Molly Finkelstein ’08 observes Vassar students at work—and play—in the library . . .
Blegen House and the ALANA Center welcome new directors . . .
Alumna and Professor of Art receives grant from Warhol Foundation . . .
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Hunger Awareness FastThe fifth annual Hunger Awareness Fast, designed to raise political and spiritual awareness of local and global hunger and poverty issues, took place on November 19. The Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, Vassar Hunger Action Committee, and Dutchess Outreach, an agency that provides temporary basic support and advocates for families and individuals in need, co-sponsored the fast and the related daylong programs.
The event was held in conjunction with the Hunger Action Network of New York State’s annual Thanksgiving Action Against Hunger. “We hold the fast during Thanksgiving week to highlight how amidst a time of year associated with abundance so many of us have so little,” said President of the Vassar Hunger Action Committee Ilyse Kramer ’08. “The Hunger Awareness Fast helps us gain insight into the pangs of hunger, which countless residents of our own city experience each day.” On November 19, a vegetable harvest organized by the Poughkeepsie Farm Project was delivered to the Lunchbox, a soup kitchen in downtown Poughkeepsie run by Dutchess Outreach. The day’s on-campus programs included an open forum with those fasting, an interactive art project on the library lawn, and a break fast with food from Zorona, a local Middle Eastern restaurant.
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Saul Steinberg Exhibit/Prestel Museum Guide at the Loeb
Photo Credit: I Do, I Have, I Am, 1971 ©. The Saul Steinberg Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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Vassar Students at Work—and Play—in the Library
Say, for example, one had a crush on a cute junior boy in her postcolonial lesbian fiction class. Chances are that, come Sunday afternoon, he’ll be at the library and she will have ample opportunity to flirt with him by the printers. Of course, this works both ways. Sometimes there’s someone you’d rather not see at the library on Sunday after an interesting Saturday night at the Mug. This can be dealt with by a) studying at home, where endless marathons of America’s Next Top Model beckon, or b) figuring out the general library seating chart and creating personal “no-study zones.” Every group of friends tends to have a particular section of the library they gravitate toward. The cross-country team always sits in the left section, toward the front. The cool kids sit in the Art Library. The people who actually want to get work done (or are working on their theses) hide away in the basement cubicles. My friends like to sit in the area by the Reserve Desk. It’s a decent spot, with both couches and comfortable chairs you can steal from the video-viewing stations and use at the tables. One major drawback is that you can see all the film majors watching Moulin Rouge or episodes of Charmed, while you attempt to do problem sets. Of course, the main problem is that you have to listen to a constant stream of people asking for their reserve readings. On the bright side, the Reserve Desk has a long-standing tradition of hiring mostly very attractive student workers. All in all, sometimes the hardest part of going to the library isn’t carrying all your books, but figuring out what to wear.Photo credit: Craig Burdett
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Learn more about Blegen House or the ALANA Center
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New Directors for Blegen House and ALANA Center
Silverstein succeeds John Schoonbeck, who retired, while Franklin follows Yolanda Ramos ’96, who left her position to begin a master’s degree in social work. Photo Credits: Silverstein: Sam Rosen-Amy ’08; Franklin: Ben Rutkowski ’09
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Visit the Art Department Website
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Art Professor Awarded Andy Warhol Grant
Nesbit’s book will address the “quantum shift in the media and visual pitch of our culture” that has taken place in the last 15 years—a shift as profound as the one that led to abstract modern art. This shift is moving away from the fine arts into new, ordinary media into a cross-cultural zone that is changing accepted ideas of form and explanation. Nesbit will attempt to find a language for this shift by discussing it “in the broadest way, as a shift in roles, in concepts, in objects” through a series of case studies. Photo Credit: Scott Murray ’01
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Vassar Filmmakers Receive Top Honors in Nationwide Film FestWithin a 24-hour period, the Vassar Filmmakers wrote, cast, shot, edited, and scored their three-minute film, Hobopus, for Apple’s second annual Insomnia Film Festival. And now their hard work has paid off with the film’s recognition as the public favorite among the 2,000 entries in the nationwide contest. Ben Rutkowski ’09, Brian Paccione ’09, Lauren Rubin ’10, Woodrow Travers ’09, and Sebastian Weinberg ’09 are the minds and talent behind Hobopus, a fantastical account sans dialogue of the rise and downfall of one of New York City’s greatest young composers. The film is featured on Apple’s website at apple.com/education/insomnia/winners.html.
At the end of the 24-hour period on October 14, the filmmakers, along with approximately 2,000 other college and high school teams, submitted their film to the Apple website. The public was able to watch it online and rate it through November 9, with the Vassar Filmmakers leading the pack at the end of the rating period. They officially came out as the public favorite when the ratings were calculated on November 26. For the grand prize, each of the team’s members will receive a MacBook Pro and movie production software. As one of the 25 highest-rated films, Hobopus was also screened by a panel of celebrity directors, which included Terry George (Hotel Rwanda), Mary Harron (American Psycho), James Mangold (Walk the Line), and Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding). Photo credit: Image Courtesy of Woodrow Travers ’09
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New Alumnae House Manager
Photo Credit: Jason Torres
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Learn More About World AIDS Day
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Sex Po and World AIDS DayThis year marks the seventh anniversary of Sex Po, the sexual health fair hosted annually by the Office of Health Education that encourages sexual health and responsibility in the Vassar community. On December 5, health groups and services from on and off campus will staff tables in the College Center with information about their organizations and supplementary educational materials. “Sexual Superheroes” is the theme of this year’s fair, which is intended to “encourage students to take control of their sexuality, whatever that may mean to them,” said Director of Health Education Michelle Soucy. The theme relates to the “Save the Freshmen, Save the World” mantra thought up by the Office of Residential Life at the beginning of the year for incoming freshmen. Numerous campus organizations, including CHOICE (Campus Health Organization for Information, Contraception, and Education), the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, CARES (Counseling and Assistance in Response to Rape and Exploitive Sexual Activity), the Queer Coalition of Vassar College (QCVC), and the Women’s Health Center at Baldwin will be present.
“[Sex Po] is a unique opportunity for Vassar students to have all the campus sexual health resources available at one time in one place to help encourage and promote informed decisions and accurate information,” said CHOICE President Jinà Ashline ’08. Every year, Sex Po takes place around World AIDS Week. “It’s timed to make students think about and be aware of safe sex and discuss preventative measures,” said Soucy. On November 28, student organizations rang a bell every 11 seconds to recognize the 2.9 million people who died from AIDS in 2006—approximately one person every 11 seconds. In recognition of World AIDS Day on December 1, QCVC and Blegen House will host an auction and reception in the Villard Room in support of AIDS awareness. A plaque that permanently hangs in the Villard Room displays the names of alumnae/i who have died from AIDS.Photo Credit: World AIDS Logo Used Here with Permission
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Thinking About Organizing a Mini-Reunion?
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Happy 60th Birthday, 1969!Last month, over Veterans’ Day Weekend, the class of 1969 held a mini-reunion on campus to celebrate their collectively turning sixty! The event abounded with fun and nostalgia, and included faculty lectures, musical performances, tours of new campus buildings, and a reception with President Catharine Bond Hill. Sixty-six alumnae were in attendance. “Staying at Alumnae House was like coming home for us,” said Leah Johnson Wilcox ’69. “It’s good for all of us to reconnect with Vassar. We asked questions, we discussed what we learned, we lamented not taking various courses, we talked about what wonderful opportunities the students have today—all in all, it’s re-energizing to be at Vassar.”
Photo Credit: Photo courtesy of Laurie Padolf Mokriski ’69
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Learn More About Daily Events at Vassar
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This is Vassar... December 2007The eNewsletter for Vassar Alumnae/i |
Alumnae & Alumni of Vassar College
161 College Avenue
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603
845.437.5445
On the web: www.aavc.vassar.edu
“The fast brings together groups of faith and social activism to discuss the multidimensional aspects of hunger,” said Religious and Spiritual Life Fellow Rebecca Weinberg ’06. “The act of fasting is deeply personal, and those involved periodically reflected on their experience over the day.”
A full-scale review of acclaimed artist Saul Steinberg’s career is currently on display at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center (FLLAC) until February 24, 2008. Saul Steinberg: Illuminations features more than 100 drawings, collages, and sculptural assemblages by the artist, who is best known for his work in The New Yorker. FLLAC Curators Patricia Phagan and Mary-Kay Lombino gave tours of the exhibit and of the rest of the museum on November 29 as part of the “Late Night at the Lehman Loeb” series. The event also featured a talk by FLLAC Director James Mundy ’74 about his authorship of the new Prestel Publishing Museum Guide to the art center.
While I was helping my sister with her college essays, I decided to look through my old ones to get some inspiration. I discovered, much to my embarrassment, that my “Why Vassar?” essay ends with the proclamation that if human-building marriage was ever legalized, I would be first in line for the Vassar College Library. Now, four years later, I do feel married to the library, though not quite as literally as my 17-year-old self would have liked. With digital cable and TiVO at my home on campus, the library is the only place I can go to actually get work done. Though, let’s face it, the library is also the place to see and be seen.
Recent changes in the Office of Campus Life have brought new directors to both Blegen House and the ALANA Center this fall. Julie Silverstein (pictured left), the new assistant director of campus life/LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning) programs, has already been working to form a leadership council and create new programs with the Blegen interns. “The most rewarding aspect of my job so far has been working with students who are very motivated, energetic, and have fantastic programming ideas,” said Silverstein. Blegen House is the campus center for LGBTQ communities and social education. Silverstein comes to Vassar from the University of Connecticut, where she recently completed her graduate work. Silverstein will serve on various committees and plan events through the Office of Campus Life as well. 
The same is true of Greta Franklin (pictured right), the new associate director for campus life and the ALANA Center. In addition to duties in campus life, Franklin oversees ALANA programs and the center, which works to enhance the academic, residential, and campus life experiences of African-American/Black, Latino, Asian-American and Native-American students. Franklin arrived in Poughkeepsie from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she worked as the multicultural group’s student counselor and assistant director for the Student Transition Program. Franklin believes the support of faculty and alumnae/i greatly benefit students’ personal, academic, and career development and is interested in working more with these groups.
Molly Nesbit ’74, professor of art, received a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for work on her new book of collected essays, Lights in Buffalo, to be published by Periscope Press. The Warhol Foundation and Creative Capital have initiated a new grant, The Art Writers’ Grant, created to “promote critical discourse that is both rigorous and accessible, to foster innovation in arts writing, and to encourage writing that nurtures connections between art and the public at large.” 
The team was required to use specific film elements posted on Apple’s website at the official start of the contest; the Filmmakers incorporated five of them, including a dream sequence (Apple’s prescribed narrative device) and the dialogue “Don’t tempt me,” which appears on a homeless man’s sign. A lesson in efficiency, the film continued to be shot while teammates simultaneously edited the footage in a friend’s apartment throughout the day. They created the original minimalist score with pre-recorded music composed by Rubin and Weinberg on the violin. 
AAVC recently welcomed Martha Gouse Barry ’86 to its staff as manager of Alumnae House. After graduating from Vassar, Barry became the assistant innkeeper at the John Hancock Inn in New Hampshire. She then worked for the Marriott Corporation as a restaurant manager. After a brief detour working as a managing editor of a bar coding publication, Barry and her husband built a worldwide business serving the automated data collection industry. Hospitality, however, has always been her true passion, and she is thrilled to return to Vassar as Alumnae House manager. “I look forward to working with AAVC and its staff to make Alumnae House a memorable place to stay and host special events,” said Barry.
Off-campus services and programs are invited to participate as well. Among those represented are the Battered Women’s Services, Planned Parenthood of the Mid-Hudson Valley, the Dutchess County Department of Health, and the Rape Crisis Center. 
Campus Happenings in December