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April 28, 2006
Katie Paul
In a set of meetings on Sunday, April 16, two students challenged the validity of the Vassar Student Assocation (VSA) spring 2006 elections conducted on Tuesday, April 18.
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With the end of this semester comes the end of College President Fran Fergusson’s 20-year tenure at Vassar. The upcoming transition to a new leader provides an opportunity for students to reflect on how Fergusson has shaped the College.
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Joshua Goodman
With Founder’s Day less than ten days away, final preparations are underway for the annual celebration. The Founder’s Day Committee is trying to ensure that all events go as planned as they make the best of a tight financial situation.
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Finally, the end is in sight. While you may not remember most of the school year, the most important music is probably still readily accessible on your hard drive. Here are the ten albums that made a difference this school year.
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Danny Fahey
The Vassar men’s tennis team played its last season under the tutelage of Head Coach Roman Czula in the spring of 2005. After taking the 2005-2006 season off, Czula announced that he would retire and would not be coaching the 2006-2007 season. Czula will not disappear from Vassar Athletics entirely, as he will return from his year-long hiatus to the position as Head of the Life and Fitness Department and a professor in the Physical Education Department.
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It’s almost graduation—time to try leaving Vassar for the year (or forever). But before you can go, you must complete all the tasks on the board. Be sure to watch out for Security! Good luck getting out!
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Josh Ferguson
Vassar students are working with Poughkeepsie community immigration activists to organize a May 1 march in support of the millions of undocumented workers in the United States. The march is set to coincide with nationwide rallies protesting anti-immigrant sentiments and a boycott.
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Joe Rozek
On Sunday, April 23, the Vassar Student Association (VSA) unanimously passed a resolution supporting Counseling and Assistance in Response to Rape and Exploitive Sexual Activity (CARES) and Sexual Abuse and Violence Prevention (SAVP).
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Hayley Tsukayama
Heated discussion over the “KryStal” party, hosted by Queer Coalition of Vassar College (QCVC), stirred the student and faculty communities this past week. The controversy stemmed from the party’s name, which some felt was disrespectful to the ongoing struggle with methamphetamines faced by much of the country’s gay community.
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John Palmer
The Publication Task Force presented its proposal for the Vassar Student Association (VSA) by-laws to the student body in an open meeting Wednesday, April 19. The Task Force, composed of nine students who have met weekly since November 2005, did not propose any specific censorship procedures but did outline procedures to address offensive content printed in VSA-sponsored publications.
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Ian Saxine
Starting out this column, I remember worrying that I would run out of things to write about after my first three submissions, spread over six weeks. Looking back, that seems funny, considering that now I write every week, and still find myself bumping up against the upper reaches of my allotted word count.
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Andrew Block
Ask yourself if this sounds familiar: “I’m not a racist, but...” Following the ellipsis is a statement that criticizes anti-racist efforts, but then fails to show any actual commitment to improving them. The “I’m not a racist, but...” (INARB) discourse discourages anti-racist work, encourages political complacency, and thereby supports the existing systems of racism that so define our lives.
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The on-line posting of book lists would make it easier for students to find out what books they need. Moreover, it would save students money. Posting the book list online would greatly benefit those who spend hundreds of dollars on textbooks every semester.
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John Palmer
President Frances Daly Fergusson has made news since arriving on campus in 1986.
The Miscellany News talked with Fergusson on April 25, 2006 to reflect on the last 20 years of
Miscellany News coverage. Fergusson is concluding her final school year at the College.
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Acacia O'Connor
President Fran Fergusson has often been lauded for her campaigns to renovate and construct buildings that improve the College campus. The piece-by-piece restoration of Vassar’s buildings and grounds led by Fergusson will continue up until her departure at the end of this term.
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Hayley Tsukayama
As the current Chairman of the Vassar College Board of Trustees, Van Demark has made a quiet name for himself as a humble and hard-working man. As we celebrate the Fergusson years, students should be thinking about the Van Demark years as well. As Board Chair, Van Demark has worked with the College for 22 years.
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Emma Esptein
While matriculation confirmation will continue to stream into the Admissions Office for weeks after the May 1 postmark deadline, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid David Borus says that Vassar’s newest class is expected to be a promising group.
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Sarah Brown
During the past academic year, the Sustainability Committee has been trying to transform the campus into one that is more energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly. The Committee, which meets every other Friday at 12 p.m. in the Jade Parlor, was created this year with the intention of providing a forum for students and administrators to devise ways to instigate positive environmental changes at Vassar.
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Lauren Sutherland
Blegen House and the Queer Coalition of Vassar College (QCVC) welcomed Vassar alum Kiana Moore ’02 to campus on Thursday, April 20. Moore, a transsexual currently working for a Hollywood production company as well as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), delivered a lecture entitled “Lifetime Transitions: One Transsexual’s Story.”
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Matthew Leung
Public computer clusters are popular on college campuses. A common question that arises among users is: after accessing password-protected sites on a public computer, is it possible for someone to access your account if you close the browser window but forget to log out?
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David Knowles
Max McCurdy is waging war on a toy drum machine, and the drum machine is losing. Badly. Its guts lie strewn about on the table in front of him, and as he rips out the machine’s plastic-coated wiring and reattaches it to the circuit board, it lets out a high-pitched screech.
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Mike Newmark
A review of
The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living by The Streets.
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Marcella Veneziale
The Vassar experience at the center of a new Fred Durst film is an unfamiliar one for many students. Various film websites, as well as
Variety magazine, have described the soon-to-be-filmed
The Education of Charlie Banks as the story of a Vassar student who receives a visit from “the scariest kid from his old New York neighborhood”
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Rachel Pittenger
“The five D's of dodgeball: dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge,” said Patches O’Houlihan, the gruff coach from the movie
Dodgeball. O’Houlihan knew a thing or two about the art of the game, but plenty of Vassar students showed up to the Daisy Chain tournament on April 21 to prove that they could also master the fundamentals.
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Jimmy McCumber
One freshman who has distinguished himself as a future star of the relatively young Vassar men’s tennis team is Jeremy Rosen ’09. Rosen was recognized as Liberty League Rookie of the Week on April 17.
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Steve Buonfiglio
It rained last weekend. It rained a lot. It was supposed to rain even more than it did. So I watched
Jumanji and
Twister instead of watching Kevin You’re Such a Disease and W.E.B. and da Boyz play softball.
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April 21, 2006
Katie Paul
In a campus-wide e-mail sent late Sunday evening, the VSA Council and Board of Elections wrote that the change to paper ballots was made because “the VSA elections software continues to malfunction as a result [of] the shift onto a new server and the hacking of the VSA server earlier this year.”
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Last week’s Vassar Student Association (VSA) elections broke the norm of the past four years with a return to paper ballots. The return to paper ballots is a welcome change. But unfortunately, the campus was notified of the switch to paper ballots less than 48 hours before voting was to begin. While the VSA should be commended for making the switch in time to hold elections, the cut-off for testing the electronic voting system should have been earlier.
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Sarah Brown
April 20, affectionately called “4/20” by those who celebrate it, is considered the holiest day in cannabis culture. Although smoking marijuana is illegal almost everywhere in the United States (some areas of California allow medicinal use), 4/20 celebrations are prevalent on many college campuses nationwide.
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Walter Padilla
The semester-old FWA (Future Waitstaff of America) is now in the rehearsal stages for Laurence O’Keefe’s
Bat Boy: The Musical, with story and book by Keythe Farley and Brian Fleming. Based on a
Weekly World News article,
Bat Boy is a modern rock musical whose central character, a half-boy, half-bat, must overcome the prejudices and dangers in the small town of Hope Falls, VA, where a caring family takes him in.
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Danney Fahey, Acacia O'Connor
From her seat in a crowd of 200 people, Vassar squash Coach Jane Parker watched England’s Tania Bailey defeat New Zealand’s Shelley Kitchen in the final of the Women’s International Squash Player’s Association (WISPA) tournament.
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Hayley Tuskayama
After revising the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Constitution, the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) has begun to overhaul the document’s by-laws.
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Lauren Sutherland
On Tuesday, April 18, the Vassar chapter of Democracy Matters: Students for Clean Elections hosted a panel discussion entitled “Progressive Politics and Clean Elections,” which included various political personalities such as the New Paltz Mayor Jason West. The discussion focused on campaign finance reform as a means of bringing important national issues to the forefront of the democratic process.
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Ian Saxine
Normally I’m not a big fan of reality TV. But when I saw a commercial for a modern “black like me” conceptual show set in present-day Los Angeles, I was intrigued.I watched the first episode of the six-part series mostly out of curiosity...
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Andrew Block
By creating a resource center and studies program dedicated to social justice, the College would augment students’ academic experience at Vassar, while enabling them to become more involved in community building activity.
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Julia Fiore, Katie Mae Unruhe
The recent Duke University lacrosse scandal has spurred many discussions around the Vassar campus. It is a particularly compelling issue for us because we grew up in Durham and are very familiar with the resentment many Durham residents hold towards Duke and its students. This reminded us of the sentiments some Vassar students have towards Poughkeepsie.
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John Delap
From September 2001 through May 2005, I served on the Student Advisory Committee on the Evaluation of Teaching (SACET). The committee was charged with writing letters of recommendation relaying an affirmative or negative position regarding a particular candidate’s reappointment or promotion.
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Emma Epstein
Student government has existed in some form at Vassar since 1868. Since then, it has changed with the times, adopting different names and constitutions, and undergoing two complete overhauls. But no matter what troubles arose, elections have been held every year.
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Josh Goodman
For students participating in Vassar’s Inter-Group Dialogues, the final ceremony on May 4 will conclude a semester of challenging discourse. Vassar students involved in the spring dialogues this year are taking up the challenging issues of “Gender Realities” as well as a dialogue between black and Jewish students.
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Martha Knauf
Main House sponsored its first “Communiday” on Saturday, April 15. The event was meant to stimulate dialogue between Vassar students and community members about the divide between Poughkeepsie residents and Vassar students. While the day was meant to draw residents of both Vassar and Poughkeepsie, attendance was surprising low.
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Matthew Leung
Streaming video and audio on-line often costs a lot of money, as it requires a specialized streaming server. However, with an alternative video-streaming method called progressive download, it is possible to use Vspace to stream videos in Windows Media or QuickTime format.
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Emma Epstein
On April 23, 1984, then-Vassar President Virginia B. Smith debated U.S. Representative Gerald Solomon (R, N.Y.) on the televised “MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour” about the constitutionality of his proposed amendment, which denied federal financial aid to male students who had not registered for the draft.
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Mike Newmark
A review of the new Built to Spill album
You in Reverse.
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Jimmy McCumber
Dominating both offensively and defensively this year, Garrett King ’08 has been a key player on the men’s rugby team. The team’s spring season is off to a great start, having won five games in a row after opening the year with two losses to top British teams over spring break.
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Rachel Pittenger
Look out world, here comes Vassar Ultimate Frisbee! The women’s A-Team was one of three to advance to the regional play-offs as a result of their exceptional performance in the April 14 and April 15 Metro New York Women’s Sectionals. The frisbee players, also known as the Boxing Nuns, pulled off big victories in the early rounds of the tournament, which was held at the Vassar Farm and Prentiss Field.
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Juliana Kiyan
The Vassar Student Association (VSA) spring 2006 elections results were tallied by hand on Wednesday, April 19. Students selected the 2006-2007 VSA executive board, Class of 2007, 2008, and 2009 Councils, house team leadership, Judicial Board positions, and Committee representatives.
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April 14, 2006
Lauren Sutherland
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department discovered the identity of the man responsible for a series of prank phone calls made to Vassar students over the past year.
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While tuition has predictably increased over the years, the majority of students who plan to live in senior housing were surprised and upset by a new $500 charge that covers maintenance of the apartments. Unfortunately, the new charge is indicative of a contradiction at the College: while encouraging students to stay on campus for the residential college experience, Vassar is making it increasingly expensive and therefore unfeasible to do so.
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Josh Goodman
In the days leading up to Earth Day (which is on April 22), Vassar will celebrate its annual Earth Week. Vassar Greens has been working for the past semester to expand on last year’s extravaganza by including more interactive workshops and adding speakers who will help promote awareness of different issues plaguing the environment.
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Sarah Palermo
Crossing the finish line to win the men’s Category A race at the Boston Beanpot, Peter Horn ’08 could have been asking for some overdue respect from the entire crowd at the April 8 cycling race.
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So, it’s Passover time and you’re stuck here at Vassar. Well, pull yourself up by the bootstraps, grab your V-card and head over to ACDC, because we here at the Backpage have created the perfect Passover seder utilizing only foodstuffs that can be found in our lovely campus dining center.
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Katie Paul
The Vassar Student Association (VSA) Judicial Board impeached Class of 2007 Treasurer Nick Hormuth on Monday, April 10 for dereliction of duty.
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Hayley Tsukayama
On Sunday, April 2, the Vassar Student Association (VSA) gave PHOCUS, a campus photography club, $1,291 to help pay for a workshop run by photojournalist Serge St. Levy ’95. During deliberation over whether or not to grant the fund, the views of the Alumnae & Alumni of Vassar College (AAVC) caused some confusion. The unofficial policy of the AAVC suggests that alumnae/i should not be paid for lectures they give at Vassar.
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Ilyse Kramer
The Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council voted unanimously in favor of the revised VSA Constitution on Sunday, April 9, sending it to a referendum during Spring VSA elections April 17 and 18.
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Ian Saxine
The immigration debate is still going strong, and in the interest of finishing what I started, I’m going to build on last week’s article about economic issues relating to immigration and discuss another aspect. Most salient in my mind is the question: deporting people who are already here aside, what’s so bad about insisting that people enter your country legally?
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Martha Knauf
Three times each week, 15 Vassar students drive to downtown Poughkeepsie to mentor children living at the Grace Smith House with their mothers who are victims of domestic abuse.
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Matthew Leung
The Internet is not as anonymous as you may think. Few people know that every time you visit a website, you reveal your Internet Protocol (IP) address to the owner of the website.
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Emma Epstein
In the spring of 1995, administrators and alumnae/i teamed up to develop Internet capabilities for the college.
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Freddy Deknatel
The Friends of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center (FLLAC) will honor President Fran Fergusson's 20 years at Vassar with the permanent installation of 20 bench sculptures by conceptual artist Jenny Holzer.
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Mike Newmark
A review of the new Flaming Lips album
At War with the Mystics
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Lauren Tennenbaum
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center boasts an impressive 16,000 pieces in its collection, yet it has only enough gallery space to properly display around three percent of this collection at a time. Therefore, there are many decisions for those in charge of the FLLAC to make regarding which of Vassar’s works will hang on the gallery walls.
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Rachel Pittenger
Spring in Poughkeepsie came just in time for students’ return from spring break, as evidenced by the masses of people drawn outside by recent 70-degree weather.
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Danny Fahey
In a game where Vassar appeared to have control in the early innings, the New Paltz Hawks scored at least one run in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth innings on their way to a 9-4 win. The loss to New Paltz shut off some of the energy that the Brewers had built after a win at Stevens Technical Institute and from taking two out of four games against Liberty League rival Skidmore.
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Jimmy McCumber
Under the scoring prowess of Liberty League leader Ali Fantl ’07, the women’s lacrosse team has been one of the nation’s most improved teams over the past three years, going from 3-11 in 2004 to 8-9 in 2005.
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Steven Buonfiglio
Spring has sprung! If you doubt me, I can only say that the IM signs of spring have been abundant.
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Marcella Veneziale
For fans of poet Elizabeth Bishop ’34, the recently-released book,
Edgar Allan Poe & the Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts and Fragments, provides a glimpse into the workings of this private writer’s mind.
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April 07, 2006
Aaron Biberstein
In conjunction with the Senior Class Gift’s renovation of Matthew’s Mug, College administrators have been considering the sale of the Mug’s liquor license to Aramark, the corporation that runs food services on campus.
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ViCE’s changes to their constitution are laudable in their attempt to restructure and ultimately operate more efficiently. But general elections for the top positions provide an opportunity of “checks and balances” for students, and the opportunity to have an active say in the leaders of student organizations by voting should not be compromised.
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Ilyse Kramer
On Thursday, April 6, the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (RSL) will sponsor a puppet show for the middle school as part of the Good Neighbors Partnership.
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Marcella Veneziale
Grand Gestures: Celebrating Rembrandt commemorates not only the 400th anniversary of the well-known Dutch artist’s birth. Rembrandt van Rijn’s etchings, along with two drawings, will be displayed from April 7 to June 11, concluding the academic year at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center (FLLAC).
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Acacia O'Connor
The Vassar men’s lacrosse team battled Oberlin College on Sunday, April 2 in one of the most exciting matches this season.
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Fabian Arzuaga
On Sunday, April 2, seven students began distributing fliers across campus in defense of Saied Ghaffarian ’08, who was allegedly suspended on March 29.
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Katie Paul
The Vassar Student Association (VSA) voted at their meeting on Sunday, April 2, to remove the Student Advisory Committee on the Evaluation of Teaching (SACET) positions on the spring 2006 VSA elections ballot.
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Juliana Kiyan
“Ethnic Studies at Vassar,” a student-faculty conversation held Wednesday April 5, spotlighted the campaign of the Ethnic Studies Coalition (ESC).
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Hayley Tsukayama
The Learning and Teaching Center (LTC) will host its second annual senior research symposium on Saturday, April 8 at 1 p.m in Taylor 203. Thirteen students—ranging in concentrations from English to Biology to Italian—will speak for about ten minutes each on their respective senior projects.
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Ian Saxine
The House of Representatives has recently passed legislation that will turn undocumented immigration into a felony, rather than a misdemeanor. Debate is already raging at all levels of government and in the streets, where tens of thousands of mostly pro-immigrant protesters have gathered in the past week.
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Emma Epstein
To most, Spring Break conjures up images of drunken debauchery, golden tans, and the beach. College kids would rather do anything but work over the break, right? Wrong. A group of Vassar students spent this vacation participating in school programs.
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Sam Bloch
Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE) has drafted a new constitution which outlines a sea change in structure and student involvement in the organization. ViCE Music Chair Max Freed ’06 presented the document to the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council on April 2.
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Mike Newmark
A review of the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs' album
Show Your Bones.
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Paul Babin
The Friends of the Francis Lehman Loeb Art Center will screen Tony Silver’s documentary
Style Wars on Thursday, April 6.
Style Wars is a documentary on the graffiti problem that plagued (or redefined, depending on who you ask) New York City’s subways throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s.
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Danny Fahey
As the hot sun meandered across the sky on a brilliant Sunday afternoon, the Vassar women’s tennis team took part in the Seven Sisters Tournament held at Vassar College on April 1 and April 2.
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Sarah Palermo, Rachel Pittenger
In their first game back in the United States after a tour of England and France, the Vassar women’s rugby team clearly did not have jet lag. They trounced over, skipped around, and bashed through the Columbia University team on April 1 with a final score of 54-0, due to the efforts of an entire team of talented players.
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Jimmy McCumber
After several attempts to find a long-term head coach for the women’s soccer position, in early March, the Athletic Department announced the hiring of former Dartmouth Assistant Coach and German youth international player Richard Moller.
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New $100 parking fee added for 2006-2007
Nate Kimball, Sarah Brown
In the weeks before the school year starts, Vassar freshmen are inundated with pamphlets that advise them on what to bring and what not to bring to campus. Despite the fact that the College does not recommend it, many students arrive on campus in late August with a car. Recent parking policy changes could potentially impact students’ transportation experience.
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New $100 parking fee added for 2006-2007
Nate Kimball, Sarah Brown
In the weeks before the school year starts, Vassar freshmen are inundated with pamphlets that advise them on what to bring and what not to bring to campus. Despite the fact that the College does not recommend it, many students arrive on campus in late August with a car. Recent parking policy changes could potentially impact students’ transportation experience.
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