The Miscellany News
miscellanynews.org
November 3, 2022
Vassar College’s student newspaper of record since 1866 Volume 158 | Issue 8
Lack of campus poll site violates new law Students march to fight for rights Jacques Abou-Rizk News Editor
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early seven months have passed since New York Election Law § 4-104 mandated the designation of a polling place on or near every college campus housing 300 or more registrants. While the deadline for this designation was Aug. 1, 2022, with midterm elections less than a week away, Vassar, with 800 registered local voters, has yet to form an official polling location on campus. A number of on-campus student organizations have brought this issue to the attention of the county’s Board of Elections (BOE), but according to a letter sent to the County by the Dutchess Student Voting Coalition, in conjunction with Democracy Matters, League of Women Voters and the Andrew Goodman Foundation, they have received little to no response from the BOE. According to Wesley Dixon, Special Assistant to the President and Secretary of the Board of Trustees, the President’s Office has seen both the press release and the letter sent to the county. “The College supports and is excited about the fact that local residents and Vassar community members are exercising their voices to advocate for a polling site on Vassar’s campus,” he said in written correspondence. He added that the College has made its stance clear to both Election Commissioners in Dutchess County, Hannah Black See Poll Site on page 3
Emma Adams Guest Reporter
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Karen Mogami/The Miscellany News.
n Oct. 8, downtown Poughkeepsie held a “Bans Off Our Bodies!” march in protest for reproductive rights. The crisp morning air fed into the palpable feeling of excitement and solidarity among local residents. However, there was also an edge of anxiety. Everyone was aware that this march meant more than it ever had in the past. Residents gathered at the Civic Center and marched to the bank of the Hudson River, where organizers and political figures spoke about the fight for reproductive rights and upcoming elections. Protestors wore shirts advocating their support for abortion rights, held signs backing Planned Parenthood and shouted catchy pro-choice slogans. Onlookers voiced their support by honking their car horns and shouting out their windows along with the march. Arriving at the end of its journey, the crowd gathered in front of a stage where speakers lined up ready to voice their support. Among those who spoke was Pat Ryan, current representative of New York’s 19th Congressional District and candidate in the upcoming election. Ryan won a special election in August of this year following Democratic representative Antonia Delgado’s resignation and is running to See March on page 8
Palmer Gallery features new perspectives WVKR hosts student shows Naima Saini Columnist
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he current exhibit in the Palmer Gallery, "History in RBG,", presents intriguing and visually compelling artwork using archival photographs documenting colonization in the Philippines. At first glance, the images in “History in RGB” look fantastical—brightly colored, with low-resolution faces and words, cloudlike
structures that are hard to decipher and intense shadows. But there’s more to them than meets the eye—the images have been meticulously altered so that each one looks different depending on whether it’s viewed through a red, green or blue lens. For example, a cursory glance at the piece Pacific 1993 shows a boat atop an underwater landscape. But using the green lens to look at it, the underwater world sharpens into a teeming landscape of wildlife. Us-
Ganesh Pillai/The Miscellany News.
ing the red lens, the towering presence of the boat, flying the American flag in colonized territory, becomes the clearest part of the image. In the piece Native children, Thomasites, Mayon Volcano, and Kapre, the sea of Filipino children’s faces becomes obscured when the viewer looks with the green lens, leaving only the white adults in clear view, as well as older children in suits. With the red lens, the reverse happens, and the young children’s faces are now the focus of the image. Maria Dumlao, the artist who created “History in RGB,” started collecting the archival images that form the basis of the exhibit before she knew what she was going to do with them. She had been combing through history books, digital libraries, and archives, accumulating images from the United States’ colonization of the Philippines, where she grew up. The majority of the photos in the exhibit were donated to a local university by an American living in the Philippines. “I couldn’t find images of American atrocities, and of course, they were already edited,” Dumlao told me. The photos were not neutral documents—they were presenting history through the lens of the colonizers. “It was very much emphasizing and going with the narrative of Americans as the saviors,” Dumlao said. She started playing with color in the imSee Palmer on page 6
Clara Alger
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Guest Reporter
assar College’s radio station, WVKR, provides a platform for student DJs to share their sound with an audience on campus and beyond. Acadia Lequire ’26 comments on the uniqueness of the WVKR, saying, “[Vassar] has a real station that you can tune into, whereas a lot of other colleges have turned to streaming online.” Each fall, students can pitch new show concepts and submit a playlist for consideration. The application also involves an interview, and once you land a spot, new DJs enter a lottery to get their show time for the year. This year, the station has 19 new student shows; below, I highlight just a few new DJs and the inspirations for their shows. Naked Radio: Acadia Lequire ’26 Listen at 9 a.m. on Sundays Lequire’s show “Naked Radio” is driven by stories of all kinds. She says, “[My] main goal was to make a show about people’s personal connection to music as a reminder that there’s no objective good music or bad music.” Lequire believes that what a song means to you or how it connects to your life is more important than other people’s opinions. Lequire explains, “I tell stories on the radio See WVKR on page 7
Inside this issue
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ARTS
Carly Rae Jepsen has done it again! Read Humor Editor Madi Donat's review of her fifth studio album, "The Loneliest Time."
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FEATURES
Guest Columnist Harrison Walker reflects on a personal connection with Waffle House.
13 HUMOR
Want to gather an army of mice in your room? Follow Nicholas Tillinghast's four steps so you can lure rodents into your space.