The Miscellany News
Volume CXLVII | Issue 14
February 13, 2014
Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com
Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY
Petition SART advocates provide student support Vassar’s Sexual Assault seeks Asian Response Team relies on community involvement inclusion N Juliet Simon
Guest rePorter
early 20 percent of undergraduate women report having experience attempted or completed sexual assault since beginning college, according to a study in the Journal of American College Health. Sexual assault occurs on all campuses, even Vassar. The Sexual Assault and Violence Response Team (SART) are a collection college faculty, staff and administrators with the mission of helping the student victims of interpersonal violence. According to the SART website, team members will to offer guidance, knowledge and assistance to victims, but never force a decisionon
Noble Ingram neWs editor
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Zhu to play in world bridge championship Chris Gonzalez editor-in-CHieF
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group of four sit around a square table, one of many in a large convention center. Silence washes over them as they concentrate only on the array of spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs before them. They play not poker or rummy but bridge, a game that will have taken William Zhu ’15 from San Francisco, California to Istanbul, Turkey by the end of this summer. Zhu didn’t plan on one day competing in the World Youth Teams Championships for bridge when he first started playing the card game his sophomore year at Lowell High School in San Francisco. His AP European history teacher, who held a bridge club once a week and offered extra credit to students who attend-
ed, introduced him to the game. “A bunch of my friends and I were in the class and wanted extra credit so we decided to go. It was a little confusing for the first two weeks, but we kept going as a group. We kept going even after we finished the class,” Zhu explained, adding, “Actually, I wasn’t in their section, so I didn’t get extra credit. I was just going because they were going, but I ended up staying the longest and taking it the most seriously.” After graduating high school, the Center for Bridge Education—a nonprofit organization devoted to introducing duplicate bridge, the competitive format played in competitions and tournaments, to middle and high schoolers—contacted Zhu and a fellow classmate about See BRIDGE on page 6
courtesy of the United States Bridge Foundation
n Wednesday, Feb. 5, a petition circulated throughout the student body calling for greater inclusion of Asian and Asian-American voices in the Women’s Studies program. The petition was part of a student-led initiative to fight against what some students see as a pattern of Asian erasure at Vassar and in the Unites States more generally. The petition calls for 1000 signatures. As of Tuesday, 345 people from across the country have signed. Though the petition was a collaboration between many students on campus, two students in particular spearheaded the initiative: Michelle Zhang ’15 and Grace Sparapani ’16. As Sparapani explained, “This was something she and I talked about quite a bit... and it was Michelle that took the initiative to connect everyone that she had talked with about this in an email thread so we could come up with a solution. She and I wrote the original petition mainly because it was so hard to get everyone together all at once to do so.” The petition begins by establishing what students feel is the main problem with the Women’s Studies program as it relates to Asian and Asian American voices. As the petition reads, “We believe in the power of academics to shape social conversations and would thus like to challenge the Women’s See PETITION on page 4
them.Elizabeth Shrock is the SART Coordinator of the Sexual Assault and Violence Prevention Program. Shrock wrote in an emailed statement, “As the Coordinator, I supervise the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) and often meet one-onone with students that have questions or want support for sexual assault, sexual harassment, dating/domestic violence and stalking. It’s my job to know all the possible avenues of support
for them, and to be able to advocate for their needs on and off campus.” Her interest in sexual assault and violence-related advocacy and activism began when she was an undergraduate and became involved with Take Back the Night, an activist organization dedicated to fighting sexual violence. Her advocacy in her community grew from there. “I also became a volunteer sexual assault advocate, working with survivors at a crisis center in Michigan to advocate for them at hospitals, police stations and court,” wrote Shrock. Although she admits that her work is challenging and has the capacity to evoke a variety of negative emotions, such as sadness, anger and frustration, she doesn’t See SART on page 14
William Zhu ’15, far left, poses alongside his bridge World Youth Teams Championship teammates, Edmund Wu, Erli Zhou and Jimmy Wang.
Fashion blog features campus style VC Squash achieves second place finish I Jake Solomon Guest rePorter
n a world where fashion blogs are more immediate and influential than prestigious magazines such as Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar, a Vassar-centric fashion blog is gaining influence both on and off campus. The College Catalogue, a fashion blog dedicated to archiving student
fashions, was designed to showcase various fashion trends while maintaining an accessible appearance by keeping the clothing prices low and using models who are fellow students at Vassar College. The College Catalogue was created on Feb. 19, 2013 by Vassar students Maggie Zhang ’15, Nicole Alter ’13, and Daniele Selby ’13. Now
that Nicole Alter and Daniele Selby have graduated, the team currently running the blog is Maggie Zhang, Katherine Cuan ’15, Laura Song ’16 and Ellis Kim ’16. “[We] started The College Catalogue because [we] felt that many blogs showcased only one person’s style and usually expensive clothing. The College Catalogue is a See CATALOGUE on page 16
courtesy of collegecatalogue
Pictured above are Ellie Marble ’16 and Noah Mintz ’16 posing for The College Catalogue’s Valentine’s Day edition. The fashion blog features everyday student style, ranging from looks for class to outfits for campus nightlife and special occasions.
Inside this issue
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Höhn’s book on Black soldiers spurs FEATURES new documentary
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Study-abroad office must streamline OPINIONS resources
Tina Caso
sPorts editor
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fter losing six seniors upon their graduation last year, women’s squash has merged with the men’s team to fulfill the College Squash Association (CSA) nine-person roster requirement. The now co-ed team has steadily rebuilt, recruited players and, despite a series of injuries, hopes to reach Nationals by the end of the season. Before the Sept. 28 season kickoff, Head Coach Jane Parker was recruiting Vassar students who might be interested in playing collegiate squash. “The pre-winter break objective was to build a squad of women in P.E. classes by offering more introductory clinics, an intramural squash ladder and a Brewer House Cup Squash Team Tournament,” she wrote in an emailed statement. “Five Introductory clinics were staged through August and September and squash was introduced to seventy novices. A number of the newcomers enrolled on fall squash classes, attended intramurals and expressed interest in joining the team.” By the time the season began, the team consisted of 13 men and five women. Seniors Ricardo Espinosa and Kiet Phun, along with junior
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Alexandra Bowditch, were named captains. “This is a relatively new team that has grown a lot over the course of the year,” wrote co-captain Espinosa in an emailed statement. “We were a bit unlucky in that two of our top players tore their ACL’s at the beginning of the season, so the results have not been as positive. However, it is amazing to see how high spirits are, and how motivated everyone is.” The squash team is also involved off campus. “On October 25th the team offered a Community Service squash clinic for thirty-five students from Poughkeepsie Middle School,” she wrote. “The program was made possible through collaboration with Rachel Gorman and VAST, the Vassar After School Tutoring program. The event was a success as it gave the squash team the task of breaking down the basic skills of the game and teaching them in a fun way to the young students.” The injured players include sophomores Timothy Veit and Daniel Doctor, along with junior Devina Vaid and freshman Vincent Mencotti. “The season has been really up and down so far,” wrote Veit, who had lower-back surgery in October. See SQUASH on page 18
Doyle makes weary trek from THs to TAs HUMOR Oregon Trail style
& SATIRE