Vassar's $400 Million Campaign Goes Public Loeb Opens with Photography
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Vassar College The Miscellany News Poughkeepsie, NY Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com January 27, 2011 Volume CXLIV | Issue 12 Vassar’s $400 million campaign goes public Molly Turpin when President Catharine Bond Hill Ed i t o r i n Ch i E f arrived in 2006. t the opening of the sesqui- “The goals for the campaign arose Acentennial year, the College from conversations on campus after launched the public phase of its I arrived in 2006,” wrote Hill in an “Vassar 150: World Changing” $400 e-mailed statement. “We undertook million capital campaign. The work a process to discuss and plan stra- on the campaign, however, began tegically for Vassar’s future. These several years ago, leading Vassar to goals arose from those discussions. officially open the campaign on Jan. One (the Annual Fund) encompass- 18 with $262 million already received es the entire College, one (science) in gifts and pledges. focuses on the academic program, According to Vice President for and one (access) supports our com- Alumnae/i Affairs and Development mitment to our students. Together Juliana Halpert/ Juliana Cathy Baer, “With the public launch they make a very powerful state- now we want the entire community ment about our values and mission.” to know and to participate and under- According to Baer, the goals of the stand what the goals are.” campaign do not only set forth a mis- The campaign focuses on three sion for fundraising, but also articulate The Miscellany News broad areas of fundraising—Access to a vision of the College’s priorities. Excellence, Sciences for the 21st Cen- “It was clear to me that we needed tury and the Annual Fund. to start moving to another campaign, The idea for a campaign began near partly to articulate a set of goals,” said the end of President Frances Daly Baer. “You have to have an articulate vi- Fergusson’s term at the College. The sion for what it takes to get us there.” three themes then began to take shape See CAMPAIGN on page 4 Above, members of the Vassar community celebrate last week’s reopening of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, which is kicking off 2011 with “150 Years Later,” a photography exhibit featuring contemporary images of the College. Loeb opens with photography exhibition of contemporary Vassar Rachael Borné vis and Katherine Newbegin that photographers, Emily Hargroves Ar t s Ed i t o r will open tonight from 5 to 9 p.m. Fisher ’57 and Richard B. Fisher n the wake of its grand reopen- In short, the photographers were Curator Mary-Kay Lombino ex- Iing exactly one week ago, Vas- asked to capture Vassar. After that, plained: “There’s nothing that you Eric Estes/ sar’s Frances Lehman Loeb Art they were each granted complete can’t do; we’re not going to reject Center will celebrate its freshly creative license and freedom to any of your photographs.” Lombino renovated space by hosting a con- depict the campus with whatever thought of the idea for the exhibi- The Miscellany News temporary photography exhibition sensibility, style and perspective tion in conjunction with the many entitled 150 Years Later: New Pho- they saw fit. sesquicentennial festivities in our tography by Tina Barney, Tim Da- In her ‘prompt’ to the three See LOEB on page 16 Science New student space The model, pictured above, represents the new integrated science facilities. The center plans opening in UpCDC sciences are one of three main pillars of the Vassar 150: World Changing campaign. Matthew Brock programming space—where stu- Faculty rejects course presented Contributing Ed i t o r dents can relax without feeling onight at 8 p.m., the sec- pressured to drink—came out of Caitlin Clevenger Tond floor of the Students’ the series of town hall meetings repeat policy by 1 vote nE w s Ed i t o r Building—known to most as that Dean of the College Chris- resident of the College Catharine UpC—will open as a new student topher Roellke and President Aashim Usgaonkar and to get them back on track. Why PBond Hill, representatives from lounge. Catharine Bond Hill held in the nE w s Ed i t o r should we go to even greater lengths the science faculty, the design team at According to Assistant Dean residence halls last year. he course-repeat policy, which when so much is done already to Ennead Architects and the landscape for Campus Activities Teresa At these meetings, many Twould allow students who earn support student success? Wouldn’t architecture firm Michael Van Valken- Quinn, the idea for an alternative See UpCDC on page 3 a D or D+ grade in a course during this policy amount to a lowering burgh Associates Inc. revealed plans their first three semesters of college of our academic standards?” wrote for Vassar’s $120 million science fa- to retake the course, failed to be in- Chenette in an e-mailed statement cilities project in the Villard Room on ducted into Vassar’s curricular poli- describing some of the concerns Wednesday, Jan. 19. cy at the faculty floor on Wednesday, members of the faculty raised at the Juliana Halpert/ Juliana President Hill, in an interview pub- Dec. 15. “The policy lost by one vote,” meeting. lished in the January issue of the Chro- said Vassar Student Association The Committee on Curricular Pol- nogram, identified current problems (VSA) Vice President for Academics icies (CCP) first proposed the policy with Vassar science facilities, saying, Laura Riker ’11. in April of last year. The document, “We’ve got a very charming but out- Offering reasons for the fate of the which the committee endorsed last The Miscellany News dated physics building that could be policy, Dean of the Faculty Jonathan fall, would have allowed students in used for a Back to the Future movie Chenette noted that “a variety of their first three semesters to submit a set. Our chemistry building is not that concerns were raised.” petition to the Committee on Leaves old but unfortunately has been more “My sense of the primary concern and Privileges to be allowed to re- or less dysfunctional from the day was that D grades are actually quite take a course in which they received it opened. Our Psychology Depart- rare—about .4 percent of all grades a D or D+. After it was endorsed by ment is in a building on the other side in 2009-10—and there are systems in CCP, the policy made its way to the of campus from most of our science The second floor of the Students’ Building will serve as a new alternative place to notify the Dean of Studies of- VSA Council, which unanimously See SCIENCE on page 4 space for students from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Thursdays through Saturdays. fice about students facing difficulties See REPEAT on page 4 Inside this issue Examining a See our Staff Volleyball begins 7 new, local 8 Editorial now 18 new, challenging FEATURES sushi bargain OPINIONS in Opinions SPORTS 2011 season Page 2 The Miscellany News January 27, 2011 Editor in Chief Molly Turpin Senior Editor Angela Aiuto Contributing Editors Matthew Brock Lila Teeters News Caitlin Clevenger Aashim Usgaonkar Features Mitchell Gilburne Opinions Joshua Rosen Humor & Satire Alanna Okun Arts Rachael Borné Sports Andy Marmer Design Eric Estes Photography Juliana Halpert Online Erik Lorenzsonn Social Media Marie Dugo Assistant Features Matthew Bock Danielle Gensburg Assistant Arts Rachael Borné Assistant Sports Corey Cohn Assistant Copy Katharine Austin Stephen Loder Assistant Photo Madeline Zappala Crossword Editor Jonathan Garfinkel Reporters Vee Benard Adam Buchsbaum Danielle Bukowski Emma Daniels Mary Huber Shruti Manian Kristine Olson Connor O’Neill Chelsea Peterson- Salahuddin Wilson Platt Joseph Rearick Dave Rosenkranz Jillian Scharr Columnists Brittany Hunt Michael Mestitz On January 23, 1943, The Miscellany News reported on the faculty’s introduction of a new plan for a three-year degree program. This “acceler- Andy Sussman ated” degree was meant to put graduates in the workforce more quickly so that they might take their liberal education to the war effort and, Nik Trkulja later, to reconstruction. The Trustees passed the proposal on Feb. 5 of the same year. The last students to participate in it graduated in 1948. Photographers Katie de Heras Carlos Hernandez Jared Saunders THIS WEEK IN VASSAR HIS T ORY Eric Schuman 1871, January poetry:“…in truth, one of the legitimate poets, 1902, Jan. Ellen Swallow ’70 matriculated at the Massa- Emerson, in my opinion, is not.” In fact Em- New England Building, donated by the New chusetts Institute for Technology to pursue erson, whose poetry lacked “directness, com- England alumnae and designed by York & chemistry. Though women were not allowed pleteness, energy,” was “neither a great poet Sawyer, architects, was completed. The build- LETTERS POLICY The Miscellany News is Vassar College’s weekly open to study at MIT at the time, Swallow was ad- nor a man of letters.” ing was originally dedicated to the biology, forum for discussion of campus, local and national is- mitted on an experimental basis to determine The Vassar Miscellany in turn criticized physiology, geology and mineralogy depart- sues, and welcomes letters and opinions submissions if women were capable of studying the sci- Arnold, writing ““We of to-day...have no de- ments. Trustee Florence Cushing, Class of from all readers. Letters to the Editor should not ex- ences. sire to be led back into medievalism even by 1874, arranged for a fragment of Plymouth ceed 450 words, and they usually respond to a par- ticular item or debate from the previous week’s issue.