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t h e
Herald
By and for the students of Hobart and William Smith Colleges Issue 6
VOLUME CXXVIII
October 29, 2004
Minority Students Find Voice Dixon Features Dutch Art Jermaine Charles News Contributor
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any minority students do not believe that their vote will count. This was the conclusion of an informal survey conducted recently on a small group of minority students who attend Hobart and William Smith Colleges. The survey provides information about how minorities feel about voting. “The elections are full of crock. It’s a slogan campaign, nothing that the candidates are saying makes sense. All they do is make promises, but they don’t actually do anything,” said Janelle Hall, a senior. Students answered survey questions at the Office of Intercultural Affairs, where large numbers of students of color carry out their daily activities. The survey asked five questions: What role are minorities playing in the 2004 elections? Are minorities active or inactive in this year’s election? How active are the HWS minorities on campus when it comes to the elections? Do the candidates in this election address minority issues? Who would you vote for and why? Fifteen students participated in the survey: ten women and five males. Melissa Santana, Janelle Hall, Nekai Johnson, Stacy Okoro, Whitney Burton, and Rafael Rodriguez feel that entertainers are playing a huge role in the elections. Burton, a sophomore said that, “entertainers on MTV and BET have set
a new trend to get out there and vote.” Russell Simmons and Puff Daddy, who are hip-hop moguls and prominent entrepreneurs, are leading the campaign, which targets minorities to vote. This is the first year that so many hip-hop artists are getting involved and taking a stand for the elections. During the BET and MTV awards many took a political stance by wearing clothing that encourages people to vote. Commercials also say “vote or die.” Most of the students who participated in the survey feel that the previous election discouraged numerous minorities from voting. Rodriguez, a sophomore, said that, “minorities are playing a crucial role, seeing that their votes were not counted as valid during the previous election.” Johnson, a freshman, stated that, “electronic voting is affecting the number of people who are regular voters, especially students.” Many do not want to be bothered because they feel that the electronic system, which is being used in some states, will be inaccurate. Sheila Joiner, a senior, said that other students feel secluded because they are on campus rather than their hometown. The informal survey showed that minority clubs at HWS are trying to promote voting on campus and in the Geneva community. Lenin Guzman, a sophomore, shared how involved the Latin American Organization is with voting. LAO participated in a voter drive. Club members went out into the community to encourage Hispanic Geneva residents to vote. Rafael
Rodriguez, a member of LAO and the Caribbean Student Association, carries voter registration cards and absentee ballots around with him so that he can assist in getting people registered. Since Hispanics are the fastest growing minority population, their votes will make a big impact in this election. Other HWS students who were not organizational leaders felt that students don’t show interest in voting because they do not know enough about the candidates. Most opted to vote for Senator John Kerry, but their choice was based on President Bush’s record, not John Kerry’s values. Burton said, “I will vote for Kerry because he is the lesser of two evils.” Other students don’t know who to vote for because they do not know what the candidates stand for. Michelle Jordan, a senior, said she’ll, “vote Kerry for change.” She doesn’t necessarily think he’s better for the job; he’s just something different. Guzman said that, “people are using Kerry as a tool to bump Bush out of office.” When asked whether or not the candidates addressed minority issues, nearly all said no. The students felt that the focus was on the war in Iraq. Guzman said, “the presidential debates have been disappointing because they have not focused on minority issues. No focus was put on U.S. domestically. This is a problem.”
Caroline Hettinger News Editor
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n October 18, Hobart and William Smith hosted a lecture by Laurinda Dixon entitled “Perilous Chastity: Women, Illness and Gender Politics in 17th Century Dutch Art,” in the Geneva Room. While the title may conjure up images of whirring slide projectors and stuffy, darkened classrooms, these preconceptions were immediately dispelled by Dixon, an engaging speaker. Dixon’s program, as the title of the lecture suggests, focused on the way in which women were depicted in Dutch art in the 1600s. At this time in history there was a fascination with paintings in which women appeared ill, often including a doctor’s visit in the allegory of the painting. Though at first this genre may seem obscure, one would actually be hard pressed to walk through the
17th century rooms of an art museum and not find at least one painting that focuses on a pale woman, languishing in a bed. Up until Dixon’s research, this form of painting had been considered simply a deviation of the “genre” paintings, paintings that captured scenes of everyday life. Dixon’s goal in her book, Perilous Chastity, was to establish that these paintings were pieces of an important genre of their own, and, as she states in the introduction, “to examine them as serious documents with reference to medical treatises of the time.” The HWS Daily Update notes Dixon’s many accolades, including her status as the Tolley Distinguished Teaching Professor in Fine Arts & Humanities at Syracuse University. She is a specialist in Northern European art, and her 10 books and many articles explore the relationship between art and science before the Enlightenment.
Campus Safety Walk Kari Bakalar Assistant Copy Editor
In order to make our campus a safer place for everyone, every other year campus security teams up with the Hobart Student Government and William Smith Congress to hold the campus safety tour—a walk of campus during which students and security officials assess the safety of our outdoor spaces and walkways. Last Tuesday night approximately 15 students accompanied the head
of security, Cal Brown, on the campus safety tour after the usual HSG and WSC meetings. On the hour and a half long walk, attendees paid special attention to areas that need additional lighting or emergency call boxes/blue lights. Below is a list, complied by Brown, of the concerns expressed on the tour. Brown has asked HSG and WSC to discuss and prioritize these concerns at their next meetCONTINUED ON PAGE 4
News
Campus Life
Op-Ed
A&E
Sports
Minorities on Campus work towards the upcoming election
World Views: Homesickness
Some thoughts about Kerry and the Environment
Jonah Reviews Spiderman 2: The Video Game
Check out Sox-Cardinals news and halloween events
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