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September 08, 2006
Weekly Calendar 9/8-9/14
Freshman Week-ish: A Retrospective
Freshman week is a rite of passage. This year’s froshies somehow got stuck having classes in the middle of theirs, but whatevs, too bad. We at The Miscellany News hope you still had a memorable time—if you can remember it at all. If not, here’s a rundown on what probably went down:
From an athlete’s perspective: Basketball and touring in Ireland
Evan Hannay
When I told my friends from home that I would be going to Ireland with the rest of the Vassar men’s basketball team at the end of the summer to compete, many asked incredulously why anyone would go to Ireland to play basketball. For them, the idea of traveling to Ireland for basketball, where sports such as Gaelic football, hurling, rugby, and, of course soccer dominate the national sports spectrum, is akin to going to Siberia to get a tan. Nevertheless, the trip was an extremely valuable experience. From Aug. 19 to Aug. 27, we had the unique opportunity to experience vibrant Irish culture and to participate in an under-the-radar yet passionate basketball scene.
Agassi bids final farewell to professional tennis
Jer Isseks
On Sunday, Sept. 3, professional tennis player Andre Agassi ended his career with a loss. It happened at the 2006 U.S. Open, in a match against a young German unknown named Benjamain Becker. Some, upon hearing this, shrugged and moved on. The end of Agassi may be the formal conclusion to an era in tennis, paving the way for the great Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and company to finally fully claim the tennis spotlight. Some refuse to let go of their deified image of Agassi, retirement or not, feeling strongly that Agassi was one of the most vibrant personalities in professional tennis.
Brewer athletes prepare for coming games
Fall sports teams train with rigorous pre-season practices
Jer Isseks
Walking through campus early on an August morning, a passerby is generally met by closed doors concealing students in their third REM cycle, an empty quad, an emptier All-Campus Dining Center, and general tranquility in all directions.
Times-featured exhibit on display at FLLAC
Lauren Tennenbaum
Subterranean Monuments, a temporary exhibit featured at the Francis Lehman Loeb Art Gallery, has been up for just over two months and has already been featured by The New York Times. The exhibit showcases the work of three New York-based artists, Rudy Burckhardt (1914-1999), Ray Johnson (1927-1994) and Peter Hujar (1934-1987), known for their eccentricities, reclusive nature, and the way they shunned the fame and glamour associated with mainstream culture.
NoViCE hosts small shows
Sam Bloch
An eclectic lineup of comedians, performance artists, rock bands, folk acts, and out-there world musicians will play at Vassar this semester. NoViCE, a self-described “small shows” wing of Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE), co-chaired by Jake Friedman ’07 and Zach Rottman ’07, will curate what Friedman called “frequent shows of a really diverse character.”
New writing specialist looks to create cross-campus dialogues on writing
Emily Drake
Lee Rumbarger has joined Vassar’s Writing Center as the College’s new writing specialist this year.
This Week at Vassar in 1985
Joshua Goodman
In the first week of the 1985-1986 academic year, an eight-month investigation conducted by Poughkeepsie Town Police ended with the arrests of three Vassar students charged with selling cocaine.
Vassar Technology Today | Beyond e-mail attachments: Ways to share files on-line
Beyond e-mail attachments: Ways to share files on-line
Matthew Leung
Sending Microsoft Word documents as attachments in e-mails is popular, but not many people realize the various troubles this can bring, since the sender has no control over the document once he or she hits the “send” button. There are simple alternatives, however, that allow the sender to securely send a document. Think of this as having your own bullet-proof truck to deliver your documents rather than using the public postal service.
Arlington Station provides late-night slices
Joshua Goodman
After hours of traveling and unpacking, only to find both the Retreat and the All Campus Dining Center closed, many returning Vassar students headed to their standby restaurant for late night meals: the Subterranean Skye Café. Those who made the trip to 7 Collegeview Avenue this year, however, were in for a surprise. Subterranean Skye had closed its doors and Arlington Station Pizza & Deli had opened in its place, garnering encouraging reactions from Vassar students.
Where are all the fresh-men in the Class of 2010?
Enrollment trends, uneven dorm assignments emphasize gender disparity
Lauren Sutherland
The idea of the co-ed college bathroom is sometimes worrisome to incoming Vassar freshmen, evoking images of overtaxed showers and toilets, as well as humiliating encounters with the opposite sex in varying degrees of undress. However, the comparatively pristine bathroom on the west wing of Josselyn House’s fourth floor is at odds with the conditions typical of many bathrooms on campus, something the freshmen girls who use it attribute to the lack of male residents on their floor.
After drive up from Florida, new House Advisor settles in
Among the multitude of new faces at Vassar this fall is Scott Radimer, House Advisor for Cushing and Noyes. Radimer has been on campus since late June, settling in and preparing for the 2006–2007 school year.
Habermann, with master’s in college
Like one-fourth of the student body, Assistant Director of Campus Activities Megan Habermann is new to the Vassar campus. In this position, Habermann is responsible for the organization and management of campus events, ranging from concerts and performances to lectures and meetings.
VSA President urges “open mind” for new year
Vassar Student Association (VSA) President Abel McDonnell ’07 has several plans and goals for the upcoming academic year. These goals range from improving the technology that VSA uses for elections to engaging in discussions about improving financial aid with new College President Catharine “Cappy” Hill.
Letters to the Editor: Still a time for action, not reflection on destructive effects of Katrina
It is funny that America has taken time out to remember us. For us New Orleaneans, the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina was just another day. On that day, a year ago, more than just homes were destroyed. I am telling you LIVES were destroyed, shattered, dismantled, chewed, spit out, chewed again, and thrown to the winds. How can we look back and reflect when the turmoil and chaos that Katrina has caused is still going on every day? People are still waiting on FEMA trailers, filing lawsuits with insurance companies, stuck in whatever city they were evacuated to, and grieving the loss of everything they worked hard for.
Coded, generic speech hinders language efficiency
Evan Casper-Futterman
It is no longer politically valuable (if it ever was) to note that President George W. Bush and his administration have an awkward, even antagonistic, relationship with the English language. But that does not mean that we should be able to get away with it either. If their troubles provide us with any “moral of the story,” it should be that the words we use mean what we want them to mean, because we have thought them through. We shouldn’t foster euphemized or coded language in academia simply because that is what the “real” world demands of us. I begin the semester with a criticism that indicts myself as much as anyone else on campus.
Staff Editorial: First anniversary of Hurricane Katrina highlights need for continued outreach efforts in New Orleans
August 29, 2006 marked the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Although a full year has passed, the destruction from the force of Katrina has not yet been repaired. While there is ongoing reconstruction of New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana, only half of the city’s population has returned, many people remain displaced. Approximately half of the $110 billion of government funding allocated to rebuilding the city has not found its way south. Clearly, the process of healing and rebuilding will take much longer than one year.
News Editor
