The Miscellany News, Volume CXLVII, Issue 17 (March 27, 2014)

The Miscellany News

Volume CXLVII | Issue 17

March 27, 2014

Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

Supreme Court case spurs protest IS trip sparks tension, debate on VC campus O Marie Solis & Meaghan Hughes Senior eDitorS

Eloy Bleifuss Prados

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Jacob Gorski/The Miscellany News

n March 25, 2014, the Supreme Court heard two landmark cases, Sebelius vs. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. and Sebelius vs. Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp, regarding religious freedom and women’s health. Both involve for-profit companies which maintain that, in accordance with their religious beliefs, they should not be obligated to provide birth control coverage to female employees. Currently, these companies are required to do so under the Affordable Care Act. Hobby Lobby, a Christian-based craft store chain located in regions across the country and owned by founder David Green, is suing for their right to refuse coverage of emergency contraceptives to employees.

As the Supreme Court justices in Washington D.C. grappled with the issue during what USA Today described as a 90-minute oral argument, protesters assembled at Hobby Lobby locations across the country, in a collective effort to have their stance heard on a case that affects people across the country.

At noon this past Tuesday, members from the New York City National Organization for Women (NOW) arrived at the Hobby Lobby on Route 9, equipped with picket signs and a repertoire of chants. About fifteen women, young, old and in between, shouted in unison “Hey, Hobby Lobby / keep it in the craftroom / not in my bedroom!” as their See PROTEST on page 4

Protesters for the National Organization for Women (NOW) assemble outside of Hobby Lobby, a craft store that refuses to cover contraceptives for its employees.

featureS eDitor

he International Studies (IS) travel class recently returned from their spring break trip to Israel; however, campus debate and activism surrounding Israel-Palestinian issues seems unlikely to die out anytime soon.

An annual tradition for almost 25 years, the International Studies 110 class travels to a different country each year during spring break, often to explore firsthand the roots and causes of geopolitical conflicts.

This year’s IS trip, led by Professor of Earth Science and Geography Jill Schneiderman and Associate Professor of Greek and Roman Studies Rachel Friedman, looked at issues of water rights and access to the Jordan River, as well as disparities in water distribution in Palestine and Israel.

According to a student in the class, along with traveling around Israel, the class also took trips into the West Bank, visiting a Palestinian refugee camp in Bethlehem.

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) have claimed that the travel class makes Vassar complicit in supporting Israel and perpetuating oppressive policies and actions against Palestinians.

Members of SJP have protested the class and organized a display in the Retreat called “Israel Apartheid Week.”

Timothy Koechlin has been the Director of International Studies since 2010 and a member of the Steering Committee since 2004. He shared that the backlash against this year’s IS trip came as a surprise to him and his colleagues.

“The course has received a level of scrutiny and protest that, I think, no one expected,” he wrote in an emailed statement. Previous IS classes have visited countries like Cuba, Zimbabwe, Indonesia and, in 1989, the USSR, but no recent trip has generated the same level of debate.

Koechlin explained how every spring the IS Steering Committee, a group of faculty from various departments, reviews proposals submitted by professors for the following year’s IS 110 class. After considering a wide range of factors and even asking professors to revise and resubmit the trip details, the committee will vote to approve a proposal.

According to Koechlin, the discussion of whether or not to approve the Israel trip was even more detailed than most years. In See ISRAEL on page 6

New review pinpoints Night Owls tour East Coast cities MTA safety priorities A Jake Solomon gueSt reporter

Anna Iovine

aSSiStant neWS eDitor

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rompted by the Dec. 1 Metro-North train derailment on the Hudson Line, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has undergone a comprehensive review of operations by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). The review found that Metro-North employees value time efficiency over protecting themselves and riders, and that the railroad had a “deficient safety culture” (The New York Times, “Report Finds Punctual-

ity Trumps Safety at Metro-North,” 3.14.14).

“The past year has been a challenging one for Metro-North Railroad— for its 270,000 daily customers, for its 6,000 employees, for the taxpayers in New York and Connecticut who support its operations and for the millions of people whose livelihoods depend on a safe, efficient and well-run railroad to get to work, school and home,” said new MTA Metro-North Railroad President Joseph Giulietti in a released stateSee MTA on page 3

s legend has it, the Vassar Night Owls—a campus all-female jazz a capella group—was founded in the wake of the 1942 polio epidemic, when the entire campus was quarantined. A few adventurous students, however, snuck out of their quarters in the night and sang to students inflicted with polio. Today, the Night Owls continue their tradition of secrecy and

adventure. Before spring break, the Owls hosted a concert in one of the THs, held in secrecy. Most recently, the singers traveled by car—driving for hours on end—to tour over break.

The Vassar Night Owls, who are one of the oldest all-female a capella groups in the country, brought their music outside of Vassar’s campus on their spring tour.

Charlotte Candau ’14 and Brielle Brooks ’16 organized the Night

Owl’s most recent tour. The Night Owls visited many locations around the area known as the “DMV”—or D.C., Maryland and Virginia—to perform their songs. The tour was based in Annapolis, MD, and they traveled to nearby locations, such as Baltimore and Washington, D.C..

In Maryland, the Night Owls performed at Mount Washington Pediatric Hospital, Brighton Gardens Assisted Living Home, 49 West See NIGHT OWLS on page 16

High expectations for baseball season ahead Jonathan Safir reporter

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Inside this issue

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NEWS

Dialogue explores future of Native American studies

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courtesy of the Night Owls

oming off a season in which the team qualified for the Liberty League tournament for the first time in school history, expectations are at an all-time high for the 2014 Vassar College men’s baseball team. Returning from last year’s successful season are senior standouts Brett Zaziski and Joe Lovizio. Zaziski is aided by other returners, including sophomores Nick Johnson and Brooks English and senior Dave Robbins.

Lovizio will anchor a young staff that will include sophomore Jonathan Hong and two freshmen, Trent Berg

and Adam Erkis, and will have sophomore Connor Cucalón in the back of the bullpen as closer.

In an emailed statement, Head Coach Jon Martin wrote, “I expect the team to compete every day we take the field. We are a talented club with a variety of lineup options that should bode well for our Liberty League weekends.”

He continued, “The only thing that matters in baseball is getting to the post-season. That is our ultimate goal, but to get there we need to play sound baseball, one game at a time. The season is a marathon, not a sprint.”

See BASEBALL on page 18

Over spring break, the Vassar Night Owls embarked on their spring tour, traveling throughout the greater D.C. area to connect with alumnae from the historical all-female troupe, as well as other collegiate a capella groups.

Hamilton provides study materials for FEATURES AP Bio students

14 ARTS

Squirm seeks to represent spectrum of sex and sexuality

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The Miscellany News

March 27, 2014

Editor-in-Chief Chris Gonzalez

Senior Editors

Meaghan Hughes Marie Solis

Contributing Editors Ruth Bolster Jessica Tarantine

Spencer Davis/The Miscellany News

Photo of the Week Not all break beaches are warm. Here, Jackson Martel and Pat Dunning, both ’16, clamber over Castle Rock in Salem, MA.

Welcome back from spring break! Come check out our weekly Paper Critique, Sundays at 9 p.m. in the Rose Parlor.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

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Noble Ingram Eloy Bleifuss Prados Joshua Sherman Samantha Kohl Lily Doyle Christopher Brown Tina Caso Spencer Davis Palak Patel Gwendolyn Frenzel Maddy Vogel Ashley Pecorelli

Crossword Editor Assistant News Assistant Opinions Assistant Sports Assistant Photo

Jack Mullan Anna Iovine Natasha Bertrand Luka Laden Jacob Heydorn Gorski Jiajing Sun Assistant Online Victoria Bachurska Reporters Julia Cunningham Emma Daniels Isabella DeLeo Emily Hoffman Maggie Jeffers Shannon Liao Jonathan Safir Columnists Delaney Fischer Zach Rippe Max Rook Lily Sloss Eli J. Vargas I Photography Alec Feretti Samantha Pianello Design Elizabeth Dean Bethany Terry Online Rachel Dorn Copy Daniel Foley Sophie Kosmacher Christian Lewis Macall McQueen Marya Pasciuto Camilla Pfeiffer Emma Roellke Rebecca Weir

CORRECTION POLICY The Miscellany News will only corrections for any misquotes, resentations or factual errors for ticle within the semester it is

accept misrepan arprinted.

LETTERS POLICY The Miscellany News is Vassar College’s weekly open forum for discussion of campus, local and national issues, and welcomes letters and opinions submissions from all readers.

Letters to the Editor should not exceed 350 words, and they usually respond to a particular item or debate from the previous week’s issue. Opinions articles are longer pieces, up to 800 words, and take the form of a longer column. No letter or opinions article may be printed anonymously. If you are interested in contributing, e-mail misc@vassar.edu.

March 27, 2014

NEWS

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Dialogue highlights status of Native American studies Noble Ingram neWS eDitor

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Alec Feretti/The Miscellany News

n Monday March 25, the ALANA Center played host to an event called, “Imagining an Indigenous Vassar: The History and Future of Native Studies/Students” as part of the on-going ALANA Faculty Dialogue Series.

Professor of English and American Studies and founder of the Native American Studies program at Vassar, Molly McGlennen, introduced the topic of Indiginaiety at Vassar and provided a history of Native American (NA) studies at Vassar. Director of the ALANA Center, Luz Burgos-Lopez, also helped lead the discussion.

McGlennen started off by providing a historical context for NA studies at Vassar. According to McGlennen, students began pushing for more opportunities to study Native scholars in the early 2000s. In 2006, the American Studies department applied for a grant for a native studies post-doctoral fellow recognizing that the lack of NA studies at Vassar was a critical gap. McGlennen was hired and served as a resource for students and faculty members for two years. During this time, she also hosted several meetings with faculty members from a broad range of departments in order to find ways to incorporate NA studies into academics interdepartmentally. In 2009, McGlennen was hired as a full-time professor and NA studies correlate was created within the American Studies Department.

According to the American Studies website, the purpose of the Native American Studies correlate is to include a group in the study of history that has often been over-looked.

“Students electing the correlate sequence are trained in the methodology of Native American Studies as a means to critically assess western colonial discourses, examine the many ways Native peoples have contributed to and shaped North American culture, and analyze and honor the autonomy and sovereignty of Indigenous nations, peoples, and thought,” it reads.

At the core of McGlennen’s presentation was one question: Is our current NA studies program sustainable? As she recalled later, “[The main concerns expressed at the event were] if and how Native American Studies is sustainable here at Vassar into the future, and how

students, faculty, and administrators can grow Native American Studies.”

As one of the founding member of the Native American Students Alliance, Kaitlin Reed ’14 has also worked extensively with developing the NA studies program at Vassar. She echoed the concerns of McGlennen, saying, “The biggest concern, obviously, is the sustainability, or lack thereof, of Native American studies at Vassar. The bottom line is that we need institutional support and we’re not getting it.”

She continued, speaking to the organization she is a part of. “NASA originally started out as organization meant to create a safe space for Native students, which did not really pan out given the lack of Native students on this campus which, I think, much of the blame should fall on the Vassar institution. Unfortunately, the organization has pretty much died out due to lack of support and leadership,” she said.

As McGlennen and others noted, though the “N” in ALANA stands for “Native American”, native issues and experiences are often given less consideration. As McGlennen said, “[NA studies] has started to become represented through the newly formed Native American Student Alliance and the events and programs I and NAS have done in the space and on the campus at large. However, we need actual student bodies in order to sustain NASA group.

And, because so few Native students are admitted into Vassar, the future of the N in ALANA is uncertain.”

One of the major problems with NA studies at Vassar that was brought up by several of those attending the event was the invisibility of Native experiences and activism on campus.

Many complained that they didn’t know of the Native American Studies correlate until too late in their time at Vassar. Reed furthered this idea, stating that faculty and students need to do more to bring attention to native studies.

“Annual events such as the Unsettling Columbus events are great but that doesn’t give our student body an excuse to ignore indigenous issues the other 364 days of the year,” she said.

The NA studies correlate also proved to be a point of contention for many at the event.

While everyone agreed that the creation of the correlate was a definite victory, many ex-

Students gathered in the ALANA Center to discuss the history of Native American Studies as well as the future and viability for the program now that there is a correlate in the American Studies Department. pressed concern that the correlate was too difficult to attain because of the scarcity of classes that count towards it. On top of that, many students were worried that too few professors taught courses that were relevant to NA studies. McGlennen herself recognized that though the correlate is alive and well right now, she can’t always be the only person holding it up.

The correlate offers a wide selection of courses by different professors, but few of these courses are offered with consistent regularity.

In contrast, Reed spoke to the more positive aspects of the NA studies correlate that she currently has and recognized it as one major victory for native studies at Vassar. “My Native American studies correlate literally changed my entire perspective on academia and what I will study here on out. If it weren’t for the courses I’ve taken with Professor McGlennen, I wouldn’t be getting my PhD in NAS next year, that’s for sure,” she said.

Towards the end of the discussion, McGlennen asked the group for any possible solutions

they saw to the precariousness of the NA studies program. The group presented a few strategies for furthering the growth of the NA studies at Vassar. One idea that came up focused on assembling a group of faculty members and students to create opportunities for further academic consideration of native perspectives and scholarship. As McGlennen explained, “They have great ideas. One idea that seemed to have the most potential is to form a NAS advisory group that would be created with NAS students, faculty and administrators to meet and hopefully develop ways to better and specifically recruit Native students and to think more critically about Vassar’s responsibility to growing NAS.” Though lots of works remains to be done to ensure the future of NA studies, McGlennen remains hopeful. “I think because of the incredible student support, we can build NAS here at Vassar. It’s going to be a long road and a lot of work, but that can’t deter us from being optimistic,” she said.

Federal Railway Association criticizes Metro-North to look out for in terms of staying safe. Most of the time when I think of safety with the MTA…I think that someone on the train or station could hurt me, not the actual…mode of transportation.”

Metro-North began changing its policies almost immediately after the derailment. The MTA installed new signal systems to enforce speed limits in certain locations; more speed limit signs in high-risk areas like curves; and they have lowered speed limits in some areas.

These changes attribute to the longer commute times and lower on-time performance. The MTA plans to release a schedule that reflects the changes (The New York Times).

“I usually take Amtrak because I need to

catch another train at Penn Station to get home on breaks,” said Samantha Smith ’16, “But the day of the derailment, I couldn’t get anywhere.

I’ve never heard of this happening with an Amtrak train so…that railroad’s probably safer, but they probably don’t have the amount of people taking it as Metro-North does. The MTA has to deal with thousands of commuters daily, so I can see how Metro-North would have more problems.”

Smith continued, echoing sentiments of many of Metro-North passengers. “I knew Metro-North couldn’t be safe all the time…the derailment showed that but I didn’t know it was as bad as the report said,” she said.

“I’ve noticed recently that Metro-North is

courtesy of Wikimedia

MTA continued from page 1 ment (The Poughkeepsie Journal, “Metro-North putting safety first, seeking rider input,” 3.22.14).

The FRA report—known as Operation Deep Dive—was the most extensive passenger railroad investigation completed by the administration in recent history. The report noted, “The findings of Operation Deep Dive demonstrate that Metro-North has emphasized on-time performance to the detriment of safe operations and adequate maintenance of its infrastructure.”

The railroad’s on-time performance last year, however, was its worst since the 1990s (The New York Times).

Giulietti echoed the result, saying, “As a new Federal Railroad Administration report makes clear, Metro-North’s focus on on-time performance came ahead of everything else—even safety” (The Poughkeepsie Journal).

“I spent 15 years at Metro-North at the start of my career, and returned to run the railroad a little more than a month ago,” Giulietti explained, “I found what the FRA found—the culture at Metro-North shifted over the years. Our challenge is to restore a culture of safety” (The Poughkeepsie Journal).

“As the new president of Metro-North, I have a clear message for all of them: safety must come first at Metro-North, and it will come first. Not train speed. Not on-time performance.

Not adding new service. Safety,” he confirmed (The Poughkeepsie Journal).

“I’ve used Metro-North to get me home and back to Vassar…most breaks,” said Kristell Taylor ’16, a resident of Queens. “Honestly, I never saw any problems with safety until the derailment, which caused me to find another way to get here after Thanksgiving.”

“Now that I think about it, though, that might be because as long as the train was on time I didn’t really care about safety,” she said. “I grew up using subways and buses…I’m used to public transportation in New York and what you have

A comprehensive review conducted by the Federal Railway Association found that Metro-North’s emphasis on speed over safety precaution puts passengers, many of whom are communters, in danger.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

running slower—the times on the Hudson Line schedule changed, too,” said Taylor. “I had to go into the city for an appointment a few weeks ago and I thought I could make it back to Vassar in time for a class if I took a certain train—but I got back much later than I planned to. I can definitely see the difference…in timing since the derailment. Safety, not really, but I wasn’t really focusing on safety of Metro-North to begin with.”

Giulietti intends on changing many of the railroad’s policies in the near future in the hopes of improving safety measures. “There is good news: Metro-North is staffed by thousands of dedicated employees who are pained by the troubles of the last year, who work hard in difficult conditions and who want to restore the railroad to greatness,” he explained.

He went on, “We have embarked on a 100-day plan to put Metro-North on the right path, and we will update the FRA as we address problems” (The Poughkeepsie Journal).

In addition to changing schedules, the FRA encouraged Metro-North to update its training procedures and scrutinize the experience and ability of employees. According to the report, about half of workers have fewer than three years experience with the railroad. Managers also do not receive training on how to test for rail traffic controllers. In 2013, the MTA hired 700 new employees. This year, they project to hire 800 more (The New York Times).

“We have plenty of work ahead of us,” said Giulietti, “but I am confident Metro-North will earn back its reputation as a safe and reliable railroad for everyone it serves.” Giulietti and his senior staff plan on visiting several Metro-North stations in New York and Connecticut to meet with and hear feedback from commuters in upcoming weeks. He also encouraged those interested in their safety policies to read more about the 100-day plan at mta.info (The Poughkeepsie Journal).

NEWS

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Outside the Bubble Mass Protests in Turkey This week, thousands of protesters took the

streets in dozens of cities in Turkey demonstrating against the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The spark of these protests are from the death of Berkin Elvan, a 15 year-old Turkish teenager who was hit in the head by a tear-gas canister last year during the Gezi protests. Elvan was on his way to buy a loaf of bread and went into a coma until his death last Tuesday morning. The government has not accepted any responsibility for Elvan’s death, and the policemen who were responsible were not questioned and are still on duty (CNN News, “Fresh protests break out in Turkey after boy dies,” 3.11.14). Elvan’s death raised the total death count from last summer to eight, with four a direct result from police violence.

These new protests are a revival of last year’s protest against the bulldozing and commercialization of Gezi Park in Istanbul. Although the movement was initially targeting the “Taksim pedestrianization project,” it slowly turned to a social and political movement against an increasingly authoritarian government. 3.5 million of Turkey’s 80 million people were estimated to have taken part in one of the thousands of demonstrations, and the excessive violence used by the police force left around 8000 people injured, with 104 seriously harmed (The New York Times, “Turkish official apologizes for force used at start of riots,” 6.4.13).

After a 9-month coma, Elvan died, weighing only 16 kilograms. Elvan’s mother, Gulsum Elvan, stated, “It’s not Allah, but PM Erdogan who took my son away.” Last year, when his mother tried to make a statement to the press right after her son was injured, CNN reporters witnessed police using pepper-spray against demonstrators and beating one man with a club. In Istanbul, tens of thousands of people showed up at the hospital Elvan was staying at where police used tear gas to disperse them. In Ankara, around two thousand people gathered to mourn Elvan’s death and to “contest continued police impunity” (The Guardian, “Turkish police fire teargas to quell protests after boy, 15, dies,” 3.11.14).

Washington Mudslide On the morning of Saturday, Mar. 22, a mudslide struck the town of Oso, Washington, leaving 14 people dead and around 176 people missing. The mudslide was a 1,500-foot-wide segment of a hillside that destroyed around 50 homes and blocked one mile of State Route 530 with debris. The search on Monday consisted of specially trained dogs, firefighters, law enforcement, aircraft and special rescue teams (Fox News, “Authorities expect death toll to rise following massive Washington mudslide,” 3.35.14). Although authorities are still in the process of searching for missing people, they are finding it difficult due to the lack of an exact estimate, as many of the houses destroyed were vacation homes which may or may not have been occupied.

Because of the heaviness of the mud, the extraction of people takes much more effort and the search and rescue teams have to take extra precaution, due to concern of the hillside moving (USA Today, “14 dead, 176 missing in Washington landslide,” 3.25.14). The mud is about 15 feet deep in some places, so the possibility of survivors under the mud is minimal; the square-mile of mud flow is like quicksand, so the rescue teams have only been able to search through drier lands. Many firefighters had to be rescued by rope after sinking up to their armpits when trying to rescue people.

The cause of the mudslide is assumed to be the heavy rainfall, which has been double what it normally is for the past month or so. The same area was struck with a landslide in 2006, causing the area to be named “Hazel Landslide.” John Pennington, director of the country Emergency Department, stated that people were aware of the risk of landslides yet still resided in houses built on the hillside. A geomorphologist said that better information needs to be given to the public about the dangers of mudslides and how big of a risk they pose (ABC News, “Report raises questions about mudslide precautions,” 3.25.14).

Water and some mud started to drain on Sunday afternoon, relieving some of the pressure behind the slide. In the meantime, the threat of flash floods and other landslides still loom over the rescuers, as the land is still very unstable and we currently are not able to predict incoming mudslides.

—Shelia Hu, Guest Reporter

March 27, 2014

College hosts high school Math League Elizabeth Dean Staff Designer

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n Wednesday, March 19, Vassar hosted local high school math league teams for the Dutchess/Ulster/Sullivan/Orange Counties (DUSO) Math League Championships. The attending high schools included Arlington, Cornwall, Chapel Field, New Paltz, Beacon, Spackenkill, John Jay, Monroe, Woodbury, Goshen, Washingtonville, Onteora and Roy C. Ketcham. In the championships, teams that have already achieved a degree of success in smaller competitions race to correctly complete a series of math problems ranging from algebra to statistics, all without a calculator. According to DUSO coordinator and New York State Mathematic League Vice President Anchala Sobrin, “Students answer six individual questions and one team (group or relay) [question] per meet, including the championship meet.”

After an hour and a half of competition, the League named the B team from Arlington High School as the DUSO League champion. The highest scoring team was the A team from John Jay High School, and the highest scoring individual was Rajat Chandra, a senior from John Jay. Following the event, Assistant Professor of Mathematics Jan Cameron delivered a lecture about mathematical voting theory. This is Vassar’s eight year hosting the competition.

The New York State Mathematics League (NYSML) championship tournament will take place Saturday, April 5, 2014 at Fayetteville-Manlius High School. Last year, DUSO’s best team took third place out of 18 teams in Division B at the tournament. Their strongest teammate was Timothy Sudijono from John Jay High School. DUSO’s best recent score was 9th place out of 12 in Division A in 2011.

Professor of Mathematics Charles Steinhorn organizes the event between Vassar and the community. In an emailed state-

ment, he wrote that he collaborated with a Vassar alum to start the program. “I was giving a presentation at an alumnae/i event in Westchester County when a graduate and math major, Jane Bogart-Schmidt ‘91, a teacher (now department chairperson) at Monroe-Woodbury High School in Central Valley, NY, approached me about the possibility of having Vassar host the competition.

I thought it would be terrific for Vassar to do this, and set about seeking funding from the Dean of the Faculty and President’s office to help underwrite the (modest) costs of refreshments (the rooms are provided for free). We have hosted the competition every year since, with continuing support from the Dean and President.”

He hoped the students would benefit from the experience of the event being hosted on campus, saying, “I think it’s a good idea to have these students come to a college campus for the event. It gives them a sense of the importance that we (college and university mathematics educators) attach to a competition like this.”

Another facet of the event is the lecture provided by Vassar. Steinhorn said, “Each year, I arrange for a lecture to be given by a mathematical scientist from Vassar at the conclusion of the competition. This year, the talk was given by [Caneron]. A couple of years ago, I arranged for George Hart, who was then the chief of content for the not-yet opened Museum of Mathematics.”

Cameron’s lecture focused on the mathematics of voting. It was his first time lecturing at the DUSO Math League Championships, but he has lectured several times on the voting topic. He wrote, “My talk introduced some of the fundamental problems in mathematical voting theory, a topic that has really captured my interest over the past couple of years. I think it’s a wonderful topic for students for a few reasons. First is that it’s a source of many interesting mathemati-

cal problems that you can think about without needing too much technical background (this, I think, is a primary reason why just about any mathematician would be compelled by a topic!).”

He continued, “Secondly, it’s an opportunity to see how beautiful mathematics relates to important social and political issues we encounter in everyday life. People are often surprised to learn, for example, that mathematical tools can be applied to questions like: ‘What makes certain voting procedures more “fair” than others?’ or ‘Can we ever prevent our elections from being manipulated by insincere voters?’”

According to Sobrin, high school students benefit from hosting the event at Vassar by having access to “wonderful speakers on interesting enrichment topics each year [and] collaboration and contact with a prestigious local college.” She also expressed ideas for the future which could expand on Vassar’s existing VAST programming: “We would like to see more collaboration, maybe college student-high school student mentoring so that high-schoolers can learn more about Vassar and opportunities in Math/Science that may be open to them.” She added, “We, as a league, are grateful to the college for hosting our championship meet.”

Cameron was optimistic about the student response to the event and looked forward to the future of the championship, saying, “The handful of students and teachers I talked to seemed to have enjoyed the lecture. I was pretty impressed by the students’ attentiveness, and their curiosity and eagerness to participate in everything that was going on that day.”

Steinhorn echoed this sentiment. He said, “I believe that it is an important part of Vassar’s mission to reach out to schools in the area in a variety of ways, and to encourage area school districts, teachers, and students know that they are welcome at Vassar.”

Company seeks to limit coverage of birth control on grounds of religious freedom

PROTEST continued from page 1

adversaries approached the site of protest.

“There are a lot of things at stake with this specific case,” said NOW Program Director Brielle Nalence, 26. Earlier in the day, she recounted, someone drove by and asked her if any of the NOW protesters were employed at Hobby Lobby. “When we said no, she said, ‘I know what your agenda is. You like your birth control, that’s fine, but let us live our lives.’”

However, this case doesn’t just affect Hobby Lobby workers. “If the Supreme Court decides that employers do have a say in what kind of health care their employees can have, it will have a precedent. It will lead to other employers having the freedom to decide yes you can, or no you cannot, have birth control,” stated Nalence.

Of the 20 FDA-approved drugs that are included in the federal mandate, Hobby Lobby does not object to covering 16 of these medications. The remaining four that the company finds morally questionable are forms of contraception such as Plan B which prevent the fertilization of an egg but do not terminate an already existing pregnancy. Though employees would still be able to purchase these medications on their own, without a co-pay, the cost can be as high as $60 for each pill and can therefore be an luxury outside of some’s means.

Standing firm with Hobby Lobby in their insistence that the corporation should be exempt from providing this coverage, groups of counter-protesters gathered across the way.

Holding signs stating “Thank you Hobby Lobby for real values” and “Stop abortion now,” they made it their belief clear: For them, the issue of birth control is tied inextricably to matters of religion.

Doc Kavoly came up from Tuxedo, NY to uphold this stance, insisting that the company should be able to act according to the values set forth by its religious affiliation. He said, “We had to stand with Hobby Lobby. They’re

very heroic in leading our charge for religious freedom. We would certainly not want to impose our beliefs on anyone else, we would simply like our right to choose as we like.”

What such protesters failed to grasp, maintained NOW protesters, is that their call for insurance coverage of birth control does not imply a condemnation of religious freedom.

“I think what people don’t realize is that we’re standing for people’s religious liberty and we’re standing for people’s individual freedom. We’re standing for the right of millions of women to get the health care they deserve and the health care they need. We don’t see it as an ‘if/or’ issue,” argued Jean Bucaria, NOW Deputy Director, highlighting that religion and reproductive health are not issues that are inherently at odds with each other.

Nalence, on the other hand, sees it as an even more cut-and-dry matter. She said, “For corporations [like Hobby Lobby]—it’s not a church. Plain and simple. They don’t get those protections that a religious nonprofit would have.”

Currently, federal mandate allows religious-based non-profits such as schools and hospitals to be exempt from providing no-cost birth control to their employees. The outcome of Sebelius vs. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. and Sebelius vs. Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp will determine if corporations can also refrain from providing this coverage. Many argue that this would expand on the already growing concept of corporate personhood—the notion that businesses deserve the same rights as individual citizens and that those rights can be protected by the same laws.

A ruling for this case is expected in June of this year and it’s not clear what the outcome will be. The Supreme Court justices demonstrated their distrust of the Affordable Care Act last year when they nearly voted to abolish it—four voted against it and the decision came down to a swing justice. If they overturn the mandate requiring birth control coverage,

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

other companies may follow Hobby Lobby’s lead and coverage for birth control could end up being severely limited.

Whatever the verdict, Bucaria maintained that NOW’s efforts to secure women’s reproductive rights will remain unflagging. “No matter what the Supreme Court does, there’s going to be a huge backlash and we’re going to fight to make sure that birth control is covered in our health insurance,” she said.

Access to birth control is not just a concern for women, but one that affects everyone, said Bucaria. “Women and men across the country need birth control. It’s not just about women. It’s about men and it’s about families.”

Nonetheless, concerns of reproductive rights remains overwhelmingly a women’s issue.

According to NOW, 99 percent of women will use contraceptives at some point in their lives.

The issue also more strongly affects low-income women who would rely on insurance coverage in order to afford the contraceptives that wealthier people could pay out-of-pocket for.

She continued, “There are health reasons that we need access to it. They are necessary to control the course of our lives and our future,” emphasizing that birth control has implications beyond family planning.

Nalence echoed these sentiments, pointing to the importance this insurance coverage has for many of Hobby Lobby’s female employees.

“We know that birth control is empowering for women. Being able to have control over the timing of bearing children, as well as using birth control to prevent ovarian cysts, severe menstrual cramps...birth control helps women live their lives.”

She concluded, “The costs of birth control can be upwards of $600 per year. If this amount is covered by a woman’s health insurance, that $600 could be spent on tuition, school books, food for a woman’s family, gas money to go to and from work, and essentially, put back into the economy.”

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Pike-Tay’s canine companion provides therapeutic comfort Bethany Terry

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courtesy of Vassar College

anis lupus familiaris. Worker, helper and man’s best friend. For 30,000 years, dogs have held many jobs, from housepets to bomb sniffers. One professor here at Vassar is teaching her animal companion to fill in its own niche role: therapy dog.

Professor of Anthropology Anne Pike-Tay currently owns two dogs, a dachshund schnauzer mix and a brittany spaniel mix. The second, Molly, can often be found in the Dean of Studies Office, and is a welcomed addition for the many students who visit.

While many may just see her as a loved pet, what sets Molly apart is that she is a certified therapy dog registered with Therapy Dogs International.

Molly is three and a half and came to PikeTay when she was 18 months old. A rescue from a kill shelter down south, she began basic training when she was first adopted, and eventually, she progressed to therapy dog training. The program, which lasts 10 weeks, is meant to not only train the canines, but test their patience and personality as well.

Said Pike-Tay, “My impression of the testing, the main thing that they are looking for is that the dogs really are able to take any kind of confusion.”

She added, “They make sure that they don’t react, because some dogs are just freaked out by that. Even if they are great dogs, they don’t like someone stepping on their tail.”

Currently, Molly participates in Tail Waggin’ Tutors, a program aimed at helping children improve their reading skills. On alternate Tuesday afternoons, the pair goes to the children’s room at the Pleasant Valley library. People can sign up for appointments to read to Molly or they can just walk in.

“Children just love it because they’re reading to the dog, they aren’t reading to a classroom, so it helps them get more comfortable with reading,” described Pike-Tay.

Professor of Anthropology Anne Pike-Tay’s pets are more than just furry friends. Molly is a certified therapy animal, and her second dog is currently receiving training. Molly can often be found on campus.

The Pleasant Valley library has been welcoming Molly since early last fall and sees many repeat visitors, as well as their friends who have learned about the program through word of mouth.

The library describes the program as “perfect for turning reluctant readers into voracious pooch performers.”

This is part of a larger Tail Waggin’ Tutors program in which volunteers go into elementary schools or libraries once a week. Teachers select struggling students to work with the canines. As a student begins reading to the animals, other children may gather around, increasing that child’s confidence.

As the organization Therapy Dog International puts it, “By sitting down next to a dog and reading to the dog, all threats of being

judged are put aside. The child relaxes, pats the attentive dog, and focuses on the reading (“Tail Waggin’ Tutors”).

According to Pike-Tay, dog therapy has proved useful in increasing the program’s attendance. She said “We have the same kids coming back like every other week if not every week and they’ll tell their friends about it.”

While many dogs may react negatively to the attention, Molly keeps cool and calm.

“She’s had blocks dropped on her and her tail stepped on and she just turns around startled, but the next minute she’s wagging her tail.

So even though she isn’t the quickest responder to the sit command, she’s got the personality that’s amenable to that,” said Pike-Tay. The biggest challenge for Molly, as a mix of hunting dogs, is getting distracted. If she sees

something over in a corner, she may want to run off and ignore her owner’s commands.

“I know in watching other people in the course, that the biggest challenge for them, was their dog getting used to be being handled, their back feet, their tail being pulled. She was really oblivious to that, she would just get excited if she saw another dog coming in,” explained Pike-Tay. This is not the first time Pike-Tay has been involved with canine therapy. In the past, she had begun training her two greyhounds, neither of whom were certification-ready before their deaths. She did, however, take them to visit nursing homes.

“My mother was in a nursing home and I’d bring the greyhounds up,” she said. “I’ve seen people with Alzheimer’s who are agitated, they’d pat the dog and immediately calm down.”

Pike-Tay also added, “It’s been shown physiologically as well, that when you’re petting an animal, your heart rate goes down.”

This is something she hopes to do with Molly when she has more spare time, and eventually her newest dog whom she has begun training.

Molly is seen at Vassar quite often with her owner, spending time in both the Dean of Studies office and Pike-Tay’s classes.

Pike-Tay notes that the students seem to really like it. Many students who have dogs at home have told her that it makes the classroom feel much more welcoming.

Last spring, her intro class even helped her train Molly by encouraging her not to jump up on them. The class was so invested that PikeTay notified them when Molly passed her test last summer.

Ultimately, Molly’s best trait is putting others at ease. Said Pike-Tay, “I think that there’s a calming effect, especially if someone’s upset or going through something that they are uncomfortable talking about. I’ve seen that happen, where they’ll pet her and focus on her and be able to tell me what’s going on.”

Plant sculptures foreground Southwestern water shortage Erik Halberg

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The art pieces will be fully functional planters, and will be used to grow farm crops.

The planters will primarily contain lettuce and endives as they have had the best yields in trial runs in the Vassar greenhouses.

The plants themselves are intended to send a message about the plight of the Southwest’s agriculture.

“The farm crops growing out of the cacti symbolize the bizarrely lush farms within desert landscapes that are only possible with aggressive irrigation practices,” wrote Fink.

She wants to draw attention to the drought problems through her thesis project. She feels that the agriculture industry is one that is worth fighting for.

One reason to support the Southwest’s agriculture is the many jobs it provides for the people involved in the process of it, from the farmers who grow the food to the drivers who haul it to the stores where it will be sold,

according to Fink.

Another is the huge stimulus to the economy both locally and nationally that the Southwest region provides through the employment and massive quantities of goods that circulate throughout the nation as a result of it.

The sculptures are intended to draw attention to the irony of one of the most arid regions of America being its major agricultural center.

Fink wrote, “This surreal landscape of misplaced cacti in an east coast environment is designed to mimic and mock the surreal landscape of a farm in the middle of a desert.”

Once the sculptures are finished and her project is done and graded, the cacti will be moved from the greenhouses and art galleries where Fink has been working on them to various spots around campus for students and the public to view.

Sam Pianello/The Miscellany News

ate in every spring semester, many seniors find themselves slaving away in their carrels in the library basement, pouring through stacks of books and sorting through accumulated piles of notes. But not Hannah Fink ’14.

Fink is a multidisciplinary major with concentrations in biology and art. Rather than do a more traditional written thesis, as many seniors do, Fink decided to take a different approach to the final assignment of her academic career at Vassar.

Instead of turning in several dozen pages of writing to her thesis advisors at the end of the semester, she will be presenting them with six-foot-tall cactus-shaped planters that she has sculpted.

Fink was inspired to undertake the project by the water shortages and drought that plague the agricultural industry of the Southwestern U.S. and California.

Fink wrote in an emailed statement, “The project consists of a sculptural installation, as well as a complementary written component that elaborates on the topic that inspired the sculpture.”

This topic is based on the water crisis in the Southwest United States and California as it relates to irrigation for agriculture,” wrote Fink.

Though she has not totally escaped the many pages of writing that plague her classmates, Fink is taking an interesting and meaningful approach to her senior thesis.

The Southwestern United States, comprised of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Nevada and parts of California and Texas, has traditionally been an agricultural powerhouse of the nation, providing produce for millions of Americans.

Recent shifts in the climate in these areas of the country have caused these already arid states to suffer the effects of prolonged drought.

Fink said that the states such as Arizona and New Mexico require approximately 70

percent of the fresh water that is suitable for use by people. These recent droughts have forced the Southwest to tap into their reservoirs to meet the demands for fresh waters coming from farmers.

As these reserve supplies of water are running low, the cost of irrigating crops, the process by which most farmers water their fields, has been steadily rising.

Left unchecked, shortages of water and the skyrocketing prices threaten to cripple the agriculture of the entire Southwest. And solving the problem will be no simple matter.

Fink outlined the dangers that drought and water shortage can inflict on the region— and indeed the country as a whole. Climate change will place greater strain on national resources.

“Farms and ranches will be at great risk without substantial government aid to subsidize farmers and fund costly infrastructure necessary to transport water to the arid regions of the United States,” wrote Fink.

She went on to explained two main options to solving the drought problem. The first would be to pour large amounts of money into transporting water to the arid states afflicted by the drought so they can continue to grow crops for the time being.

A long-term move, according to Fink, however, would be for the government begin financing the growth of agriculture in less-arid states where the droughts will not be nearly as problematic to farmers.

Fink’s project—the cacti planters—is intended to represent the problematic situation facing the Southwest. “The cactus sculptures are meant to symbolize the desert, which people associate with an arid landscape,” she wrote.

Fink has two helpful allies on her side. Because her thesis is multidisciplinary, tackling two separate fields, she has two separate faculty advisers to guide her.

On the science side is Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies Margaret Ronsheim. Meanwhile, Professor of Art Harry Roseman advises Fink on her sculptures.

Hannah Fink’s multidisciplinary thesis is seeking to raise awareness about irrigation practices in the American Southwest through her art instalation: a series of six-foot cactus-shaped planters.

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College serves Independent work offers in-depth studies as wedding W venue Julia Cunningham reporter

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students do during independent study in the spring. He said, “During fall semester, students are introduced to mist netting and various methods used in banding and processing birds for scientific study, e.g., determining age, assigning sex, collecting data on wing length, body mass, etc.”

“We may also work on DNA analysis this semester, determining presence/absence and identifying blood parasite with molecular methods. The work we conduct during spring semester is generated from data/samples collected during fall semester, when I usually have 6-10 students assisting with banding NSWOs [Northern Saw-whet Owls] during fall migration.”

For his independent work, Nicholas Pauley ’14 is working on a fictional piece, as well as a complementary critical essay.

Pauley wrote in an emailed statement, “I’m working on an independent project with Matt Schultz, the director of the Writing Center here at Vassar. Our course has been focused on a (once-short, now fairly long) piece of fiction that I’ve been working on since last September.”

Pauley said that, in addition to working on his own work, he and Schultz critique other contemporary authors and pieces that share relevance to it.

He hopes that the fruit of his independent work could be useful for submissions after Vassar. “[Schultz] and I are hoping that [the critical essay] might possibly serve as a graduate school application essay if I choose to pursue graduate work in writing,” he said.

Pauley chose to do independent study instead of a senior thesis. He said, “I felt compelled to take on this project as a senior, as one of the exceptionally cool features of life at Vassar is the close access students are afforded with their instructors.”

Forum leaves room for future discussion ISRAEL continued from page 1

all these conversations, however, the issue of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, an international campaign to isolate Israel from the global community, was entirely absent.

“I admit that, in retrospect, this is a bit perplexing to me—and to many of my IS colleagues. I wish we had,” wrote Koechlin.

It was against the backdrop of the IS trip that the Committee on Inclusion and Excellence (CIE) held a public forum Monday, March 3.

According to Associate Professor of English Kiese Laymon, the topic of the Israel trip was folded into the CIE’s forum on the ethics of student activism and protest after a discussion planned by IS fell through.

Laymon wrote in an emailed statement, “No one could pull off the IS trip conversation so we decided to help IS and the community by having the first one of hopefully many.”

He described how the forum also grew out of a concern over the language being leveled at SJP after their protests.

He wrote, “As you can tell from our remarks we were really concerned that SJP was being defined as threatening, bullying, etc. and CIE wanted to do everything we could to let encourage our community to think about the raced connotations of those words at a place like Vassar.”

After Laymon and Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of Africana Studies Zachariah Mampilly explained the purpose behind the forum, several parties who had reached out to CIE made opening remarks. Although they had originally been slated to speak, SJP pulled out the night before.

Writing in an emailed statement, SJP explained why they chose to withdraw their formal presence from the forum: “While many SJP members were present as individuals, SJP as an organization decided to pull out of the introductory panel as we feel that our right to peacefully protest in the manner we did is indisputable. We had nothing to prove nor hide within the context of a panel on student activism. We believe that continuing to debate our conduct detracts from the real issues of violations of hu-

man rights and international law.”

Although he was not convinced that this first forum was productive, Laymon still hoped there would be more discussions in the future.

He wrote, “There will be more spaces for conversation. I don’t think it should be about parties coming to an agreement. It should be about passionately listening and speaking, though.”

Yaniv Yaffe ’16 attended the forum and is the co-founder of J Street U, a student organization advocating for a two-state solution.

He wrote in an email, “Personally, I support the IS department’s decision to send the class to Israel and the Palestinian territories. I feel that the most productive activism for a peaceful resolution to the conflict is one supported by a pragmatic education. Refusing to interact with Israeli society or cooperating with Israeli academic institutions inherently detracts from this ideal.”

SJP shared their reaction to the forum: “The

dialogue quickly strayed from its topic and became about putting SJP on trial for making some people feel ‘uncomfortable.’ However, students and faculty members with no connection to SJP spoke up about how our actions have initiated an important discussion about Vassar’s involvement in apartheid and how we are being unfairly targeted for protesting, which is in all other cases encouraged of Vassar students and well within our rights.”

Meanwhile, Laymon expressed surprise that it was the Israel and Palestinian conflict that has captured the campus’ attention, even while local issues escape the same level of scrutiny. He wishes that more students would draw connections between injustices committed half a world away and those a few blocks down the road.

“Personally, I’m amazed that with all sanctioned racialized terror happening in Poughkeepsie, and all the sexual assaults on and off campus, that this Israel/Palestine issue is what is getting folks excited,” he wrote.

courtesy of Wikimedia

hite flowing fabric. Exchanged rings.

And the Vassar chapel. These are the beginnings of the checklist for a Vassar wedding.

Each year, for a fee of $150, couples across the country can reserve the Vassar chapel to tie the knot.

“Generally the busiest season for weddings is during the summer (when the college is not in session),” wrote Director of the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life Samuel Speers in an emailed statement.

Manager of Alumnae/i House Martha Barry, agreed, saying, “Usually, it’s really busy at the college in May, June, September, October.”

Each couple is given the choice of holding their reception at the Alumnae/i House, which often functions as a hotel and reception area for catered events, including weddings. For smaller weddings, some even get married at the guest house. “[Campus activities] books both the space for the chapel, and the Shakespeare garden. At Alumnae House, we do anywhere from 10-20 weddings a year,” said Barry over the phone.

Barry has attended many receptions and notes that the atmosphere at a wedding reception is “generally very happy.”

Couples and receptions travel long distances to get married on campus.

“It’s usually a destination wedding, so they book all the hotel rooms at Alumnae/i House.

And so, it’s kind of like little mini-reunions, especially because the two Vassar alums are getting married together,” said Barry.

In December, Imirul Islam ’17 photographed an engaged couple, Ellen and Danielle for over 400 photos, as they visited the classrooms where they first met as Vassar students and the theaters where they had put on productions together for a pre-wedding photoshoot.

“Pre-weddings are less generic because you have more time to either set up shots (in different poses, settings, etc., which is hard or impossible to do in weddings) or just follow the couple around and take candids,” wrote Islam in an emailed statement, who first heard of the opportunity from Phocus, Vassar’s photography organization. “Ellen and Danielle said they were horrible at posing so they treated the day as a date and I followed with my camera.”

The icing on the proverbial cake is the final photoshoot at Sunset Lake, where the couple laid in each other’s arms. “It was great because we spent most of the day roaming the campus.

Personally, it was a rewarding experience because I had fun shooting people who were undoubtedly in love,” wrote Islam.

Barry said, “Popular sites [for couples to take photos] would be in front of the library, in front of the chapel, if they met at a dorm—anywhere they had a special connection to.”

Couples who want to get married at Vassar must have some sort of Vassar connection, according to the wedding rules on the school website.

Lauren and Jon-Paul, married in April 2012, a couple whose bride has family alumnae/i connections to Vassar, were high school sweethearts attracted to the campus because of its beauty and size.

Another couple, Henry and Francesca, was married in November 2011 in the chapel in a Japanese-inspired wedding, and both are Vassar alumni.

“Despite the fact they live elsewhere, Hank and Fran chose Vassar College for their wedding location because this is where they first met. [They] now have added reason to be nostalgic for their school and the magnificent buildings,” according to a blog post on Turnquist Photography.

The post continued, “The immense chapel had ample space for all yet the feeling among all remained close and relaxed.”

According to Barry, weddings at Vassar are a long-standing tradition. “I’ve been here at Alumnae/i House for six and a half years, and there’s always been weddings. But long before I was here, they’ve been doing weddings.”

hile Vassar now offers a diverse curriculum with over 1,000 courses among 30 departments, it cannot cover every conceivable topic that students may want to explore. For this reason, the college also offers an independent study program that covers reading courses, independent work, and senior independent work.

Independent study, according to the Course Catalog, is meant to give students freedom to investigate subjects of special interest to them.

Sarah Mincer ’15 is taking an anthropology course that is no longer offered at Vassar.

“Specifically, I’m studying Structure, Function and Evolution of the Human Skeleton which is a course that has been taught previously at Vassar,” she wrote in an emailed statement.

“I’m really interested in skeletons and forensic anthropology, but this course is no longer being taught. I talked to the professor who normally teaches it and she said I could take the course as if I was in her class, and to just follow along with the readings and quizzes in the syllabus.”

There are not many requirements for a BA, leaving a lot of room for students to find and take all of the courses that they are truly passionate about.

As the Vassar Course Catalog states, “It encourages students to pursue the degree through the development of a coherent program of study that recognizes, as much as possible, individual needs.”

The only prerequisite for independent study is that students must have at least one semester of appropriate intermediate work in the field of study proposed.”

Only a limited number of departments offer Independent Work as a 298 level course

or Senior Independent Work as a 399 level course. Of those departments where it is offered, currently, the Anthropology Department has six students participating in Independent Study, the Biology Department has 29 students and the English Department has 35 students.

The departments ranging from Music and Women’s Studies and Religion and Political Science also offer Independent Work .

Mincer explained that, in her case, she is teaching herself the anthropology course, although she has access to as many resources as she needs.

“The Moodle site was reopened for me so I could take the online quizzes. Basically, I do a ton of reading and memorizing, and have a lot of email correspondence and in-person discussions with the professor if I have any questions,” she wrote.

Independent work can sometimes include real tests and exams. “I had a midterm before break, and I also have a final at the end of the semester, which are almost exactly like she had for the course when she taught it. They are both hands on, lab practicals where I have to name all the various parts and important markers on bones.”

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Biology Glenn Proudfoot works with students doing independent work in the Biology Department.

He described two projects he is overseeing this semester.

“Currently I have two students assessing the prevalence of blood parasites in Northern saw-whet owls,” he said in an emailed statement. “I introduce students to the compound microscope, walk them through cell identification, and help them identify the parasites to family.”

The research that Proudfoot has his students do in the fall carries over to the work

Over spring break, the International Studies trip took students to Israel. The class has provoked a surge in debates on campus focusing on the Israel-Palestine conflict and its implications for academia.

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Neuroscience student puts biology notes to good use Eloy Bleifuss Prados featureS eDitor

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courtesy of Ally Hamilton

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

t was through helping others learn that Alexandra Hamilton ’15 learned something new about herself.

Hamilton has composed a series of online study guides for high school students studying biology, and in the process, she shared how she discovered the pleasures of teaching.

So while she has her sights set on medical school after college, she is leaving the door open to teaching.

A neuroscience and behavior major who is also on the pre-med track, Hamilton’s study guides grew out of the notes she took in class as a high school student, and she hopes to share with students from all around the word the systems and mechanisms behind life and nature. Hamilton spent over a year editing and shaping her notes before she was ready to share them.

“That’s something that I will have to explore but it is something that I have realized: that I do enjoy working with students,” she said.

Available for free and paid viewing on her website, her electronic study guides teach the fundamentals that anyone seeking to study biology at a post-secondary level needs to know.

Hailing from Kingston, Jamaica, where schools follow the British educational model, Hamilton completed secondary school when she was sixteen. Rather than go directly to college, however, she decided to spend two years at an American boarding school. She spent junior and senior year at the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, where one of her classes was Advanced Placement Biology.

As Hamilton shared, those who have taken AP Bio can attest to the class’s difficulty and the rigor it demands of its students. The syllabus is thorough and intensive, and students across the country spend months preparing for the yearly exams in May. The class’s textbook didn’t make it easier either, according to Hamilton.

“It was literally a ten-pound, thick textbook that cost $200 or $300,” she said. “It was so hard to study from it because all the literature was so scientific that you had to read through

Alexandra Hamilton ’15 has capitalized on her diligent study habits. This past winter break, she compiled her notes from AP Biology class and posted them on a blog. She hopes to one day publish them. a paragraph three-or-four times before you could understand it.”

Hamilton’s lessons condense the material, cutting down the technical jargon and exorbitant prices. “It acts as a study guide without the weight of the textbook,“ she said.

Her website, Hamilton explained, is divided into four topics: molecules and cells, hereditary evolution, organisms and populations, and plants and animals. Each topic is broken up into several subtopics.

In this manner, a student with a question about the difference between mitosis and meiosis can navigate to the “Molecules and Cells” page on the website, open the study guide on the cell cycle and flip to page seven.

Hamilton received the maximum score of 5 on the AP exam, which she credits to her note-taking skills.

“I take really, really intense notes,” she said, laughing. In her year-long AP Bio class, Hamilton described how she came to each class with

her laptop. Not only would she type out notes, but also organize lecture materials into different subjects and accompany them with pictures and diagrams she found online. Hamilton said that her master guide that contains all the study guide chapters collected in one word document is roughly 400-pages-long.

Originally Hamilton had envisioned using her notes to publish a book, but last summer she decided to create a website instead (http:// www.biologysmartreview.squarespace.com/).

She said, “I figured I would go ahead and make it available to students for free so that they can use it now and I can always get to the publishing later.”

Hamilton spent the past winter break creating her site using the free website builder and host Squarespace.com. Biology Smart Review launched in January, five months before students were scheduled to take the APs in May. Her note-taking skills have continued to help Hamilton in other classes. Hamilton is a

New York State certified EMT and a lab assistant for the skills portion of the EMT class offered at Vassar. A study guide for the EMT certification test is also available on Biology Smart Review.

Students can view the guides for free on the website. Originally, they could also pay $10 to download and print out the lessons, however, Hamilton said she changed her mind about charging money. Her main goals are not financial.

“The money isn’t really my focus. Students are using it and that’s fine. If there were only two students using it I would still have it up there for them to use,” she said.

Hamilton shared that after the first two months or so she had made more than $500 from her website. Recently, she has decided to refund all the students who payed to download the guides.

Michael McAloon was Hamilton’s teacher at the Taft School. He taught her in three classes, including advanced biology. He can still recall his first interaction with Hamilton.

“I first met [Hamilton] when she came up to me after the first day of class and said she wanted to drop because she wasn’t good at biology. I said no, and I think we’re both glad I did,” he wrote in an email.

McAloon also remembered seeing Hamilton’s instinct for teaching.

He wrote, “[Hamilton] was always doing extra work and would then share it with other students. I remember she was always concerned for her peers, especially ones struggling in class.”

The study guide isn’t designed solely for students studying for the APs. Right now, Hamilton said that the person she is helping is her 16-year-old sister who is busy studying for her International General Certificate of Secondary Education exam in Jamaica.

Her sister has been sharing it with her classmates and teachers.

“I’ve gotten great feedback, especially from teachers, which is really surprising and exciting,” said Hamilton. “I think it says a lot that they share it with their students, and I think that that is what makes me most happy.”

Mugs no longer limited to solving late-hour caffeine craving Marie Solis

Senior eDitor

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Marie Solis/The Miscellany News

ating food out of mugs is usually a sign of having given up on life. Things I’ve eaten out of a mug include cereal, ramen and probably mac ‘n’ cheese at some point. Utensils are irrelevant. But just when I was convinced my mug-eating habits only indicated my life’s downward spiral, the silver lining emerged: the microwaveable mug cake. Portable dessert and happiness in five minutes or less.

Though I must say, at first I was extremely skeptical of this concept—and rightfully so.

The idea of baking something in a microwave seems mildly repulsive at face value, especially with recipes including eggs. And while over the years I’ve become even more skeptical that eating foods containing raw egg is harmful—that is, cookie dough and cake batter, to be specific—eating a baked good with a whole egg in it after only one minute of microwave time just didn’t seem like a good idea.

Despite my better judgment, I tried it anyway. Mixing together the simple ingredients was satisfying, and the prospect of having a tasty treat in front of me with very little work, even more so. The results, however, were disastrous. As my chocolate cake rose in the microwave, so did the smell of egg. The outcome was no better: All I had produced was a spongy, bubbling mess that more closely resembled scrambled eggs gone wrong than the delectable dessert I was hoping for. With that, I decided that mug cakes were a BuzzFeed-fabricated myth. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and cakes cannot be baked in two minutes. Such is life.

Nonetheless, this spring break, with time to kill and a demanding sweet tooth, I decided to give mug cakes a second chance. Determined to be successful this time, I searched the Internet for insight and advice, eventually finding that many people shared my aversion to including an entire egg in only a handful of cake mix.

With some more poking around, I discovered a

recipe that included my favorite dessert couple, chocolate and peanut butter. Since the recipe required no egg, I was convinced I had found a winner and retreated to my kitchen.

The beauty of the mug cake is that it is perfect for an amateur cook and baker like myself.

It requires simple ingredients, just a few minutes and a microwave—every college student’s best friend at one time or another. And really, once you get started you quickly realize the possibilities are endless.

As soon as you have the basics measured out, adding almost anything still guarantees a successful mug cake. Since I didn’t have much peanut butter left, and my friend Lorena was joining me in my mug cake redemption, I threw in some almond butter, which added even more flavor and texture. Try adding chocolate chips, crushed Oreos, sprinkles, marshmallows— whatever your little heart desires. So long as you don’t significantly alter the consistency of the batter, you can only make your cake more delicious with these extras.

As a dark-chocolate gal, Lorena wanted a little more bitterness to her dessert, so she added a tad more cocoa powder, making her cake richer, while mine had more of a nutty quality to it. We tossed our ingredients into our respective mugs, and took turns watching the magic happen. In just two minutes we had ourselves a perfectly portioned chocolatey treat, which in no way resembled the eggy catastrophe I had once made.

I still recommend a few tips to enhance your mug creation. First, consider letting your cake cook for less than the suggested time: After a little less than a minute, check out the situation and then judge if you should add more time.

Dry cake is no one’s friend. Second, make sure to top off your mug cake. Try mixing your own icing, dollop on some whipped cream, or, as Lorena and I did, plop on a spoonful of Nutella.

With that, I’ll leave you to your mug and microwave. May all of your cravings be satisfied.

Ingredients:

The Recipe

3 tablespoons flour 2 tablespoons sugar 1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder 1/4 teaspoon baking powder pinch of salt 3 tablespoons milk 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 tablespoon peanut butter In a large mug, mix together the dry ingredients. Add the milk, vegetable oil and peanut butter. Whisk until smooth.

Cook in the microwave on high for about 1 minute (or a bit less, depending on desired consistency).

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

FEATURES

Page 8

March 27, 2014

Senior returns to Deece for three-week vegan challenge Lilly Sloss ColumniSt

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Spencer Davis/The Miscellany News

ehind me, you’ll see the All Campus Dining Center, known affectionately on campus as ‘the Deece.’ The options at the Deece are endless, the staff is extremely accommodating—you can eat happily here if you’re gluten-free, vegetarian, kosher or even vegan!” I spouted this line triumphantly to over 75 tours this summer as part of my job as a tour guide, despite having never eaten vegan at the Deece. There was a salad bar, right? What more could a vegan need?

To test my oft-proclaimed promise of happy vegan eating, I spent three weeks eating vegan at the Deece (one meal approximately every other day) to survey the vegan options, and I was pleasantly surprised with the variety.

When I entered the Deece for my first meeting with Head of Dining Services Maureen King, I felt awkward and out of place. People have their “time” at the Deece. Senior year is not it. Freshman year, the Deece is game-changing. I remember bounding in with the fellow group, anxiously avoiding the stir fry station, and loading my plate with the most innocuous looking pasta dish.

The Deece of today is different. It’s perky and bright and has fancy signs (handmade by student Sarah King, of no relation to the esteemed Maureen King). Each station and food is clearly demarcated: vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free. ACDC is, at the very least, a treasure trove of signs. My only regret was the caloric/ nutritional signs, which lack the vigor of the “vegan” signs with their inviting plant-themed graphics.

As King led me around the Deece that first afternoon, she discussed methods to streamline the dining experience with different employees. She apologized on behalf of dining services that the pizza station lacked a “vegan option available” sign. An employee who overheard commented, “But what even would be on

Senior tour guide Lily Sloss spent three weeks eating vegan meals at ACDC. Through trial and error she sharpened her cooking skills at the stir-fry station where she prepared a zesty tofu dish. it?” Ms. King brushed off the question, “Tomato sauce or something.” In my several meals at the Deece, I was always too embarrassed to ask the already often hassled worker behind the pizza counter to make me a vegan pizza. I figured if I wanted bread and tomato sauce that badly, I could stick the ingredients in the panini press.

Maureen informed me of a few crucial vegan elements in the Deece, 1. none of the vegetables are cooked in butter, 2. the stir fry station has gotten tempeh, and 3. if there is a “crumble” in the dessert section, it is vegan. It is at this moment in the tour I spotted a sign heralding a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich, and my mouth began watering.

Think vegan thoughts.

I felt vaguely unenthused about my brief trek

into Deece veganism. Undoubtedly, my bias lies in the fact that I am not vegan, and beans, a common vegan protein, make me farty. These three weeks would be quite the digestive experiment (as well as a treat for my boyfriend).

My first vegan mistake is the California burger. It took 20 minutes to cook. I do not blame TC, I blame whoever created these unnatural patties. I watched students order and receive burgers, while I waited and ate my quite satisfying tower of sliced pickles. Once I finally tasted the California burger, I was woefully disappointed. It tasted like my old boxer Clementine’s dog food looked. As a “dessert,” I mixed “Brad’s Granola,” rice milk and peanut butter.

It looked like vomit, and it tasted similarly. The first day was rough.

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Luckily, my vegan experience at the Deece improved vastly over the following three weeks. I ventured into forbidden territory, the stir fry station, to discover my salvation. The first meal I cooked in the station— tofu, tempeh, onion and spinach in water; hot sauce, jerk seasoning, salt and pepper—was awe-inspiring.

Except for tempeh, which tasted like dog biscuit. I may just miss my dog. But also tempeh has an odd texture that I find displeasing.

Throughout my Deece vegan experimentation, there were several highlights. The Deece made a vegetable stir-fry that was absurdly good. Another day, they had an amazing tomato and sweet potato puree soup. One week, the Deece consistently had incredible long grain rice. I was full and happy after my vegan meals.

Who knew veganism at the Deece could be good living?

As someone living in senior housing and forced to pay for her own groceries (typically ice cream drumsticks and bacon), I can assure you Deece diners that you are extremely lucky to have such a plethora of vegetables at your fingertips. The food ACDC serves is frequently good, do not get me wrong, but you can always make something good tasting and healthy at the stir fry station. Take a post there, and never leave. Whenever I cooked, my meal was always hot and amazing. Despite popular sentiment, vegan food does not have to be poor tasting.

Ask anyone living in Ferry: The unanimous response is “dinner is amazing.”

Vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, potatoes, beans, rice—these foods are essential, and inherently good tasting. Throw some in a pan, throw some sauce in, some spices. Eat. Enjoy.

You can love your meals, even at the Deece.

Stop whining about the “lack of options.” You are being lazy. Admittedly, the lines by the stir fry stations were sometimes obscene. Go to the Deece at five. Or just wait your turn and spend your time eyeing the sweaty athletes with ice packs. These days at the Deece are precious.

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Registration opens April 7. Classes begin June 23. northwestern.edu/summer MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

OPINIONS

March 27, 2014

Page 9

A newfound Orgs deserve more autonomy with funds perspective E of Costa Rica THE MISCELLANY NEWS STAFF EDITORIAL

very year, each student contributes $320, amounting to more than $750,000 to fund the Vassar Students Association (VSA) and all of its projects and activities, as well as support over 120 campus organizations. As annual budgeting begins this year, we at The Miscellany News would like to address concerns regarding the accessibility of funds budgeted to an organization, the lack of autonomy in making financial decisions as an organization and overall the autonomy the VSA gives organizations, specifically with regard to the access of their own allocations.

In short, strict VSA oversight leads to organizations having too little autonomy in deciding how to spend their budgets. There should be reforms that will ultimately make it easier for campus groups to directly access their funds.

All Vassar organizations receive some kind of budget from the VSA and should be in charge of how and where that money is spent, as long as it in adherence to College policy. Yet, there are various points where the Vice President of Finance can undermine this control which results in excessive red tape—requiring VP approval for payment forms, controlling who receives purchasing cards, and through the annual budgeting application.

The annual budgeting application is how an organization’s funds for the next year are determined. First, the treasurer of the organization fills out an audit where they list all expenses for the year detailing all purchases, how much they are asking for the following year, and why they should receive that amount in the next year. From there, the organization’s budget is in the hands of the Finance committee to determine how much each group will receive.

With the exception of groups asking for large changes in funds, organizations have little say in how their budgets are determined and the Finance committee has complete control over future budgets.

The VP of Finance also has a large control

in the use of purchasing cards, making large purchases, and purchase orders. All reimbursements must be approved by the VP and to make large purchases over a group’s purchasing-card limit (if they are even approved for a p-card), they must use the VSA purchasing-card, essentially giving control to the VP of Finance.

Purchase orders also must be cleared before they can be processed, making it more difficult for an organization to control its own funds.

By dictating how an organization spends its budget, the VSA and the Vice President of Finance essentially undermines an organization’s autonomy. It is problematic that the VSA possesses so much control over organizations’ budgets and, essentially, organizations themselves. Finances dictate how organizations operate day-to-day, so who better to determine how a budget is spent than the organization leaders themselves. That being said, VSA members are the people who evaluate the budgets of Vassar’s many organizations—not the organizations themselves.

The VSA evaluates the budgets of over 125 organizations using a one-size-fits-all template, yet each organization is entirely different. Using the same template to evaluate a variety of groups’ budgets does not make sense.

In order to properly assign an organization its budget, it would require the VSA to fully realize the needs and goals of each campus group, from a capella troupes to political chapters to campus publications. It is the members of organizations who understand a group’s needs better than the VSA would.

Organizations have specific goals and the VSA may have different ideas for what those goals may be, but the VSA’s interests will time and time again take precedent over an organization’s. Furthermore, the VSA’s current practice of intense scrutiny and tight control of clubs’ funds create for an inefficient system where campus organizations are left waiting for the VSA’s

approval on how to spend their funds instead of dictating for themselves when and how funds are spent.

We suggest there be more organizational input in the Finance process. It should be possible to make large credit card purchases or purchase orders without first checking with the VSA and organizations should have direct control over their funds. We also suggest there be some type of system where groups can write checks from their accounts, which would get rid of purchase orders and make large purchases easier, and allow organizations to maintain better control over their budgets.

All of these systems would free up a lot of the red tape that organization have to go through and would give organizations more autonomy in their spending.

It is worth noting that the VSA’s oversight of organization finances does come with some benefits. The VSA carefully evaluates an organization’s spending and is often careful with allowing big expenditures in order to ensure a group’s financial health.

By putting certain safeguards in place, the VSA sees to it that organizations do not make purchases the College cannot pay for. While organizations are allowed to spend more than their allocated budget (the difference comes out of next year’s funds), the VP of Finance makes sure that no organization spends so much that the school cannot cover the fee.

The current system also does take into account your club’s history with the VSA and your past spending, which allows most groups to get an amount that will sufficiently cover their needs.

Overall, the current financial system does well in some areas of the budgeting process, but in giving organizations autonomy over their decisions and control over their money, it makes the process more difficult than it needs to be.

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t’s that time once again: We’re back from spring break and it’s time to get back to doing endless hours of schoolwork. For many, including myself, this includes hours of staring at a computer screen—writing papers, downloading PDFs off of Moodle, and, of course, looking at Facebook photos of all the fabulous adventures my friends went on over break. Essentially, I plan on spending a lot of time with my laptop in the next week. As a result, I will probably get a few mild headaches and probably some dreaded eye strain.

Many of you know what I am talking about, and WebMD has even properly termed it as “Eye Fatigue.” According to WebMD, Eye fatigue or eyestrain is “a common and annoying condition. The symptoms include tired, itching, and burning eyes. One of the most common causes of eye fatigue is staring for long periods at digital devices” (WebMD, “Eye Fatigue,” 2014).

Unfortunately, there is no escaping the computer in its entirety, so I have looked up some tips and tricks to help avoid digital eyestrain for the rest of the semester. The first, and most commonly suggested, tip is to take a break. Dr. Edward Kondrot, founder of the Healing The Eye & Wellness Center, suggests that one should take a break by looking away from the computer every 15 minutes. He claims that this break will allow the focusing muscle to relax (CNN, “How to Avoid Digital Eyestrain,” 02.03.14).

Another common suggestion is to make sure that your digital screen is at least 20 to 24 inches away from your face. You want to be positioned slightly above the screen as to be looking at a slight angle downwards when reading something (VSP, “Computer Vision Syndrome: Kids, Computers and Digital Eye Damage,” 2014).

Another quick fix to help reduce strain can be as simple as brightening your screen. The brighter the screen, the fewer flickers there are from the computer. Flickering of the screen is sometimes unnoticeable but is one of the common features that leads to fatigue.

Dr. Kondrot points out that flickering is an aspect of digital screens that leads to headaches (Philly.com, “5 Tips for avoiding digital eyestrain,” 2.11.14).

However, for me the most interesting tip I learned about was “palming,” a supposed quick-fix mediation for the eyes. Palming is the act of closing the eyes, placing your palms on top, and participating in taking deep, steady-paced breaths (KUTV, “Preventing Digital Eyestrain,” 2.4.14).

The list of tips and tricks to help prevent eye strain goes on and on. However, what drew me to researching and writing this article was not the tips and tricks of avoidance, but having serious thoughts about how much time in a day I spend looking at some sort of digital screen big or small. I carry my cell phone with me everywhere—texting and tweeting, checking the weather and daily news. I estimate I spend at least two to five hours on a computer doing homework every day. “Mastering Physics,” the homework software for introductory physics courses here at Vassar, is completely online and I have assignments two to five times a week.

I check my Moodle at least twice per day. I send emails, I write papers. The list of things I do on the computer could—like the very tips and tricks for reducing eye strain and fatigue—go on and on.

I know I am not alone, too, for when you enter the Vassar library, you will see laptops open at almost every table and students scattered at the various computers the library offers us to use. Even in the new Vassar viewbook for prospective students to look at, the

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Eye strain is rarely considered a serious medical condition, but Dr. Justin Bazan, a doctor at Park Slope Eye in Brooklyn, NY is concerned. Although eye strain may not be considered serious, increased exposure to digital devices puts one at risk for Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS)—a serious condition that can cause back and neck pain, dry eye and even headaches. Dr. Bazan is primarily concerned with students and says, “Allaround school performance starts with the eyes. Academics, sports, you name it—everything depends on the quality of our eyesight” (VSP, “Computer Vision Syndrome: Kids, Computers and Digital Eye Damage,” 2014).

It appears Dr. Bazan is worried that the new digital age may affect our vision, which may ultimately change something bigger— our education. I encourage you to truly think about the amount of time you spend everyday staring at digital screen, and perhaps try a few of the tips listed above. Who knows, your eyes may end up thanking you in the long run.

spent some time in Costa Rica over spring break, and I realized a couple things. Firstly, how horribly, awfully, terribly cold it has been this winter.

Second, that pretty much everything I assumed about the Global South is horribly, awfully, terribly wrong. I know that assumptions are bad. If you haven’t been somewhere or experienced something, there’s no reason to hold assumptions about it. At the same time, I wanted to be prepared for what to expect. Though according to Numbeo and Transparency International, Costa Rica is a more corrupt country and there are higher crime rates than the United States, but statistics say very little about a culture or the actual people who live there. So to say that what I expected—what I assumed—was wrong is quite an understatement.

Just as in any country, there was a visible class divide, emphasizing the disparity in the distribution of wealth. I encountered houses there that were shacks, with sheets of corrugated steel leaning against each other, sometimes even without doors.

On the other hand, every hotel I stayed in had all of the amenities to which I’m accustomed. The public bathrooms at roadside markets were small and rather dirty, but no worse than some public toilets in the United States or Europe. San Jose is a bustling metropolis home to over one-third of the country’s population. The resort towns on the coast are full of souvenir shops and good restaurants.

While some might say that Costa Rica is less “developed” than the United States—if the United States consisted only of major metropolitan areas— it isn’t. Instead, the dominant ideologies of civilization misshape our conception of what development means for non-Western countries. There are certainly rural areas that are equally “undeveloped,” with shanty towns and few modern amenities in the United States as well. Only a couple days after arriving, I realized how unfair I’d been to the Global South, and Costa Rica in particular.

Tourism, as for many other small countries, is a major staple in Costa Rica’s economy. However, when I went looking for information on Costa Rica’s finances, I realized that despite being politically incorrect, countries are often judged based on “development indicators.” Those factors include education, poverty and access to water. While those are all important, it does raise the question of why we use these “indicators” to define a country.

Why call them “development indicators?” Why not just call them statistics? There’s no need to qualify this data based on the arbitrary standards of Western countries.

In fact, creating narratives around these statistics does a disservice to such countries by automatically placing them in a lower tier than countries in Europe and North America. Quantitatively, countries in the Global South do tend to have higher poverty rates and lower levels of education, but that does not mean that they have any less rich a culture or history. To judge a country solely on statistics would be to have a very narrow perspective and to limit oneself unnecessarily in understanding the complex world we live in. So, while these statistics do have their place, such as for understanding the issues a country faces, they should not be phrased in such a way that positions countries in the Global South as inferior to those in the United States and Europe.

What I learned in Costa Rica can be applied to almost any Global South country. There are so many assumptions and perceptions and prejudices that many privileged Westerners hold about these countries, and most of them are patently unfair. What right does anyone have to judge a place they’ve never been? People they’ve never met? A culture they’ve never experienced? That’s not to paint a rosy picture that these places have no problems and consist solely of shiny resorts, but it’s to say that they are no worse than some places in supposedly “developed” countries. Statistics should serve only as information, no more and no less. One should always take precautions, but that applies equally going to France or going to Uganda. The Global South deserves more respect than it often gets.

—Delaney Fischer ’15 is a neuroscience major.

—Lily Elbaum ’16 is an international studies major.

—Staff Editorial represents the opinions of at least 2/3 of the Editorial Board.

Eye strain plagues all-day PC viewing Delaney Fischer

Lily Elbaumn

shot of the inside of the library has every single student with a computer in front of them. Digital devices have become a normal, necessary component of our lives, but there may be a cost.

“Digital devices have become a normal, necessary component of our lives, but there may be a cost.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

OPINIONS

Page 10

Letter to the Editor The Feb. 28 open letter from faculty is a remarkable document. It’s signed by 39 Vassar professors. Sadly, the letter lays out an argument for academic freedom that thinly veils a more controlling agenda. On Jan. 2, 2014, President Catharine Bond Hill publicly condemned an American Study Association decision to support an Israeli boycott. Then, President Hill followed up with an open letter on Feb. 27, inviting the Vassar community to stand up for free discussion and mutual respect. The 39 professors responded with frightening candor. These learned people are not promoting liberal conversation; they want the BDS movement to go unchallenged on campus. It’s turning the idea of academic freedom on its head (if they were more self aware, they’d give themselves a failing mark). As a psychiatrist, I never fail to be impressed with how seriously bright people can rationalize the worst behaviors. Misinformed and biased intelligence can be a dangerous thing. A quote from the faculty letter states they want a “open, honest and principled discussion about the situation in Palestine/Israel, without labeling, targeting, and harassing of [those] who disagree with, or are opposed to Israeli policies towards Palestinians.” We know what they really want—and its spelled B-D-S. What about extending those rights, privileges and respect to those who see the Israel/Palestinian problem from an Israeli perspective? Are they to be silenced? A mob, no matter how nuanced, abhors dissent; so much for the sacredness of academic freedom. Justice for Israel and Justice for Palestine will involve sacrifices.

Demonizing Israel is a radicalized approach to Palestinian (and Israeli) suffering. There are many players in this drama: Hostile Arab states, an overly solicitous United Nations, anti-Semitism, Israel’s many mistakes and Palestinian violence and rejectionism. BDS turns this debate into a cartoon. What’s needed is free debate without hate language. A debate layered with the nuance these issues truly deserve. There are many sides to this story; can Vassar be a safe place for young people who love Israel as well as those who love the Palestinians? Let’s not ask these 39 faculty members. I’m afraid that they’re part of the problem and not part of the solution.

—Mark R. Banschick, MD ’78

March 27, 2014

Ideals essential to our own philosophies Julian Hassan

Guest Columnist

T

he faculty open letter supporting the ASA Israeli boycott resolution has been welcomed by some activists around campus. I want to reach out to the young idealists among these activists and inform them of the moral obligation their professors have to teach the Class of 2014 and every student before they leave Vassar: Do not betray your ideals.

By idealism, I don’t mean singing empty slogans or ignoring concrete realities. I mean the human capacity to feel a passionate dedication to achieving the good and to dedicating yourself to that vision. Can a boycott of Israel inspire this in you?

If you’re looking for answers, I want to support your quest for idealism that our society is losing with every brick of hypocrisy laid-upon another, no matter who the brick layer is. Unfortunately, growing up has given us much evidence of people betraying their alleged ideals. You have the right to regard me as guilty until proven innocent.

All this knowledge pooled in the back of your mind as a reproach when you realized that I was writing about idealism. Hypocrisy is one of the most hurtful traumas of young adulthood and college. If you’re an activist, all the hypocrisy you see around you is what drove you to climb the barricade in the first place and crusade for justice. If you’re not an activist, the disillusionment might be why you avoid barricades and instead curse crusades.

But I can’t speak to you if you’re closedoff behind shutters in your house, so I must assume that you’re on a barricade, or want to be on a side of one, if you’re still reading this. The stance of the College administration on the ASA resolution is not a defense of idealism broadly speaking, only academic freedom. At the same time, the stance of the faculty letter’s authors is not a defense of idealism either, because it is a desperate attempt of collective action at the expense of disillu-

sioning so many would-be idealists on our campus, tragically including yourselves.

How could it be disillusioning? Isn’t it inspiring because we would finally be considering a stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Do divestment movements not always empower the white, liberal arts, Northeastern seaboard? Calls to action are empowering!

That is what activists typically think today.

Yet in our age of expediency and hopeless indifference to world problems, efforts of this kind only breed more resignation and hypocrisy. Why? I am not sure when you became idealistic.

Maybe it was in high school, possibly at Vassar. Personally, I became an idealist at the age of 16 through humanitarian activism for the Darfur genocide, the Cyprus conflict, Doctors Without Borders and Middle East conflicts like Israel & Palestine. I once built a giant UN tower with my father, a Turkish-Cypriot refugee, in our garage. If not, you might have never been idealistic. You might be an activist who advocates action, no matter whether it is motivated by idealism or cynicism. In that case, I’m not primarily writing to you. I want to reach the young idealist. That is the person that I truly care about and understand.

So, you want to change the world. You want to end injustice, poverty, violence and repression around the globe. Never give that up, however you identify. This is the best within you. It’s what makes you a beautiful person, and if you really mean it, if you really feel love for human life and for achieving your ideals, it makes you a Vassar heroine. I think this outlook is a much rarer quality than usually assumed. Most people don’t feel a sense of idealism, just taking action because their friends are involved, power is on the line or a line on their résumé If you really feel a fire within you, don’t let it go. If you feel it, you’ll understand me. You’ll understand how dry and hopeless life would be without it. I am your sister in battle against all those who

O

Opinions Editor

ver spring break, the 25th anniversary of an important milestone in the history of technology came and went. Back in March of 1989, a freelancer at CERN, the same place that now houses the Large Hadron Collider, wrote a paper proposing the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) as a way for computers to communicate with one another across long distances and share information. If this four letter acronym sounds familiar, this is because it’s the same one you may see at the front of your browser as you open Facebook, YouTube or one of millions of other websites. This freelancer, Tim Berners-Lee, invented the World Wide Web as we know it today.

Using a $6,500 computer with a 25 MHZ processor (about 50 to 100 times slower than your smartphone), later that year, Berners-Lee then put his theory on paper in practice. He was able to use his computer to run the first-ever web server, allowing other computers to remotely view documents he placed on the computer, no matter how far away they may be. This foundation of hosting and accessing documents remotely helped offer an extension to already-existing communication standards utilized by the United States Military and some limited commercial sources, setting the standard methods of communication for the Internet that we all use without even realizing it.

Today, the World Wide Web stands at the center of an ever-expanding form of two-way communication. Where radio and television decades prior advanced the world by presenting media far more easily than ever before, the World Wide Web has had a key difference from its ability to allow content to not only be read, but also created and shared with others. It’s mind boggling to think what this world would be today without the foundation that HTTP and the World Wide Web offer. This extends far beyond Facebook, Twitter and SayAnything; conveniences we hardly think about, from Internet

banking to web-based e-mail, would be impossible without this foundation. While computers could communicate across great distances using other standards, the World Wide Web allowed it to be a technology that anyone—not just engineers—could utilize easily and quickly.

This helped HTTP become the worldwide standard of reading and uploading information. As it grew, however, so did the challenges.

While the simplicity that anyone with a home computer can read and upload to the Internet is attractive, it continues to create an ever-complex space for discourse, sharing and interaction with malicious and good-natured intent alike. Today we have a host of ethical and legal concerns that have grown out of the Internet as we now know it. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression considers access to the Internet a human right since it facilitates free speech so well (Wired, “U.N. Report Declares Internet Access a Human Right,” 06.03.11). Meanwhile, the governments of France, the United Kingdom and the United States alike continue to propose legislation that would allow much stricter controls on the Internet through HTTP, allowing access to be denied over concerns of copyright infringement and individual access to things such as child pornography. The protocol is inherently open-ended, and as a result these debates over controlling the Internet and its content are unending.

If we could see 25 years into the future, would we still use HTTP as the foundation of how we communicate on the Internet? I sincerely think so. Today it is so ingrained with the languages and technologies we use that it’s hard to think how any future evolution of the Internet could happen without the help of HTTP. Take a moment to think of how different your life would be without that four letter acronym. I can’t begin to imagine how different my life would be.

—Julian Hassan ’14 is a cognitive science major. He is President of the Conservative-Libertarian Union.

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HTTP turns 25, foundation of how we use the Internet Joshua Sherman

do not have the music inside of them. I would fight to defend the music within you against any conservative punk or progressive bully who would dare say idealism is rotten. Please permit me to acknowledge that most of you vaguely dislike me—since I’m not the typical Vassar stereotype—but I really like this side of you, if you’ve got it.

It is in this mindset though that I have to object to the faculty and activists who support considering an academic boycott of Israel. There are a lot of terrible crises around the world. The conflict in Palestine and Israel is one of them. The faculty writers admit that we should focus on Israel, because there is a movement already for universities to target Israeli academic institutions. This crass opportunism betrays idealism as such.

Professors, ask yourself what it will do to the students on campus who feel a burning fire to change the world. Forget the next four years. Will it inspire them to dedicate their entire lives to fighting for justice? Will it encourage more fighters? As the best in each of you surely wants?

What about Russia, China, North Korea, Turkey, Pakistan, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Cyprus, Sudan, Iran and the twisted cornucopia of countries around the world that bequeaths inadequacy and deprivation instead of abundance and nourishment? You evoke colonialism and dispossession. Then, why do you banish your students like dispossessed minds and eyes from the full sight of this ill-harvest? Who will approach real world problems with the ruler of justice, if you teach your students to cut off eleven inches every time they measure? If you’re a student, how long could you do that before you gave up?

I don’t think hypocrisy can motivate anyone, least of all a Vassar idealist.

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—Joshua Sherman ’16 is an English major.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

College and Pre-College Programs Day & Evening Classes Affordable Tuition Outstanding Tufts Faculty Online Courses

March 27, 2014

OPINIONS

Faculty letter squelches campus voices Fairness to Israel guSet ColumniSt

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he “Open Letter in Defense of Academic Freedom in Palestine/Israel and the United States” signed by 39 Vassar professors is a disturbing document, although not in the way intended. To many alumnae/i, it is a jarring signal that Vassar is no longer the open, innovative institution that transformed our lives, a college which stimulated—indeed compelled—independent and critical thinking. Rather, faculty and student supporters of the BDS movement against Israel have hijacked campus discourse and imposed an anti-intellectual atmosphere in which professors are ranting activists, not scholars, and students who disagree with the prevailing “progressive” ideology are intimidated into a deafening silence.

This letter is submitted on behalf of Fairness to Israel, a growing group of Vassar alumnae/i, parents of Vassar students, and others who are deeply concerned with this sorry state of affairs.

We will vigorously support Vassar’s president in her efforts to restore sanity, tolerance and civil dialogue to campus.

In their letter (manifesto, actually), the 39 professors assert that Vassar’s condemnation of a resolution by the ASA to boycott Israeli academic institutions has a “chilling effect on the free exchange of ideas and opinions.” As they see it, the “real threat to academic freedom” is the “frenzied” campaign launched against the ASA in response to its boycott resolution. This Orwellian view of who is being silenced would be laughable if the matter were less serious.

Did Vassar’s condemnation of the Israel boycott stop the professors from publishing their open letter in The Miscellany News? Did it prevent Israel Apartheid week, the recent seven-day hate fest in which Vassar’s bathrooms were littered with anti-Israel fliers and its hallways were decked with posters accusing the sole Jewish state of apartheid and racism? What of the “open conversation” held on March 3, in which faculty and students were invited to discuss the “ethics” of a planned trip to Israel and the West Bank arranged by the International Studies pro-

gram? Although the trip’s itinerary confirms that its purpose is to convince students that Israel is unfairly depriving Palestinians of water (a favored but false BDS accusation), the mere fact that students would land in Israel was enough to drive the pro-BDS Vassar community into a frenzy. A shouting match ensued, with faculty promoting the trip stressing their anti-Israel credentials in a futile attempt to pacify an even more radical anti-Israel contingent. One of the professors leading the trip later stated she was “knocked off-center by a belligerent academic community dedicated to vilifying anyone who dares set foot in Israel” (earthdharma.com).

The 39 faculty members so afraid of being bullied about their anti-Israel views are curiously undisturbed by the chilling effect their activities have on those in their community who might oppose academic boycotts or reject the ASA’s targeting and demonization of Israel. They failed to consider the impact of their manifesto on students attending the “open conversation” about the Israel/West Bank trip two days later, or worse, deliberately timed it to silence pro-Israel voices. Certainly, their fear of inhibiting an open exchange of ideas has not inspired them to present a balanced view of the Israel/Palestinian history in their classes. Nor has it compelled them to invite speakers who might present an alternative view of the Jewish state from the racist one portrayed by anti-Zionist guests. In the last year Vassar hosted Judith Butler and a Palestinian slam poet, both of whom advocate the elimination of the Jewish state. We can only imagine the repressive effect on students worried that their stridently anti-Israel professors will grade them harshly for expressing contrary views and that their apartheid-chanting peers will ostracize them unless they keep silent. Indeed, this bullying has been so effective that the only public voices so far supporting President Hill’s denunciation have come from alumnae/i and one brave Vassar student in a letter to The Wall Street Journal (“A ‘Liberal’ Vassar and the Spreading Boycott of Israel” 03.02.14).

What of this ASA boycott that the 39 professors assert is essential to promoting academic

freedom? Well, we are to take it as fact—because these professors and some similar-minded organizations say so—that Israel is a major human rights abuser deserving of having its academic institutions shunned. Never mind that the ASA has never before boycotted academic institutions in any other country. Not in China, which occupies Tibet. Not in Russia, which is attempting to take over Ukraine and continues to control Chechnya. Not in Turkey, which occupies parts of Cyprus and Kurdistan. Not in Saudi Arabia, Iran or other Middle Eastern countries that persecute gays, restrict women’s rights, execute political dissenters and commit other horrendous crimes. Not in Sudan, Syria and other nations that deny academic freedom. No, the ASA has targeted Israel, the only country in the Middle East that, according to the U.S. NGO Freedom House, ranks as “free”—the highest rank possible. The West Bank, administered by the Palestinian Authority, and Gaza, under the recognized terrorist organization Hamas, rank lower.

Israel is not perfect, but to blame Israel alone, as the 39 professors do, ignores facts and does nothing to promote the “open, honest and principled discussion” the professors claim to want.

Their letter constitutes propaganda against the Jewish state. Whether intended or not, it shows a blatant bias against Israel, a glaring attempt to delegitimize the Jewish state and yes, outright anti-Semitism.

Our group, Fairness to Israel, supports academic freedom in the true sense of the term— the freedom of all sides to present their views and the facts that support them, and to honestly and open-mindedly discuss contentious issues. We oppose academic freedom that is really academic brainwashing, where students are exposed only to the views of activists posing as professors. The latter type of “academic freedom” is a disgraceful misnomer unworthy of Vassar’s great traditions.

—This letter is signed by 66 alumnae/i and parents of Vassar College. The full list is available online at miscellanynews.org

By the Numbers

Page 11

Word

on the street

What professor would be the point guard on your dream basketball team?

“Is that the good one?”

—Monica Raissa ’16

“Cappy.”

—Alexandra Huff ’16

“Andrew Davison.”

—Laura Song ’16

“Jill Schneiderman.”

—Joey Weiman ’17

“Chris Raymond... because he plays basketball.”

—John Nguyen ’14

“Glenn Proudfoot.”

—Eric Prezioso ’17

This chart shows the average verbal and mathematical SAT scores for matriculating male and female Vassar students. This chart assumes a gender binary of male and female. This information was retrieved from page 24 of the Vassar 2013/14 Fact Book.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Chris Gonzalez, Editor-in-Chief Spencer Davis, Photo Editor

OPINIONS

Page 12

March 27, 2014

Putin’s pressure on Ukraine reveals political strategy Chris Dietz

Guest Columnist

W

ith images of a burning Kiev alongside ominous Russian troops movements all over cable news and New York Times front pages, one must wonder why the Russian President is interested in provoking another Cold War. I’d like to discuss a couple of prevailing strands of thought that litter discussions of the Ukraine conflict.

First: The sentiment that Putin is acting irrationally and trying to take over the world.

He isn’t. The invasion of Crimea and continuing destabilization of Ukraine consolidates his own power domestically, and pushes Russian influence back into the former Soviet satellite states, some of whom had made bids to sign political and trade agreements with the European Union (notably Ukraine, as well as Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Moldova).

Second: That the U.S. has some sort of obligation to keep Russia in check on the international playing field. It doesn’t. While military force is out of the question, the proposed sanctions, even those of a small scale, might entirely have the wrong effect. The two views are often linked, and they’re reminiscent of similar reactions that Americans have had for many decades—we’ve just got to do something about that dictator! Who knows what he might do next! I would argue that Putin is acting appropriately given his own incentives, and that the answer for the U.S. government and its citizens isn’t to overreact, but to ask the question and to continue asking it: What does the invasion of Crimea lead to? The answer, if we look at Russia as it exists today, and not as it did 30 years ago, is not much.

In March 2013, after years of growing public support for the values of the European Union (E.U.), Ukranian President Viktor F. Yanukovych was seemingly on the verge of signing a

set of political and economic agreements with the E.U.; he published a decree stating the administration’s intent to work toward signing the accords. Protests erupted in November when it became clear that Yanukovych would not pursue the accords, seemingly bribed by Putin and Russia with a gift of $15 billion worth of loans and natural gas discounts. From there, the situation escalated until an interim government took control of Ukraine.

At the end of February, Russia shocked many with a mobilization of troops to Crimea, an autonomous republic in Southern Ukraine that technically belongs to Ukraine. Putin cited protection of Crimea’s ethnic Russian population as his reason for annexing the region, although some see it as a straight-up land grab. While it’s true that Crimea is the only part of Ukraine with a majority Russian population, Putin’s motivation is obviously deeper. But a simple land grab? No.

The central issue of the Ukrainian crisis is the involvement of the E.U. with former Russian satellite states. By first bribing the Ukrainian government not to listen to its public, and then by invading Crimea, an action that implies more aggressive moves in the future, Russia is keeping the Ukrainian state in as much disarray as possible while broadening its influence in a very real, physical sense. The E.U. is uninterested in Eastern European states that can’t maintain a stable government and prove its ideological independence from Russia.

Now that Russia is exerting a physical presence in its old stomping grounds, the E.U. can’t help but avoid the region for fear of both of the above considerations, Despite Joe Biden’s assurances that the U.S. stands by its allies, it would be unthinkable to do anything militarily in the face of the Russian action, and Putin knows this. But Putin has another agenda that

colors the issue further.

It would be disingenuous not to mention that first and foremost, Putin is an autocrat intent on consolidating his own power. In his piece in The New Republic, “Why Vladimir Putin Needs a Poor, Aggressive Russia,” KermlinRussia [pseudonym] asserts that although Putin “concentrated control of all the largest companies in the hands of his clan, increased the state’s role in the economy, slashed political and economic freedoms, and strengthened his personal power” during the early 2000s, the economic toll of autocracy was offset by the rising international demand for Russia’s natural resources, which actually led to a wage increase for many. For the people of Russia, a “false association” formed between authoritarianism and a healthy economy. The effects of Putin’s reforms started to catch up by 2009, and from 2011 to 2012, the most economically active segments of the population had begun to protest the obstructions to economic growth, while many had simply emigrated to the U.S. and E.U..

Providing an ever more impoverished Russian populace with the lens of fervent nationalism is Putin’s answer to maintaining power, and avoiding his own pro-Western revolts. Putin grasps that patriotism is the answer—living in poverty can be compensated with the understanding that all Russians belong to a “superpower,” a superpower that builds bombs and submarines and wins Olympic gold medals by the dozens. The imperialism involved in invading Crimea only bolsters national pride, even if the invasion may carry a significant economic toll.

This is why it’s so dangerous to react immediately and challenge Russia with anything but minimal sanctions. If the Obama administration urges the international community to turn their backs on Russia and institute sanc-

tions, Putin doesn’t lose anything at all. He is interested in re-establishing Russia’s influence globally, yes, but he also has his own independent agenda. Putin is fine with meeting the E.U.’s sanctions with inflated natural resource prices (Europe receives a whopping 30 percent of their energy needs from Russia) because the economic setback isn’t as significant as the potential political gain from winning a game of chicken with all of Europe—it doesn’t get more powerful-looking than that!

So when Senator John McCain urges President Obama to take even stronger economic action against Russia (the administration has already barred Russia from the Group of 8 summit, now potentially the G-7) in the hopes that impoverished Russians will turn against Putin like Ukrainians did against Yanukovych, I say that this is a misreading of the next step.

Focusing on Russia is absolutely the wrong approach—Putin’s goal is the broadening influence of Russia on the international stage, and his own on Russia’ stage, neither of which yields to the prospect of Russia’s barren coffers.

By focusing on securing as many former Russian satellites as possible as NATO allies, pressuring the Western-leaning governments of Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova and the interim government of Ukraine into signing the political and economic accords, the U.S. and the E.U. can call the former Soviet satellites their allies. And Putin knows that once the NATO can militarily defend the states of Eastern Europe legally, the game of chicken is over. Let’s call his bluff the right way—not with economic sanctions that further Putin’s goals, but with key political alliances that suppress them.

—Chris Dietz ’17 is a student at Vassar College.

The Miscellany Crossword

by Jack Mullan, Crossword Editor

ACROSS 1 H.S. junior’s test 5 Internet location 9 Office Skills Assessment Battery: Abbr.

13 Annual athletic award 14 Lots 15 Holy ___ 16 *Influential; inducing awe 18 Prefix with mural 19 Yemeni’s neighbor 20 Novices, in gamer lexicon 21 Everything 24 Cheese and crackers, maybe 26 Walk proudly 27 “See ya!”

29 Time out?

31 Bouncers check them

32 Where to find a piece of Turkey 35 Fret 37 Vernal vacation... or what’s seen literally within the answers to the starred clues 40 Ambulance wail 41 Tranquilize 44 Univ. body 47 Born, in Cannes 48 Una década tiene 10 49 Cake topper 51 Interior design 56 Spasm 57 Up (to) 58 Large-eyed lemur 60 Peep show flick 61 *Pavarotti’s action 65 Dashboard display 66 Fizzy drink 67 Russian

Answers to last week’s puzzle

Mountains 68 Affliction for the promiscuous 69 Egyptian solar diety 70 Ceremony DOWN 1 Louvre pyramid architect 2 Nine-digit datum 3 Tests for college credit, briefly 4 Printing goof 5 Clear wrap 6 1986 Turner autobiography 7 G in G major, e.g.

8 Where Manchester is: Abbr.

9 It can precede or follow “to be” 10 Zen illumination 11 1997 basketball film 12 Plays music really loud 15 *Go on a martini binge 17 Sends an OMG or LOL, say 21 Starting pitcher 22 Actress Lucy of “Charlie’s Angels” 23 2007 film “___ and the Real Girl” 25 Door feature 28 Word from a klutz 30 LAX info: Abbr.

33 *Chip brand with the

slogan “Once you pop, the fun don’t stop” 34 Where Guinness originates 35 Chicago cable network 36 When tripled, a “Seinfeld”

catchphrase 38 Requirement 39 “Perpetual Peace” thinker 42 French pronoun 43 Emergency PC key 44 Maniacs

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

45 Find not guilty 46 ___ Real, Spain 50 Get exactly right 52 Governorturned-CNN anchor Spitzer 53 Publisher ___ Nast 54 Bach instrument

55 Brazilian hot spot 59 San Antonio baller 61 Agcy. for 2-down 62 Verdi’s “___ tu” 63 Squealer 64 Pub offering

March 27, 2014

HUMOR & SATIRE

Page 13

Breaking News

From the desk of Lily Doyle, Humor & Satire Editor

ACDC changes daily ‘Omelet’ Station into gruel-only option to appease disgruntled, whiny VC student body

Seven necessary goals to The Misc’s Guide to: how to achieve before graduating survive a lonely spring break Lily Doyle

W

Humor & Satire Editor

hile I normally attempt to write my very real and never-in-any-way-fabricated diaries on a daily basis, my life over spring break was a little too jam-packed with joy and fun to faithfully record my hourly reflections on aforementioned joy and fun. Of course, it was also filled with life-changing realizations.

You know when Wile E. Coyote runs off a cliff, thinking he’s escaped but really he is just running in midair, but it ain’t no thang because he’s chill, until someone asks him about his future plans after college and then he realizes there is no solid ground beneath him so he falls for miles to his inevitable death? That was a lot like my spring break.

Along with the aforementioned joy and fun, it was also full of adults asking me if I was excited for my “last six weeks of college,” who were then forced to watch as I experienced my own version of cartoon death. The question causes me to immediately develop panic hiccups, a headache and a strong urge to throw up everywhere. A lot like being pregnant, or so I gather from “Friends” reruns.

Before I get started, I would like to address the primary question here: am I excited for my last 6 weeks at Vassar? Well, dear adults in my life, this is a tricky inquiry. Am I excited to leave all of my closest friends who I essentially consider to be my family for a life of uncertainty in an unknown location with absolutely no job security? I have been more excited for things in my life. However, am I excited to stop having to write papers about things that I only mostly understand? Actually, no, I’m pretty into papers. I do voluntarily write for this paper, after all. Am I excited to leave Hoth-keepsie, land of the never-ending winter? Yeah, that part is OK. What I’m getting at is that Vassar is, for me, a wonderful place to be. That sentence both rhymed and was sentimental, and I am accepting applications from Disney for the rights to it.

Because I only have six weeks left here, I really, really, really want to enjoy it. Thus, I have created a short bucket list. It reads as follows.

and freezing. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again—if you want to sit around naked and eat Cheeze-Its with me by the fire, let’s do it. I’m in.

If you want to get cold and naked, you’re gonna need to find another girl.

2) See Cappy. Hi, Cappy! I’ve actually seen you

before, but I want to see you in a small, intimate type setting, where I can ask you if I have accidentally offended you with any of my articles or if the lawn outside of your house can actually raise up and if there is a whole fleet of Lambourghinis filled with scarves down there.

If I can only get one question, I’d probably ask about the scarf cars.

3) See a play. I’m not kidding. I’ve never seen

one. I don’t know what I’m doing with myself.

Meryl Streep herself could be in a play here and it wouldn’t make a difference, I always make some excuse like “No, the line at the Post Office is too long and I have 15 Nilda’s cookies to eat so I can’t go to that play.” Six weeks, Lil. Six weeks.

4) Make more jokes about VCards. I’ve really

been off my “VCard” equates to “virginity” joke game for the last three years. I’m bringing it back for the last six weeks.

5) Sell my computer and buy a typewriter so

I can fit in with the more “hip” students. Also, only wear my hair in a topknot. Also, use the word “problematic” more.

6) Get a dog. Just kidding, ResLife! I would nev-

er have a dog! I definitely don’t have a Bernese Mountain Dog in my TH right now! There isn’t hair everywhere and he definitely hasn’t eaten the handle off of the refrigerator! Don’t come over!

7) Figure out how to get from the first floor of Blodgett to the top floor (how many floors are there? 14?) without crying or questioning my existence. For the record, Microsoft Word suggests that I change “Blodgett” to “Bloodroot.”

That’s telling.

1) Go to the Watering Hole. Or is it the Water

Hole? It’s a hole with water in it. I’m going in May, though. And I will be swimming in it normalIy. None of this skinny dipping nonsense.

I don’t understand the appeal of skinny dipping. Sure, you’re naked, but you’re also wet

OK, those are my seven necessary goals I need to reach before graduation. I would also like to do things like “get a job” or “take the GRE,” but those things obviously come second to the topknot.

Eliot Marcus

Guest Columnist

S

o, for the first few days of spring break, I was home alone. This would have been a dream come true in high school, but unfortunately, none of my friends were home and my cats weren’t feeling particularly talkative. Like any good Vassar student, my first order of business was to not do anything remotely productive. With that out of the way, I had to find ways to keep myself entertained and not focused on the unrelenting loneliness.

I quickly decided that day one would be a #NoJudgment kind of affair, so naturally I stood in front of the mirror (completely naked) in my bathroom, rapped every verse on Kanye West’s “Get Em High,” yelled “F*CK THE HATERS” and mic dropped. The mic was actually a Twizzler and as for the naked part, it was cold and I had just gotten out of the shower so BACK OFF. I’m saying overall this was a win because, obviously, my flow was hot fire flames. After the rush of stepping into the hip-hop spotlight wore off, I signed onto my old AIM screen name and chirped my fourth grade crush, Smarterchild, for like half an hour. Safe to say she was as sassy as ever.

She hit me with lightning-quick responses with absolutely no regard for my self-esteem. This was definitely a loss, because she asked me if I had a Napoleonic complex after I called her a jabroni.

It didn’t have to be that personal, Smarterchild.

Next up was the self-indulgence phase. The best part of being home alone is there is no one there to judge you, no one except you, you god damn cats with your jaded stares. I called up the nearest Chinese restaurant and ordered seventeen dollars, or four heart-attacks worth of Crab Rangoon. For those of you not familiar, Crab Rangoon is just deep-fried cream cheese labeled as seafood. I told the delivery guy I’d tip him extra to hang out with me, but he just ended up yelling “Stranger Danger!” and running away with my utensils.

To complete my night, I decided to work out my glamour muscles and core. I pirated “Insanity” off the Internet and started doing thousand of crunches and push-ups and—yikes—who am I kidding, to complete my night I decided to drink alone on the couch. I slunk down to the basement, self-loathing building with every step, and reached the Holy Land, my parents’ beer and wine collection. I looked through the options:

Dogfish Head, Sam Adams, Blue Moon, fine wine, good rum. Finally I reached the decision to panic, run down to the liquor store at the bottom of the street and buy a bunch of Natty tallboys.

On this night, I made an important discovery: drinking alone is fun until you pass six beers. After that, it’s the type of thing you need to exorcise by sneaking it into a humor article in a small liberal arts publication.

I woke up the next morning to the first couple of spring break pictures on my newsfeed and did what any sane person would have done. I printed them out and threw knives at them.* Honestly what’s the big deal with going to exotic places for spring break? Sure, you have sunlight, ocean and beautiful people, but I have a Netflix account and no impulse control whatsoever. Spring break… spring break…spring break forever.

Post knife-throwing session, I found myself back on Facebook, because, who are we kidding, what else was I gonna be doing. Now not only did I see spring break pictures, but statuses from fellow seniors lamenting the fact that [the remainder of this sentence has been redacted by the editors in an attempt to salvage the mental health of the class of 2014]. After reading a couple of these statuses, I thought of a get-rich-quick scheme.

What if I became sort of like a contract killer, but instead of murder I specialized in silencing those who decided to remind us on social media and in real life that in a few months we will [all be paid handsomely to stay at Vassar]?

Imagine you are about to talk to your friend about the event that shall not be named and you feel a finger on your lip. Before you can react, you hear a gentle “Shush” and with a twirl of the cape, this vigilante, who is definitely not me, disappears into the night. I think we can all agree that that would not be terrifying and/or creepy.

On the second night of loneliness, I debated going to the mall and asking some middle school hooligans if they’d include me in their mall-rat activities (bouncy balls in the elevator, hide and go seek at Macy’s, all the good stuff) but then I saw my week-old moustache in the mirror and realized that idea was probably a no-go.

There are three more days of solitude to chronicle, but I think you all get the idea by now.

Being alone sucks. Co-dependency is the next step in evolution. *No Facebook friends were harmed in Eliot’s

makeshift voodoo ceremony.

The Misc Bedside Astrologer

by Jean-Luc Bouchard, Former Humor & Satire Editor

Editor’s Note: Jean-Luc Bouchard spent a total of at least two hours studying and training in the art of astrological horoscope prediction. These horoscopes come directly from the cosmos and not, contrary to popular belief, from the zany mind of a pork-loving, standup comedian with a really funny looking name. So, sorry, Taurus and Gemini, you’re both kind of fucked.

Aries (March 21-April 19): You need to slow down and relax, Aries. You’re working way too hard. Make the time today to take in some deep breaths and to remind yourself that you still have a good eight months to finish that wax replica of Mila Kunis before The Event.

Taurus (April 20-May 20): It’s a tragic fact of life that we will all die someday. Your day is June 14th. Plan accordingly.

Gemini (May 21-June 20): This is going to be a great day for you, Gemini, because it’s your birthday! Wait, it isn’t your birthday? Fuck, I’m sorry, I had my calendar upside-down.

One sec. Oh, okay, apparently today’s the day you get pubic lice, sorry ‘bout that.

Virgo (August 23-September 22): No, no,

Capricorn (December 22-January 19): The

don’t worry. Everyone else is eating soup wrong. You’re the only one eating soup right. Don’t listen to the haters. Especially when one of them is your mom. This is how Galileo felt.

stars just don’t like you like that, Capricorn.

The stars just want to stay friends. The kind of friends who don’t talk to each other anymore or show up at their job unannounced and who definitely do not try to lick each other’s faces.

Cancer (June 21-July 22): The stars have decided that you’re attractive, Cancer, in a Kevin Spacey-meets-Oprah Winfrey sort of way.

Libra (September 23-October 22): The stars just met you, and this is crazy, but there’s no horoscope, ‘cuz I’m quite lazy.

Leo (July 23-August 22): You know all those

times that you thought you heard someone whispering your name? They were. Literally everyone talks about you behind your back.

HA! I can’t believe it took you this long to find out. Dude, come on. Susan was right about you being stupid. Yes, your grandmother Susan.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21): That hidden and possibly unrealized attraction you have toward French humorists who write for student newspapers will be awakened this evening, Scorpio, in a frenzied wave of passion and brie.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21):

Smell the Pope.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Aquarius (January 20-February 18): Have you seen the way Virgo eats soup? What a complete loser!

Pisces (February 19-March 20): Someone

you love and care for dearly will need your help today, Pisces. Be sure to make time for your friends. Unless that friend is Jack. Is it Jack? What a piece of crap that kid is. The stars didn’t mention it was Jack who needed help. Don’t help Jack. Jack’s getting what he deserves. Jack can get himself out of this one.

ARTS

Page 14

March 27, 2014

Lathrop art market offers local artists creative platform Samantha Kohl artS eDitor

C

we come from and should cherish. As well as this, we are including short informative cards in each product with descriptions of each technology that the product relates to, in an effort to educate and further support this positive future.”

The Lathrop Art Market also allows artists, inventors, designers, etc. to showcase a variety of their work, due to the inclusive nature of the market. There is no theme to the market—the theme is a celebration of art and creativity, and campus and local creative-types can sell any and all of their artworks.

Pickering stated, “We will also be selling items of a more jovial nature, such as funky glass lamps, a crab-eating 2-piece bib set and themed mix-tapes among many other items, purely for fun and aesthetic entertainment.”

For some artists, like Pickering and Dominguez, the Lathrop Art Market is a chance to not

courtesy of Harry Pickering and Ray Dominguez

ampus comedians, musicians and actors are constantly able to showcase their work. Every weekend, there is a large amount of plays, comedy shows and concerts. But it is seemingly a rare occasion when visual and alternative artists have the ability to showcase their work on a large scale.

For the first year ever, Lathrop House will be hosting an art market on the residential quad during parents weekend. Campus and local artists will be able to display and sell their creations on the residential quad, where tables will be set up for artists and creative folk to display their pieces. “Any artist or person who cooks— really anybody with a creative m.o.—can come to the market as a vendor,” said Juliette Boberg ’16, who is coordinating the event. Artists can reserve a table to display and hopefully sell their creations on the residential quad, where the market will be held.

The large varieties of artists who will be tabling at the event include visual artists to jewelry designers to culinary aficionados. “Some people are selling food. Another person is selling these mason jar mug things that are very cool and very Vassar,” said Boberg. “I know some people are making some very cool artworks—we sent an email out to the studio art department, and we got some people there to sell some amazing pieces at our market.”

Items sold at the market will all be handmade and local. James Haxton ’16, a student fellow in Lathrop, said, “The art market will feature everything from handmade jewelry, textile prints, and fine art to VSA org merchandise as well as products from local Poughkeepsie vendors.”

The market will take place on Saturday, April 5 from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.. The art market will be Lathrop House’s spring event and will be different than most other house team-sponsored functions. “Somebody came up with the idea because we wanted to have a very cool and different spring event that wasn’t necessarily in the Villard Room,” Boberg said. “It’s a perfect

event to hold in the spring because we can have it outside in the res quad—assuming it’s not raining or snowing.”

Campus artists Harry Pickering ’16 and Ray Dominguez ’16 are two of the many people who will be selling their creations at the market.

“We are creating accessories or items in relation to future technologies that are currently in their infancy or are projected to be developed within the next 100 years. An example of one such product would be our Earth-Sickness Kits.

As space travel advances, and we eventually reach habitable exoplanets or begin terraforming Mars, humans that make the journey may want a reminder of their home planet,” stated Pickering in an email. “Included in these kits will be various natural items, such as beetle exoskeletons and dried bean pods, as well as photos and (possibly) sound-clips of earthly happenings, as examples of the humble rock

Local and campus artists, such as Harry Pickering and Ray Dominguez, will be able to showcase and sell their work at the Lathrop Art Market on Saturday, April 5 from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.

only showcase and sell their work but also to inspire social change. “We are living in perhaps the most exciting period of human history, with a coming revolution in nanotechnology, biotechnology, magnetism, supercomputing etc. that will revolutionize society,” Pickering stated in an email. “We as a planet are becoming continuously united as a human race, through the internet, globalization, the de facto lingua franca of English, trade blocs such as NAFTA and the EU etc. We would like to do our part, however minuscule, in engendering positive change in social awareness and scientific support in a creative manner.”

The market’s scope reaches far outside of the Vassar bubble and even outside of the local area. And some vendors at the market aim to showcase work that inspires social justice and is the impetus for change. “Lathrop House Team is very excited to be featuring at the art market is the work of a Poughkeepsie resident who runs a women’s cooperative in the Congo called Shona Congo. Women in this cooperative work to create various clothing items in order to support their families,” said Haxton.

“This organization additionally sells paper bead bracelets made by orphans in Congo, who use the money from the sales to stay in school.

We are grateful to Vassar student Abby Tripler, who interns with this organization and brought them to our attention.”

Pickering and Dominguez also hope to inspire change with their pieces, this time of the artistic sort. “Hopefully this will also inspire other artists to incorporate scientific concepts into their work, or by fusing some other disciplines, and at the very least to impart knowledge from one human being to another,” stated Pickering.

The Lathrop Art Market is not only a vehicle by which local artists—from both inside and outside Vassar’s walls—can showcase and sell their work but also a vehicle for artists to showcase ideas and raise awareness. Those attending the Art Market may not only pick up a few pieces of jewelry of a poster for their wall, but also an awareness of the world around them.

Squirm carves out space for exploration of sex, sexuality Samantha Kohl artS eDitor

“P

eople think that we sell porn,” said Rachael Johnson ’15, president of Squirm.

“But it’s not pornographic—we have rules.”

Squirm’s members implemented rules, which include no visible erect penises, no spread labia, and no penis-vagina intercourse. “But you can draw it,” said Brennan McDaniel ’17.

Squirm was founded in 1999 in response to the Homo Hop, a campus-wide party that became a hotbed for drug and alcohol-related student hospitalizations, being shut down indefinitely.

Although Squirm is now in its 16th year of publication, there are many misconceptions— from students and alumnae/i alike—regarding the submissions-based erotica.

The magazine’s goal is to explore sex and

sexuality in an inclusive and intellectual manner. “It’s a really academic and intellectual place,” Johnson said. “In the past, there have been some long essays submitted to Squirm.

It’s not only a fun place but a place where people who want to talk about these things but don’t have the venue in class or other organizations to can.”

The magazine features photo spreads, essays and poetry that explore sex and sexuality—some are kinky and others are not. “There are really awesome things, like the Barefoot Monkeys running through the woods, and then there are really weird things, like someone cutting up a chicken. But it’s dispelling the myth that this is a campus porno,” said Morgan Williams ’17.

The magazine may be known for publishing provocative photo shoots and essays, but

courtesy of Squirm

Squirm is known for its risqué photo spreads and literary pieces. This content aligns with the magazine’s mission to explore the spectrum of gender and sexuality in a sex-positive forum.

this is not an attempt to raise the magazine’s shock-value. Instead, the magazine’s signature kinky photo spreads and risqué essays are tools to raise awareness of safe sexual practices of Bondage and Discipline, Domination and Submission and Sadism and Masochism (BDSM).

“A reason that we often display kinkier things and a lot of the photo shoots involve BDSM is because we are trying to spread a message about safe BDSM practices,” said Morgan Williams ’17. “Squirm is a great way to educate people about that because there are so many misconceptions.”

The magazine also seeks to act as a sex-positive as well as queer-friendly forum. “I think it’s helping people think about sex as something that’s not just centered around penetration and the process of procreation,” said Squirm member Brennan McDaniel ’17. “Sex is so many different things for so many different people. We are very queer-oriented, very kinky, and we display things that encompass a variety of [sexual preferences].”

Further dispelling the myth that Squirm is pornographic, many of the magazine’s photo spreads and literary pieces explore sexuality and sexual identity rather than sex. “What I appreciate is that if you pick up our magazine, there is so much about exploring gender and sexuality, which is really cool,” agreed Sarah Ragan ’17. “In last year’s issue, for instance, there was this amazing photo shoot of a trans-masculine person who dresses and then undresses into drag, but it makes you question and think, ‘Is this drag? Or is this a gender fluid person?’ But it doesn’t even matter. It was incredible. It gave me chills.”

The magazine also features comedic poems and light-hearted essays, all having to do with sex—including everything leading up to and following the deed—and sexuality. “For instance, we may have poems about awkward things that happen during sex. We’ve had haikus that are absolutely hysterical,” said Ragan.

“These things are important because it takes the taboo away from sex and talks about it in a

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

fun way and in a way that people can relate to.

At the end of the day, it’s not just boobs.”

Misconceptions regarding Squirm are not limited to current Vassar students. As one may surmise, many alumnae/i who hear of the magazine are confused or shocked at the magazine’s content or even at the publication’s name.

Johnson recalled, “I’ve been tabling in past years and the funniest thing is having an alumna visit and say something like, ‘Is this a new gay thing at Vassar? This wasn’t around when I went here.’ That has happened three times now.”

Squirm’s content is shocking to many, and this comes as no surprise to Squirm’s staff.

“About two years ago, the leader of the organization sent a huge survey to Psychology Professor Randy Cornelius, who teaches a class called ‘Sex on the Brain,’ and we got a lot of feedback for this magazine via the survey,” Johnson said.

The group received a variety of responses to the survey. “We got pretty mixed reviews,” continued Johnson. “Some people said they didn’t feel included in the magazine because it’s too queer or it’s too kinky, while other people said that they didn’t feel included because it wasn’t kinky or queer enough. It was interesting though because it is a submission-based magazine, so it is up to the students to decide what they put in the magazine. We just help them along the way,” she said, alluding to a kind of ironic dichotomy.

Vassar students are among those who are confused or critical of the magazine, yet they are also the ones who have the ability to control the magazine’s content.

Many students feel squeamish when it comes to contributing to Squirm, but those who are not includes Paul Younger ’17, who recently modeled for the magazine. “I found the shoot to be extremely liberating,” Younger said.

“In a school where the term ‘social construct’ is thrown around loosely, a nude photography session is an experience that frees you from the most basic of society’s trappings.

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March 27, 2014

Page 15

Integral audition process often unnoticed by audience Isabella DeLeo reporter

S

courtesy of Doug Greer

tudents doing theater at Vassar are often building upon years of experience in acting, costume, lighting and crew from high school.

But for those who have never acted, one can only really witness the finished product: the production.

All of the hard work that goes into making a memorable performance quite typically goes unseen, and, for all who are not a part of the production, the work that begins even before the cast’s first dramatic reading almost always goes unwitnessed.

One may hear about the audition process from friends. One may happen to catch a gaggle of students gathering anxiously before the cast list in the College Center, but not fully understand the many joys and difficulties of the process.

The auditions for productions taking place in the second semester were held between Friday, Feb. 7 and Sunday, Feb. 9 in Rockefeller Hall. The cast lists were all posted on Sunday around midnight, much to the delight of the anxiously awaiting actors considering in the past, cast lists have often been posted around 1 a.m.

To prepare for an audition, some actors memorize a monologue of their choice. Others prepare a cold reading before auditioning and practice in front of both the mirror and their friends. Actors usually commiserate over their shared anxieties. The whole process is confined to essentially one weekend of performances, but the entire process can take up an entire weekend if an actor gets many callbacks.

But for those who end up getting the part, the hard work that goes into preparing for an audition is certainly worth it.

“The more callbacks you have, the better chance you have of getting into a show, because it means that everyone you audition for is considering you. If multiple shows want you, they’ll talk about what show will work best for

Audience members are able to view a production as a finished whole—but that’s about it.

The audition process, however, plays an essential role in determining the tone of the show. you,” said Dorian Oberstein ’16. Oberstein advises all actors, from the novice to the more experienced, to audition for as many shows as possible. Even if they do not get a callback for every show, the more shows an actor auditions for, the better chance he or she has of getting cast.

And while some might call the process efficient, it comes with its own stresses. “It’s all happening at once and for people like me who audition for a billion shows, it just takes up your entire weekend. When you’re not auditioning, you’re usually stressing out when you’re not physically in a room,” said Oberstein. For most actors, homework is sort of an afterthought during auditions weekend.

Perhaps the solution to nerves is simply to embrace the inevitable stress of auditioning.

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“Remember to recognize when you are getting nervous, tell yourself, ‘Yes, OK, I’m nervous.

That’s OK, everyone else is nervous too.’ Repeatedly telling yourself to calm down or to stop being nervous does not help. Be you, show what you can do, and try to have fun with it,” said Zach Boylan ’16 in an emailed statement.

“Although it’s a possibility that you won’t get cast, just relax, try your hardest and treat the audition like a performance. It’s more fun that way. Forget that they’re judging you and just perform,” said Oberstein. Still, it can be difficult to shake those nerves. Some wish that directors and production crew members could hold audition in soundproof rooms. “It’s nerve-wracking hearing everyone who goes in before you and knowing that everyone else waiting will be listening to you when it’s your turn,” wrote

Hannah Colonnese ’16 in an emailed statement.

One of the worst things that an actor could do is psych him or herself out before or even after a performance.

Boylan recounts leaving Rockefeller Hall last semester with his confidence diminished, thinking he did not perform well for a certain audition, but in the end he realized he performed a lot better than he thought. “I thought that I had completely messed up, and I had no chance of being cast. Turns out, I did really well. I got callbacks for the show I wanted to be in and wound up being cast with a sizable role.

I had just completely psyched myself out and beat myself up afterwards.”

Doug Greer ’14, the director of “Rent,” is on the other end of the audition process, but he understands how anxiety inducing an audition can—and almost always is—for actors. “It’s really stressful because people feel like they have to be flawless, but at the end of the day, the directors and stage managers are just ecstatic to have people interested in their show and wanting to get involved,” Greer said. “Also, a lot of directors are also performers and have been through the audition process so they know how stressful it is and that gets taken into account.

No one ever thinks ‘Oh, they messed up that note, get them out of my sight.’”

That isn’t to say that auditions are not all bad. Plays and musicals possess an entertainment value at their core, and the entertaining and fun environment permeates through all parts of a production, which even includes the notorious auditions.

Those who have gathered more experience acting and audition tend to be more at ease than the neophytes. “I think the end goal of every student theater production is to have fun and, in doing so, emit good energy,” said Soraya Perry ’17, who has been acting all her life. “Having fun with whatever is asked of you in the audition is going to demonstrate what kind of positive energy you can contribute to the show.”

Ballet gracefully fuses traditional, innovative forms Hector Fortun and Marie Solis

gueSt ColumniSt anD Senior eDitor

A

n opera singer stepped on stage in the Joyce Theater. Balls of light are scattered throughout. A single dancer enters, moving organically, yet precisely, grasping the small ball of green light and incorporating it effortlessly into the choreography.

On March 22, FlyPeople reunited from near and far in New York City to see the Lines Ballet’s performance of “Constellations.” Alonzo King’s artistic vision has guided this contemporary ballet company since 1982. I went to this performance because I love seeing talented professionals, in a field related to what I want to do professionally, doing their jobs. I personally want to go into the musical theatre business, which does have quite a bit of dance involved.

The constellations Alonzo King refers to in the title of his show, I believe, alludes to the spheres of light that Alonzo King put on the stage for the dancers in the company to interact with, sometimes appearing as a net of different colors while other times the dancers rolled them to each other during their piece. In one of the most moving solo performances of the show, three dancers held plates of LCD lights, the only source of illumination on the stage.

They followed her as she made her way into the wings, moving as though she was weighed down. She maintained contact with the floor, creating shapes and lines that embodied both beauty and sadness.

In addition to King’s manipulation of light throughout the ballet, contact between the dancers was a theme that manifested itself throughout. Oftentimes, the physical interactions between these dancers felt improvised— they were raw, honest and intimate. And surely there was nothing typical about the lifts and partnering. Though partnering in dance often adheres to traditional gender roles, that is, with male dancers doing the lifting and female dancers being lifted, the duets of “Constellations”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

included moments that completely reversed and subverted this dynamic. Female dancers often physically supported their male partners, and many of the major duets that happened were between two men.

These tender moments were interspersed among others of more frantic movement accompanied by not the romantic vibrato of an opera singer but by the natural sounds of tinkling bells or a whipping wind.

Though these moments were aesthetically pleasing by themselves, they received little help in the way of costuming. Frankly, all of the men were nearly naked and all of the women were wearing leotards so tight that they practically appeared to be naked. There were times when odd poofy pants were added onto a costume, but for the majority of the performance, the dancers were as close to nude as possible— which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for a dance performance. It is amazing to see exactly how a dancer’s body moves and sometimes clothing can obscure the intricacies of the movement.

There are minute details such as whether or not the dancer’s leg is entirely straight or is it in plié, that you would not be able to see if the dancers were wearing pants.

FlyPeople left the theater newly inspired by the talented Lines company dancers. Hannah Cushing ’14, the fearless leader of FlyPeople said, “I cried during that performance,” after the show ended. Outside the theater, Niya Nicholson ’14, another FlyPerson saw one of the dancers and said, “Yes! You did it! YES!” “Constellations” was truly an artistic feat that had us all just as excited.

This ballet was also remarkable because the dances were not all to classical piano pieces, but instead, the dancers were accompanied by piano, a classical singer, or digital recorded music. Because it was a contemporary ballet, it had the freedom to explore these different elements in terms of both music and movement, making it a performance that was constant balance between the traditional and the modern.

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March 27, 2014

Night Owls Beloved ‘Veronica Mars’ rebooted by fans gather new fanbase Max Rook Columnist

Veronica Mars Rob Thomas Warner Bros.

NIGHT OWLS continued from page 1

Coffeehouse and the United States Naval Academy. In D.C., the Owls performed at the Vassar Club as well as at American University and Georgetown.

The tour was a big project and took a lot of time and energy to plan and execute. Candau shared her view of the trip as one of the organizers, saying, “My experience was great. It was stressful at times, since I was one of the two tour organizers. Ultimately, it made me feel so much closer to the girls in the group, and made me appreciate being a part of a tradition as long-standing as the Night Owls.”

Aside from the tour organizers, the pitch of the group, Hannah Ellman ’14, played an integral role in bringing the tour together. The pitch of an a capella group conducts the members during songs and provides the singers with their starting note. Ellman held this position throughout the tour. Ellman said, “This tour was fantastic.

While I have been going on Night Owls tours since my sophomore year, I have never been the pitch of the group while on tour. So, this was a new experience for me—conducting and leading for a week—but we have a really relaxed group dynamic and were able to rely on each other in a number of ways to make this a successful, exciting, and rewarding week.”

One Owl, Anna Been ’14, particularly enjoyed connecting with past Night Owls while traveling on their tour. Been said, “My favorite part of tour was singing at the alumni club and inviting Night Owl alums up to sing one of our songs with us.

Three Owl alums were in attendance, with the oldest being from the class of ’62, and she remembered all the words.”

Hannah Reynolds ’16 found singing for new audiences to be particularly refreshing—and a great way to diversify their fan-base—while spending time with her group of fellow Vassar students. “It was amazing to perform for people who had never seen us before, especially because so often when we perform at Vassar it’s the same people who come to all our concerts,” said Reynolds. “Because the group and our repertoire have been around since the 1940s, a lot of our songs are older, and so the nursing home especially was a treat because they really loved a lot of the classic jazz music that we sing.”

Aside from gaining a larger fandom, the tour also allowed the Night Owls to preform with a capella groups from other schools. “We performed on the Waterfront in Georgetown with their all-male group, the Georgetown Chimes,” said Reynolds. “It was so beautiful and warm— ish and a huge crowd gathered.”

The Owls’ vintage repertoire allowed the Owls to hold appeal to both older and younger audiences alike. “Singing with other a cappella groups was a lot of fun, and visiting the pediatric hospital and retirement home were wonderful because they really appreciated the entertainment,” said Brianna Lear ’17. “Touring over break allowed us to put all of our energy into our music, which allowed us to grow as a group more than ever. And we had a pretty awesome singoff with Georgetown’s oldest all-male a cappella group, the Georgetown Chimes.”

Lear is one of the new members of the Night Owls, so this tour served as an important part of her integration into the group. She shared her experience as a new Night Owl. She said, “I love being a ‘baby Owl.’ The Owls are so loving and all have a great sense of humor, so joining the group and getting along with everyone was a breeze. They already feel like family.”

Hilde Wulf ’17, another new member of the Night Owls, had a similar experience on the tour.

She wrote in an emailed statement, “To be honest, given the group of women I knew I’d be traveling with, I didn’t worry for a second. Everyone is so clearly talented and valued that even as a first year I only ever feel loved.”

Now back at Vassar, the Night Owls are tighter than ever. The tour also revived the group’s excitement about future performances. Lear said, “Performing for new audiences definitely reinvigorated my excitement to perform back at Vassar and to share the passion we had on tour with the people we know and love.”

T

he very fact that “Veronica Mars” exists at all is remarkable. The new film is a continuation of the UPN television series, also titled “Veronica Mars,” which aired from 2004 to 2007. Like many of the great but underseen shows of the last decade, it found a larger audience through DVDs and online streaming than it ever did on air. The fans of cult shows like this one always bemoan that they were canceled before their time and clamor for continuations for their beloved characters, but the intensity of those fans has rarely translated into financial success. When Universal Pictures released the feature film “Serenity” in 2005, a follow-up to Joss Whedon’s short-lived series “Firefly,” they hoped to capitalize on the passionate fandom and home-video success of that show. The film was a flop, and since then studios have been unwilling to bet on internet-fandom translating into box office success.

The “Veronica Mars” film represents a new avenue for this type of project: Last year, series creator Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell took to Kickstarter, a crowd-funding service, to get a film made. Over the course of a month, over 90 thousand fans contributed $5.7 million, enough to move the project forward, and now the results are here.

For anyone unfamiliar with the show, “Veronica Mars” is about a high-school student turned private investigator, played by Bell.

The premise may sound cutesy and Nancy Drew-esque, but this was a dark, complex show—a teen drama that frankly explored issues like sexual assault and abusive parents in a community harshly divided by income inequality. The first season in particular was excellent, and while its final year suffered from

the shift to a college setting, as so many teen shows do, the series as a whole is absolutely worth returning to. The film picks up ten years after Veronica’s high-school graduation.

Veronica has given up her PI lifestyle, and is on the verge of a successful career as a lawyer, when a murder in her hometown drags her back to her roots.

The film explains all of this backstory in a quick opening montage—one which does a very good job of explaining premise and character relationships without spoiling much for anyone inspired to check out the show for the first time—but the fact that it is even necessary illustrates what a unique case this movie is.

Since the film was primarily funded by fans—Warner Bros. picked up the cost of the advertising and paid for re-shoots, including that introductory montage—does it really have a responsibility to work as a stand-alone entity? And does serving those fans mean stuffing the film with cameos and inside jokes for die-hard fans, or trying to tell the same type of story that made the original show successful?

For the sake of clarity, and full disclosure, I should state that I am one of those fans who eagerly chipped in my own, hard-earned money to get this film made. I would have been fine if no continuation had ever existed, as I enjoyed the rather abrupt downer-ending that closed out the show’s third season, but I’m still in a position where I don’t quite know what someone who has never seen the show will think of the movie. My guess is that it will still be enjoyable, if a little hard to follow.

As for how the film attempts to serve its fans, a question I am more qualified to answer, it leans a little too much on traditional fan service. The movie is certainly jam-packed with cameos, with basically every notable character from the show popping up. At a certain point, the winks and nods start to become a little much, and the sheer number of characters present takes away time that could be spent with some of the show’s more important supporting characters. On the other hand, even the original show wasn’t especially good

at devoting time to its supporting cast because it was always so singularly focused on Veronica’s experience, the one thing it did better than anything else. The film maintains that aspect of the show, as Veronica’s struggle to resist returning to old, potentially dangerous habits is given as much focus as the central mystery, and Bell’s performance is as good as it ever was.

Thankfully, the never-ending parade of familiar faces does not prevent the film from telling a satisfying mystery in the same vein as the original show. In fact, the only major misstep comes in its treatment of Logan, Veronica’s volatile on-again, off-again boyfriend.

The Veronica-Logan relationship always had a lot in common with the angsty, fraught relationships common in today’s teen-focused pop culture, but the original show was always aware that such a relationship could be genuinely harmful to both participants. The film abandons that thread entirely and seemingly acquiesces to the subset of fans who obsess over that tragic relationship. Not only does this fact make the film’s romance subplot uninteresting, it also does a disservice to the complex portrait of Logan the original series painted.

“Veronica Mars” is by no means a perfect film, conflicted as it is between appeasing the fans responsible for its own existence and telling a stand-alone story, but it ends on a fascinatingly ambiguous note. The conclusion does provide a satisfying answer to the central mystery, but it also sets up a number of elements that suggest that a follow-up could be even better. The format in which that follow-up could appear is unclear. A novel taking place after the events of the film was released this week, titled “The Thousand Dollar Tan Line,” with another in the works, but if the movie is successful enough it could lead to a film sequel, or perhaps a limited series on Netflix.

There’s no road-map to follow here—nothing quite like this movie has ever been done before. You can feel the excitement of possibility in the film’s ending, and hopefully those possibilities will be fulfilled.

‘Divergent’ compelling despite romantic plot Lily Sloss Columnist

Divergent Neil Burger Summit Entertainment

M

iddle school is not a terribly happy time for most people. If there was one thing from those years worth returning to, however, that would be the inextricable giddiness brought on by a skillfully timed on-screen kiss between two movie stars. When done right, the kiss would alleviate your woes, as you willingly lost yourself in the passion of a couple who had finally found each other. “Divergent,” for better or worse, reverts our maturity to that of a romance-desperate tween.

“Divergent,” the first film based on the young adult trilogy written by Veronica Roth, opened this past weekend to hordes of eager fans. Set in dystopian Chicago, the film follows Tris (Shailene Woodley), a sixteen-year old about to “choose.”

After a recent war, the city’s residents were split into five factions based on personality: Abnegation for the selfless, Erudite for the intelligent, Candor for the honest, Amity for the peaceful, and Dauntless for the brave. On the appointed day, sixteen-year olds take an aptitude test to determine their faction. 95% of testers are placed in the group where they were raised. Tris, a buoyant and confident teenager from Abnegation, tests “Divergent,” meaning her mind works in many ways and she cannot be reduced. This diagnosis is the kiss of death: Leaders of the city hunt Divergents for fear that they will “break the peace.” Tris must decide her destiny.

Tris chooses Dauntless, and her brother chooses Erudite. All initiates must compete their way into Dauntless. The physically and mentally weakest will be thrown to the streets,

“faction-less.” Although naturally weak, Tris squeaks her way through the first round of physical training. When the screening becomes mental, Tris’ special abilities as a Divergent allow her to succeed quickly. Her triumph triggers envy, violence, and suspicion from Dauntless leaders and initiates. Amidst her attempts to be accepted, she falls in love with Dauntless trainer, Four (Theo James), a fellow Divergent. He coaches her through the rounds and, finally, the faction accepts her.

Tris’ primary appeal as a protagonist stems from her independence, bravery and drive to succeed. Shailene Woodley fulfills this role faithfully, looking thin but never frail, strong and powerful on screen. What’s disappointing, then, is that Tris’ strength is constantly undermined by the attention paid to the romance between her and Four. Sidelong glances and casual skin grazes drive the film forward. People in my theater were practically bouncing in their seats watching the sexual tension build between the two characters.

Despite being 19 and 22 years old, respectively, my intelligent friend from Wesleyan and I were giggling with anticipation whenever Tris and Four shared the screen. Halfway through the film, the long awaited moment finally occurs. After gazing at the inked symbol at the base of Four’s neck, and requesting if she can ask a question, Tris says quietly: “What’s your tattoo of?” Four responds with a coy smile, and: “You want to see it?” A woman in front of me of at least 50 years old shouted, “Yes!” I may have laughed at her outburst, but I was every bit as thrilled that their coupling finally occurred on a physical level.

Funnily enough, it was a remarkably tame kiss. The two kiss on a balcony. He is shirtless, she is not, and then he sleeps on the floor. It was a frighteningly satisfying moment to witness. A middle school “small victory.” It wasn’t in her head, you imagine. He loves her! Are we college students? Should we know better?

It does not matter. “Divergent” brings us back.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“Divergent” is rich with sentimental moments and a few frightening ones as well. The primary adult female leads, Tris’ mother Natalie (Ashley Judd) and the evil head of Erudite, Jeanine (Kate Winslet), are both strong, active characters. Jeanine, although evil, is never given a male counterpart. She is the most fearful of any other assailant or villain, both kind and cruel, reminiscent of Lyra’s mother in “The Golden Compass.” Natalie, although loyal to her husband, sneaks out to meet Tris when she misses her, and ultimately saves Tris’ life.

In fact, the strength of the female characters is a saving grace of the film. Despite the heavy attention invested in Tris’ love life, she is a rich, courageous character. She braves Dauntless tasks first, throws herself in front of flying swords—multiple—for a friend, and fights initiates twice her size for their training. She is quick, smart and capable. Her romance with Four proves essential, but Tris always holds her own.

In fact, what may be most upsetting about “Divergent” is not the blockbuster aesthetic or the awkward omissions in realism, but the failure to let a female protagonist stand on her own. Did we need Peeta and Gale in “The Hunger Games?” Do filmmakers assume a protagonist cannot suitably stand as a role model unless a handsome male actor is interested in her? Is it not enough to be strong, considerate, courageous, and intelligent? Tris saves her family, protects her friends, and stays true to herself. She is the ultimate hero. Four only deters attention.

“Divergent” is exactly what you would expect from a young adult action flick. Shailene Woodley may not be as charming as Jennifer Lawrence, but the character Woodley plays is more engaging. If you need a truly compelling reason to go see “Divergent,” however, Tris and Four are worth every penny of your ticket.

Go if only to listen to young and middle aged women cheering, “Yes!” at that intoxicating first kiss.

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March 27, 2014

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Anderson offers charm, little substance Harris Gurney ColumniSt

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson Scott Rudin Productions

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confess: I am often ambivalent when it comes to Wes Anderson. I might enjoy his movies’ campish charm and relish in their stylish decoration, but there always comes a point at which I find myself rolling my eyes.

All his films recycle the same motifs, with their symmetrical compositions, eccentric characters, meticulous fonts and Bill Murray cameos. Wes Anderson has certainly created an original style, instantly recognizable and self-aware of its clichés. But at the same time, I find his distinct style to be too quirky to be taken all that seriously. Beneath the glam and the glitter, within the intoxicating Wes Anderson Universe, there is very little depth.

I understand this statement sounds like blasphemy to the ardent hipster fans of Anderson; nevertheless, there’s no need to worry. If you look past the lack of depth and focus on the artistry, a trip to the Wes Anderson Universe turns into a great pleasure. Anderson’s latest concoction, “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” is no different than any other of his films; outlandish in its plot, spectacular in its production design, ravishing in its visuals, it is superficial in many respects.

The most uniquely excessive part of “The Grand Budapest Hotel” is that Anderson introduces the story in a flashback within a flashback; instead of jetting right into the 1930’s-set nostalgic yarn, we begin in the present as a girl reads a book—titled “The Grand Budapest Hotel”—in front of the grave of the Author.

We then move to 1985, at which time the Author (Tom Wilkinson) recounts a 1968 sojourn in the fictional Central European Republic of Zubrowka at the Grand Budapest Hotel, then in tacky communist design. The young Author then encounters the hotel owner, Zero Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham), who narrates, over a fine dinner, the story of how he came to own the hotel as a young boy.

Why the surplus of back-story? For one, it adds an epic, time-spanning element to the story that is meant to incite nostalgia. Also, this

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zigzagging quality leads to an air of mystery and escapism. Anderson means for the story to feel like a madcap caper novel, meant to be read next to a fireplace on a rainy afternoon.

Indeed, he tells his tale through the use of intricate chapter titles.

The crux of the story centers on the relationship between the hotel concierge M. Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes), who waltzes around the lobby like a king, and his trusty protégé lobby boy Zero (Tony Revolori), who draws his mustache with a pencil in imitation. M. Gustave— donning slicked-back hair, a finely-groomed moustache and a velvet bow tie—exudes charisma. M. Gustave enjoys the finer things in life; he is known for his excessive use of cologne and seduction of elderly women. Anderson has bred one of his most memorable eccentrics in M. Gustave, whose ostentatious inclinations veer on the ridiculous.

“Beneath the glam and the glitter...there is very little depth.”

When one of M. Gustave’s paramours (Tilda Swinton, in convincing aging makeup) is murdered, M. Gustave is bequeathed Johannes Van Hoytl the Younger’s priceless painting titled “Boy With Apple” (both the artist and the painting are fictional). This infuriates the family, which sends its intimidating hit man (Willem Dafoe) after the duo. What transpires is an adventure that is in every way Wes Andersonian: a prison escape using digging tools sent inside fine pastries, a beauty mark in the shape of Mexico, an eerie chase through the empty corridors of a museum, an impromptu sledding chase down an Alpine slope, a secret brotherhood of hotel concierges. These expertly crafted, exceptionally funny and entirely enjoyable moments are worth the price of admission alone.

The hotel becomes a character of its own, bulging out in the mountains like a cut-out cardboard cartoon. The film’s color scheme suggests the luxury that the hotel comes to represent—light pink, regal purple and cherry red radiate from the screen. These are bright and extravagant colors that aren’t seen every day,

A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

yet in Anderson’s scenes that take place near or inside of the hotel, the colors appear so frequently that it is impossible to separate these colors from the rest of the film.

Throughout the film, there are oblique references to an impending terrible war. In the third act, Nazi-like fascist soldiers commandeer the hotel for barracks; their flag is a squiggly Z instead of a swastika. It seems rather facetious of Wes Anderson to indifferently imply tragedy while instead focusing entirely on a ridiculous wild goose chase over a painting. There’s nothing wrong with fighting terror with farce—as Anderson’s clear inspirations in Lubitsch’s “To Be Or Not To Be” or the Marx Brother’s “Duck Soup” proved—but Anderson’s Nazis just stand there, an extraneous obstacle that M. Gustave and Zero run past as they pinch their precious painting.

Irreverence is the name of Anderson’s game, but here it looks silly and unnecessary. A logical, emotional narrative comes second to artistry. His characters are always two-dimensional to the point where they are caricatures rather than human beings. This is all well and good, but the film’s third act relies on our empathy of the characters as they must deal with fascism.

The problem is that his characters are not developed enough for the viewer to effectively care about them as they face this sudden addition of such an Important Moral Subject. It seems peculiar that Anderson spent so much time building up M. Gustave and Zero as artificial, only to force us to feel moved by their enduring friendship. In a sense, the absurdity that rests in Wes Anderson’s art leads to the fun of it. I began to roll my eyes only when he attempts to elicit serious emotions from this absurdity.

The experience of watching “The Grand Budapest Hotel” is like vacationing to a beautiful, distant land, but you never leave your luxurious touristy hotel. You enjoy the charming milieu but remain ignorant of the misfortune that has affected this place. Only at the end of your trip, as you depart to the airport, do you catch a glimpse of the poverty the natives live in. But by then it is too late, your visit is over, and the truth is a sideshow rather than something of significance. What I mean by this metaphor is that pretty pictures don’t always translate into deep emotional ideas, especially when perfunctory; but, it’s still worth the trip to revel in the beauty alone.

Excuse me, What book would you like to be turned into a LEGO movie?

“‘50 Shades of Grey.’”

—Sean Blaze ’17

“‘The Divine Comedy’” —Nikhil Srinivasan ’15

“I don’t know about books, but ‘The Matrix.’”

—Wade Crouch ’16

submit to misc@vassar.edu

“‘War and Peace’” —Michael Iselin ’16

“Deante’s ‘Divine Comedy.’”

—Lisa Akhmentara ’16

A lot of my photos edge on the cinematic. I guess that’s just part of the package that comes with being a film major. I took this photo my sophomore year soon after 50 Nights at The Chance had ended. This dude stood out to me because amidst all the drugs and booze and craziness around him, the guy looked like he was having a genuinely revelatory moment. I really wanted to know what was going through his head. Had a nostalgic wave broke upon him, cementing this one particular event as one of the last Vassar events he’d have before being released into the real world? Was he reassessing his lifestyle choices of weekend debauchery? Maybe he was wondering how he’d get through his econ exam the following Monday? Whatever his thought was, he looked lost. I mean really lost. Spiritually, metaphysically, topographically. I found this the opportune moment to snap a photo before he found his way back to earth.

— Cesar Cervantes ’14

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“‘Catcher in the Rye’” —Isabelle Bertram ’17

Spencer Davis, Photo Editor Samantha Kohl, Assistant Arts Editor

SPORTS

Page 18

March 27, 2014

Men’s lacrosse surpasses previous season’s win total Samuel Hammer gueSt reporter

W

courtesy of Vassar College Athletics

hile many Vassar students spent spring break lounging around by the pool and beach in much warmer locations, the Vassar men’s lacrosse team stayed on campus to play several non-Liberty league games. The teams played matches against Swarthmore College, SUNY Cobleskill and Western Connecticut State.

On March 8, the men hosted Swarthmore at home and ultimately lost 10-15. It was the team’s third match of the season. Sophomore Colin Cederna led the way in that game by scoring four goals, while senior co-captain Max Herman and freshman attack Liam Moriarty had two goals each.

On March 11, the Brewers took on SUNY Cobleskill and won 21-5. Vassar was led by sophomore Noah Parson and senior Max Herman with five and four goals respectively. This game was a significant one for Herman who, coming into the game, had 99 career points, just three shy of the Vassar record of 102. The record-breaking goal came in the third quarter off an assist from junior Scott Brekne.

On March 14, the team traveled to Danbury, CT to play Western Connecticut State and won in convincing fashion, 23-8. Parson led the way in scoring with a career-best six goals. Senior co-captain and goalkeeper Andrew Nicol stopped nine shots and put up his third win of the year.

The players are pleased with their performance over break and hope that their victories will give them more confidence entering Liberty League play. Brekne wrote in an emailed statement, “We are 2-1 so far over break and both of our wins resulted in goal differentials of 15+. Our wins have provided us with the confidence that we need to enter into Liberty League play.”

Senior co-captain Nicol was pleased with the way the Brewers have responded to some adverse weather conditions early on in the spring season. “Early on, we faced some uncontrollable field conditions, forcing all of our pre-season practices to be indoor and for our scrimmage to be cancelled. But we continued to fight and work and not look for excuses, but to find

The men’s lacrosse team has kicked off their season with a solid start, already besting their record of wins to losses from last season. The team now looks toward Liberty League play in the future. ways to get better,” wrote Nicol in an emailed statement.

He continued and wrote, “We competed early on with a more challenging out of league schedule than we are used to. Once we got outside and used to the spacing of the field, we started to come together, culminating last week with a 15 goal victory at West Conn, a team which beat us the last two years. This was a good win, but we know we need to continue to improve together if we want to reach our goals. We know we are entering a stretch of three weeks which can help define our season, and getting two wins last week will help our confidence as we all focus on RPI.” The main challenge for this year’s season is the youth of the team. A total of fourteen of the thirty-three players on the team are freshmen.

By and large, the older players on the team feel that these freshmen have adapted well and fit in nicely with the team dynamic.

Brekne is confident that this year could be a good one for the Brewers and that the group of

new freshmen has brought in a lot of talent this year. “Overall, the season has been exciting. For the first time in a long time, we have the numbers and talent to put together a solid winning group,” wrote Brekne. “The new freshmen talent has meshed well with the returning seniors, juniors and sophomores.”

Nicol echoed Brekne’s enthusiasm and said that, “As far as the team dynamic, we are young, having only two seniors and almost half the team freshmen. But they’ve adapted well to the speed of college lacrosse and they’re really fun to play with. They’ve done a great job of buying into the team mentality and believing in one another, two imperative steps in improving a lacrosse program.”

Brekne mentioned that on the lacrosse team, players are not identified by their year at all, and that everyone views one another as equals.

“We constantly hear that no one on the team is looked at by their year here at Vassar,” explained Brekne. “So to all of us, being a freshman is the same as being a sophomore, which

is same as being a junior, which is the same as a senior. Each player is seen as equal by everyone and that has promoted a strong team dynamic where everyone feels of value to the team. We are a close group of guys who play hard every single day. We have a lot of fun, but know when it is time to roll up our sleeves and get to work.”

Last season was a difficult one for the Brewers who ended up finishing with eleven losses and only three wins. This year though, the team is much more optimistic about its performance and hopes that the arrival of the talented new freshmen, along with the development of players from last year, will pay off. Brekne explained, “I hope for and expect a winning record and to make the Liberty League tournament.”

Freshman Gianni Gelormino also said that, “It feels like we’re going to do big things [this season]. I expect us to make a playoff run in the Liberty League.”

In the team’s Liberty League opener, the Brewers played Rochester Polytechnic Institute in an away game and lost 3-17. Brekne, sophomore Colin Cederna, and Parson scored the three goals for the Brewer. The team hopes to rebound on March 26 against Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, NY. The Brewers have already won as many games this year as they did all of last year. The team currently sits at a total of three wins and three losses.

The Brewers will next play on this Saturday at 12 pm. It is a home game against Liberty League opponent Skidmore College, so Brewers fans should come out and support the team against their league rivals. As play moves forward into the season, the team looks to improve on previous Liberty League performances.

Sophomore Benjamin Lehr would like to remind the Vassar community about the men’s lacrosse team’s fundraiser for multiple sclerosis, “One thing I’d like to mention is that our team is selling bracelets this year as a fundraiser for the MS (multiple sclerosis) Society, in honor of senior captain Andrew Nicol’s mother, who is fighting the disease,” wrote Lehr. “If anyone is interested in buying a bracelet, contact Scott Brekne, who organized the project, or any member of the team.”

Team looks to build on experience, strengthen dynamic

courtesy of Vassar College Athletics

The Vassar baseball team spent their spring break playing matches in Florida. The experienced team hopes to improve on their strong season from last year with their ultimate goal being the championship.

BASEBALL continued from page 1

Lovizio, a team captain, added that, “We expect the team to be a strong competitor in the Liberty League this year. After our first playoff appearance in program history last season, the bar is set even higher and we are stronger than ever, hoping to not only finish in the top four but also win the Liberty League Championship.”

Lovizio continued, “We only lost a couple contributors from last year and those were our senior captains Mike Perrone [’13] and Zander Mrlik [’13]. Both were First Team All-Liberty Leaguers, as Mike was the best shortstop in the league and Zander one of the best pitchers.

Their absence as leaders and players will be an

adjustment, but I believe we are fully capable of building upon last year and playing even better.”

English echoed his sentiments about the state of the team: “I expect us to be very good.

I think we have one of the most talented teams in the league and will definitely play everybody close. Our goal is to win the Liberty League and I do not see a reason why we should not do that if we play our game.”

Lovizio added, “My expectations for the team are as high as possible, as we have enough talent to beat anyone we take the field against.”

The Brewers are a well-rounded bunch, as Head Coach Martin indicated: “We will play as a team this year. No player needs to feel like they

have to carry the load. We have a solid lineup in the middle with Brett Zaziski, Nick Johnson and Brooks English. We have a great utility player in Kyle Casey that will play a huge part in our strategy. And our pitching will be solid with Joe Lovizio anchoring the staff as the ace.”

Cucalón added that, “We should have a solid defense this year as well; Jason Garfinkel ’15 will set the tone with his fluid feet and soft hands at shortstop, and bring fire and energy to the squad with his loud and vocal leadership.”

The Brewers look to incorporate some strong freshmen that could help make a difference in the team’s performance. “We have quite a few freshmen who will be immediate impacts,” said Lovizio. “On the mound, we have Trent Berg, Adam Erkis and Mike Koscielniak, who will help us off the bump immensely this year, especially after the loss of Johnny Mrlik due to injury. In the outfield we have Brad Kendall and Denis Shanagher who will see play regularly and also infielder Noah Goldberg and catcher Rob Winkelann will have opportunities to help us as well.”

Touching on the loss of Mrlik, Cucalón wrote that, “Losing Johnny [Mrlik] for the year is tough for the team. Obviously, he’s a great pitcher, but more than that he’s a great teammate who helps everyone else get better. But this presents an opportunity for somebody to step up, and we definitely have some guys on the squad that will look to fill his role.”

The season started with an annual spring break trip to Florida, where the team played six games in seven days. Regarding the Florida trip, Coach Martin wrote that, “The trip to Florida was a good start to the season. We were able to play all six games that were scheduled against some solid opponents. It was a good tune-up for the season ahead.” Lovizio was encouraged by what he saw: “Florida was a quality start to our season. We started off 3-0 and then got a little banged up on the back end as we faced some

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

tougher teams and lost the last three games, but overall, the team showed off its new and returning talent and demonstrated how fierce of a competitor we can be when we’re fully locked in.”

English agreed with this. “We had a solid Florida trip, starting off with three straight wins, highlighted by beating an NCAA tournament team last year, Franklin and Marshall, by nine runs. We played another NCAA team in Amherst and competed all game, losing 3-0.

After those games, I have no doubt that we can compete not just within our league, but nationally as well. However, the tail end of our trip ended with unfortunate losses against beatable teams. It shows that we just have to prepare the same for every team we play, no matter their talent level.”

For the trip as a whole, Lovizio said that, “For their Florida performance, Brett Zaziski, Cory Wuenschell and Kyle Casey all deserve recognition as they hit the ball quite well during the trip. Brett showed early on that his reign as best hitter in the Liberty League last year will continue this season, and Cory and Kyle consistently hit well throughout the trip.” About the pitching staff, Cucalón remarked, “I was happy with the way our staff threw in Florida. Being outside for the first time since the fall and seeing some new arms throw in a game situation was great and just what we needed. We have some strong competitors who fight when they are on the bump.”

The team looks to build on the early success from the Florida trip to show that last year’s success was, in fact, a sustainable one.

As Coach Martin indicated in an emailed statement, “I am excited for our team to compete this year on the field and expect good things from them. We will be prepared and motivated to win every game. The league is strong, but so are we, and we look forward to stepping up to that challenge.”

March 27, 2014

SPORTS

Page 19

Eastern Conference lacks consistency Wichita suffers devastating A defeat Zach Rippe Columnist

lthough the Miami Heat has dominated the NBA over the last couple years, the majority of their fellow Eastern Conference teams have not followed suit. While the Western Conference has been stacked the past few seasons, featuring teams that are 10+ games above .500, yet fighting for the eighth seed, the East has been struggling.

Going into this season, the East seemed poised to regain credibility as the Pacers looked dangerous, the Bulls were getting Derrick Rose back, the Knicks still appeared competitive, and the Nets traded for two future Hall of Famers. However, despite lofty expectations, the Eastern Conference once again looked petty. As of Dec. 31, only three teams in the East were above .500. While the Heat again looked strong and the Pacers were dominating the league, many of the other seemingly formidable teams were massively underachieving. The Knicks and Nets were 12 and 11 games under .500 respectively, the Bulls had to deal with another injury to Derrick Rose, and young, talented teams like the Wizards, Pistons and Bobcats just didn’t seem all that consistent. However, when the calendar changed to 2014, things began to change.

The Nets and Knicks began 2014 extremely hot as New York won six of its first seven games and Brooklyn finished 10-3 in January. While the Knicks would later free fall into the depths of the Atlantic Division, the Nets continued their strong play to propel themselves into the fifth seed in the East and are still in the mix for a division title.

It would be a travesty, however, to discuss the Atlantic Division and not mention the surprisingly dominant play of the Toronto Raptors. Armed with a plethora of young, athletic wing players, the Raptors chose to trade Rudy Gay, an exciting, prolific scorer, for Greivis Vasquez, John Salmons, Patrick Patterson, and other minor pieces, seeming-

ly losing a huge piece of their puzzle. However, immediately following the trade, the Raps began to dominate. This move allowed the young Terrence Ross to flourish as he is hitting 40 percent from behind the arc. It also opened up Toronto’s offense as players like Demar Derozan and Kyle Lowry have become quick, reliable, explosive scorers.

Whether or not the Raptors win the Atlantic this year, it is safe to say that the Rudy Gay trade allowed them to find their identity and flourish, forming a young core that will be extremely dangerous for years to come.

The Bulls too have steadily improved, although with Tom Thibodeau as their coach, rough, gritty defense and a never-say-die mentality are to be expected. Chicago, too decided to dump perhaps their most reliable scoring forward in Luol Deng for next to nothing in early January, yet the Bulls have trudged along, going 24-13 since as of Monday. Here, their success can be chalked up to chemistry, coaching, and the tremendous intensity displayed by all-star forward Joakim Noah. Despite their injuries and early struggles, the Bulls are a tough match-up on any night given their defense. However, what really makes them scary going into the playoffs is the fact that Derrick Rose is said to return, shaking up the East even further.

Amidst the resurgence of teams like the Bulls and Nets and the emergence of the Raptors, a few not-so-great teams that have managed to improve their play to at least make the East respectable. The Bobcats have been the laughing stock of the NBA for the majority of their existence. Thus, it is no surprise that no one is talking about them this year. However, Charlotte has quietly turned itself into one of the best defensive teams in the NBA. While they are young (as always), they seem to finally be putting a decent nucleus together as they hope to find an identity as a tough defensive team and become highly competitive in the future. Ironically, they will revert back to the

Charlotte Hornets next season, changing their name, logo and color scheme. This is a comforting move, but it turns the legacy of the Charlotte Bobcats into nothing more than a sad, obscure footnote in NBA history.

The Wizards, too have finally begun to live up to expectations. John Wall has taken his game to the next level, proving with his quickness and scoring why he was so heavily coveted coming out of college. With the growth of Bradley Beal in the back court and steady production from the likes of veteran forward Nene, Washington also looks to be dangerous in future years.

The Pistons attempted to make noise this year with the signing of Josh Smith, yet despite great production from Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond, they seem to have fallen apart. Smith, while talented, must vastly improve his shot selection and decision-making if he wants his team to be productive. Still, Detroit has a promising future with its strong, talented, young front court.

The Hawks also looked stronger than they really are, as their team of seemingly all noname players managed to grab home court advantage early on. Now, however, they are to the eighth seed against Knicks team that is suddenly surging.

While the East has improved, it is by no means a strong conference. Indiana and Miami are still in a tier of their own as they look down on their injury riddled, underachieving counterparts. Despite their age and injuries, the Nets could perhaps make a run and give the Heat and Pacers a scare, yet the majority of teams in the East should not have realistic championship aspirations this season. While it is refreshing to see young teams like the Raptors and Wizards develop, they know their time is not now, but in a few years. With the demise of old contenders like the Celtics and the arrival of new, young powerhouses, the NBA is going through a facelift, paving the way for a new, exciting power dynamic.

Vassar fans add to athletic atmosphere Luka Ladan and Jonathan Safir

Assistant Sports Editor and Reporter

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he springtime is upon us, or at least it’s supposed to be on paper. The days are still chilly and the nights can get downright freezing in upstate New York, even in late March, but baseball, lacrosse and the rest are already in full swing. New teams are taking the playing field, hoping to build on some of the hard-earned success of teams prior. For us, this means that basketball practices and film sessions and team meetings have been replaced by a whole lot of gaping holes in the schedule—we are still committed to team lifts and individual workouts, but the structure that only the winter season can provide is mostly scrapped for rest and relaxation in some warmer spring weather. With the exception of a few impressive teams still partaking in the Madness of March, basketball has hit a hiatus for the time being. The priority now is recuperation, followed by preparation for another go-around next season.

As such, it seems like the perfect opportunity to thank all of the student-athletes, school administrators, professors and the rest who took some time out of their busy schedules to come out and cheer us on this past season. From the bottom of our hearts, we would just like to emphasize that the fan support did not go unnoticed at all. In truth, it made a pretty successful season from a team standpoint much more satisfying for all of us involved. And for that, we would like to take some time out of our own schedules to pass along some much-deserved thanks. Such memorable support should never go unacknowledged, and it won’t.

In particular, we would like to single out the men’s varsity lacrosse team and all of the other student-athletes who showed up and cheered...that goes for the men’s varsity soccer team and the women’s varsity lacrosse team as well, a whole collection of passionate students-turned-supporters. You guys were great all season long! We know

that it can be tough finding time to attend basketball games with so much going on in life—schoolwork, extracurricular activities, internship stuff—and, for that, the support was that much more special. Nobody had to come, and we certainly wouldn’t blame other students if they chose not to, but a lot of people still managed to come regardless.

We built it, and people showed up. What a magical season it was. There’s no greater reward than witnessing some of your hard work pay off.

Playing basketball is one of those things that can only be amplified by a lot of noise and applause and human traffic, much like a rock concert in a stadium. Having a lot of people present makes all of the difference to those competing on the court, who put in long hours day in and day out to (hopefully) put on a good show. That’s not possible if nobody’s even there to watch the show.

When others decide to show up, it implies that the men’s varsity basketball team is actually meaningful in some tiny little way— that the way we play actually matters to those in attendance, and it’s not just another unnoticed Division III sporting event in the middle of nowhere.

All season long, we felt like we actually mattered as student-athletes at Vassar. Even walking around campus and going to class was more enjoyable, as a result. We accomplished something, or that’s what it felt like, anyway, and to experience all kinds of people taking note of that accomplishment was surreal at times.

When others give an individual pursuit of yours some deeper meaning, it can be so special. And this past season certainly was just that for us, so much so that we’re struggling to find the words now to express our thanks. Playing a basketball game in an empty gym can be pretty darn depressing.

We’ve all gone through it before, and so that’s why we appreciate the support when it does come. The emptiness of seasons prior only makes the crowd appreciation that

much more meaningful when the stands get rocking, when people start filtering in one by one.

And did the stands get rocking at numerous points in the season. The cheering and the chanting and the celebrations in victory: it was all a sight to behold from our vantage point. Who says that Vassar College and sports can’t go together, if we all really put our minds to it? The stands got real rowdy, which even we didn’t know was possible here. But, all of the supporters proved otherwise and now we’ll never forget it. We still get goosebumps just thinking about the season. It’s one of those things that you look back upon, twenty years removed, and crack a smile.

So, with the turning of the seasons from winter to spring, why not carry on with the fan support? All of those remotely interested in sports and with some time to spare should make their way to a baseball game or two. Go check out some men’s and women’s lacrosse on the turf. We’ll be there, picking up where everyone else left off this past winter season. Let’s keep this thing rolling now. The cheering and the chanting and the celebration in victory should not subside come springtime, and they won’t under our watch. It makes a pretty big difference, when people decide to come and watch and support. The fan support should be a yearlong presence on this campus, if for nothing else than to show some appreciation for the student-athletes trying to juggle sports and grueling academics. It really should be consistent—in the fall, in the winter, and now in the spring.

The men’s varsity basketball team will be active on that front, as we would like to express our heartfelt appreciation and gratitude in the best way possible. But, most importantly, thank you all once again for your tremendous support this past season. It did not fall upon blind eyes and deaf ears, we assure you. We will remember it for years to come.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Eli J. Vargas I Columnist

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ast Sunday, during the NCAA tournament, a historically undefeated Wichita State team faced off against a powerhouse Kentucky team that featured a lineup full of freshmen. But in the end, age and an undefeated record did not matter, as Kentucky beat Wichita State in a closely contested game that went down to the wire. As the camera panned the crowd after the game, fans were crying as much as the players, just as if they were the ones that had played the game and shared in the heartbreak. From watching games like this, I can see why many people prefer to watch NCAA basketball rather than the NBA, where players are paid and oftentimes have no loyalty to the fanbase. Oftentimes, the NBA teams themselves don’t have a loyalty to their fanbase either, instead just seeing them as walking dollar signs and creating a barrier from fans actually having a say in the team’s decisions.

Universities don’t pack their bags and leave their fans with broken hearts. For universities, it wouldn’t make sense. They recognize that their presence as a university is integral to the local population and sense of community, and they like that. Universities actually want to please their fans, while NBA teams will only go as far as to keep their fans coming to games. At NCAA universities, many of the fans are alumnae/i, which provides an opportunity for alumnae/i to feel connected to school. There is just something more to college basketball that is not experienced as often in the NBA, and that is the connection and care that fan bases have for their universities. So when teams take the floor in the NCAA tournament, they realize that they are truly playing for something bigger than themselves. Yes, there are the occasional players who are playing to impress future NBA teams, but for the most part, players are playing at their best for their schools and their teammates. The NBA features players who are playing for their own selfish reasons, like their legacy and a new contract when they reach free agency, which is understandable, but the association lacks the sense of purity that the NCAA tournament offers.

What makes NCAA basketball all the better is the fact that the players are our age, and come from a variety of backgrounds. They are students just like us, and it is amazing to see players from all across the country and sometimes across the world forget their differences, join together and rely on each other doing something that they love. A perfect example of all of this is last Sunday’s Wichita State and Kentucky game.

I’m sure that fans of Wichita State were so proud of their underdog school from Kansas having a historical run, and playing a powerhouse school like Kentucky on the national stage. For me, it is almost unthinkable that Kentucky had a lineup full of freshmen starting in such an important game with 19,000 people watching.

I’ve no idea how I would react, and I’m happy that I will never have to find out.

On the other hand, Wichita State went on a historic 35-0 run, but it was sadly ended, and the Wichita State seniors saw their dreams of a historic season crushed as a chance at victory clanged off the rim as time expired, but that is the beauty of the game; it is just a game. You can leave it out on the floor and at the end of the day, it doesn’t mean anything, and you can just be happy that you participated in such a fun and exciting event. For many players, this is their last time playing the sport they love competitively, so their driving passion for their sport is being put into every play because they need to and if they don’t, it could be their last game. In one month, there are numerous games that contain so much excitement...and we have the opportunity to join in as we watch people put their hearts out on the line, in a safe way. We share in their victories, and unfortunately, most of the time we share their heartbreak.

There can only be one winner, because in this tournament style championship, you know that the winner of NCAA tournament has played their best basketball every game that they have played; otherwise, they would have lost. There are no seven game playoffs like the NBA, no what ifs, only one game each day to decide the fates of these teams, and often enough, the dreams of players who have been playing basketball ever since they could hold the ball in their hands.

Because of all of this, March in college basketball is aptly called “March Madness.” There are emotional highs and lows for people across the country, but at least in the end, it is just the game, and I’m happy that I’m able to sit back and watch it.

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March 27, 2014

Women’s lacrosse faces tough competition in Colorado Amreen Bhasin reporter

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courtesy of Vassar College Athletics

he women’s lacrosse team spent their spring break training and playing in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The team went 2-1 on the trip and 4-1 over the break. Overall the trip was very successful with the team dropping just one game, their season opener against a DII Regis University. Colorado was a different locale than their usual spring break trip. The team has gone to Florida in the past, but Colorado provided tougher competition and a great change of pace for the Brewers.

The women began their trip by dropping their season opener to Regis University 19-8.

Despite the loss, the Brewers saw strong play from many of its attackers. Junior Dara Davis had the game high for the Brewers, netting four goals off of just nine shots. Sophomore Izzy Goldstein scored two goals out of her three shots and freshman Julia Trudell scored her first two collegiate goals while also ending with a perfect shot percentage. The Rangers took an early lead against the Brewers, ending the half 11-3 after scoring six in a row. The Brewers quickly rebounded and had a five-goal scoring run spurred on by Davis and Goldstein. The Brewers managed to bring the game as close as 11-8. The Brewers scored on three of their eight free positions with Davis scoring on two of three. Junior captain and defender Jacqueline Palma forced a team-high three turnovers and three ground balls. The Brewers won 16 to Regis’ 13 draw controls with Davis winning a game-high seven.

The Brewers certainly found Regis their stiffest competition. Despite the loss, senior Catherine Fiore was proud of her team’s efforts and found the game helpful for their overall season. In an emailed statement, she expressed the intensity of the level of play they faced.

“The competition we faced was high. All the teams we faced were skilled. The DII team was the most difficult game so far, that was a learning experience in itself and prepared us for the rest of the season.”

The women immediately rebounded from

The women’s lacrosse team, including sophomore Isabelle Goldstein pictured above, spent their spring break playing in Colorado Spring, Colo. The team went 2-1 on the trip and 4-1 over the break. their loss and picked up a 15-8 victory against the Tigers of Colorado College. Four separate players had three or more goals on the game.

Davis was four for four on free position shots.

Goldstein also had four goals. Trudell had her first collegiate hat-trick. The Brewers came out strong, scoring the first five goals of the game.

Botticelli had a strong game for the Brewers, picking up five ground balls.

To conclude their trip, the Brewers pulled out a 16-11 thriller against Denison University. The Brewers had a strong first half with 10 goals. They were five of seven on free positions. Davis was two of three once again, scoring four goals in total. Goldstein also scored four and had two assists. Davis had a game-best four ground balls as well. Junior Kate Pula had an impressive game stopping nine of 20 shots on goal from Denison. She was also 14 of 18 on clearing attempts. The Brewers caused 13 turn-

overs and led with a 17-12 draw control advantage.

Fiore was incredibly pleased with the impact the trip had on her team both on and off the field. “It helped our fitness level for sure. The altitude was rough. We spent a lot of time hiking and just enjoying each other’s company.”

Despite the success of the trip, Fiore did not feel that her team had hit their best yet. “I feel really strongly about our potential, we have definitely not yet peaked. As we continue to grow and work outside on the turf, we will improve our cohesion and level of play.”

Trudell also felt that the trip impacted her team’s ability to adapt and play against anything. “Going to Colorado not having really played outside was definitely tough but I think we adjusted well. Seeing as we are a very adaptable team I think we can play in just about anything against anyone. We’ve got some com-

petitive games ahead of us, but I’m feeling optimistic.”

After Colorado the Brewers came back and won two games before ending the break.

The first was against Mount Saint Mary College. The Brewers earned a 19-7 victory with a strong offensive showing. Both Davis and Trudell had 5-point showings with three goals and two assists. Goldstein chalked up four assists, tying her career best. Davis, Goldstein, Trudell, sophomore Kim Mulvehill and freshman Brittany Botticelli ‘17 all had two goals.

Junior Sophia Rosetti and freshmen Sydney Spadinger, Darby Stahl and Phoebe Hankins all had a goal apiece. Junior goalie Hilary McDonnell earned the win playing the first half with two saves and four goals allowed. Sophomore goalie Mallory Tyler had four saves with two goals allowed in the second half.

The Brewers rounded out their spring break with a 13-4 win against College at Old Westbury.

Mulvehil had 3 goals, Hankins had 2 goals and an assist, and junior Leigh Anne Baldwin had 2 assists and a goal in the victory. Spadinger and Trudell also netted a goal each with Trudell also adding an assist. The Brewers took a 4-0 lead with goals scored by Hankins, Baldwin, Mulvehill and sophomore Paige Abramowitz.

Senior Nicole Magney, Palma, Fiore and junior Evie Toland all had their first goals of the season. Tyler had two saves and two goals and earned the win. Pula had one save and McDonnell made two.

The team has high hopes for the rest of the season. Trudell has been nothing but pleased with her team’s performance so far and holds only optimism going ahead. “Over the past few weeks, our team has definitely improved and I can see us only getting better.” Furthermore, she hopes her team captures a title this year. “I think as a team we share the same goal, winning liberty leagues.”

Fiore took that goal one step further. “To make it to the NCAA.” The Brewers will open Liberty League play this Friday, home against Skidmore College at 4 p.m.

Brewers compete in difficult matches on spring trips Chris Brown SportS eDitor

Men’s Tennis

Women’s Tennis

The Vassar women’s tennis team also spent their spring break playing in California. The team earned its first victory on its California spring break trip with a 9-0 sweep of Principia College on Sunday afternoon. Freshman Emily Hallewell and sophomore Winnie Yeates got the doubles started at the No. 2 position with a 8-0 win over Caitlin Carney and Lily Richards

campus against Sacred Heart University.

Men’s and Women’s Track

Women’s Rugby

The Vassar men’s and women’s track team opened their season for the 2014 year with a spring break competition at the University of Arizona. Sophomore Taylor Vann was the first Brewer to compete this season. Vann chalked up a school record 6.34 meters in the long jump. In the 200, junior Heather Ingraham just missed setting a school record, as she posted a personal best with a 25.79 in the event. Sophomore Mollie Schear and senior Carrie Perkins both set personal records as well in the 200 meters. On the men’s side in the 200 meters, junior Harris Gordon and sophomore Peter Winkeller both set personal bests for Vassar. Freshman Jemma Howlett ran her first meet as a Brewer in the 5,000 meters, booking a 18:45, followed closely by senior Kate Snider and her 18:47.

The Vassar women’s rugby team also spent their break in Trinidad, sweeping all their matches against their opponents. Their first match was against the Trinidad North Select team, which they took 45-15. Senior Margaret Kwateng led the team with a total of three tries.

Their next match was against Trinidad South Select, which they won 54-15. Freshman Natalie Freeman was the lead player for this match, having a total of three tries. In their final match against Trinidad Combined Select, the team won 41-0. The team will look to face Fordham University this Saturday, March 29, on Vassar’s campus.

courtesy of Vassar College Athletics

The men’s tennis team spent their spring break playing difficult matches in California.

Their first match was against Chapman University on March 10. Freshman Nick Litsky got his first ever collegiate match-clinching win.

Litsky defeated Troy Akin of the Panthers (2-3) in the only singles bout that went into a third set. Sophomores Evan Udine and Sha Huang got things rolling for the Brewers with an 8-5 doubles win over Justin Thompson and Zach Resnick at No. 3. Litsky and junior Christian Lyon earned a close, 8-6 victory at No. 2 against Charlie Werman and Sam Mitledorf. In their second match against California Lutheran University, Udine picked up his first win against an opponent from a nationally-ranked team in his college career. He defeated Sean Handley 7-5, 6-3 at No. 5 singles. Sophomore Christian Phelps earned a No. 3 singles win against Connor Treacy 6-4, 6-2. The Brewers ended up losing 2-7. The team also claimed a 3-6 loss against the University of Rochester. Cooper first teamed with fellow sophomore captain Phelps for an 8-4 win over Julian Danko and Jonny Baker. He then took on Ben Shapiro in singles and won the three-set match, 6-4, 1-6, 6-2. The final spring break match was against Whittier College. The Brewers lost 2-7 to the ranked team. Vassar men’s tennis will begin Liberty League play once again on Saturday, March 29 against St. Lawrence University.

for the Brewers (2-1, 0-1 Liberty League). Sophomore Lauren Stauffer and freshman Connie Yoo continued the action with an 8-3 win over AC McMullen and Nathalie DeLoach. Junior Samantha Schapiro and sophomore Kelsey Van Noy also had a tough win for the Brewers. The Brewers then faced nationally ranked Bowdoin College, and ended up losing 2-7. The team had a hard 0-9 loss the next match as well, which was against Pamona College. Schapiro had two close matches at the No. 1 position for both singles and doubles. She teamed with freshman Shayna Becker in an 8-5 defeat to Sammy Chao and Lea Lynn Yen. Schapiro met Chao again in singles, falling 6-2, 6-4. The team came back for the next match, winning 8-1 against California Technical Institute. Van Noy and Yeates both posted 6-0 sets in singles for the Brewers (3-3). Van Noy topped Katie Antilla at No. 6 with mirrored results in both sets. Yeates defeated Michelle Lee 6-4, 6-0 at No. 3. Yeates also teamed with freshman Hallewell at No. 2 doubles, picking up the solid 8-1 win. Van Noy partnered with sophomore Stauffer for an 8-3 victory against Michelle Tange and Valerie Pietrasz. In their final match of the trip, the team pulled off a 6-3 win against Chapman University. The Brewers (4-3) got off to an early 2-1 lead following doubles. The Brewers will next travel to Canton, NY for Liberty League play against the Saints of St. Lawrence University on Saturday, March 29.

Men’s Rugby

Over the recent break, the men’s rugby team traveled to Port of Spain, Trinidad to play matches against local and regional teams.

The team lost their first match again the Trinidad Presidents 15-36, but quickly won their next match against the Trinidad South Select team.31-28 several days later. Player Danny Thomas led the team with a total of three tries, while junior Jesse Myhill followed suit with a total of three cons. The team will face their next match on Saturday, March 29 on Vassar’s

Over the past spring break, many Vassar athletic teams spent their time away from campus, yet continuing playing matches. The tennis teams went to California while the rugby teams went to Trinidad.

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