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October 05, 2006
Weekly Calendar 10/6-10/12
The BackPage | As goes Harvard, so goes the nation
Vassar hosts top players in tennis tourney
Lucas Mann
The Annual Wilson/Intercollegiate Tennis Association Championship made its 2006 home at Vassar College from Sept. 29-Oct. 1. Entries from 17 different northeastern colleges converged in Poughkeepsie.
Yoga Club provides students space to stretch out stress
Emma Carmichael
It’s often difficult for college students to find time to relax in the midst of their busy schedules. Classes, meetings, practices, and meals take up much of their days, and find ing time to unwind and slow down their bodies is a challenge. One of Vassar’s newest organizations, the Yoga Club, offers students an outlet of this sort.
Double Entente multi-media exhibit on display in Palmer
Anita Varma
Double Entente, local artist Monica d. Church’s multi-media installation at the James W. Palmer Gallery, consists of five pieces that address fear and denial in American society as related to the threat of avian flu.
Paul Muldoon reads as part of Bishop series
Lauren Tennenbaum
As part of the Elizabeth Bishop Poetry Series, 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon gave a well-received reading of his work at Vassar on Thursday, Sept. 28 in Sanders Auditorium. Currently a professor at Princeton University, Muldoon taught for five years at Oxford University and has been the recipient of several honorary awards, including the T.S. Eliot Prize and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for literature. His work has been reviewed by nearly every major literary journal and magazine, including The New York Times, which classified Muldoon’s work as “witty, oblique poetry that in the best post-modernist fashion focuses on the slippery equivocations of language itself.”
Modern adaptation of “Pygmalion” opens at Powerhouse Theater
Rachel Pittenger
As we enter October, Vassar’s drama season arrives in full force. Within the drama department, the buzz about the upcoming production of “Pygmalion” is growing. Not only does it feature some of Vassar’s most talented actors, but it is also a unique spin on the traditional play.
Bardavon theater offers a classic film experience
Rachel Pittinger
For those students looking to explore the arts world outside the Vassar gates, the Bardavon theater is a great place to start. The historic theater was built in 1869, and hosts everything from concerts to shows to Vassar’s own Repertory Dance Theatre every year. The Bardavon will also begin its annual film series in November, providing an exciting and reasonably priced opportunity to enjoy high-quality films.
Vassar scientists make national news
Joshua Goodman
Misho Ishikawa
In recent months, several Vassar science professors have generated excitement on campus and off for their various projects and research grants. Professors Janet Gray, John Long, and Joseph Tanski have all received media attention for their work.
Vassar Technology Today | Useful tips for achieving peace with your PC
Matthew Leung
At this point in the semester, with midterms looming and thesis projects in early stages of development, we are reminded each day of how much we depend on hassle-free, harmonious relationships with our personal computers. Here are a few common sense (yet necessary) tips for getting along with the machines that are so important to our daily lives.
Stigmas confronted by Atheist League
Daniela Valdez
The April 2006 issue of The American Sociological Review published a study on race, religion, and cultural diversity in the United States. This publication is one of the first of a three-year study conducted by the American Mosaic Project of the University of Minnesota. The national study, based on a telephone survey of more than 2,000 households and in-depth interviews with more than 140 people, reported that “Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, homosexuals and other groups as ‘sharing their vision of American society.’ Americans are also least willing to let their children marry atheists.” Penny Edgell, lead researcher in a study of American attitudes towards atheism noted, “Americans traditionally have been a religious people and associate faith with being a good citizen.”
This Week at Vassar in 1980
Staff Editorial | Proposed student’s database unsettling
Alarming developments in the world of higher education have sparked mixed reactions among educators to reports from federal Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings.
Eye On America |Liberal media looking in wrong places
Ross Weingarten
Okay Vassar students, it’s time to take a survey. Raise your hand if you think The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is the best half-hour on television. Hands down. Now raise your hand if you think FOX News is just slightly below Satan and Stalin on the list of things that make you cringe.
Views On Vassar |More frequent, shorter breaks in year would be beneficial
Tendai Musakwa
Ovid, the ancient Roman classical poet, once advised in one of his poems, “Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.” It is for this exact reason— rejuvenating ourselves so that we can gain more from our academic and extracurricular activities—that the College has breaks in the school year. While most people would agree that breaks are needed, the question remains: is it more useful to have longer spring and winter breaks as we currently do, or would it be more practical to have shorter breaks interspersed throughout the semester? I contend that having shorter breaks is more practical for college students. Shorter breaks allow students to re-invigorate themselves on a regular basis and makes it possible for them to focus on academics during their breaks. This would give them more time to concentrate on their program of study.
Object Lessons | Feminists need to voice opinions on issues besides women’s affairs
Carolyn Bradley
By this point, it has become a party line to say that feminism is facing its death bed, that the movement is losing relevance from focusing on “women’s issues” to the exclusion of broader concerns. In other words, as LiP Magazine recently put it, “The biggest problem with American feminism today is its obsession with women.” Like a high school student who only makes good grades, feminism needs to be more well-rounded, it seems. It must tackle larger questions about, say, domestic poverty or global war. Otherwise, feminism will go the way of the flapper outfit and the bob, and the whole project of modern American womanhood will be toast.
Staff Editorial | Delay in VSA election results problematic
The Vassar Student Association (VSA) fall elections ended in ambiguity when results were not announced at 10 p.m. on Tuesday as scheduled, and candidates were told at the elections party that results would come later that night. Tuesday night passed completely before any results were final, however, and an e-mail was not sent out until Wednesday morning. Although voting itself ran relatively smoothly as opposed to past years (one recalls last spring’s quick switch to paper ballots), this delay between when VSA planned to announce the results and when they actually did certainly did not help to restore student confidence in VSA elections, which VSA President Abel McDonnell ’07 identified at Convocation as his top goal for the year.
Letter to the Editor | US should say no to the Metric system
I must admit, when I read Evan Casper-Futterman’s article, “Assessing weight (in pounds) of empire” (9.22.06 issue of The Miscellany News), I had an immediate reaction. I've long supported metrification simply because the Metric system is a better system— the English system is old-fashioned and convoluted, while the Metric system is hip, modern, and logical. And while bitching about the confusion of the metric system is certainly a nice default conversation topic while abroad, you learn the length of a kilometer very quickly. It’s not hard. We could switch, we really could.
Letter to the Editor | Aims of Sept. 11 chalkers misinterpreted
Zachary Kaye wrote in his Letter to the Editor “Sept. 11 inappropriate day for chalking,” (in the 9.22.06 issue of The Miscellany News) that the chalkers who wrote on campus sidewalks statements such as “Iraq ≠ 9/11” and “Impeach Bush” acted childishly and disrespectfully. He believes that the chalkers had unnecessarily politicized 9/11, marring the memory of the innocent people whose lives were lost on that tragic, awful day.
Zorona’s plans for garden space hookah bar halted by College
Katie Paul
Rachel Wolff
After more than a year of wrangling over the terms of their lot rental, the owners of Zorona Restaurant and Hookah Bar are frustrated with their landlords. College Properties, LLC, the College’s real estate business, has put a stop to plans to develop the garden space next to Zorona Restaurant’s new home into an open-air hookah bar.
Baldwin provides new HPV vaccine
Juliana Kiyan
During the last week of September, the Women’s Health Center began offering Gardasil, a vaccine that guards against cervical cancer and genital warts caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), the most common sexually transmitted disease.
Green candidate stumps on campus
Stephen Cheng
Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins, who is running for the New York Senate seat in November, addressed a small audience on Sunday, Oct. 1 about the war in Iraq, health care, and renewable energy. Hawkins, the first politician to campaign at Vassar since 1988, spoke critically of his opponent, incumbent Senator Hillary Clinton (D), and of the Democratic Party. The Vassar Green Party, a new organization on campus, hosted Hawkins, who co-founded the U.S. Green Party in 1984.
Dorms undergo asbestos removal
Nadine Reitman
On Thursday, Sept. 28, an asbestos abatement project took place in Josselyn and Cushing Houses. The project, which is part of a larger effort on campus to gradually update all of the dorms, was done by state-licensed asbestos contractors BSB Construction, Inc. of Poughkeepsie.
News Briefs
Photo of the Week
October 01, 2006
VSA fall elections conclude, results delayed
Shahreen Saifie
At 8 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 25, students began voting on-line for their choice candidates for the fall Vassar Student Association (VSA) elections.
