP collaborated with local non-profit multi-arts educational center Mill Street Loft to produce Turn It Up! Radio, a six-week public program aired on Vassar’s own

WVKR. The show allowed Poughkeepsie youth to address issues most important to them, such as teen pregnancy, banned books and the AIDS pandemic. Because participants were not only completely in charge of the show’s content, but also being paid for their work, the program was a valuable professional experience.

According to Fenichel-Hewitt, “It’s about commitment, being there when you say you’re going to be there and knowing what your position is.”

Although Turn It Up! Radio was only broadcast during the month of July, Radio Uprising! is a show CMP airs on WVKR year-round. The program functions similarly as a platform for community dialogue, giving youth an opportunity to discuss political and social issues through grassroots production.

Tori Larson ’14 got involved with CMP last year as part of the Community Service Work Study program. She testified to the program’s ability to inspire self-esteem and facilitate critical thinking. “As they wrote and recorded more pieces, their voice—written and spoken—became more confident,” she said in an emailed statement. “As they became more comfortable expressing themselves, students became interested in writing about more difficult, diverse subjects.”

In addition to its radio programming, CMP also produces public service announcements and an annual television series called DROP TV, or Direct Revolution Of Programming, on public access. Now in its seventh season, the half-hour series broadcasts to 33 states in the United States, as well as Africa and New Zealand. The show not only unites the voices of youth from the Poughkeepsie area, but also incorporates children’s media projects from around the globe.

Many participants have worked in conjunction with local social service agencies, including Battered Women’s Services, Child Abuse Prevention Coalition, Grace Smith House and Planned Parenthood to distribute service announcements to the public. Past programs have addressed how to make positive decisions around drug use, how to escape violence in the community and the issue of pregnancy at Poughkeepsie High School.

Poughkeepsie youth experiment with filmmaking as part of their participation in the Children’s Media Project (CMP). CMP is a non-profit organization devoted to teaching critical skills to young people.

Larson attested to the powerful community-building potential of these projects. “CMP gives kids a voice; not only is it beneficial for the students, but for everyone tuned in listening to or watching their thoughts,” she said.

These projects allow students to ask questions about what’s going on in their community; they get to interview prominent figures in the area and eventually develop a broader perspective on issues they are passionate about.

Because the filmmaking process is by nature one that requires repeated analysis of the material, be it through research, script writing or editing, participants continually revisit information, making it more knowledge than memory.

With many successful projects under its belt, CMP plans to expand this year by starting up workshops in surrounding cities, including New Paltz, Newburgh and Rhinebeck. By utilizing community centers, public schools and libraries as sites of media education workshops, the organization hopes to vastly expand

the number of youth it serves.

Not only does CMP give youth an opportunity to voice their concerns in the present, it also provides them with important resources for future endeavors. “When students leave our program, they’ve won awards, had their pieces shown at national conventions. It’s amazing the portfolio they have built with us,” said Fenichel-Hewitt.

In a town always on the verge of something better, the resources CMP provides are critical.

By supplying the Poughkeepsie youth with an avenue of self-expression in a media landscape dominated by adult interests, CMP fosters agency, responsibility and creative participation in community issues.

“Recognizing that media is pervasive in the lives of our youth, CMP want to help young people become critical readers and active creators of media, especially those who are caught in the digital divide,” explained Marewski. “To actively participate in the future, kids have to have access to digital tools.”

Tallon a pioneer of technology in architectural study Emma Daniels

“I

Reporter

Jonah Bleckner/The Miscellany News

t’s funny, my hair is standing up remembering this,” Assistant Professor of Art Andrew Tallon mused as he discussed what originally drew him to his current field of study.

“I was nine, living in France; my mom was writing her dissertation, my dad was on sabbatical, and I fell in love with the Cathedral of Paris.

It got under my skin, got into my heart, looking up into those high passages and longing to somehow get the chance to wander there,” he recollected.

Tallon, who teaches medieval art and architecture, remains as passionate about architecture as an adult as he was as a young child, and this is why he now holds the key to the Cathedral of Paris.

He is also eager to spread his passion for architecture in the most effectual way possible, firstly to his students, but also to the general public.

“I have this problem,” he said, “which is trying to teach architecture without having the architecture that I teach on hand. It’s trying to get students to somehow experience it, and flat pictures on the pages of a book don’t cut it.“ A number of Tallon’s recent projects strove to address this problem; he is at the head of his field when it comes to technological innovation.

For many years, he has taken spherical panoramic photographs of buildings, creating a sphere that wraps around your head virtually when you look at it on a screen, allowing one to examine in detail any piece inside the sphere.

He has also taken gigapixel photographs—photographs that enable the viewer to extensively zoom in to an area of a building and see it in great detail.

Most recently, though, Tallon has been successfully experimenting with spatial archeology, a laser scanning-based technique he inno-

Assistant Professor of Art Andrew Tallon, above, teaches medieval art and architecture. He recently received a grant to study the design of the cathedral of Bourges using spatial archeology technology. vated. This technique uses $100,000 machines: laser scanners, which measure the distance between the scanner and everything that it sees at an incredible speed. This creates an exceedingly accurate spatial map of the building.

Through this technology, Tallon is able to read a building’s story in a non-linear fashion.

“It a way of representing the building that is quite striking; you get to feel the spatial configuration of the building in a way you can’t otherwise. On the computer, you are able to grab the scan and move it around—one spray of points, completed with other points, becomes an incredible document,” Tallon said.

Tallon has used this groundbreaking technology for a great deal of his recent research, to tell the stories of numerous buildings: “The

story of the push and shove of construction of a big stone and mortar and wood building, that moves and thrusts and wiggles and tries to stand up, a story that has many dimensions, social dimensions, economic dimensions and also the more purely structural dimensions,” he explained.

He recently received a grant from the Samuel Kress Foundation for a study of the architecture of the cathedral of Bourges using the technique, and he also has used it for a web-based project—funded by a four-year grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation—entitled Mapping Gothic France, which, simply put, is an attempt to tell the story of gothic architecture in a nonlinear fashion.

Furthermore, his work is not only known

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

amongst academics. His research was featured in an Emmy-nominated PBS/Nova special entitled “Building the Great Cathedrals,” which aired nationally in October 2010, and in a feature-length documentary entitled Les Cathedrals Devoilées, which aired on public television in France and Germany in April 2011.

“I was in the field this summer, doing some work at Chartres cathedral and people were coming up to me saying “Oh! You’re the guy!”

When does an art historian get to feel like a rock star? That was kind of fun,” he said about his worldwide recognition.

Tallon is not only modest but also quick to acknowledge his home institution. “It’s fun to have Vassar’s name floating around,” he said, “and my research has applications throughout the curriculum that I teach.”

Thanks in no small part to Tallon, Vassar has the world’s largest collection of historical architecture spherical panoramic views. As well, next semester Tallon is teaching a seminar around the theme of Mapping Gothic France, where the students will co-curate an exhibit in the The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center focusing on Gothic architecture.

His research serves a purpose in more basic classes, though: namely, engaging and educating students in Vassar’s iconic Art 105.

Alden Rose ’14, a potential art history major who took the class last year, talked about how Tallon’s lectures stood out due to his use of innovative technology. At least in the eyes of Rose, Tallon has solved his former dilemma of teaching without the actual buildings on hand: “His use of three-dimensional computer models, which he designed himself, gives each monument a new depth of understanding, really not able to be captured by floor plans and elevations,” she said. “The columns spring up, the buildings breathe with light and you get a sense of the monumentality intended by the architects.”

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Dance talks highlight modernism

September 15, 2011

Starlet Nicole Wood sings, acts with ease Jack Owen Reporter

“I

f you ask my parents, they’ll say I’ve always been performing,” Nicole Wood ’12, a drama major, said. “It’s this indescribable feeling where your whole body is just lit up.”

However, in spite of her early interest in theater, Wood was not always certain that she would pursue acting. “I thought I’d be drama and pre-med,” she explained, but realized premed was only to make her father happy. “Arts are my passion and what I want to do,” she explained.

Wood took part in her first production when she was a freshman in Kingston Senior High School. “We did an adaptation of A Nightmare Before Christmas,” she said. “I played Demeter of the vampire mean girls in Halloweentown—I had two lines and I still cannot to this day remember them,” she said with a chuckle.

Since then, Wood has acted in a range of plays from “Man of La Mancha” to “Crave” and “Waiting for Godot.” She has also worked on Walk the Fish and a Vassar Filmmakers shoot. “My favorite kinds of performances are ones where you don’t recognize the actor and only see the character,” she stated.

“Once I got to wear a fat suit and do strange animal movements,” she said with a grin. “I like doing roles that people would not expect me to do.”

Wood is an equally versatile vocalist, singing both soprano and alto. A member of Vassar’s oldest a capella group, the Night Owls, she regularly showcases her vocal ability on campus. Wood is drawn to smooth, jazzy ballads, such as the Captain and Tenille’s “Love Will Keep Us Together,” a tune she sings for the Owls.

In high school she worked as a scene director at Neighborhood Playhouse Junior School, commuting from upstate New York to Manhattan. “We would direct little kids in small scenes. I pushed the envelope and did some darker, more absurd stuff,” she said. “I was amazed at how when I challenged them they would respond so imaginatively.”

After her freshman year Wood traveled to Papingo, Greece as an acting apprentice for One Year Lease Theater. She became close with One Year Lease’s co-founder, Ianthe

Campus Canvas

Carlos Hernandez/The Miscellany News

Nicole Wood ’12, above, sings with the all-female a capella group the Night Owls in addition to her thespian pursuits. Wood interned on the production of Grassroots over the summer.

Damos. Wood also worked as an intern last semester at Elevator Repair Service Theater in Brooklyn. “[Ianthe] generously offered her couch as a crashpad during my NYC internship,” she said. “She’s someone I consider a hero and someone I really look up to—truly fearless,” Wood said. Her internship, in turn, morphed into a summer job as an office manager for Elevator Repair Service Theater.

This year, Wood will play Honey in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and Stevi in “The Goat” here at Vassar, and she is already beginning post-graduation preparation. Wood will move back to Brooklyn to pursue acting. “I want to go back there as soon as possible,” she said. “It feels like a bigger Vassar.”

A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

On Sept. 21 at 5:30 p.m. in the Rosenwald Theater, Stephen Gyllenhaal and Kathleen Man Gyllenhaal will screen a Vassar sneak preview of the film Grassroots. Wood interned on its production, in the locations department, during the summer after her sophomore year. She was also featured as a background performer in about a dozen shots.

Accomplished as she is, Wood assured that she still gets nervous before performing. “I got nervous today in class!” she said.

“I think the fact that I continue to do it in spite of my nerves is a testament to how much I love it.” Evidently, Wood’s persistence and passion signal that she has truly found her calling.

submit to misc@vassar.edu

Courtesy of Samantha Ives

DANCE continued from page 14 who went to Vassar years ago.” Her work has made social and political commentary through over 50 choreographed works for her company since the 1970s.

“It was very well-timed to have her for the sesquicentennial, she produces brilliant artwork that always has something to say,” said Czula.

This upcoming Wednesday, Macaulay, chief dance critic at The New York Times, will visit the campus with his lecture entitled “Passion, Reporting and Dance Criticism.” The lecture will take place at the Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater at 7 p.m.

Influenced by dance performances that changed his life at an early age, Macaulay is extremely aware of how dance fits into culture.

He has taught dance history in Britain for over 20 years where he was founding editor of the Dance Theater Journal in 1983 and guest critic to the New Yorker.

“Not many critics are taken seriously in dance, and many have died away. This makes Macaulay a very powerful voice because you get one opinion instead of five,” Meehan explained, adding, “He is a very diverse contemporary dance critic, with the foremost top critiques in the world. He is sometimes seen as controversial because he is not afraid to criticize.”

In coming to Vassar, Macaulay allowed the faculty to choose a topic out of three that he will directly address in his lecture. The faculty chose “Passion, Reporting and Dance Criticism” because of the obvious overlap with other disciplines within Vassar’s liberal arts curriculum.

Students interested in journalism, literature and drama, as well as other disciplines, will find something of interest in the talk.

In his visit, Macaulay will discuss writing dance reviews and articles about dance, his work with the New York Times, and the different perspectives he has gained abroad.

“Macaulay is a dance critic that looks at the world from a very broad spectrum,” said Czula.

Shortly after Macaulay’s departure, the Dance Department will present a lecture by producer-director Brockway, best known for his award winning PBS television series Dance in America. His work is peculiar because it masters the challenge of representing dance on film. The talk will take place on Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m.

“Dance comprised on film can be very narrow because the camera looks at movement with a single eye. Dance choreographers see the camera as a figure within a performance, which confirms that what makes sense to a filmmaker doesn’t always make sense to a choreographer,” explained Czula.

According to Czula, Brockway’s visit will tackle three tasks: discussing the peculiar elements of filming dancers, how he developed his films for TV and his screening of Dance in America: The Balanchine Essays. Brockway will discuss his works in a panel conversation with Merill Ashley, former New York City Ballet principal dancer; Tom Gold, former soloist with New York City Balley; and former principal dancer with Martha Graham, Pegy Lyman. Meehan will serve as moderator for the dialogue.

In addition to the dance performance, lecture and panel discussion, there will be three screenings of Dance in America episodes.

Hayes, Gold and Ashley will serve as commentators and answer questions following the episodes corresponding to their specific areas of expertise. The screenings will take place on Oct. 12, 26 and Nov. 2 at 8 p.m.

Czula described the value of the dance programming to all of Vassar, explaining, “These events are giving the community an opportunity to experience the primary source work of brilliant artist first hand. It is a gold time for dance right in the middle of our current economic crisis, and it’s the longest project we have ever done. This might excite the students

When I was much younger, my grandma taught me how to needlepoint, latch hook and knit. We didn’t relate in a lot of ways, but we could always bond over crafts. For a sculpture assignment, I decided that I wanted to create limp crochet stones, but my grandmother hadn’t taught me how to crochet! I scouredYouTube for the best DIY videos and I quickly fell in love.This past summer, I decided to start crocheting huge, impractical doilies.This piece, called “Double Cream,” is made up of two

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

doilies that measure about two-and-a-half feet in diameter. I wrote the pattern while crocheting, and worked on each doily simultaneously.

Both yarns are the same gauge and both are labeled as “Cream,” but the yarn comes from two different brands. They are mirror images of one another, but the reflection has been altered. —Samantha Ives ’12 “Double Cream” is currently up in the Palmer Gallery with the SummerWorks show.

September 15, 2011

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Page 17

Fright Night remake brings thrills, chills Fright Night Craig Gillespie [Touchstone]

Katharine Austin Senior Editor

W

ith Hollywood cranking out so many uninspired remakes as of late, I was pleasantly surprised to discover one that was both well made and entertaining. Craig Gillespie’s Fright Night, loosely based on the original cult classic released in 1985, brings the scares and the laughs to create an enjoyable summer flick.

The film’s protagonist, Charlie Brewster (Anton Yelchin), a former high-school dweeb, just wants to fit in so his popular girlfriend Amy (Imogen Poots) will continue to like him.

However, his former best friend, Ed—played

by Christopher Mintz-Plasse, most well known for his role as McLovin in Superbad—throws a wrench in Charlie’s plan to join the in-crowd.

After one of their mutual friends vanishes, Ed informs Charlie that his new next-door neighbor Jerry (Colin Farrell) is a vampire who is steadily killing everyone in their neighborhood.

Charlie’s neighborhood seems like the perfect place for such horrors to transpire. A subdivision of tract houses located in the middle of the desert outside of Las Vegas, Jerry picks the perfect hunting ground. No one questions why his windows are blacked out—with a job on the Strip, he works at night and sleeps during the day like many residents of Las Vegas.

And despite the relatively small size of Charlie’s community, no one other than Ed seems to take notice in the increasing number of absences at

school.

While one can charge the film with attempting to capitalize on the current vampire craze, it does so with an unexpected originality. Jerry harkens back to the classic monster interpretation of vampires. He needs an invitation to enter someone’s home (although he is quite adept at finding loopholes to that rule). Crucifixes, stakes and holy water are viable weapons against him. And sunlight far from makes Jerry sparkle. Vampires in Fright Night explode into fire and ash instead.

As Ed informs Charlie, Jerry is no brooding, fictional love interest—he’s the shark from Jaws. When in feeding mode, Jerry certainly possesses a mouthful of sharp teeth to rival a great white’s. He also sports long, pointed fingernails, exposed veins, black eyes and inhuman movements. His scariest vampire quality, however, is probably his penchant for watching episodes of The Real Housewives of New Jersey between meals.

Farrell brings new blood to vampires in pop culture, pun intended. While the film provokes more chuckles than it does screams, his portrayal of the vampire Jerry is actually quite chilling in subtle ways. As my friend whispered to me during the movie, it’s for the best that Jerry is a vampire—otherwise his character is just flat-out creepy. The near-menacing undertones that arise anytime Charlie interacts with Jerry make it easy to believe that Jerry kills people in his free time. And the suggestive awkward silences during Jerry’s first appearance on screen reminded me of Bela Legosi’s famous line from Tod Browning’s 1931 Dracula: “I do not drink… wine.” As with many old-fashioned, Byronic vampires, Jerry’s good looks may charm the ladies, including Charlie’s mother Jane (Toni Collette), but his demeanor can turn from ruggedly

charming to disturbing in seconds.

Farrell’s Jerry may fascinate vampire-loving me, but Peter Vincent (David Tennant), the vampire expert whom Charlie seeks out for help, steals the movie. (Or maybe I just watched too much Doctor Who on Netflix this past summer.) Undoubtedly the biggest change from the 1985 version, Gillespie turns the aging, Van-Helsing-like character of the original into an alcoholic Brit in tight leather pants that performs a vampire-themed magic show in Vegas.

Vincent provides most of the film’s laughs, from his suggestion of a garlicy omelet as a method of vampire elimination to his informing Charlie, “I’m a great date. Get me drunk, and I’ll try anything.”

One of the most remarkable elements of Fright Night for me, however, was the quality of its score, composed by Ramin Djawadi. The main theme pays homage to classic vampire and horror films with its use of the organ chords and hard strings, but modernizes the sound by adding synth beats. The film makes a couple of questionable music choices—such as using Hugo’s catchy yet out-of-place folk-pop cover of Jay Z’s “99 Problems” for the ending—but overall the music helps make the Fright Night remake a success.

The film certainly contains its fair share of blood and gore, but not in an unnecessarily excessive or nauseating way. If anything, Fright Night receives its R-rating simply for the amount of times it drops the f bomb. Its balance of comedy with almost playful horror makes it an acceptable movie choice for most audiences. Aside from the film’s attempt to introduce a way for Charlie to de-vampire individuals, which I always consider sort of a cop-out, I found Fright Night to be delightfully humorous, creepy and fun.

“Sideways on a Scooter

by Miranda Kennedy. She’s coming this Friday at 6:00 PM in Taylor 203.

Saumya Bhutani ’14

“I’m reading The Satanic Verses

by Salman Rushdie.”

Manasi Jiwrajka ’12

“Advanced Economic Theory, Third Edition by Geoffrey A. Jehle and Philip J. Reny.”

Axel Yung ’13

Marling’s latest full of smooth acoustics Gabriel Dunsmith Guest Columnist

O

n her junior release, British singersongwriter Laura Marling explores new styles of music and shows a dark side of her that few have seen. Even the album artwork for A Creature I Don’t Know is punctuated by shadow: Overtly sexual and raw, it reflects many of the songs on the album. “The album is all about tugging and churning with goodness and darkness,” the singer said. Musically and emotionally, Creature reveals a vulnerable part of Marling to the world.

Many of Marling’s songs feature just her voice and the guitar at her side. “Dad had taken the time to teach me guitar,” she said about learning music in her childhood. “[He] gave me a real passion for guitar that I didn’t quite realize until I got out into the big wide world.”

Marling says that she’d written songs for as long as she could remember. “It wasn’t till I began playing them to my dad that I realized I could do something with them if I worked on them,” she explained.

The 21-year-old singer is somewhat of an icon of the English folk scene after rising to prominence several years ago. Originally part of the band Noah and the Whale, Marling left the band in 2008 at the same time that she broke up with the group’s lead vocalist, Charlie Fink.

That same year, Marling released her debut album Alas, I Cannot Swim. Immediately her emotion-heavy lyrics and skill at the guitar were recognized as profound: Alas, I Cannot Swim was nominated for the 2008 Mercury Prize. Marling was only 18.

As she toured for her first album, Marling

helped launch the band Mumford & Sons to stardom. The group sometimes preformed as her backing band, and Marcus Mumford, the group’s frontman, opened several of her shows (For some time Marling also dated Mumford, but the couple broke up in December 2010).

2010 saw the nomination of another Mercury Prize for Marling, with her sophomore release I Speak Because I Can. The banjoheavy “Devil’s Spoke” stuck out as a shining track on the album.

On Creature, Marling sounds much more grown up: Her voice is huskier, stronger. The first several songs on the album do a fine job of introducing Marling, her swelling voice and her strong guitar, but the gems of the album lie farther in.

Often Marling is backed by piano, drums, cellos and banjos, adding different musical elements throughout the tracks to embellish her guitar (and even hinting at jazzier sounds in “The Muse”). One song, “Salinas,” is strung with banjos and reaches a foot-stomping tempo as Marling sings, “Ask the angels, ‘Will I ever see heaven again?’”

Whereas some of her previous tunes may have been slow and sad, several songs on the new album overturn a new theme altogether.

“There’s places where the muscle of the music overtakes the notes,” Marling said, “and I like that.”

Songs such as “The Beast,” “Night After Night” and “Rest in the Bed” roil in this shadowy land of A Creature I Don’t Know.

“The Beast” in particular defines the theme of the album. The hum of electric guitars, rarely heard in Marling’s other music, throttle the song and plunge it into themes of

lust and malevolence. “Tonight he lies with me / And here comes the beast,” Marling sings, hearkening back to the cover artwork and providing a means by which that dark illustration can live in the album.

Marling strips her sound down to her voice and guitar for “Night After Night,” the song on the album with the most moving lyrics. “I don’t stand for the devil,” Marling cries out, “I don’t whisper in ears / I stand on the mountains / And call people to hear.”

Several songs touch on notions of sexuality. “Who’s been touching my skin? / Who have I been letting?” Marling sings in “Sophia.” Meant to reflect ideas of the ancient goddess of wisdom, the song starts with just Marling’s guitar, then builds to a rock-like full-band sound, and finally transcends to a jazzy chorus.

“This album is very much a story, start to finish,” Marling said, and she proves it on the final track of the album, “All My Rage.” Marling sheds herself of darkness in this bright and fast-paced tune, singing, “I leave my rage to the sea and the sun.” She is determined to start anew.

“When I try and think about my musical future, I just have to kinda have faith that I can write songs,” the folk artist said. “That’s it. That’s all I can do. And I can play guitar.

I’m getting better at guitar all the time.” And indeed she is.

If anything, A Creature I Don’t Know proves that Marling, three albums into her career and only just on the cusp of adulthood, still has much more to sing. A Creature I Don’t Know debuted on Sept. 13. Marling plays in New York City on Wednesday, Sept.

28 at Webster Hall.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“Matter and Consciousness by Paul Churchland.

It’s for Cog Sci. ”

Angelo Roman ’15

“Where’s Waldo?”

Edith Iyer-Hernandez ’14

“My Cell Bio Textbook.”

AJ Kim ’13 —Rachael Borné Arts Editor

SPORTS

Page 18

Football should not distract from Sept. 11 Harrison Remler

S

Guest Columnist

Manukyan makes splash in second year Mitchell Gilburne

A

Contributing Editor

fter scoring a game-winning goal against Mount St. Mary College in the 11th hour on Sept. 4, sophomore Rob Manukyan continues to establish himself as a standout member of Vassar’s men’s soccer team. Despite a slow start, Manukyan’s athletic career at Vassar has molded him into the kind of player that enhances his team through his technical skill, a keen understanding of the game and the humility to value a well-played victory over personal glory.

Manukyan explains that his early days as a Brewer were characterized by the drive to improve. Understanding that the leap into athletics on a college level would draw from a new set of parameters and expectations, Manukyan immediately began to hone both his game and his fitness level in an effort to underscore his value to the team. “A lot of it had to do with fitness,” he explained. “The coaches are critical of skill, they don’t take on any players who are untalented, so the main obstacle is transitioning into college soccer. I play forward, and I’m kind of like a target guy but I’m small, so over the winter I hit the gym. And [the coaches] saw that I was working so hard and I think they took note.”

And his coaches weren’t the only ones to recognize the strides that Manukyan had made on the field and in the weight room. Captain Ross Macklin ’12 explains that Manukyan stepped up just in time to fill the void left by graduated seniors, offering, “We lacked a goal-scoring presence

up front and he may not have seen much playing time last season, but he came in off the bench against Mount St. Mary and scored the game-winning goal, and then in our next game scored the first goal, and for him to come off of the bench like that is impressive.”

Of course, Manukyan’s time on the sidelines was not squandered on thumb-twiddling or daydreaming. Instead, he sharpened his mind and focused on the sport, though he does cite the lightning-fast reality of being in the thick of things as something that cannot be prepared for. He explained, “It’s very different from sitting on the bench.

From the bench you see everything; when you’re on the field you see what’s in front of you and it’s so much quicker, so much faster. The thing that’s going on in my head is to always stay confident, to trust that you have the skill and stay confident.” And it is this very mantra that enabled Manukyan to lay his claim to the starting lineup.

Manukyan recalled, “Last year [in a scrimmage] we went up against a D1 and it was my first game at Vassar, I took a wide pass and ended up scoring from a corner and that’s when I realized that I was playing on an even field with everyone else.”

Manukyan’s confidence, however, does not come at the cost of a keen attention to the needs and dynamics of his team. He respects the standard of play that has been upheld by the Brewers and strives to fill his niche in the team with an airtight seal.

He described his role, noting, “Generally we really like playing very quick soccer.

We’re the ones holding the ball whether we do well or poorly. For strikers [like Manukyan] you’re always going after the ball, my role is to keep the ball for us right there and keep it in play and be slowly advancing yard by yard.”

Such an appreciation of the necessity of harmony among teammates was not born in a vacuum. In fact, Manukyan cites his pre-Vassar experiences as being formative of his current mentality. He recounted, “In 10th grade—I’d never been a captain before—and my coach chose me as the captain of the team and he passed the armband to me and from that point on I stopped being just a player and became a leader and it added a totally different element to my game,” he said. “I was more committed, I was more responsible; I had to lead by example.”

Manukyan’s captain is no stranger to the makings of a leader, qualities that he can recognize within his sophomore teammate.

Macklin said, “He is totally selfless, which is one of the necessities for being a player.

He’s skilled, he’s talented, he’s got a thunderous strike and the talent to match it,” he explained. “We see him having a huge impact for the future.”

And while Manukyan ruminates on his potential for future leadership, he has not forgotten the thrill of a cleat ripping up the earth as it hurls the ball towards a flummoxed goalie and is congratulated by the soft whoosh of the net as it quivers its resistance. Or, as Manukyan put it, “Getting goals is a huge aspect of my game.”

Sports Briefs Brothers Guzick Take Doubles Title The men’s tennis team commenced its season this past weekend, competing in the Trinity Invitational. The event was not a team competition but rather saw individuals compete in flighted tournaments. Vassar’s top doubles team, featuring senior Ben and junior Andrew Guzick, earned the A flight doubles championship. The younger Guzick also earned a spot in the A flight finals, before suffering a 6-3, 6-1 defeat. The team will next play Friday visiting Bard College.

Women’s Tennis Kicks Off Season at Lindsay Morehouse Invitational The women’s tennis team opened its season at the Lindsay Morehouse Invitational hosted by Williams College.

The event, named for an Ephs alumna and former tennis captain who died in the Sept. 11 attacks, featured Williams, Amherst College and Skidmore College. Over the course of the weekend, there were four rounds of singles and three rounds of doubles. Samantha Schapiro ’15 had a notable second-day performance, winning both of her singles matches 6-0, 6-0. Classmate Hannah Van Demark ’15 also earned two victories on Sunday, one in singles and one in doubles, as she teamed with Lindsay Kantor ’14.

Men’s Rugby Begins Season with Strong Start Six Brewers notched tries as the men’s rugby team routed Sacred Heart University 4618 in their debut contest. Although the score was just 12-10 Vassar at halftime, the Brewers pulled away in the second frame, claiming the victory.

This weekend Vassar will host Hofstra University in their first game at the Vassar Farm this year.

Women’s Rugby Wins Big in Opener The Vassar women’s rugby team started its season on the right foot with a 55-15 victory over Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute. O’Mara Taylor ’12 picked up right where she left off last year, scoring three tries. Margaret Kwateng also went over three times in the decisive victory.

Hofstra visits the Brewers this weekend in the women’s rugby team’s home debut.

Men’s Soccer Strong Start

Mia Fermandoza/The Miscellany News

ports in their purest forms let us access our most finest memories.

It’s the subtle sound of the basketball drifting through the hoop and the first bounce against the hardwood that will resonate after a winning shot in an athlete’s head. It’s the look from a father’s eyes as his son rounds third after hitting his first home run in a Little League game. It’s the memory of his face glistening with pride and that ice cream cone smothered all over him in the post-game celebration.

Sports are the finest way to access our memories.

But during the influx of media attention surrounding the kickoff of NFL Sunday, as sports fans we must remember the most crucial memories.

As we sit down on the couch or drench our hands in barbecue sauce from our 20th wing at the bar this week, one must keep in perspective the 10th anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11. We must acknowledge that the legacies of those who were lost — the New York City firefighter who can’t see his children grow up, or the single parent trying to juggle a full family of five — have an intensity which surpasses that of a crucial goal line stand.

We shape our own memories, build our own personal scrapbooks. So as every “true American” sits on the couch and enjoys four NFL games, each American must take the time to remember the biggest event of the decade.

Remembering Sept. 11 doesn’t mean watching an infomercial from Fox Sunday Football asking simply a moment of silence. Remembering the tragedies of a September 10 years ago means forming your own personal moment, your own recollection of the events.

I couldn’t really understand why the New York City skyline was covered with smoke and smog as I looked out my bedroom window returning home from the school early on Sept. 11. As a naive fourth grader, I understood the circumstances but wasn’t mature enough to realize how important it was that Dad had left work early, for the first time in years, and my teachers rode the bus home.

It hit me when I saw a girl grow up without a father, because her dad returned to work at the World Trade Center days after her birth. It hit me when I now see her grown up, approaching her pre-teen years. It hit me when her teenage brother now acts as if he’s the man of the house.

Just like I did when I hit my first game-winning shot in basketball, I’ve formed my own personal memory of Sept. 11. The memory has its twists and turns, its mysteries and questions but it’s impossible to remember American tragedy and complete courage and bravery without mentioning the legend of Pat Tillman.

A story of complete innocence and complete heroism on his part, Tillman’s reminds us that sports are only a part of the United States. Sports are only a snippet of the American life, the full American portrait.

Wasn’t Tillman already living the American dream? A professional football player who moved up the collegiate ranks, with his flowing hair drifting out of his glorious cardinal red helmet. Tillman did the impossible, turning down $3.6 million for a chance at the truest uniform of them all. It wasn’t an outfit sponsored by Nike or an endorsement deal cut out by Under Armour—it was a chance to zip into the form of an Army Ranger.

Tillman played through the 2001 season, but he couldn’t ignore the pain of his memories. He couldn’t ignore the innate connection to his nation, so he tossed away the fame and said goodbye to Sunday afternoons and Monday nights. He traded in fierce offensive linemen for Afghani forces, and instead of dealing with the then-San Diego Chargers’ running back LaDanian Tomlinson, he sifted through Afghanistan fighting for his life. Although Tillman lost his life on April 22, 2004, the memory of his decision should not be forgotten.

The heroics of Tillman must show us that sports are only a piece of the American dream. We must embrace the sports culture but remember exactly who we are, and see that beneath every single jersey, every rival color in last Sunday’s opening kickoff, stands an American.

Those are true memories.

September 15, 2011

Maintains

This past weekend, the men’s soccer team traveled to Manhattanville College to compete in the Valiant Classic. The Brewers opened the tournament taking on the hosts in a back-and-forth affair. With 15 seconds remaining in the first half, Manhattanville pulled ahead; Vassar, however, equalized in the 81st minute on a header by Juliano Pereira ’14 off a cross from Captain Ross Macklin ’12. Four minutes into overtime, the Valiants struck for the game-winning goal, handing the Brewers their first defeat of the campaign.

The squad rebounded the next day, shellacking Baruch College 4-0 in its second game of the Valiant Classic. Four different Brewers scored in the contest, with Logan Matheny ’15, Tom Wiechert ’15, Macklin and Eli London ’12 all finding the back of the net.

Three days later, the Brewers continued their season, hosting cross-river rivals State University of New York at New Paltz. Although New Paltz has prevailed more often than not

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Libero Aoife Feighery ’14, pictured above, moves to receive an opponent’s serve in one of this season’s opening volleyball games. in the recent history of the series, this game belonged to the Brewers, specifically Macklin.

Earning a hat trick, the senior midfielder scored all three goals—one on a blast from the right, one off a long shot and one on a penalty kick—in Vassar’s dominant victory.

Women’s Volleyball Goes 3-1 at Home Tournament The women’s volleyball team hosted the annual Vassar College Invitational this past weekend at the Athletics and Fitness Center. On the first day of the tournament, the Brewers cruised to two victories, defeating Wesleyan University 3-1 (21-25, 25-10, 25-15, 25-12) and Montclair State University 3-0 (25-14, 25-16, 25-13).

To open the second day of the tournament, the Brewers took on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) squad, who also went 2-0 on day one.

The Brewers took the first two sets 25-23, jumping out to an early lead, but M.I.T came roaring back and earned the final three sets to capture the match 3-2 (23-25, 23-25, 25-21, 2518, 15-11). Although MIT went 4-0, capturing the tournament title, Vassar rebounded with a strong 3-2 (25-22, 25-27, 25-23, 19-25, 15-9) victory over Stevens Institute of Technology to seal second place. Chloe McGuire ’13 represented the Brewers on the All-Invitational team.

—Andy Marmer, Sports Editor

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McManis transitions from player to coach Media needs broader focus F internationally Corey Cohn

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or some, four years at Vassar just isn’t enough.

Allison McManis ’11 graduated last May with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and an already storied legacy within the women’s soccer program. Now, she has returned as the new assistant coach for the team she just left.

For McManis, the decision was an easy one. “It’s an awesome opportunity for me,” she said. “A big [factor] is the group of girls on the team right now. They’re an incredible group of women—not only great players, but fantastic people.”

McManis, an exemplary team player, also considered how taking on the role would benefit the program. “It makes for the smoothest transition for the team,” she explained, “to have someone familiar with the system.”

“Familiar” may be an understatement. McManis is arguably the most decorated women’s soccer player in Brewer history. A captain for all four seasons, she was named All-Liberty League three times and team MVP twice.

Last season, McManis played an integral role in helping the Brewers earn their first Liberty League playoffs berth and reach the Championship game.

Needless to say, McManis has strong relationships with both her now-former teammates and Head Coach Richard Moller.

McManis said that her time as captain prepared her well for working with Moller. As for the players, she feels her experience with the returning members from last year has eased her transition. “I have a good understanding of how the girls react to being coached, talked to and motivated,” she said. “I’m enhancing a lot of old friendships in a new way.” McManis added that the players who knew her previously respect her new authority.

McManis is not alone in progressing from Vassar player to Vassar coach. Mike Mattelson ’10, one of the most successful men’s tennis players in program history, was named assistant coach for the team last year. He has returned for his second season this year.

Mattelson expressed in an emailed statement that the toughest part of adjusting to the new role was accepting that his place at Vassar had changed. “I was a student-athlete at this school for four years and everyone— myself included—saw me as that,” he wrote.

“To have to immediately change that identity, both internally and externally, was a difficult task that definitely took considerable time

Allison McManis ’11, seen above, returns to the women’s soccer team not as a player but as the team’s new assistant coach. Captain for all four years, McManis was named team MVP twice. and effort.”

Both Mattleson and McManis share a love of coaching, but their appreciation for the task manifests in different ways. Mattleson extends the approach he maintains on the court himself (his playing career has continued post-graduation) to how he mentors his players. “While in my coaching duties, both on and off the court, I’m looking for ways to make the guys the best they can be,” he wrote.

“What helps me more than anything here is [taking] what I discover in my personal quest for success and…trying to transfer that along to my guys.”

McManis, meanwhile, has grown to view soccer differently since she first started coaching for the Bay Oaks East Bay United Soccer Club, a competitive Class I club based out of her native Oakland, Calif. “It’s made me look at the entire journey,” she said. “The way you approach sports is the same way you approach life. It’s thoughtful and focused on the process, not just the outcome.”

Even with this macro-level perspective, however, McManis still values the strategy and preparation of the game itself. She has observed the program advance in these respects throughout her time at Vassar. “During my first year, it was more ‘kick-and-run,” she said.

“Now, it’s very possession-based. It’s much

prettier soccer.” She attributes this development to Moller. “Tactically and technically, he’s been great to work with,” she stated.

Of course, returning to the College as an assistant coach has benefits off the field as well.

McManis said she has more freedom to utilize the campus now that she isn’t bogged down by schoolwork. “It’s a lot less structured,” she said. “I love being outdoors—now that I don’t have papers to write, I can do other things.”

McManis’s biggest priority, however, remains her new position on her old team. Last year’s successes have her eyeing similar results. “It’s feasible to make the Liberty League playoffs,” she said. “Our team goal is to make it to the NCAA tournament.” But McManis has smaller goals, too, ones that pertain to each individual player. “[I’m trying to] facilitate girls into their place. [It’s about] showing up every day, working very hard, respecting each other, consistently playing nice soccer, and keeping the fire.”

McManis’s own fire seems to still be burning as well, even though she herself won’t be suiting up for the Brewers this season. Her dedication and commitment to staying involved comes from a sincere appreciation for the program. “I feel I have had a big role in developing the program…[but] it’s given a lot to me, too,” she said.

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Columnist

ast Wednesday, Sept. 7, all 44 people onboard a plane in Yaroslavl, Russia lost their lives in a plane crash; 36 of the deceased were members of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, a professional hockey team in the Kontinetal Hockey League, Russia’s equivalent of the National Hockey League. Yet, there are strong odds that the majority of you reading this column had no idea such a tragedy had even occurred. Indeed, I learned about the crash from a relatively small sports blog, rather than from a major news website such as ESPN, Yahoo! or CNN, who did write about the story but did not give it primary focus on their respective websites.

Beyond the fact that Lokomotiv will not play this season due to the catastrophe, this is a story that should be at the forefront of the news.

Thankfully, it is not every day (or, for that matter, every decade) that such a tragedy occurs in the sports world. When it does, however, we need to know about it. Indeed, part of being a sports fan still involves being in touch with the outside world; one can passively follow the team he or she cheers for, while also actively learning about the events that shape sports and trying to do something to help. However, there is one main reason why so little attention was given to the crash: The team was not American.

Considering that hockey is only marginally popular here, and that there were no recognizable names to the American populace among the dead, the story falls behind Peyton Manning’s neck surgery, which was announced several days prior.

It is rather unnerving that the Lokomotiv plane crash occurred so close to the tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001. While we were all reminiscing about the tragedies in the more distant past, we were unable to focus on the one that had just occurred. Media attention, both in general and in the sports world, went into great detail about the events surrounding 9/11, profiling the victims and lauding the heroes. While, of course, this is not only understandable but the right thing to do, it does not mean that we should act as if the only tragedies worth truly mourning for are those of Americans.

Keep in mind the multitude of memorials that occurred throughout Europe and South America in the aftermath of Sept. 11. Sympathy for others keeps the world in whatever relative state of peace we have today, and while it may sound obvious, we can only be sympathetic if we actually know what goes on in the rest of the world. Oftentimes, fans like to think of sports and the real world as mutually exclusive, that athletics is their way of avoiding all the pain and suffering in the rest of the world.

In instances such as late Yankee Cory Lidle and late golfer Payne Stewart’s respective deaths in plane crashes, the sports world temporarily was at a standstill. And of course there was the 1970 University of Marshall football team, that continued its season despite the death of 37 of its members. Yet these cases all contrasted with Lokomotiv because we could not avoid coverage of these deaths. Every American knew the Yankees, followed the PGA, ardently watched college football. Who in this country, however, knows that the KHL even exists, much less has an actual interest in the league?

Sadly, life is not so simple. Every day, when athletes get hurt, it’s not just the fans that have to deal with finding a replacement on their fantasy rosters; these players have to deal with strenuous rehabilitation projects, both physically and mentally, that can take years to finish. Indeed, even if it is easy to forget, athletes are not superhuman. And when 44 people on a plane in Russia lose their lives in a horrific plane crash, they leave behind families and friends who deeply cared about them. As we reflect on the tragedies at home, perhaps we should branch out and sympathize with anyone who needs help with their own pain. Learn where and how you can donate to the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl fund, or even send good wishes via Facebook or Twitter. We are not just sports fans, we are human beings.

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September 15, 2011

Brewers look to build on disappointing tournament Andy Marmer

after the Smith goalie failed to clear the ball from in front. Three minutes later, Davis helped the Brewers strike again, assisting Maura McCarthy ’12 on her team-leading fourth goal of the year.

Smith got one back 11 minutes into the second half, pulling within one, but Vassar took control the rest of the way. Maier, Cameron Felt ’14 and Tina Caso ’14 all found the back of the net, aiding the Brewers to the dominant victory. Dunn summarized the win in an emailed statement. “The win over Smith is a real accomplishment,” she wrote. “We showed great composure and were able to have a continued push to goal through the entire 70 minutes of play.”

Maier recapped the weekend, writing, “Of course it was a disappointment to lose yesterday and not be Betty Richey Champions, but at the same time, we didn’t earn it.” Ascencio wrote, “Saturday was a good learning experience because I think all the girls know they didn’t play ‘their game.’”

Despite the heartbreak, Vassar is already looking ahead to the remainder of the season. Wrote Maier, “We’ll be practicing hard this week to be prepared for our upcoming games, especially getting ready for our league games which start soon.”

The Brewers will next compete Friday, hosting Mercy College at 4:00 p.m. They will begin Liberty League play Sept. 23, hosting Union College.

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fter conquering the field for the first time in last year’s annual Betty Richey Tournament, the Vassar College field hockey team earned their seventh consecutive berth in the Championship game with a 6-2 victory over Smith College on Friday, Sept. 9. Despite the Brewers’ best efforts, though, they were ultimately defeated the following day by Manhattanville College 4-1. Explained Head Coach Cara Dunn in an emailed statement, “It just wasn’t our day.”

This was not at all clear from the get-go. After Manhattanville got off to a hot start with four shots on goal, all saved by sophomore goalie Maggie Brelis, and a penalty stroke that went wide, the Brewers netted the game’s first score. Janet Kanzawa ’14 took control of the ball in front of the cage and flicked it over a downed keeper. Although a pair of Manhattanville defenders fought valiantly, they were unable to clear the effort and the Brewers took an early lead.

Just three minutes later, Manhattanville evened the score as Alyssa Coughlan converted a long shot off a penalty corner to tie the game at one.

The Valiants scored twice more near the conclusion of the first half to effectively put the game out of reach.

Brelis had eight saves for the Brewers as she earned a spot on the All-Tournament team. She was joined there by teammates Captain

Forward Emily Maier ’12, captain of the women’s field hockey team, moves the ball down the field during the annual Betty Ricky Tournament. While the Brewers advanced to the Championship game, they lost to Manhattanville College 4-1.

Emily Maier ’12 and Catherine Fiore ’14. Manhattanville goalkeeper Amy Hilton earned tournament MVP honors with six saves in the Championship game. The Brewers produced scoring opportunities but were ultimately unable to capitalize.

Vassar assistant coach Jen Ascencio, who played for the Manhattanville field hockey team before joining the Brewers coaching staff this year, wrote in an emailed statement, “The

trouble with Manhattanville is that while they play a completely individualized game lacking the fluidity of Vassar field hockey, each of their players is extremely strong, fast, aggressive, and skilled.” She continued, “Vassar, on the other hand, plays a beautiful passing game with a lot of patience and defensive doubles.

Looking at the two different strategies on paper, Vassar is undoubtedly the better team.”

The previous day, Vassar’s offense had no issues scoring, as six different Brewers combined for the team’s six goals. After Smith jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, the Brewers answered with three goals to close out the half. Captain Rebecca Smith ’13 commenced the Brewers’ scoring, tying the game by taking a pass from the right side and slipping it into the left corner. Dara Davis ’15 gave Vassar the lead just five minutes later

Volleyball integrates freshman players Corey Cohn

Sports Editor

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Sept. 13 MEN’S SOCCER SUNY NEW PALTZ

Mia Fermandoza/The Miscellany News

ook at the 2011 women’s volleyball team, and you find every ingredient for a successful season. There is experience, seeing as three quarters of the roster consists of returning players. There is leadership, concentrated in the trio of captains, Amy Bavosa ’12, Chloe McGuire ’13 and Brittany Stopa ’13. There is confidence, instilled by 15-year Head Coach Jonathan Penn. Oh, and there is height—and a lot of it.

“We’re big,” Penn wrote in an emailed statement. “The first starting line-up I put out this season had no one under 5’9” and three six-footers, which is big at our level, but huge for us.”

Bavosa, a hitter, says the extra size changes the team’s approach. “We’re an offensivelydriven team this year,” she said.

“We’re big, we can be powerful.” She added, “After a big hit or big block, it gives everyone energy.”

McGuire, also a hitter, acknowledged the change in attitude that comes with this physical advantage. “It’s fun,” she said. “You have more swag—you feel like a badass.”

But the bravado the Brewers demonstrate on the court is matched by an equally strong team chemistry off of it. Stopa, a hitter, remarked, “We’re all best friends.”

Penn not only recognizes the bonds that unite his players, but he embraces them as well.

“Their chemistry is great, and is a big plus when we are in tough situations,” he wrote. “[It] helps us through what is a very intense season.”

Penn also noted how successfully the newest members of the Brewers are acclimating to the team, a feat that has caught the

attention of his captains as well.

“The freshmen have had a huge impact,” Bavosa said. “They’re consistent, dependable players.”

McGuire commended the rookies for handling the transition well. “College is so different [from] high school volleyball,” she remarked.

Stopa agreed, saying, “There’s a huge adjustment period; where [the freshmen] are at is impressive.” She added that there’s an additional challenge in incorporating into this particular program. Stopa described Vassar’s system of play as “nontraditional,” explaining that whereas most schools have a basic setup with only a couple of variations in positioning, the Brewers are constantly switching things up on the court. Bavosa clarified, “We shape our offense and defense based on our opponents.”

Freshman Taylor Mosley, a hitter, wrote in an emailed statement how fortunate she feels to become a member of this tightknit group. “Even though I have only known them for a couple of weeks,” she wrote, “I can tell that the girls that make up the volleyball team will end up being my second family.”

Although the captains take their jobs seriously, they don’t lead with an iron fist. The trio acknowledges that certain responsibilities fall to them, but they also know that their teammates are competent in their own right. Bavosa, entering her third year as captain, said, “Everyone contributes in a different way.” Stopa added that, while they know the rest of the team looks up to them, it’s important they stay true to themselves. “We don’t want captainship to change who the person is,” she said.

Still, in case that or any other problem arises, there is always

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The women’s volleyball team huddles up prior to one of the season’s first matches. This year’s squad boasts promising freshman talent. one person who can provide a stabilizing force. Penn, the winningest volleyball coach in school history, is a wonderful resource for the team both between and outside of the baselines. “[Penn is] more than just a coach,” Bavosa explained. “We can come to him for anything.”

McGuire added, “He’s a rock.”

Penn may be very supportive, but he also has high expectations for his team, particularly this season. Bavosa commented that he’s holding the team to a higher standard this year. “He’s expecting more [from us] in each game,” she said.

Penn confirmed this, explaining why he is so confident in his roster. “We are big, deep and talented, which is great but will only really pay off if their early bonding and integration evolves

into [a] strong team identity,” he wrote. “They can be as good as they decide they are going to be.”

Coach and players alike are in agreement that last season didn’t progress the way they had hoped. “We had potential we didn’t use,” Bavosa said. Penn agreed, writing, “Last season was somewhat disappointing, as we felt we hadn’t quite peaked when post-season came around, so [we] didn’t really meet our expectations.”

This season, between the promising freshmen, the experienced captains and what Penn described as “a number of players really growing into their roles and abilities,” the ultimate goal is clear and concise. “Simple,” according to Penn. “Win Liberty’s and qualify for NCAAs.”

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