THE

CAMPUSSERVING ALLEGHENY COLLEGE SINCE 1876

- FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011 -VOLUME 136, ISSUE 15 WWW.ALLEGHENYCAMPUS.COM

Looking forwardLooking back

For the first issue of the calendar year, The Campus reflects on the biggest events,

changes and happenings of 2011 and takes a look at what’s in store for Allegheny in 2012.

SPECIAL ISSUE

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

THE YEAR’S TOP

ALBUMS REVIEWED p.5

SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS p.6NEW FACULTY PROFILES p.4WHAT’S COMING IN 2012 p.3

2011 in review

LOOKING BACK:

Design by Dana D’Amico

February1 2/8 WHOLE DARN THING BURNS DOWN An early

morning fire gutted neighboring businesses The Whole Darn Thing Sub Shop and The Neon Moon killing a second floor resident. The next day, struc-tural engineers declared the burned establishment unsafe to renovate. “We will try our best to come back full force,” Whole Darn Thing Sub Shop owner Christine Jordan said, “It’s gonna take some time.”

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2/11 SLUR APPEARS ON CAMPUS An unknown person marked a student’s door with the word “faggot” in Walker Hall. There was no direct cause leading up to the incident, according to Joseph DiChristina, dean of students. “Sadly there are going to be people who are going to do bad things, and we have to deal with those things,” said President Mullen. “We’re never going to get to a perfect place.”

MARCH-JUNE4 3/16 STUDENTS PROTEST IN MARCH AGAINST HATE

More than 330 students, faculty and administrators gathered in the Gator Quad at 8 p.m. and marched their way through campus to rally in front of Bentley Hall. The event was organized by Q’nA and nine other diversity groups in response to recent hate crimes that occurred on campus. “When you’re doing a march, it doesn’t matter if someone’s trying to silence you or intimidate you because you can yell it,” said Annie Krol, ’12, vice president of Q’nA.

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JULY OFFICE OF IDEA FORMS The Office of Institu-tional Diversity, Equity, and Access, or IDEA, headed by chief diversity officer Dr. Lawrence Potter extended its responsibility to all Allegheny College diversity groups and would exclusively supervise The Office of Diversity Affairs.

JULY-SEPT.7

4/21 EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION BECOMES AVAILABLE AT WISE CENTER After ReproCo spent more than one year on bringing Plan B or a similar morning-after pill to campus, Sue Plunkett, director of the health center, announced at the Reproductive Health Coalition’s Sexual Health Panel that emer-gency contraception would now be available at the Winslow Health Center.

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SUMMER LOCAL BUSINESS CLOSE THEIR DOORS The Artist’s Cup Cafe and Gringo’s Mexican Grill both closed.

OCT.-NOV.

10 10/15 TRUSTEES VOTE FIJI BACK TO CAMPUS The Board of Trustees voted for Phi Gamma Delta’s return in a surprise vote over fall break. Members of the Interfraternity Council expressed mixed feelings considering they recommended against allowing FIJI back onto campus. “We no longer feel that we have control,” said Cory Muscara, ‘12, president of IFC.

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10/27 STUDENTS PROTEST IN SLUTWALK ReproCo and Young Feminists hosted Allegheny’s first SlutWalk, a popular demonstration against victim-blaming in cases of rape on the grounds of women’s choice of dress.

SUMMER CAMPUS BECOMES FULLY WIRELESS The wireless network was extended across the rest of campus. The entire procedure of transforming the network from a wired to wireless infrastructure took over two years and cost approximately $500,000, Chief Information Officer Rick Holmgren said.

9/1 SMOOTHIE STREET OPENS IN CAMPUS CENTER A new food station in the Campus Center opened at the beginning of the school year in the former Allegheny Baking Company window. Parkhurst’s idea of Smoothie Street originated after national smoothie company Freshens demanded more space than what was previously constructed.

11/1 SUB SHOP REOPENS After long months of reconstruction, the Whole Darn Thing reopened in a new building at the same location on Market Street. Co-owner Chris Jordan thought customers were pleased with the new building. “That’s been the biggest gratification,” she said. “Just looking and seeing a lot of the majority of the old customers back and new ones that haven’t been here before.”

CLOSEDWe’re

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“Allegheny College does not tolerate

homophobia or any kind of harassment.”

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HATE

2/25 SECOND SLUR APPEARS ON CAMPUS A second homophobic slur was found printed on a piece of computer paper in an undisclosed residence hall. Dean of students Joseph DiChristina said the incident was being investigated and that criminal prosecution was “an open possibility” should the targeted individual choose it. “It makes all of us sad. It makes all of us angry,” DiChristina said. “None of us have an answer to the why. It causes confusion and frustration. But we have to make a statement that this is not tolerated.”

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www.AlleghenyCampus.com[Features]4 || The Campus || January 27, 2012

Tonight Th eta Chi will host a performance of Plato’s clas-sic work, “Th e Apology of Socrates,” in Shafer Audito-rium at 8 p.m. Th e one-man production will be performed by Emmy-award winning Yan-nis Simonides, the father of Th eta Chi brother Ion Simo-nides, ’14.

Yannis has performed “Th e Apology” over 200 times in venues all over the world, including the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Mexi-co, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Ukraine and, of course, Greece. In many coun-tries, a translation of the work is n e c e s s a r y. According to his son, Yannis is p r e -c ise

about the translations, which end up in a PowerPoint pre-sentation that plays on a screen behind him while he performs.

Ion, who has seen the show

Emmy-award winning actor to perform Plato’s “Apology” tonight in Shafer

By MOLLY DUERIGduerigm@allegheny.edu

at least 30 times, has done much of the technical work for his father’s performance since he was 14.

Whenever Ion accompanied his father to performances, he would receive complimentary plane tickets as the technical assistant for the show. Ion will also do the technical work for tonight’s performance.

Ion explained that his ap-preciation for his dad’s per-formance grew aft er actually reading the original text of

“Th e Apology” in a philosophy class.

“Th e text is very boring and dry to

analyze,” he

said. “ B u t

m y d a d makes

it really funny. Th ere’s lots of humor, irony and sarcasm in the show. People expect to see a lecture, but that’s not what it is at all. It’s a performance.”

Yannis attended Yale for drama and served at Tish School of the Arts as director of the drama department at the age of 28. At the age of 30, he was off ered tenure but turned it down to start up his own the-atre company, Th e Greek Th e-atre of New York. Yannis won an Emmy for the collection of documentaries about Greece that he produced and directed in the 80s.

Yannis is traveling from New York City to per-form at Allegh- e n y today. He will remain in the States f o r

three m o n t h s ,

which, accord-ing to Ion, is a

considerable length of time for him. Ion

said the show has been successful at col-

leges and high schools across the nation.

Proceeds from the tickets to tonight’s performance ($3 for students; $7 for general public) will benefi t the local branch of CHAPS (Crawford County Mental Health Awareness Program), Th eta Chi’s philan-thropy.

New 2011 faculty membersreflect on Allegheny experiences

Originally from western Illinois, Zachary Callen says Meadville is the most rural place he’s ever lived in. But as far as universities go, Allegh-eny College isn’t the smallest he’s seen.

Assistant professor of politi-cal science Zach Callen arrived at Allegheny last semester from the University of Montana-Helena, where he’d been teach-ing for the previous two years.

“[Helena] was about half the size of Allegheny,” Callen said. Although he and his wife liked the town, it was not where they envisioned themselves living in the future.

He said that there were three faculty members in Helena’s entire political science depart-ment, and 75-80 faculty mem-bers total at the university.

Callen said he was im-pressed by Allegheny’s stu-dents, faculty and location. He also really appreciated that the College supports faculty writ-ing and research.

Callen said that he is very happy at Allegheny thus far. “Th e students are bright, they work hard, they’re pleasant to interact with,” he said. “Ear-nest is a good word to describe t hem.”

By MOLLY DUERIGduerigm@allegheny.edu

Matt Ferrence is an assistant professor of English at Allegh-eny, specializing in creative nonfi ction and American lit-erature, with a particular focus on Appalachian literature.

Last semester, Ferrence also participated in the Single Voice Reading Series, sharing from his own various projects. One essay he read aloud was from a collection of golf essays, which took place in Arizona, where he used to live. One recounted an experience he once had while golfi ng with two men that at-tempted to cross the Mexican border.

“It was one of those situa-tions where you end up being involved whether you want to be or not,” Ferrence said. When

he waved to the men in greet-ing, they fl ed. Later, he saw them being escorted away by border control and realized he’d inadvertently fl ushed two men out.

To Ferrence, one of Allegh-eny’s most appealing aspects is the open interaction between faculty members and between faculty and students.

“I have spent time at many English departments and uni-versities, and this is by far the most authentic,” he said.

Overall, Ferrence said he would like to stay at Allegheny permanently.

“My radiator’s a little chipped, but besides that I don’t have any complaints,” he said. “Th e blush still hasn’t gone off the rose.”

Visiting assistant professor of art history Travis English was attracted to Allegheny’s liberal arts setting. In regards to Meadville, he isn’t disap-pointed.

“I tend to be a misanthropic homebody, so Meadville is as good a place as any,” he said.

Th ough English’s specialty is in early 20th century Euro-pean art, he teaches art history beginning from the 16th centu-

Samira Mehta’s year has been full of lots of hard work. Th at’s because she’s here at Al-legheny to complete her disser-tation, entitled “Beyond Chris-mukkah: A Cultural History of the Christian/Jewish Blended Family from 1960—2010.”

As Allegheny’s Diversity Dissertation Fellow and Hu-manities Scholar-in-Residence, Mehta has kept busy working on her own project and teach-ing a class: Religion in Ameri-can Life. She attended Swarth-more College in Pennsylvania, so she said Allegheny’s small liberal arts environment feels almost like home to her.

“Th e faculty has been very welcoming, and I’ve been mak-ing new friends,” Mehta said. “Th e support I’ve been getting from the faculty members has

been fabulous.”Mehta said that overall she

has been very well taken care of here at Allegheny. She has been able to devote a lot of time to her own work.

“[Th e Fellow position] is a very generous opportunity that the school off ers,” she said.

Mehta’s dissertation ex-plores how American society talks and thinks about inter-faith families, and how that af-fects the religious lives of those families. She is also examining how those trends have changed during the past 65 years.

“Th e interfaith marriage rate has grown since 1965,” she said. According to Mehta’s research, in 1965 10% of mar-riages were interfaith, and by 1990 that rate had grown to 50%.

ry up until modern times.Originally from Butler, PA,

English had lived in New York since 2006 and came to Allegh-eny aft er deciding that it would be nice to be close to home.

He added that the other member of his household has also adapted well to Meadville.

“My family consists of a cat named Wooby, and he hasn’t complained much about our new dwellings,” English said.

“He has more windows to sit in and a longer hallway to run down, so he’s happy.”

English will only teach at Allegheny for the year, so he said he hasn’t been too con-cerned with integrating into the faculty-at-large. However, he said he has really enjoyed getting to know the art depart-ment faculty.

“Th ey’re a great bunch,” he said.

Got a story to tell? Write for The

Campus!

editor@allegheny

campus.com

Ion Simonides/The Campus

Molly Duerig/The CampusMolly Duerig/The Campus

Molly Duerig/The Campus

Travis English/The Campus

Features Editors: Molly Duerig & Katie McHugh

Allegheny theatre students are going full throttle this se-mester.

Playshop Th eatre will show an Oscar Wilde play, Th e Im-portance of Being Earnest, di-rected by Dan Crozier and stage managed by Kevin van Develde, from March 1 to March 4.

Th e main characters include Colleen McCaughey, Lee Scan-dinaro, Dylan Boucher and Gwyn Agnew.

“I was really happy to be cast in this role because I never got to use a British accent on-stage before,” said Colleen Mc-Caughey, ’13, who will portray Cecily Cardew.

“Th e whole cast is working really hard to make sure we’re working on the perceived pro-nunciation guide very closely and we’re working one on one with the director to make sure we’re pronouncing everything correctly,” she said.

Another play, “Museum,” a recent play written by Tina Howe and directed by Beth Watkins, will run from April 19 through 22. Auditions will be held in late February.

A huge cast of characters will walk in and out of an art gallery in the course of a single day, interact with one another and interpret the works of art.  

Student Experimental Th e-atre, or SET, will hold four

shows throughout the semes-ter, including Flu Season, writ-ten by Will Eno and directed Michael Young from March 9 to 10, “Adaption of the Country Wife” written by Luke Wronski from April 6 to 7, a “Devised Piece” directed by Katie Beck and Blair Hartman  from April 27 to 28 and “Cabaret Night” directed by Caitlyn Fuoco and Colleen McCaughey from May 1 to 2.

Caitlyn Fuoco, ’13, helped run the a capella cabaret show last semester and looks for-ward to performing classical and contemporary musical theatre during study days aft er classes have ended.

“We think it is so important to have a space for musical the-atre at Allegheny and it is an aspect of the main Playshop theatre that does not oft en get utilized,” Fuoco said in an e-mail.

Fuoco will hold auditions from February 13 to 14 and ask interested students to sing 16 musical bars or 30 seconds of a song.

Between the Playshop Th e-atre and the SET productions, this semester will be full of op-portunities to go to the theater.

Wide range of theatre productions to happen this semester

By KATIE MCHUGHmchughk@allegheny.edu

Allegheny Theatre

Productions: Spring 2012

“The Importance of BeingEarnest”

written by Oscar Wilde directed by Dan Crozier

March 1 - 4

“Flu Season”written by Will Eno

directed by Michael YoungMarch 9 - 10

Adaptation of “The Coun-try Wife”

original written by William Wycherley

written by Luke WronskiApril 6 - 7

“Museum”written by Tina Howe

directed by Beth WatkinsApril 19 - 22

“Devised Piece”directed by Katie Beck

and Blair HartmanApril 27 - 28

“Cabaret Night”directed and produced byCaitlyn Fuoco and Colleen

McCaugheyMay 1 - 2

www.AlleghenyCampus.com [Features] 5The Campus || January 27, 2012 ||

1TOP ALBUMS

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by CODY MILLER

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1. COIN COIN CHAPTER ONE: GENS DE COULEUR LIBRES by MATANA ROBERTS Matana Robert’s Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de Couleur Libres is an experience nothing short of exhausting. Backed by a 16-piece ensemble, Coin Coin is rife with tense, visceral instrumental flourishes, which only magnify the sheer tension underlying these pieces. Roberts’ pieces force one to, in some sense, confront his or her conception of African-American history and the racial dynamics of modern American society. No album this year provokes as much thought nor elicits such a maelstrom of emotions as this avant-garde masterpiece. 2. LET ENGLAND SHAKE by PJ HARVEYPJ Harvey is the epitome of a great songwriter because she is constantly evolving. With her eighth studio Let England Shake, she reaffirms this, with a collection of twelve harrowing, brilliant pieces, expounding upon the sheer destructiveness of war and British national identity. Harvey‘s lyrics read more like vivid, eloquent diary entries than political statements. She handles her subjects with grace and a sense of unaffected authenticity.

3. HELPLESSNESS BLUES by FLEET FOXESFleet Foxes front-man Robin Pecknold muses about the trappings and misgivings of adulthood on the Seattle folk group’s superb impressive sophomore release Helplessness Blues. While in some ways sounding like a rustic, aged piece of Americana, the album simultaneously creates a world that is so timeless, so ethereal and so endearing that it seems like it could go on forever. Fleet Foxes has managed to craft a masterpiece of American folk and breathtaking ambition, far eclipsing their already stellar self-titled debut. 4. THE BIG ROAR by JOY FORMIDABLEAt a time when anthemic, arena rock seems so unfashionable, Welsh trio The Joy Formidable craft a defiant ode to grandiosity with their debut album The Big Roar. But what’s so striking about this debut is not the band’s unapologetically grand ambition, but rather how they situate it within the context of front-woman Ritzy Bryan’s downright heavenly vocals. She is a master of the pop hook, and while never fully reveling in this forte, Bryan uses this ability to create pieces which, while lengthy and epic, seep into the psyche of the listener.

5. W H O K I L L by tUne-yArDsOn her second release, W H O K I L L, Merill Garbus infuses elements of afrobeat, R&B, folk and electronica into a surprisingly cohesive whole. Yet beneath the album’s volatility is a striking sense of grace. Garbus accom-plishes the high task of rendering her multifaceted work accessible by discerningly drawing from this diverse range of genres. As a result, Garbus crafts W H O K I L L into a penetrating, singular artistic statement. 6. EMPROS by RUSSIAN CIRCLESWith Empros, Chicago-based post-metal trio Russian Circles have put out a release that sounds nothing short of a revelation in a genre, which has drifted into creative stagnation and at times, near-pretentiousness. While the Circles’ mini-symphonies are carefully calculated and meticulously constructed, the songs feel so raw and open that the album sounds at times as if it was recorded impromptu. It is this balancing act between visceral free-ness and subtle virtuosity that places Empros amongst the finest post-metal releases of recent years. 7. HOUSE OF BALLOONS by THE WEEKNDThis semi-anonymous mixtape by 21-year old Canadian vocalist Abel Tesfaye is perhaps this year’s most promis-ing debut. Tesfaye juxtaposes his fervent and at times sensual vocals against engrossing, murky aural and lyrical landscape that feels refreshingly singular amongst the plethora of trite R&B releases this year. Graphic, intense, and alluring, Tesfaye’s songs create a world so engrossing, 8. UNDUN by THE ROOTSEasily the best commercial hip-hop release of the past year, the Roots construct their magnum opus with their eleventh studio album Undun. Few albums manage to successfully channel the sort of ambition found on Undun, and even fewer, do so in a manner that seems to natural and effortless as the pieces of this release. Never before has the band sounded as cohesive, organic, and self-assured, and in this sense, Undun embodies the spirit of the Roots better than any release before it. 9. NO DEVOLUCIóN by THURSDAYThursday’s No Devolución is the sound of a band desperately pushing itself to write the best record it could possibly make and succeeding. More so than anything, No Devolución is a bold statement to the nested poten-tial of a band marred by a catalog of overly angsty, mediocre, melodramatic releases. Thursday does not aban-don its core sound. But, for the first time, the caliber of songwriting is so great and such angst is articulated so poignantly, that the band creates a piece that not only sets a new standard for themselves, but also for their respectively genre as a whole. 10. DIOTOMA by KRALLICEOn Diotima, black metal quartet Krallice wage an all-out assault. As with their previous releases, Krallice keeps to their characteristic brutish and gruelling roars and swift, pummeling guitar interplay. While the band has always favored the vile over the pure, Diotima has a uniquely atmospheric and, at times, progressive tinge that illustrates their willingness to take significant artistic leaps, even if it does make the band sound somewhat out of place at times amongst many of their black metal counterparts.

5 BIGGEST DUDS

HURRY UP, WE’RE DREAMING by M83

KAPUTT by DESTROYER

SMOKE RING FOR MY HALO by KURT VILE

BURST APART by THE ANTLERS

KING OF LIMBS by RADIOHEAD

Features Editors: Molly Duerig & Katie McHugh

[ SPORTS]6 ||January 27, 2011 || The Campus AlleghenyCampus.com

Sports editor : Colleen Pegher || sports@alleghenycampus.com

2011: Sports in Review1. Aft er fi nishing with

5-5 this season, Gators’ Head Coach Mark Matlak refl ected on the season, which included several close games.

“We’re trying to fi nd the best way to give them a chance to be successful and I think we did that,” Matlak said. “We just came up short in a couple of contests and didn’t do the little things we needed to do.”

In spite of their .500 fi nish, the squad had several stand-out performers, fi nishing the season with six players earn-ing All-Conference honors. In addition, the Gators had two All-Region performers in An-drew DeJong, ’12, and Colin Hartford, ’13. Left tackle Sam Taylor, ’12, was the fi rst player to earn All-American honors since 2003.

2. Senior Emily Karr fi n-ished her Allegheny career as the fourth all-time leader in shutouts for Division III wom-en’s soccer, in addition to hold-ing the school record for sin-gle-season and career shutouts.

3. Last season, the wom-en’s lacrosse team earned a spot in the playoff s aft er a 12-6 fi nish. Th e Gators would fall to Wooster 14-10 in their play-off contest aft er defeating the Fighting Scots earlier in the season for the fi rst time in the program’s history.

4. Aft er a season spent atop the conference rankings, the women’s soccer team fell in the NCAC Championship game to Ohio Wesleyan despite dominating the Battling Bish-ops in statistics for much of the contest. Th ey fi nished with a record of 11-5-3.

5. Th e men’s cross coun-try team wrapped up another successful season, fi nishing 24th overall at Nationals. Th e team boasted an All-American (Bobby Over, ’13) for the fi ft h consecutive year in a row.

“Our men’s cross country program is pretty well known throughout the country and they’ve been working hard to keep that tradition alive,” Head Coach Brent Wilkerson said.

“It was a little harder to get back to Nationals because we graduated six varsity runners last year and as far as cross country goes, especially for getting to the National Cham-pionships, you usually have a lot of seniors in those groups.”

6. On the women’s side, Kristina Martin earned a spot in Nationals.

7. Volleyball struggled this season aft er losing fi ve play-ers. Th e loss left the team with more defensive players than of-fensive, forcing Coach Bridget Sheehan to move some of her players around. Th e Gators are a part of a tough conference. Th eir opponents included eventual National Champion Wittenberg.

“We have a very core group of very committed players and it took a while for us to get to that during the season,” Sheehan said. “We ended with fi ft een players who were tre-mendously committed to the program and playing at the next level.”

On the defensive end the squad was fairly successful, with senior Winnie Wong leading the conference in digs. Th ree players earned All-Con-ference honors and the Gators were able to win their fall tour-nament.

8. Th e 11 wins by the men’s soccer team this year marked their best winning percentage since 2006. Th ey also had six players receive All-Conference honors, while junior Tim Egan earned All-Region honors. Th e Gators’ fi ve-game winning streak early in the season put them in the top 25 for the fi rst time since 2004.

Coaches' Predictions

COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION

CHARLIE MAGOVERN/THE CAMPUS

AJ CROFFORD/THE CAMPUS

AJ CROFFORD/THE CAMPUS

COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION

COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION

COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATION

Looking Ahead...

COURTESY OF SPORTS INFORMATIONFrom left, Brent Wilkerson (Men and Women’s Cross Country), Mark Mat-lak (Football), Bridget Sheehan (Women’s Volleyball)