 Athlete of the Week | Tina Castellan makes lacrosse history in senior season
by The Miscellany News | Since 1866Jan 01, 2009“Tina Castellan ’08 drives to goal in the April 15 win over Western Connecticut. p>C.Eaccarino/ The Miscellany News
Lillian Reuman Guest Writer
The women’s lacrosse co-captain Tina Castellan ’08 made history on Saturday, April 12.
Down 9-3 with 24 minutes left in the second half against league opponent Rensselear Polytechnic Institute, the Brewers needed a strong comeback. Attack player Castellan scored three goals in the final 11 minutes of the game, including the game-winning goal with 14.8 seconds left on the clock for the win (11-10). This goal not only gave Vassar the win, but also earned Castellan her 163rd career goal as a Brewer, giving her the Vassar record for most career goals.
“I think I almost cried I was so happy,” Castellan reminisced. “There were still 14 seconds on the clock, so all I could think of at that moment was, ‘Get the ball so that we don’t have to go into overtime!’”
Castellan received the perfect pass from co-captain Christine Eaccarino ’09. Castellan said, “We have run that play so many times in games and practice, and now I know that all that work paid off.”
Castellan hails from Pennsylvania, where lacrosse has been a part of her life since elementary school. She now considers the Vassar lacrosse team her family.
“I have a billion amazing memories from on and off the field,” she said. She attributed her success on the lacrosse field to the support of the friends, family and team.
“I am successful because I get so much love and support from my teammates and coaches and I always try to give that right back,” she said.
Castellan arguably had her top performances of the season last weekend against Clarkson and St. Lawrence Universities. In the team’s decisive win over Clarkson she scored three goals, but more impressively, scored seven in a close 15-12 loss to St. Lawrence.
“Castellan is a great leader for our team, and she is the type of player that wants the ball when the game is on the line,” Head Coach Judy Finerghty remarked. “She is also an incredibly hard worker and someone that inspires everyone to perform at a high level.”
Castellan leads the team this season with 38 goals and three assists. The team (9-3 overall, 3-3 Liberty League) currently stands in fifth place in the Liberty League. They will play their final league games at home this weekend against the University of Rochester and Hamilton College, which will determine whether they qualify for the league tournament.”
First Year Program puts on the Freshmen 15
by The Miscellany News | Since 1866Jan 01, 2009“Fifteen members of the Class of 2011 will perform pieces conveying their experiences of their first year at Vassar.
Courtesy of the class of 2011
Sarah Goetz News Editor
As the Class of 2011 prepare for their sophomore year, 15 student performances will give the freshmen a final opportunity to reflect on their first year at Vassar. The Freshmen 15, sponsored by the Freshman Class Council and the Vassar First Year program, will take place at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30 on the second floor of the Students’ Building.
The event will feature 15 three-minute reflections by members of the freshman class. The performances may take the form of songs, poetry readings, student-made videos or even comedy routines. Freshmen can draw on an achievement, a challenge or simply a shared experience from this past year.
“What is going to be unique and what I think is starting to surface is that we’ve all had very distinct experiences this year,” said Freshman Class President Joseph Martinez, who is organizing and hosting the event. “For some people, it has been incredibly important, and they have grown a lot. For other people, it’s been a very challenging year, a very difficult year,” he continued.
Nina Vyedin ’11 will perform an original song for the event. “The song started off as a verse in another song about going to the Poughkeepsie Galleria with my roommate and not being able to find a hat that I liked,” she said. “It evolved into something else, a reflection on my experience here, something I’m really excited about.”
Martinez hopes that his classmates will express diverse and distinct experiences. “I want it to be extremely open,” he said. Director of the First Year Program and Associate Dean of the College for Campus Life Edward Pittman ’82 added that “A lot of it’s funny, and a lot of it is reflective...so it’s very open to what the class wants to present. It’s really for students to talk about what they experienced in their first year.”
“I think the event will be really interesting, and I it’s exciting because it gives freshmen a voice,” said Vyedin. “I don’t think a lot of freshman get to be heard, so it’s nice that we get a chance to stand up and say, ‘Hey, this is what my experience has been.’”
The event is the final piece of the Vassar First Year, a series of events and discussions designed to introduce new students to Vassar and to expose them to some of the academic, cultural and social issues on campus. Pittman said that the program is “a way of providing some channels for first-year students to experience the academic and the campus community life from many perspectives.”
The First Year program, currently in its third year, begins with new student orientation and includes the William Starr lecture, among other events.
“It was something that I had always thought Vassar should have,” Pittman said. “We spend a lot of time during the first week talking about critical issues, and…First Year tends to build upon some of those discussions,” he noted. In addition to the Campus Life Office, the program coordinates with the Dean of Freshmen, the Dean of Students, the Office of Residential Life, the Library and the freshman writing seminar to incorporate a wide array of first-year experiences into the program.
The Freshmen 15 was established last year as a capstone to the Vassar First Year, and it proved to be one of the program’s more successful events. “Student-driven activities always generate a response,” Pittman noted, adding that “performance-based events that carry a message and engage the students” are typically the most effective.
While the Campus Life Office has given students autonomy to produce the program, Martinez suggested that it may still be difficult to pique student interest in the event. “It’s difficult because we didn’t come up with this event, it was just given to us,” he said. “This is a class tradition that was created by administrators,” he added.
However, Martinez was very positive about his goals and hopes for the upcoming event. “We definitely see a use for it,” he said. “It’ll be nice to see a lot of freshmen in one place again…and to hear 15 people reflect on some shared experience that we’ve now had,” he added. Martinez said that a number of freshmen have expressed interest in attending the event, and noted that “I think people are curious about other people’s experiences at Vassar.””
Letters to the Editor | VSA, Miscellany News fail to criticize Aramark
by The Miscellany News | Since 1866Jan 01, 2009“The recent decision of the Vassar administration, with the assent of the Vassar Student Association (VSA), to give Aramark an exclusive contract for food services on campus is outrageous to me as a student. I have seen how Aramark treats the campus dining workers, how managers abuse their power daily and how students are used by the company as a hammer against workers instead of the company actually serving students.
Without proper disclosure to the public of the proceedings, the administration and the VSA essentially worked in the shadows to O.K. a company most students oppose vehemently. Where was the student voice pushing against the administration and calling for greater scrutiny of Aramark?
Well, it was certainly not VSA Vice President for Student Life Morgan Warners ’08, who was one of only two students to sit on the committee that approved Aramark’s new contract. Warners was quoted in the article “College to Renew Aramark’s Contract” (4.17.08) as saying, “I really wanted to find which [companies] were speaking to Vassar’s culture.” With all due respect to Warners, “Vassar’s culture” is one of liberalism as well as pro-worker and anti-corporate sentiment. “Vassar’s culture” is about the union of all members of the community against a pro-corporate administration and a corporation with a bad history of abusing workers, both here and on other campuses.
“Vassar’s culture” is about questioning authority and having a high-level public discourse that looks at all angles of an issue and allows the public to express its views in the sunlight, not in a smoke-filled room in the back of the All Campus Dining Center (ACDC). “
Vassar’s culture” rejects gimmick events held by Aramark at ACDC to win student support and instead encourages real sustainability and local food production. At least that is the Vassar culture I believe in. Apparently it is not Warners’.
Neither, sadly, does it appear to be Nate Silver ’10’s view of what Vassar should look like. He is the Chair of the Food Committee and the other student representative on the committee that gave Aramark its new contract. Silver, as quoted by the same Miscellany News article, is shown to be extremely positive about the management of campus dining services. Director of Campus Dining Maureen King is presented, both by Silver and The Miscellany News , as a hero. She is seen as an efficient manager. Warners supported this view as well, calling her “fantastic.” Silver reinforced this by saying that King and her managers understand the community better than most faculty members.
I hope not, Silver, because this community’s values differ quite significantly from Aramark’s corporate vision. King is truly efficient, if you care for her type of efficiency. I do not.
I, unlike Warners or Silver, am in ACDC every day, fighting alongside workers against bigoted, abusive, “efficient” managers who fundamentally do not understand the Vassar community.
Workers constantly complain to me that their managers are getting away with more than is legally or ethically appropriate.
Silver seems not to understand the Vassar community very well, for Aramark is an evil corporation that has no stake in the community, unlike the workers it oppresses. The administration is in bed with Aramark. So, it might appear, is the VSA, when the only two representatives of the student body in this matter are obviously pro-corporate. So too does The Miscellany News seem to be in bed with the administration and Aramark, as it only has glowing things to say about the company. Apparently like the VSA, the paper cares nothing at all about Aramark’s corporate abuses off campus, or for that matter, the ones that take place daily on the Vassar campus.
—Christopher Binetti ’08”
Letters to the Editor | Then as now, Vassar College fails to integrate student voices
by The Miscellany News | Since 1866Jan 01, 2009“It’s sad to see Vassar’s administration up to the same deceitful tricks as years ago when I was a student. At the time, the school bookstore was turned over to the control of Barnes & Noble (with essentially no student input), effectively funneling money out of the campus and local community while ignoring students. The process by which this “decision” arose was nothing short of shameful on the part of the administration. While many of the key players have moved on from Vassar, it’s clear the current administration upholds the legacy of placing prestige and profit over educational integrity.
Students have been and will continue to be shut up through a series of closed-door meetings by administrators despite the relevance to the decisions on each of you. Is the solution to really form yet another subcommittee after the deal has been made? Of course not! By the time your non-binding suggestions are made from a subcommittee to another committee and then to the hands of the actual individuals in power, you will have graduated. It happens pretty much every time. Vassar peddles itself on the world as a bastion of progressive ideology, yet the administration fails to integrate student voices in any meaningful way.
As a student, you are the reason Vassar exists. I encourage you to get involved in the dialogue about the bookstore and space on and around campus. The administration needs to be proactive in seeking out student participation when it comes to decisions that impact them on a daily basis. Whether it has been the bookstore or any other important decision for as far back as I can remember, students are always patronized by the administration.
I hope the school’s reprehensible conduct will inspire you all to view the administration more critically and empower yourselves in the decision-making process.
—Pulin Modi ’02”
Letters to the Editor | Aramark is best, greenest available option for college dining
by The Miscellany News | Since 1866Jan 01, 2009“When we think of the environmental movement, we do not usually think of large corporations. This is why it may seem surprising that I, as the Local Foods intern for the College Committee on Sustainability, endorsed the renewal of the Aramark dining contract. The College underwent a search which ended with presentations by three companies: Sodexho, Parkhurst and Aramark.
Many have suggested that Vassar should not outsource its food production. I agree with this position; however, this was not an option that the College was willing to pursue at this time. Therefore, it is important to understand that the only options available to choose from were these three corporate food providers. Campus Dining staff are all employed through the College, and their jobs were never in jeopardy. On the other hand, our managers are all employed through Aramark and would have lost their jobs if we had chosen a different dining provider.
I have had the pleasure of working with Head of Campus Dining Maureen King (an Aramark employee) as well as with the Director of Marketing and Sustainability Ken Oldehoff (a Vassar employee). It is my firm belief that without their support and dedication, we would not be where we are today with respect to local foods and general sustainability. Our local foods program began entirely because of Oldehoff’s and King’s initiative.
Also, our managers have strong relationships with local farmers and the Vassar community. Thanks to their hard work, we currently serve 30 percent local food in our dining facilities. King’s receptiveness and willingness to assist students in their sustainability efforts have made it possible for us to develop a composting program in the All Campus Dining Center as well. Losing integrated members of our community who work hard to make Vassar more environmentally friendly is not sustainable.
In my opinion, Aramark’s proposed changes to Campus Dining will help Vassar along the path to sustainability more than Sodexho’s and Parkhurst’s proposals would have. Aramark’s presentation showed that they know our college and understand what sorts of improvements are needed. For example, they proposed that we start a carbon labeling system in our dining facilities, and set goals for increasing the percentage of local foods we purchase. Having seen prospective menus, I also believe that Aramark will deliver us a higher quality of fresh, local food than Sodexho or Parkhurst.
It would be inaccurate to view this article as an endorsement of Aramark as a corporation. Rather, I believe that out of the three options we had, Aramark was the best. Aramark employees at Vassar have shown themselves to be dedicated to the idea of sustainability and local foods. The loss of King would have been a detriment to green efforts.
I strongly encourage anyone who has concerns about Aramark’s presence at Vassar to speak with King and Oldehoff about the changes to our dining halls. I think that you will find that Vassar dining is moving forward with respect to both sustainability and food quality.
—Jessica Muller-Pearson ’08,
Local Foods Intern”
Letters to the Editor | Attack on Aramark uncalled for, say student representatives
by The Miscellany News | Since 1866Jan 01, 2009“We would like to address some concerns regarding the new dining contract raised in last week’s issue of The Miscellany News . We would like to reiterate that this was an extremely comprehensive search, and a tremendous amount of thought and care went into it.
We made every attempt to voice student concerns on the Request for Proposal Committee, and we disagree that this process was too secretive. First, the entire Food Committee, comprised of representatives from each dormitory, had access to the proposals and attended both the initial meeting with potential bidders in December and the meeting with the three finalists in March.
Second, student representatives from the Sustainability Committee, including the Local Foods intern, provided input.
Third, Food Committee representatives and house presidents were asked to solicit input from dormitory residents. All of this was in addition to open focus groups held last May and extensive coverage of this process in The Miscellany News . Direct involvement was as extensive as it could have been given the confidentiality of bidders’ financial information.
We are accused of being “pro-corporate,” but this misses a key fact: There was never a viable option to move away from a corporate provider. To mitigate the feared effects of corporate management, we made sure certain measures were in place, such as keeping food service workers as Vassar employees. The Vassar Department of Human Resources negotiates with the union on contract terms, and we see this as a way of staving off harsh corporate policy.
We also inquired about moving totally in-house, which proved logistically and financially impossible. Vassar simply couldn’t hire all the necessary staff or implement the programs needed, and the financial implications were impractical.
We defend our commitment to “real sustainability and local foods production.” It is true that large corporations can lose sight of the effects of their business, but Vassar’s Aramark managers will continue to facilitate environmentally and socially responsible food service. Vassar has already seen numerous sustainability initiatives, and Aramark’s plans for increased local sourcing far outstrip those of the competition. Aramark has committed to locally sourcing 40 percent of ingredients by 2013, up from the current 30 percent, and their overall plan for sustainability far exceeded that of any other proposal.
Those of us who helped make this decision worked long and hard for our peers, and we are eager to continue this dialogue with anyone who would like to. We acknowledge that it’s probably impossible to satisfy Aramark’s or big business’s most ardent detractors, but attacking us for the decision to retain a corporate vendor is simply unproductive. That was never our choice to make.
—Morgan Warners ’08, VSA Vice President for Student Life, and Nate Silver ’10, Chair of the Food Committee”
Vassar continues self-study for reaccreditation
by The Miscellany News | Since 1866Jan 01, 2009“Hayley Tsukayama Staff Writer
The College’s Middle States Review Steering Committee, which conducted a comprehensive self-study of every academic aspect of the College this year, is currently compiling its findings and will report them next December.
The College must reapply for accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). In order to do so, it must collect and organize information for a comprehensive self-report, addressing everything from the faculty to the College’s financial structure, and submit it to the MSCHE for approval.
After receiving and reviewing the report, a representative from the MSCHE will visit the campus in Spring 2009.
In the meantime the College has been pushing forward with its assessment. The full report will be compiled and revised this summer, and a final draft will be submitted to the MSCHE in December.
Nancy J. Vickers, outgoing President of Bryn Mawr College, will lead the visiting assessment team.
According to Committee Chair and Professor of English Robert DeMaria Jr. the Vassar self-study emphasizes strategic planning and assessment.
“We have to look at the mission statement,” DeMaria said, “and tell them how well we’re achieving it and how.”
While it is more or less guaranteed that the College will be reaccredited, many consider this an excellent way for Vassar College to reflect on its own progress throughout the past decade and plan improvements for the future.
“When you start looking at things globally,” said DeMaria, “you realize how difficult it is to keep our beautiful little corner of the world—how expensive it is and how many things are involved running this institution.”
The report will feature seven chapters, each of which will focus on a particular aspect of the College: finance, organization and governance, academic programming, faculty, financial aid, College services and community relations. To expedite the review process, members of the Steering Committee chaired nine sub-review committees, each of which examined a different aspect of the College in closer detail.
The Committee also includes Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs Rachel Kitzinger (who was placed on the Committee as a Professor of Classics), Assistant to the President John Feroe, Associate Dean of the College Raymon Parker and Director of Institutional Research David Davis Van Atta.
Vassar Student Association (VSA) Vice President for Academics Jessica Cho ’08 and VSA President Sam Charner ’08 are the only student representatives serving on the Committee.
DeMaria said that, based on the report, he believes that the faculty committee system may need to be rethought. “It’s great to have so much faculty involvement, but we need to ask if it’s functioning effectively,” he said. He believes that the results produced by so many large committees “may not be worth the hundreds of man hours” put into them.
“The process has been really interesting,” said Charner. “It’s rare that we have an opportunity to look at the College holistically like this.”
DeMaria agreed, saying that he “now has a much fuller, more rounded, more comprehensive view of the College,” given that his colleagues and those on sub-committees sit on several committees of their own and provide a full range of perspectives on the College.
Cho said that this is perhaps the most valuable side effect of the self-study. “It’s good to bring it all in like this…to look at one issue and look at how it trickles down across the College.”
She said that being on the Committee has given her more perspective on the other committees she is a part of and that she is now able to “take on issues more effectively.””
Chris Roellke to act as temporary Dean of the College
by The Miscellany News | Since 1866Jan 01, 2009“Chris Roellke will leave his post as the Dean of Studies to serve as acting Dean of the College.
D. Gordon The Miscellany News
Julianne Herts News Editor
Dean of Studies Chris Roellke will become the acting Dean of the College beginning this summer, when current Dean Judy Jackson leaves Vassar to take a position as the University of Kentucky’s Vice President for Institutional Diversity.
A search committee comprised of both students and faculty will set out to find a permanent Dean of the College next fall. The Committee may be formed as early as this week, after this spring’s faculty elections, though the search for a new dean will be put on hold during summer break. Roellke will assume the responsibilities of Dean of the College starting July 1.
Though July is still months away, Roellke has already started adjusting to his new role.
“I have immediately begun to participate in Senior Officer meetings, planning for upcoming Board of Trustee meetings and, of course, Commencement,” he explained in an e-mailed statement.
It is possible that Roellke may be a contender for the permanent position of Dean of the College.
“I really cannot speak to whether or not I could become the permanent Dean of the College,” Roellke said. “I fully respect our Governance and the process the College has outlined for selecting the next Dean.”
Though his term is only temporary, Roellke has embraced his new position and is making plans for the future.
“I can sincerely say that my highest priority is to make sure that the Dean of the College division runs as smoothly as it can in 2008-2009,” said Roellke. “I am both eager and excited about this new challenge and hope that I can serve the College well in this acting capacity.”
Roellke is Associate Professor of Education, and also serves as Director of Academic Facilities Development, Director of the Ford Scholars Program and Founding Director of the Vassar College Urban Education Initiative. Roellke is also the current Dean of Studies, an office that reports to the Dean of the College.
The Dean of Studies works with the Dean of Freshmen and class advisors to oversee students’ academic needs. The Dean of Studies is also in charge of the Committee on Leaves and Privileges, as well as fellowship and exchange programs.
Roellke’s work as a program director and his experience as the Dean of Studies led Vassar President Catharine Bond Hill to appoint him the interim Dean of the College.
“I asked Roellke to be acting Dean of the College after consulting with a variety of people around campus,” explained Hill. “He is an accomplished faculty member who has done a great job as Dean of Studies. I am looking forward to working with him.”
Jackson has been Dean of the College since 2004. She is only the second Dean of the College in Vassar history, as the position was not established until 1994.
The Dean of the College office was created in order to allow the offices of the Dean of Students and the Dean of Studies to work together under a common supervisor, as well as oversee Security and Campus Dining.
In addition to unifying the departments of Deans of Students and Studies, the Dean of the College is responsible for overseeing a variety of committees, including the Committee on Residential Life, the Security Advisory Committee and the Committee on College Life.
When Roellke officially takes on these responsibilities, another faculty member will fill his role as the Dean of Studies. It is not yet clear who will act as interim Dean of Studies when Roellke takes his new post, because, as Roellke put it, “the ripple effects” of his appointment are still being discussed.”
Hispanic studies and drama departments put cultural exchange on the stage
by The Miscellany News | Since 1866Jan 01, 2009“Still waiting for your prince on horseback? A clever subversion of one of Western civilization’s favorite tropes might be just what you’ve been looking for.
The Hispanic Studies Department and the drama department will present the play “La Cabeza del Dragón (The Head of the Dragon)” in the Powerhouse Theater at 5 p.m. on May 7, 5 p.m. on May 9 and 8 p.m. on May 10. The play, which was written by the radical Spanish playwright Ramón Valle-Inclán, will feature students from both departments. It will be performed in Spanish and accompanied by projected English subtitles.
“La Cabeza del Dragón” is a fairy tale on the surface, but it was written as a political satire criticizing the Spanish government in the early 20th century. The story, which follows the classic fairy-tale trope of the prince’s heroic journey, mocks Spain’s role in the world during that era by critiquing the sentimentality of contemporary bourgeois playwrights.
The story begins with the prince departing from his kingdom for an adventure and finding himself on a quest to save a princess from a dragon. Valle-Inclán inverted this myth through visual and aural vulgarity to expose its inherent fairy-tale blandness.
The student performers hoped to use the play’s depictions of travel and resultant cultural exchange to break away from the control of hegemonic discourse. They planned to learn by listening more deeply to one another and to the text itself. They indicated a desire to take risks with the material and their presentation of it.
The group is also aiming to produce more Spanish plays. With campus performances dominated by the drama department and various student groups, there are very few foreign language plays produced at Vassar. The Hispanic Studies Department is enthusiastic about the rich opportunities that Spanish playwrights present for good student theater.”
Service request process to be streamlined
by The Miscellany News | Since 1866May 13, 2008“Julianne Herts News Editor
When students find problems with dorm buildings or facilities they submit service requests to the Residential Operations Center (ROC) and hope for the best. Students are not given any idea of when their request will be fulfilled, or any means to chart the ROC’s progress. That may soon change, however, as students and administrators are working together to improve service procedures.
Last fall a student review committee conducted a review of the ROC and Buildings and Grounds (B&G;) Service Request Process. The committee, chaired by Alexandria Dempsey ’09, surveyed the student body to assess the perceived quality of service request response.
Dempsey reported in a memo that, “The results indicated that while most students were satisfied with the quality of service, over 60% of students indicated that they had to submit multiple requests. 48% of students had to submit three or more requests before their submission was processed. The results of this survey demonstrated that the biggest obstacles facing the service request process were speed and communication.”
Dempsey theorized that the faults in the student request procedure may be inherent to the complicated request system. As it now stands, students submit service requests to the Residential Operations Center (ROC), which is in charge of inputting the request onto a server called Facilities Focus. The Buildings and Grounds Department (B&G;) checks the server for service requests and sends a representative to address the issue. If the service request concerns a problem inside a student’s room B&G; officials enter the room, fix the problem, and lock the door behind them, leaving a notice indicating that they have stopped by. B&G; officials communicate their progress to the RIC via Facilities Focus, but do not give students any updates. This means that students are not given any information between the time they submit a request to the ROC and the time they find a note on their door.
At the May 4 VSA meeting student representatives discussed the drawbacks to this system, noting that service requests can be delayed for a number of reasons. If the ROC has a backlog of requests, for instance, or if B&G; officials need to wait for a new can of paint or new tools, it can mean a long and confusing wait for a student.
In order to address this problem Dempsey worked with the ROC and B&G; administrators to make the service request process more transparent. They decided that Facilities Focus should be accessible to students, so that service requests can be submitted directly to B&G.; Some members of the VSA Council expressed concern at the prospect of the ROC being removed from the service request procedure, indicating that the ROC keeps B&G; in touch with students’ needs. There was a consensus however, that the procedure should be streamlined and that giving students access to Facilities Focus was the best way to do that.
These changes are being discussed with newly appointed Manager of Service Response for B&G; Henry Williams, while the B&G; department works to catch up on backlogged service requests and cover the technical aspects of a student-accessible Facilities Focus site.” | News Topics
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