Posted by Tegan O'Neill
Olive oil at the beginning of a meal has the power to transport the diner across the Atlantic. The food of Spain is deeply rooted in tradition. Loyalty to the classics, not ingenuity, is what is prized on the plate. A taste of "tortilla
Posted by Brittany Dingler
Walking around campus, it is often difficult to find any two students or faculty members engaging in the lost art of eye contact. As soon as the professor begins wrapping up his or her last comments, those slick, shiny, plastic boxes slide effortlessly from our pockets to their natural position, resting just under our thumbs for optimal use. Sometimes, it seems, even the distance to our pockets induces too much separation anxiety, leading us to situate our homing device on top of the desk in a comforting spot between our professors and ourselves. Although no one is making the argument that the presence of the phone necessarily dictates one's aptitude as a student or status as a member of the Skidmore community, it most definitely sends a message. That message? We would rather be somewhere else.
It should be noted, however, that this sentiment is not synonymous with the "anywhere but here" state of mind. Rather, the former is a product of what cognitive psychologists like Shawn Achor refer to as culturally induced ADHD (The happy secret to better work, 2011). In other words, the rapid increase in the accessibility of superdevices -an obvious reference to Apple's iPhone and its aspiring competitors - coupled with the infinite, pre-existing social networking formats, has redefined sociability as an obligation to multi-task. As a result, we are stuck in an inescapable loop of refreshing, scrolling, checking, clicking, commenting, liking, and refreshing again to see if we may have momentarily piqued the curiosity of our friends who are also running on their social hamster wheels. But what happens if we don't refresh, refresh, refresh? A sense of fear that we are, in some way, missing out. Even using only one virtual social medium at a time seems to induce this effect; if we're texting we might be missing that exhilarating, red notification box on facebook. But if we're on facebook we might be missing a vital snap chat, text, or that retweet we crave to confirm our unrivaled wit.
Researchers like Rosen, Carrier, and Cheever (2013) discovered that this switching back and forth has significant implications in our ability to focus on other things in life - like school. They were motivated to conduct this study from previous findings of the negative impact that tech-based multi-tasking has on college students' ability to contemplate, deeply understand, and remember material. Essentially, because of our dopamine-driven habit of checking and rechecking our phones, we seem to have a hard time devoting the mental faculties required to be fully present and able to challenge ourselves academically. Expanding on this concern, Rosen et al. find that there was a statistically significant negative relationship between the amount of time spent texting or on facebook with college students' GPAs. But can anyone truly be surprised by this finding? In all, Rosen et al. and similarly concerned researchers are simply offering some scientific support to explain the battle we all face every time we sit down to write that paper, a process we fear will be unpleasant and, compared to the pleasure we feel when texting or facebooking, painful. So, instead, we exchange academic immersion for more scrolling, liking, and "lol-ing." And why not? Thinking in terms of a gross simplification of evolution, we endured by engaging in activities that felt good (i.e., "creating" offspring) and avoiding those that didn't (because, at the time, they probably weren't good for us). However, we must now acknowledge the scientific support showing that we no longer know how to differentiate between what feels good for us and what is good for us.
So what do we do? How can we remove ourselves from this addictive cycle of instant (but fleeting) gratification? By taking a step back to reevaluate. By becoming more aware of how, when, and - most importantly - why we are so addicted to these plastic boxes that talk back. Essentially, we do what feels good or, when given options, what feels better. So how do we find something that feels better that isn't in app-form? By going out and remembering what we enjoyed before Mr. Jobs made it oh so easy to "connect." By remembering the powerful relief that tech-free life can provide. By allowing our thumb muscles to relax and by retraining our arms and fingers to reach for others' arms and fingers. By jumping off that social hamster wheel and taking a walk outside. By realigning our spine to support our neck and head in an upright position, allowing us to look forward rather than down. By turning off our phone for a while and really experiencing classes; because there's nowhere else we need, or want, to be in that moment. By looking up at our friends, colleagues, and professors because maybe, just maybe, they will too.
Posted by Julia Leef '14
Faculty members discussed the upcoming COACHE survey, the Faculty Workload Group update, and a review of the General Education Requirements last Friday, Oct. 4, at their monthly meeting in Gannett Auditorium.
The meeting began with a moment of silence for Alma Becker and David Yergan, two professors in the Theater Department who recently passed away. President Philip A. Glotzbach then gave the President's Report informing the faculty of the upcoming Middle States Accreditation review, for which the College will spend the next two years preparing.
President Glotzbach also outlined the primary principles the College intends to follow for this review: to be clear about its mission and to act to fulfill it, to demonstrate evidence that students are learning what they ought to be, to show that the College is providing sufficient resources to support primary activities that have the sustainability to carry on into the future years and to develop appropriate data about institutional issues.
Vice President for Finance and Administration & Treasurer Mike West concluded the President's Report by announcing that the College is currently working with the town of Greenfield to install solar panels on the land near the baseball field which would generate approximately 12% of the College's electricity.
"I'm hopeful that we will be able to do this," President Glotzbach said, adding that the College had received some opposition from its neighbors about the project "but it's not done until it's done."
Dean of Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs Beau Breslin provided a report on the Collaborative On Academic Careers and Higher Education (COACHE), a Harvard program that surveys and compares campuses in terms of their work-life balance. Faculty members have taken this survey previously in 2006 and 2010, the results of which aid the College in its own improvement and development.
This year's survey will be sent out during the week of Oct. 14, and the results will be compared with one of the College's fellow consortium members: Colgate University, Hamilton College, Hobart & William Smith Colleges, Union College or Macalester College. Categories will include tenure, nature of work, work and home, climate/culture and global satisfaction.
After Breslin spoke, Mary Odekon, professor and chair of the Physics Department, gave the faculty members an update on the Faculty Workload Working Group, which was constituted last March and is set to continue its work through this December by gathering information from various surveys and focus groups to establish its priorities for discussion.
The group intends to discuss establishing clear, formal language for the faculty handbook, improving support for department chairs and program directors, changing the faculty government system to a faculty senate model, and creating more community building activities, among other topics.
Faculty members then voted on two motions that were discussed at the previous month's meeting. The motion to update the "Division of Disciplines" to add Arts Administration to "Pre-Professionals," Asian Studies to "Humanities," International Affairs to "Social Sciences" and Neuroscience to "Natural Sciences" in the Faculty Handbook passed with a total of 132 votes, with 122 voting yes, two no and eight abstaining. The second motion to adopt the 2013-2014 Faculty Handbook also passed with a total of 123 votes, with 113 voting yes, three no and seven abstaining.
A new motion was proposed and discussed to modify the language in the faculty handbook to clarify the requirements for all faculty versus tenure/tenure-track faculty, giving non-tenure faculty the option not to attend faculty meetings or commencement, although encouraging them to come. This change would not affect their voting status. The motion was tabled to be voted on in the following meeting.
After the discussion of this new motion had concluded, Professor of Economics Joerg Bibow ran a twenty-minute discussion regarding a review of the General Education Requirements. Of particular interest were the goals for Student Learning and Development, which covered Knowledge, Intellectual Skills & Practice, Personal and Social Values and Transformation.
Many rotations of the student body have passed through since the College adopted the current general education requirements five or six years ago and there is a greater need for the faculty to think about what students need today, according to Professor of Art History Penny Jolly. The first draft of the goals was created based on the language of the College course requirements to reflect what the faculty wanted students to learn.
Professor of History Jennifer Delton brought up the fact that the learnings were voted on under the view that they would not all necessarily be enacted in the curriculum and that a review of them would have to take this baseline into consideration in terms of examining their role in student learning and development. Peter von Allmen, Professor and chairman of the Economics Department, asked the faculty to bring up anything fundamental that may be missing from these goals in accordance with the College's current agenda and curriculum.
The meeting concluded with several announcements, including the introduction of the members of the Student Government Association Executive Committee, an update on the restructuring of the Faculty Interest Group from Professor of English Jacqueline Scoones to discuss the possibilities that would be available for faculty and undergraduate students if the College created a restructuring program in graduation studies, an invitation from The Zankel Chair in Management for Liberal Arts Students Pushi Prasad to the Skidmore Research Colloquium at 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 10 regarding how maps began to conquer the imagination from functionality to fiction, and an invitation to a community reception at the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery from Dayton Director and Professor of Liberal Studies Ian Berry for a student-curated project with a collection of African objects and the Classless Society show.
Posted by Alex Hodor-Lee
For at least the second year running, Skidmore students who came to school early to represent this institution athletically or by way of pre-orientation or peer mentorship, who chose to exercise their right to take residence off-campus, were without housing for the two weeks prior to the start of classes (and I qualify with "at least" because my institutional memory doesn't extend beyond two years).
Last August Dean Rochelle Calhoun held a "meet the dean" seminar in Gannet Auditorium. The meet quickly morphed into an hour-long bashing when students-rightly incandescent at the College's failure to secure pre-semester housing for students whose leases hadn't yet begun-berated Dean Calhoun, decrying the College's indifference.
The issue was raised August 2012 (and again this August). Many students' leases don't begin until the day before classes so that Saratoga landlords can prolong their extortionate rent fees to horse-fanatics "summering" in Saratoga. For athletes, who travel to compete and train for up to four hours a day under the summer sun, this adds another level of anxiety because they're without housing during the two-week gap.
This also affects peer mentors who undergo training. During the fiery meeting, one of the nearly 150 students present yelled out, "I was forced to live out of my car for a week!" Unfortunately, she found no sympathy from a very idle Don Hastings, who minimized the College's responsibility for a student sleeping in her sedan during pre-o.
That students who commit to the College should have to live out of their cars is deplorable and indefensible. The school's apathetic responses might evince several unsavory qualities about this institution: firstly, students choosing to live off-campus to avoid the exorbitantly high costs of campus living are met with indifference by school administrators. Secondly, that the school does not care about athletes or have much consideration for their performance. Thirdly, that it does not behoove upperclassmen to come back early and train to become peer mentors (presumably, they urge their mentees not to participate in the peer mentor program unless they're cool with being homeless by their junior or senior year). Finally, that as your time goes on at Skidmore, you are less appreciated.
It's not an easily solved logistical problem, but it is solvable. Speaking candidly, I have no solution to the problem. But I will offer this: if at Don Hasting's Skidmore College there are no rooms for hard-working student ambassadors, then at our Skidmore College there should be no room for Don Hastings.
Posted by Addison Bennett, SGA VP for Club Affairs
Note: The opinions expressed in the following letter do not reflect those of SGA but just the select officials involved.
As this semester's Humans Versus Zombies game approaches, we find it appropriate to express our support of this club and their campus event.
We fully support co-curricular life on this campus. As students, we have surely come here to study and enjoy our academic pursuits, but we have also come to Skidmore to participate, to engage our college community, and to positively contribute to this campus' climate. Skidmore is a residential college, meaning that a large number of students live on campus, signifying the inevitable fusion of academics with social life. Engagement and participation can take many forms, and these are not limited to the classroom. To think otherwise would be to ignore the many benefits of the college experience that do not rely on scholarship. While HvZ does not contribute directly to a student's academic pursuits, the game has many other merits. The most important of them is its ability to provide a forum for so many students to enjoy a game together. Ultimately, the goal of any club or event, including HvZ, is to foster the kind of environment we all want to live and partake in. Our campus is host to a multitude of clubs, alliances, and groups that range from being academic to cultural to performance to activist. These are available to us to grow individually, socially, and academically. We, as students, are able to thrive best when we feel safe and inclusive within our campus community and the only way to do this is to create those niches for people to belong to. We understand that not everyone feels the same about all the groups our campus has to offer but we must all respect others' decisions to partake in events and activities that best suit our needs.
HvZ has quickly become a tradition on this campus. Having recently become a chartered club under the auspices of SGA, HvZ clearly already has the support of this student body and its government. The game has a strong following of students, especially during the larger and longer campus-wide games. The game has strict regulations, one of them clearly stipulating that the game should never take place inside any buildings. These regulations serve to limit the game to the venues where it is appropriate to be held, outside and away from the classroom, the library, the dorms, Case Center, and other buildings where our scholarly pursuits take place. As any other ongoing campus activity, it may permeate conversations, especially in an academic setting. However, it most likely does not dominate classroom discussions, unless it pertains to the class (such as the American Studies course on Post-Apocalyptic Film and Literature). Professors who do not want the game to enter their classroom have every right to state their wish explicitly, and their students have the responsibility to listen. Classroom etiquette is an integral part of learning in the classroom. We must all respect each other. A co-curricular game should not interfere with the classroom experience. Outside the classroom, however, we students must be free to budget our own time, to play games if we want to, and to enjoy what little time we have on this campus.
Furthermore, the game is also intended only to include those who are actively participating. While others may view this game in the periphery of their campus experience, only those playing are actually engrossed in the game. Those who do not want to be involved do not need to be. It is as simple as that.
While the game's overlap with the October study day is no longer a conflict since the dates have been changed to early November, the policy on study days is an important issue to address. The SGA plans to fully review the policy on study days in the very near future, and this review will include defining what the purpose of this day is, and who has the authority to plan and approve events on that day. Our current interpretation is this: the October study day gives students an opportunity to budget their time as they see fit, by studying all day if they wish, or by choosing to participate in events with their peers if they so desire.
Other objections raised to the game - namely, the assertion that HvZ turns the campus into a simulated war zone - are valid, but we believe they are also exaggerated. These are conversations we should all have as a campus community. It falls on all of us to look critically at the ways we choose to spend our free time. We look forward to more conversation on this issue.
Ideally, a day off from classes - which, not coincidentally, falls after most professors have given midterms-would include a healthy mix of curricular and co-curricular activity. As of now, many events are not permitted to occur on this day, however this policy is not conducive to fostering a positive atmosphere. College students are not children; we do not need to be told when we must study and when we may play.
Posted by Olivia Frank
As autumn emerges it signals blooming foliage, a Riggi mansion decked out for Halloween, and, last but not least, Teach for America (TFA) applications. This year a friend and I started a Skidmore College chapter of an organization called Students United for Public Education (SUPE).
At the national level, SUPE is about to release a campaign called "Resisting Teach for America." I hesitate to become fully involved because my stance does not reach the same level of opposition as other SUPE leaders. However, I do think that joining TFA is a very loaded commitment and would like to offer some food for thought to anyone considering an application.
Since Teach for America's founding in 1990, the organization has cultivated national praise, billions of dollars in funding and an increasingly elite pool of applications. TFA's pearly reputation has successfully rooted itself in American minds- my own included. Over the years I have learned about admirable graduates volunteering to take on the public school trenches, including the toughest working conditions and most challenging students throughout our country. TFA corps members seemed to epitomize noble and good intentions. But that very statement-their pure intentions-marks the beginning of a very unfortunate and necessary critique of this "superhero" program.
As compassionate as TFA recruits may be, their goals need to be less idealistic and more broad-sighted. If the long-term consequences of TFA were more closely examined, optimistic potential corps members would realize they were about to participate in a harmful system. The prospect of bonding with some struggling students just may lose its allure.
Why do so many college seniors apply for this prestigious program in the first place? Perhaps it looks good on a resume. Perhaps they don't know what else to do after graduation, so a short teaching gig seems like a nice move. Or perhaps they want to earn their teaching certification in an alternative way (I am quite guilty of this consideration myself). Realistically, these motives are all understandable, but it needs to be more widely understood that the two years of the program do not only impact the lives of the corps members.
The students in each placement are very real kids that college grads should not be using for the above devices. They are not guinea pigs deserving to be toyed with by a group of enthusiastic yet inexperienced novices. Everyone knows that a teacher's first experience is never the most successful; they need years of trials and errors to get into their groove. In the case of TFA, those errors are inflicted upon the highest-needs students in our nation. These kids need the best professional educators in the field, carrying far more than five weeks of TFA training under their belts.
In my own public school years, any troublesome teachers had their negative effects balanced and assuaged by the high quality teachers to follow. The same cannot often be said for students in low-income districts, where quality teachers are dissuaded from applying to work because of the frustrating conditions.
Even if well-practiced "career" teachers (those who teach by long-term profession, rather than using teaching as a stepping stone) do enter the struggling school scene, they are increasingly laid off with tightening school budgets. In the "Resisting Teach for America" campaign, SUPE founder Stephanie Rivera, in an interview, explains TFA's affiliation with this problem, "In many of the same school districts where experienced teachers have been laid off, TFA recruits have come in to replace them" Moreover, Rivera observes, "Since most TFA teachers do not stay in their schools beyond their two-year commitment, they are far less likely to demand the higher pay and benefits, and thus stand as an attractive alternative, from the districts' perspective, to career teachers and their unions."
This observation was blatantly demonstrated in July, when the Chicago Public School district laid off over a thousand teachers and committed to hiring over three hundred new TFA recruits. In this way, TFA isn't just following its mission to fill the voids of teachers in undesired schools; it is helping to create these voids.
Thus a cycle emerges, as is always the case with social issues. Students who need the most help - those who have fallen behind their affluent counterparts since the early differences of pre-school - are bound to detrimental teaching from which they cannot recover. Their achievement decreases. Harsh evaluations are implemented to hold their teachers accountable for these results. The best teachers stay far away from this powerless, degrading scenario. Instead, hopeful, well-intentioned college grads are called in to "save the day."
Posted by Maggie Sweeney
Skidmore's Women's soccer team pulled through with a win against Bard College on Tuesday night, Oct. 8. The final score was 1-0 Skidmore, which brought the team to a 8-0-2 record. The game was off to a late start due to transportation issues, and the gradually dropping temperature was certainly not in favor of the players. Despite these conditions, the Thoroughbreds held their own and ended the game on a great note.
The game started off on an offensive note by Skidmore's diligent attackers, but Bard's goalkeeper Kelsey O'Brien kept her team in the game with two early saves. The Thoroughbreds' attackers Christine Bellotti '14 and Morgan Governale '15 both put their missed shots behind them, and bounced back with a determined fire.
Gab Lawrence '14 kept the scoreboard level in the 17th minute, when she guided a shot from Bard's Abby Labrecque's over the bar with a confident fist pump. A minute later Lawrence then dove to her right to deny Gina Lewis's shot from 18 yards on the resulting corner kick. Lawrence made three saves in goal for Skidmore throughout the game, which had a positive impact on her shutout streak.
The game stayed tied 0-0 until the 21st minute, when Jen Wardyga '14 scored the game's only goal, assisted by Arena Manning '16. Manning took advantage of a pass from freshman Emily Salitermanand dribbled around O'Brien before sliding a feed to Wardyga, who finished the play into the empty net.
Lawrence's third and final save came in the second half, resulting from Labrecque's shot after she made her way past the Skidmore defense. Lawrence's quick reflexes and keen sense of positioning helped her break up the play and preserve the shutout.
Skidmore's offense outshot Bard's 20-3 and held a 7-1 advantage in corners. The Thoroughbreds will now head off to Clarkson University for a Liberty League contest on Saturday, Oct. 12 at 3 p.m. Their goal to maintain an undefeated streak is looking highly plausible.
Posted by Daniele Guest
Posted by Julia Mahony
In recent years, Woody Allen's films have focused on grand European cities, such as Paris and Rome. These films have been surreal and enchanting, but with his newest film, "Blue Jasmine," Allen has shifted gears to stark American reality.
Theatrical chameleon Cate Blanchett easily delivers one of the best performances of the year in the titular role of Jasmine, a modern Manhattan socialite who has recently fallen from grace. She flawlessly embodies the aging diva in all of her vodka swigging, Xanax popping glory.
The film jumps between the current state of Jasmine's existence of disgrace and her glamorous life of the past, allowing the viewers to experience the gaudiness and grotesquery of her and her husband Hal's (Alec Baldwin) privileged world. Jasmine maintains conviction in her self-entitlement, whether she is in the comfort of luxury, or in the less than elegant world of her sister, Ginger (Sally Hawkins). Ginger lives in a seemingly typical apartment in San Francisco, which initially shocks Jasmine in its obvious ordinariness. .
This weekend the Saratoga Film Forum will be showing "Blue Jasmine" at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday the 10th, Friday the 11th, and Sunday the 13th. In addition, on Saturday the 12th at 7:30 p.m., "Rising From Ashes" will be playing. It is an inspirational film about genocide survivors in Rwanda, striving towards their dream of a national cycling team. Afterward there will be a panel discussion. Tickets are $5 with valid Skidmore ID.
Posted by As heard Eleanor Rochman
"When I was your age, I was 18"
"romantical relationships are difficult when there's two people involved."
"When I'm having girl troubles, I just let my beard grow out."
"There's some guy dressed in tweed smoking a pipe outside of case. So Skidmore."
"What kind of nationality do you think Glotzbach is?
"It sounds like some kind of amish condiment, or, like ghetto mayonnaise."
person #1: "so, how are your fur-lined leggings?"
person #2: "Great! I..I.. feel like my legs are in a cloud."
"One time, when I was drunk, I told all my friends I was an illegal immigrant."
person #1: "no but seriously, you guys, I used to have slight arachnophobia."
person #2: "What? You used to have slutty rat phobia?"
-- realm: 3th floor of library
"someone should scream really really loudly"
"sound does not exist on the fourth floor"
