Issue 17 Spring 2013

VOLUME 98 ISSUE 17 www.thecampanil.com Tuesday | Feb. 26, 2013

Find more stories, photos, videos and live updates at www.thecampanil.com

Annie O’HareNews editor

Christine Pelosi, political campaign expert.COURTESY OF PELOSIBOOTCAMP

Beloved Biology Professor, John Harris will be retiring at the end of the semester, leaving a hole in the Mills community. His enthusiasm for bird watching was among his brightest qualities.

COURTESY OF JOHN HARRIS

See Harris page 4

Mills Biology Professor, bird enthusiast to retire

Students battle between productivity and addiction

College hosts political dialogue for women’s history month

March is Women’s History Month and Mills will be starting it off with a live-audience discus-sion between National Public Ra-dio (NPR) Senior National Cor-respondent Linda Wertheimer and author, political activist and attor-ney Christine Pelosi. Renowned radio presence Wertheimer will first speak about the current po-litical climate and will be later joined by Pelosi to discuss politi-cal campaigns, the expanding role of social media, and the challeng-es women candidates face.

“Mills has a long history of working to advance women in public service in order to ad-dress the need for greater gender balance in American political offices,” Mills President Alecia DeCoudreaux said in a statement. “The combination of Linda Wert-heimer’s deep knowledge of the political process and Christine Pelosi’s firm understanding of how leaders are developed will make for a fascinating evening at Mills.”

Date: Tuesday, March 5Time: 7:00 pm - 8:30 pmLocation: Jeannik Méquet Lit-

tlefield Concert HallMills College, 5000 MacAr-

thur Blvd., Oakland, CaliforniaCost: Admission is free.

Pills like Adderall — an am-phetamine-based medication used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperac-tivity Disorder (ADHD)— are well known on college campuses across the nation for their ability to boost energy and heighten focus. Mills students say the drug is less visible here, but there is a consensus that such pills have a presence, even if it’s under the radar.

The New York Times published an article detailing a young college graduate’s descent into Adderall addiction and his eventual suicide. The article cites a study that fol-lowed the rise of monthly prescrip-tions for ADHD among Americans

ages 20 to 39: such prescriptions rose two and a half times between 2007 and 2011, an increase which many experts attribute to young college graduates (recently freed from parental oversight) obtaining prescriptions, the Times said. Be-tween 8 and 35 percent of college students take stimulant pills to en-hance their academic performance, according to studies cited by the article.

In an anonymous survey created for this article, which was posted on the Mills Facebook page and distributed in the Student News bulletin, half of the 40 respondents said they had “never” used Adder-all or a similar stimulant for school, while a third said they “often” used such medications. While only 3 percent of the respondents said that Adderall abuse is a problem at Mills, 53 percent said that it may be a problem.

“I would definitely say it’s a problem, not all semester long but during finals,” said O. Stevens, a second-year student in the 4 + 1 Masters program. Stevens said she does not use Adderall, but is aware of its presence on campus. She says she has been approached by people seeking stimulant pills. “Finals week is very intense,” she said, and “people that you would never expect definitely use [stimu-lant pills].” Stevens said that during an in-class English exam last year, she noticed several students twitch-ing, bouncing their feet, and strug-gling to concentrate — a result, she believed, of lack of sleep from their using stimulants to cram.

DeeAnn Williams, a second-year biopsychology major, ex-pressed similar concerns about stu-

Chorel CentersCopy editor

Linda Wertheimer, renown radio presence.STEVE BARRETT

See Adderall page 2

A budding local art scene

See page 5

2 News


Feb. 26, 2013

Lauren-Marie SliterEditor in Chief

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dents who use stimulants (pills as well as energy drinks that contain taurine) to keep from sleeping and to maximize their study time.

Williams said she has not heard much talk of stimulant pill abuse at Mills, but said that she did not think that abuse of stimulants is uncom-mon in college, and that as a non-traditional-aged student she might not be tuned in to what younger students are doing.

In her previous college, Wil-liams said she encountered stu-dents who used pills like Adderall as a study aid. Williams said the students she knew from her previ-ous college who abused Adderall were doing themselves more harm then good.

“They feel like they need to con-stantly be learning, but sleep is vital — the body needs to have its ho-meostatic balance,” Williams said.

“Stimulants seem attractive and seem great but there are long-term consequences,” she said.

Wendy Montero, a third-year undergraduate English major, said she was attracted to the stimulant pill Ritalin after friends at UCLA and UC Berkeley praised the medi-cation. Montero acknowledged that there were risks associated with ad-diction to medications like Ritalin and Adderall, but said she still liked using stimulant pills.

Montero said she couldn’t af-ford to buy Ritalin, which typically sells for $5 or $10 a pill, but that for a while, the person she was dating provided her with the pills. She used Ritalin to get through all-nighters and to manage the fall out procrastination.

“I definitely wrote some of my best papers [while] on it,” she said. “It comes out kind of like a master-piece, where at the end you got the idea you were searching for.”

Other students share Montero’s experience. In the anonymous sur-vey of Mills students, 22 percent of those who responded said they use stimulant pills like Ritalin and Ad-derall to manage their workloads.

Montero said her friends at Mills don’t use Adderall, either be-cause they can’t afford it or because they’re trying to stop taking other prescriptions and don’t want to add more substances. Or because they consider it cheating.

Montero acknowledged that there’s a fine line between using the medication to enhance your ability

and relying on it to the extent that it hinders you. “It questions your intelligence: Was that you or was that the Adderall or the Ritalin? It definitely takes away people’s cred-ibility to an extent,” she said.

“It’s not that they’re in the wrong it’s just that they feel ashamed about it to an extent.” Montero said.

Still, many students seek out the drug. “Just last week, I heard people in Founders asking each other for Adderall,” one student, who spoke anonymously, said. Another anony-

mous student said she had seen a friend on Facebook asking for Ad-derall in a status update — and the friend had received a response: I’ve got some; I’ve got your back.

One anonymous biopsychology student said, “The kids in the sci-ence department — I don’t know what they’re on but they don’t ever sleep. My suspicions are there.”

Other students were less certain

of such stimulant use by their class-mates. Janel Park, an education ma-jor, said she hasn’t seen Adderall at Mills, but that she felt that Mills is an exception.

“On every other campus it’s huge,” Park said.

Dr. Lisa Urry, a professor in the biology department, said she hasn’t seen signs that students in her class-es are using Adderall to manage their work — “But,” she added, “I don’t think along those lines.”

While Urry has heard reports

of rampant Adderall use in East Coast Ivy League schools, at Mills, she said, she hasn’t seen much evidence of students abusing such medication.

“Science students work their tails off,” she said, but did not at-tribute their efforts to Adderall use.

“There may be a few outliers,” Urry said.

Dr. Helen Walter, a professor

in the biology department (and head of the Center for Academic Excellence) echoed Urry’s take on the issue.

“We don’t really see [Adder-all abuse]. We’re not really on the watch for it.” Walter said.

Walter said that while she is pretty sure stimulant pills are be-ing used on campus, it’s hard to differentiate between symptoms of stimulant abuse and other signs of stress, nerves, lack of sleep, or heavy caffeine consumption.

Like many people on campus, Walter noted that she sees plenty of energy drinks and coffee being consumed, but that stimulant pills are less obvious.

“It’s a tricky thing: who is abus-ing it — using the drug for a poten-tially incorrect purpose — and who is not,” she said.

Several students who said they have been diagnosed with atten-

tion disorders said that while they have prescriptions to Adderall, they don’t take the pills regularly. Maren Leith, a first-year psychology stu-dent, said she was diagnosed with ADHD in her freshman year of high school, but didn’t start taking the medication until her sophomore year.

“Medication kind of freaks me out,” Leith said. She said she was afraid of becoming addicted but eventually started taking a low dose of Adderall under pressure from her mother, because, she acknowl-edged, her grades were “horrible.”

Leith’s grades improved, but she said she is not sure if that is due to the Adderall or because she has ma-tured since her diagnosis.

Now, at Mills, she said she only takes Adderall when she feels she needs it, such as for a project or during finals.

She uses physical activity to help manage her ADHD (a strategy that nearly 47 percent of students in the anonymous survey also said they employed), and says she hasn’t had issues with other students ap-proaching her for Adderall — she says her friends don’t use the drug to study.

Zoe Dell, a first-year student who lives in the same hall as Leith, said that she hasn’t seen people abusing Adderall at Mills.

“It’s not prevalent on campus,” she said, but added, “If I was using it I might know of it.”

Gabriella Tempestoso, Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Student Support Services at Mills said that when students seek help from her office in managing their workloads, she “typically refer[s] students to the CAE,” which hosts a variety of workshops on time man-agement and study skills.

But many students continue to use Adderall as their time manage-ment tool. One fourth-year student majoring in English uses Adder-all during crunch time. “I get so much accomplished,” the student said. “I feel like I could do this all the time.”

In the longer run, however, the student, who asked that her name not be used, said that stimulants like Adderall disrupt her sleep schedule too much to use on a regular basis.

“I have to keep in the back of my mind that it’s just for this week,” she said.

“I can totally see how people do get addicted to it. It’s just like any other drug, and you have to have a plan and reach out if you feel it be-coming a problem.”

Adderall from page 1

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Students struggle with addiction to productivity enhancing drugs

3News Feb. 26, 2013


World and Local NewsOakland

Lake Merritt has been recon-nected to the San Francisco Bay after city voters approved over Measure DD and over $88 million to initiate the project in 2002. The 12th street dam and culverts has separated the two bodies of water for the past 144 years. The recon-nection of the Lake to the Bay will allow healthier water for fish and birds and cut down the smelly ear-ly summer algae blooms. Added amenities including the restoration of marshlands and improved ac-cess to the south entrance are all expected to be complete by June of this year.

United States

President Obama gains cred-ibility with conservatives by over-hauling America’s immigration system. Obama has gained recog-nition as having the most aggres-sive and efficient effort to track down and deport America’s 11 million illegal immigrants. By the end of this year deportation num-bers are expected to reach two mil-lion. This mass of deportations has advocates of illegal immigrants affronted with promise of eventual US citizenship on the forefront.

North Korea

Nuclear testing launched ear-lier this month by North Korea has prompted a negative response from President Obama and Japan’s new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Both of which agree that nuclear provocations will not be tolerated. The U.S. has treaty obligations to help Japan ensure peace and sta-bilize the region in the event of a conflict. The U.S. has a partner-ship with Japan hosting almost 50,000 American forces.

Niger

President Obama sent two Rap-tor surveillance drones along with about 300 military personnel were deployed to support French coun-terterrorism in the African country of Niger. The drones are intended for surveillance only that will pro-vide intelligence on the growing Islamic militant threat throughout northeast Africa. The U.S. has also flown French troops and supplies into Mali.

Students frustrated with automated course tracking system

The computerized data system designed to help track student prog-ress toward graduation is often con-fusing, incorrect and time-consum-ing to fix, students say. Many say they don’t know how to access the program — known as the MAP, or Mills Academic Plan — and some weren’t even aware that it existed.

“No one really explained it to me, so when people referred to their MAP I was like, what is that,” said Ndeya Walker, a senior trans-fer student.

Nonetheless, college offi-cials say that the MAP is an ef-ficient way of gathering student course information.

The system pulls data from student transcripts and roughly sorts courses in terms of degree requirements, and shows stu-dents which requirements they are still missing.

Alice Knudsen, Director of In-stitutional Research, Planning, and Academic Assessment, initiated the MAP project in 2004 when she was Registrar.

“The goal was to have an auto-mated degree audit that would al-low students to check at any time

online to see what requirements they sill needed to complete, and to provide advisors a tool that would help them correctly advise students as to their degree requirements,” Knudsen said.

Students and administrators agree that one of the shortfalls of the system is that the MAP is so automated it can’t always correctly sort courses in more complex situations.

“The MAP only recognizes things automatically when it’s a specific numbered course that satis-fies a specific requirement,” Assis-tant Registrar Jim Oberhausen said in an email.

Creative writing majors are re-quired to take 3 creative writing workshops, two of which must be upper division. There are many dif-ferent courses to choose from that satisfy this requirement.

“The system doesn’t know what to do with that,” Oberhau-sen said. “Your advisor has to say, we are using this course for that requirement.”

Degree requirements vary by department. Each program has a different set of requirements, often with multiple courses that can satis-fy those requirements. The MAP’s programing is not complex enough to handle these scenerios and of-ten misplaces courses, or does not count them at all.

“If the major requirements were tighter and only had one option - the system would recognize it au-tomatically, but they are very fluid, which is a good thing for students,” Oberhausen said.

Once a mistake is identified on a student’s MAP it can be difficult to correct.

Only the registrar’s office can change a student’s MAP, and they require authorization from an advi-sor to assign individual courses to major or minor requirements.

The position of Registrar is currently vacant at Mills. David Gin Associate Vice President for Student Finance and Administra-tive Services and Director of Fi-nancial Aid, has been assigned as acting Registrar along with his other duties.

Advisors do not have di-rect access to make changes to a student’s MAP.

Students who find a mistake must go to their advisor, get writ-ten documentation that there is a mistake that should be corrected, and then take that to the Regis-trar’s office to get it corrected, Oberhausen said.

Advisors can also submit a MAP Waiver and Substitution Re-quest electronically to the regis-trar’s office but someone from the registrar’s office must manually implement the changes.

“I don’t think advisors would want to have to do it,” Knudsen said.

Zoe Binsch a freshman double majoring in Economics and Math-ematics, said the MAP can be use-ful, but recognized that because the MAP is designed specifically to or-ganize the credits of students with one focus of study, students like her should only use it as a starting point and not as something solid and dependable.

“The system does not take into account the packed schedule of a double major and the classes re-quired for one major are not taken into account by the MAP of the other major,” Binsch said.

Rachel Reyes, a double major in Ethnic Studies and Art History, said the MAP had incorrectly sorted her courses.

“Classes I took for general edu-cation kept getting sorted in my electives section,” Reyes said.

Knudsen said the MAP’s short-falls deficiency could stem from the choice to build it through Banner, the Mills information database.

“It was extremely difficult from a programming standpoint as Banner’s product for this did not follow a logic that was a very good fit for the Mills curriculum,” Knudsen said.

The MAP system also has par-ticular trouble funneling credit

information for minor degrees, especially when the students ma-jor and minor requirements have overlapping courses.

A student may see classes they have taken with the intension of satisfying minor requirements have been counted towards their ma-jor. When this happens a student must meet with an advisor to have them request that the classes be allocated properly.

“All of the classes I had taken toward my minor had been entered into my MAP as elective credits for outside my major and a lot of the classes I took for my general education did not show up at all,” Reyes said.

Assistant Provost Dave Dona-hue, who has also been a profes-sor in the Education Department at Mills for 21 years, said that as a professor he appreciates the MAP.

“I hope to see it extend to grad students who currently must plan their degree’s out by hand,” Dona-hue said. “I always found the MAPs valuable and they are the first place I go when I’m advising and keep-ing track of students’ progress.”

Donahue said the M Center is currently working on develop-ing MAPs for the 4+1 program so students have access to informa-tion about their progress towards their BA and MA, but at this time a deadline is unknown.

Kate CarmackAsst. News editor

KATE CARMACK

4 Arts & FeaturesFeb. 26, 2013


The Phainopepla spends its winters in the CA central valley.

John Harris is on a small boat off the California coast in rough waters looking for seabirds. His trip mates bobbing in the boat beside him are seasick and spirits are down.

“I’ve never felt so horrible,” Harris said.

But then the day turned around.

“All of sudden somebody yells ‘Short-tailed Albatross!’” Har-ris recalled. “And this enormous Albatross – I mean this is a thing with a ten foot wing span – comes gliding in over the waves and plops down near the boat and it just dwarfs everything around it.”

As it turns out, this species had not been seen off the California coast for decades until this sight-ing, and was thought to be extinct just after WWII.

“It was just an incredible sight-ing,” Harris said,smiling. “All the sick people just woke up.”

When the Mills biology pro-fessor tells this story, it is hard not to get enthusiastic about the birds he loves so much. Which is precisely why the announcement of his retirement at the end of this semester is bound to leave a hole in the Mills community.

“He’s probably one of the best-loved faculty on campus,” biology co-department head Lisa Urry said in an email.

Harris has been teaching at Mills since 1986. In that time, he has advised hundreds of students, taught a variety of biology cours-es, and created one of the de-partments most popular classes: Birds and Birding, which began

in 2002. He is currently the co-department head, as well as the program head of environmental science.

“I felt very fortunate to get the job here,” Harris said.

Harris started at Mills a few years after receiving his PhD from UC Davis, where he studied ecol-ogy with a focus on small mam-mals. Before that, he received his BS from Stanford, where he began as a history major. It was a summer job at a zoo that brought him around to biology.

“It reminded me that a lot of my hobbies as a kid had been outdoors or biology-related, like watching birds or raising tropical fish or collecting fossils,” he said. “And I thought ‘well why don’t I do that?’”

Harris grew up in the Midwest and partially attributes his love of the outdoors to the era in which he grew up.

“Kids played outdoors then. There were no video games,” Harris said. “The big fun was to just go out and wander around outside.”

Though his parents weren’t too interested, both sets of grandpar-ents knew about local birds and supported any participation out-door hobbies. His grandmother even belonged to the birding club when she was in college. Harris also joined the Boy Scouts where he went on camping trips and to summer camp,

“Mostly as a kid I was teach-ing myself to identify birds,” he said.

Though he lost interest in his outdoor hobbies in high school, college brought it back in full force. While at Stanford, he moved into a co-op and began spending time with a roommate who was a birder, and found other

birders in his classes.“Every free moment I would

be out someplace looking at [birds],” Harris said.

Harris’s love of birds hasn’t relented since. And many of his other hobbies have grown, too, some with the help of the Mills community.

In the ‘90’s Harris resumed his interest in music, which he hadn’t done since he played trombone in high school. He took recorder lessons on campus and audited a music theory class.

“Getting back into music was totally facilitated by me being here,” Harris said.

Since his initial lessons on the recorder, Harris has picked up the renaissance trombone and joined a local band, Alta Sonora, a re-naissance music group. He also played in Mills’ Early Music En-semble with music professor Da-vid Bernstein.

“John is a wonderful colleague and teacher,” Bernstein said in an email. “I am lucky to have inter-acted with him in several ways beyond our regular Mills duties.”

Harris also regarded his friend-ships developed within the Mills community as an important part of his experience here.

“One of the things I really liked about being in a small col-lege like this was getting to know colleagues from other depart-ments, and getting a chance to learn stuff,” Harris said.

Bernstein, Harris and philoso-phy professor Jerry Clegg even guided a trip together through the High Sierra ten years ago. Harris was the trip’s naturalist and, ac-cording to Bernstein, “amazed everyone with his knowledge of the flora and fauna of the region.”

“His keen ears were especially impressive,” he said. “John could

Tessa Love Managing Editor

identify a bird or a squirrel by the calls they made from a long dis-tance away.”

Harris’s mass of knowledge has served as a source of amaze-ment for many on the Mills cam-pus, students and faculty alike.

“[Harris’s] birding class is the best class I’ve ever taken over my academic career,” first-year Hanna Kirkorian said in an email. “He is able to identify every sin-gle bird that comes our way dur-ing these bird walks.”

Music professor Fred Frith, with whom Harris has partici-pated in the Audubon Christmas Bird Count many times over the last 12 years, also commented on his extensive knowledge.

“I have learned a huge amount from him,” Frith said in an email. “He has an amazing ear, encyclo-pedic knowledge, and is great fun to work with.”

Along with friendships and his return to music, Harris has also enjoyed the experiences he has gained from his students at Mills.

“It’s fun to communicate with people who are getting interested in things and have their own ap-proach to things,” Harris said. “You’re always learning.”

Having been on an academic schedule for the past 35 years, this constant learning is one of the many things Harris will miss about Mills.

“It’s going to be very strange to have the Fall come around and not be preparing for school,” he laughed.

But he’ll be sure to fill his

time. After 20 years of living three miles from campus, Harris and his wife moved to Oakdale in the central valley, an area with a large amount of birds, and has since come to enjoy birding in his yard.

“I really like going to a local place and getting to know it by going over and over again.” Har-ris said. “That’s how you really learn birds and learn songs.”

One of his favorite birds, the phainopepla — a black bird with a “disorganized crest” and red eyes – spends its winter in the central valley and can be seen hanging out in the mistletoe in Harris’s yard.

“It kind of makes you feel like you’re a part of the same eco-logical community as the birds,” he said.

Beyond watching in his yard, Harris hopes to spend his free time taking bird trips out of the area, as well as visiting fam-ily, writing, diving into research projects — including one about the little-known distribution of the phainopepla — and of course playing music.

“I wish I didn’t live so far away,” Harris said, “because I’d just keep coming back to hang out.”

As of now, the fate of the Birds and Birding class remains to be seen, but the prospect of it leav-ing isn’t as sad for the community as Harris himself leaving.

“He is really going to be missed,” Urry said. “We’re all in mourning.”



Professor’s retirement will leave a hole in Mills community

Harris was thrilled to see the Short-tailed Albatross, a species once thought to be extinct.

Arts & Features 5Feb. 26, 2013


Upcoming Events

Joann Pak

Arts & FeAtures editor

Feb 26 Mar 18

Mar 1Chef Wars

Tuesday, February 26, 5 pm – 7:30 pm

Founders Commons

Chef Wars is returning to Mills College!! Our amazing chefs here at Mills will be

competing for culinary supremecy against Bon Appetit chefs from University of San

Francisco, Notre Dame de Namur and Santa Clara University. Each chef will be preparing a signature entree – all you need to do is

try them all and vote for your favorite. The event is at Founders Commons

and is $10.50 at the door.

Film Screening: Artemisia (1997)Monday March 18, 7 pm

Danforth Lecture Hall

This spring, the Department of Art and Art History will be screening two films on the

life of the seventeenth-century master paint-er Artemisia Gentileschi. The first, Artemisia

(1997), is by the French director Agnes Merlet. The films are presented specifically

for students enrolled in ARTH 192, but other members of the Mills community

are welcome to attend the screenings at no cost.

Feb 26Bill Berkson

in Conversation with Hung Liu

February 27, 7PMDanforth Lecture Hall

Poet, critic and teacher Bill Berkson speaks with artist Hung Liu on the chal-

lenges and rewards of being an artist and arts educator. Seating is limited, please

RSVP.

Feb 27Pirates of the Caribbean

Ship Tours, PeriodCostumes & Stories

Friday March 1, 4pm-5pmJack London Square, Broadway and

Embarcadero

Poet, critic and teacher Bill Berkson speaks with artist Hung Liu on the chal-

lenges and rewards of being an artist and arts educator. Seating is limited,

please RSVP.

Invisible Disabilities

February 26, 12:30PM-1:30PMGSB Gathering Hall

Join us for this workshop hosted by SSD where two fellow students educate the community about invisible disabilities.

It’s been quite the year for art institutions in the Bay Area as plans are finalizing for the clos-ing, remodeling and relocating of two major museums on both sides of the Bay. Both vastly different in their history, curatorial proj-ects, foundations, etc. there will be a gap in the hearts of many art enthusiasts when the San Fran-cisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Ar-chive (BAM/PFA) will close to remodel and relocate.

Not only an art institution but also a cultural landmark the BAM/PFA will be relocating from their Bancroft location near Sproul Plaza and Telegraph to Center Street, a block away from the Downtown Berkeley BART station. With a $100 million budget from private non-state sources and possibly some more help from the University to raise necessary additional funds with Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) architect firm leading the project. Their current location will close later this year after an MFA show, the new location is slated for an early 2016 opening.

Similarly, the SFMOMA is open until June 2 of this year and the new expansion is hoping to open early 2016. Their expan-sion plan is budgeted at $555 million and will be designed by

the world-renowned architecture firm from Snøhetta. The physical extension will be approximate-ly 235,000 square feet as they hope to entwine the extra space with the current Mario Botta-designed foundation. With more room for gallery space exten-sions indoors and outdoors, the ambitious project will surely be a new experience.

As these major avenues of art are being closed off this is the perfect opportunity to take ad-vantage of the Bay Area’s flour-ishing art scene. Support local art collectives and spaces that are ever growing and add to the cul-tural and art history dialogue with your support.

Here is a quick pick of some of the spaces to get started with

these alternative art spaces:

The Crucible1260 7th St Oakland, CA

94607(510) 444-0919Take classes and workshops

working with industrial mediums such as glass, metal, neon, stone

working, foundry, and much more.

Will Brown3041 24th St

S F, CA 94110(415) 643-3943

With strong experimental foun-dations and themes, their curato-rially interesting programs include midnight performance pieces to Build Your Own Richard Serra

events.

Creative Growth355 24th St Oakland, CA

94612(510) 836-2340

A non-profit art center provid-ing art program and spaces with adult artists with developmental, mental and physical disabilities. Their exhibitions exemplify some of the finest art being created in

the Bay Area.

Queen’s Nail Project3191 Mission St

SF, CA 94110

Headed by a curatorial collective, QNP serves up some of the

freshest audio, visual, and perfor-mance based pieces.

COURTESY OF BAM/PFA

COURTESY OF SFMOMA

The new Berkeley Art Meuseum and Pacific Film Archive building is planned to open in 2016

The opening of the SFMOMA expansion is set to be 2016

Local art scenes begin to grow as major museums prepare for hiatus


6 Arts & FeaturesFeb. 26, 2013

I often find ways to bring In-ternet trends into classroom dis-cussions, whether my professor is happy about it or not.

These off-topic comments I pro-vide can focus on broad ideas like social media changing the way we look at art and culture, or can refer-ence an obscure meme that shares the same idea as a piece of art we are studying.

Normally I will talk about a meme due to its inadvertent nature of pushing a community that tends to suffer from groupthink into dis-cussing the current state of a social issue (i.e. gender equality, “nice guy syndrome”, or racial stereo-types). Today is different: I’m here to bring you the brief history of the most recent YouTube sensation, the Harlem Shake.

The Harlem Shake is a dance move from Ethiopia, popularized in the 1980s in Harlem, New York. Variations of it have been floating around and, more recently, it was featured in the music video for

“Chicken Noodle Soup” by Web-star in 2006. The Harlem Shake as we know it today was made popular by the channel The Sunny Coastal State. They were “inspired” by the original choreography/music selection of YouTube user Filthy Frank. It is only called the Har-lem Shake due to the soundtrack being the song “Harlem Shake” by Baauer.

Basically, this 30-second Har-lem Shake video features a fully-helmeted twenty-something boy doing pelvic thrusts in the middle of a dorm room full of friends do-ing homework or playing video games. But wait. There is much more. About 15 seconds in, EV-ERYTHING changes and the bass sufficiently drops, therefore prompting all of the boys to wave their arms and look silly for the re-mainder of the video. It’s fun, you aren’t expecting it to happen, and the song is just catchy enough to keep you watching

A brief YouTube search of “har-lem shake” videos added in 2013 produces over 57,500 results. The Sunny Coastal State’s version was uploaded two weeks ago. This

meme is interesting because it ac-tively engages with communities outside of the traditional Internet content-creating bubble. It has been repurposed for self-promotion, cor-porate marketing, and meta-com-mentary by — and I’m not exag-gerating — everyone in the world. Okay, not everyone, but it sure feels like it.

The Harlem Shake isn’t going to bring world peace, but rather than everyone simply being in on the joke (like Psy’s “Gangnam Style”), they are able to share and create their own version of it as well. The band Matt & Kim created a rocking and riotous version while Pepsi re-leased a version featuring Jeff Gor-don and his NASCAR crew.

Just like all other aspects of so-cial media, we’re facing this dual-ity of communal artistry and a com-mercial pastiche that innundates our digital world. This meme isn’t an art house film but it definitely has created a format that is acces-sible to everyone.

While I’ve been unable to find any Mills College ver-sions, I’m sure y’all won’t let me down.

Rachel LevinsonStaff Writer

The Harlem Shake: dance craze and community builder

STILL COURTESY YOUTUBEThe Harlem Shake as seen in a YouTube video by filthy_frank. It is one of thousands of similar parodies from Pepsi’s with NASCAR racer Jeff Gordon to Matt & Kim’s rock styled video.

7Feb. 26, 2013


Opinions & Editorial

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STAFF EDITORIAL

What do you think defines a good movie?

Q U E S T I O N O F T H E W E E K

“I like it when you can see the character go through a dynamic change and you feel that you’ve

gone through it with them.”—Jessica Parlin,

Sophomore

“I love quirky side characters. Every funny movie should have someone like Melissa McCarthy

from Bridesmaids.” —Soo Choi,

Senior

“Put Colin Firth in it, because he is so sexy. I like romance that isn’t corny, the slaying of vam-

pires and sci-fi.” —Brighid Wilhite,

First-Year

“Strong female lead.” —Emily Dixon,

Junior

“Good characters, plot not too cliche, and a good score.” — Katherine Allen,

Junior

Letters to the Editor

COMPILED BY OCTAVIA SUN

Tourists staying in Los Angeles’ Hotel Cecil experienced a disgust-ing shock when they discovered that the murky smelly water they had been drinking and bathing in was tainted by the rotting corpse of Elisa Lam.

News outlets have been report-ing the tourists’ and patrons’ shock of having drunk the corpse-fouled water, but the human aspect ap-pears to have gone unnoticed: the water was tainted by yet another violent act against a woman.

At The Campanil we wondered if this oversight was reflective of a larger issue. Why are violent acts against women going unnoticed in the media?

The cleanliness of the water being used by hotel patrons is im-portant, but none of the reports showed that the water contained dangerous levels of bacteria. So, one would like to believe that this

would dispel people’s worries over the use of the water, but the thought of water possibly contaminated by a decomposing body entering your system clouds the judgment and priorities of officials and the gen-eral public.

Security video of Lam was re-leased on the night of the murder. In the disturbing footage she appeared to be acting strangely. The Campa-nil wonders what was the hotel’s security doing at the time. Why did no one come to her aid?

The lack of shock by another violent act against a woman is not sufficient to conclude that law enforcement believes the tainted water is more important than the dead body.

Some believe that Lam’s sex is not a key issue in the lack of inter-est in the cause of her death. But rather, the discussion of Lam’s sex is knee-jerk bait and readers could

be missing some elements of the story.

The Campanil is aware that this is a breaking story, and so there may not be enough information on the investigation. The investigation is ongoing. What is immediately ap-parent is that many people ingested the putrid runoff of a dead body and that is a definite health concern. There are multiple elements to this story, and while incomplete or neg-ligible attention is often paid to vi-olence against women, we think in this case they went with what they had, which was legitimately news-worthy and attention-grabbing ac-counts of a creepy hotel and black water coming out of the faucet. The Campanil is aware that not every article can focus on every element.

The tainted water is an impor-tant issue, but it should not take precedence over the murder of a woman.

I recently read an article by Col-leen Kimsey entitled “Wouldn’t it be great if Mills had a real mas-cot?” It’s hard to imagine anything more real than a cyclone. Grape-fruit-sized hail maybe, or the sun going supernova, but there’s still the costume to think about. The Mills College mascot is, of course, a cyclone. The author’s argument against the mascot is this: Cy-clones do not assemble Mills Col-lege; they do not frequent the Bay Area; they are implicitly masculine and aggressive; the students of the young women’s seminary were not addressed as cyclones. She points out that Mills is a “community of thoughtful, academic women who aren’t in the world to lay waste, but to rebuild it as a better and more just society.” She says: “There is nothing about a cyclone that repre-sents Mills.”

I’m not a Mills student, but I think there is a good deal about a cyclone that represents the College and makes it a very apt mascot. To me a cyclone is powerful, en-ergetic, awe-inspiring and without a doubt, unapologetically itself.

Those are certainly qualities that I see in Mills women, especially in the student athletes, with whom I spend a great deal of time. The unabashed dynamism of life is particularly vibrant in an athlete, someone who has learned to con-nect with and trust the underlying consciousness of his or her body. And so there it unfolds, week af-ter week on the soccer pitch, in the pool, on the tennis courts or out on Briones reservoir, in the gym or running cross country. I see it in the risks, the courage, the com-mitment, the health, the injury, the tears and frustration, the joy and elation. It’s all out in the open: raw, unrefined spirit: spontaneous, pow-erful, beautiful.

And in my opinion the “thought-ful academic women of Mills” are indeed “laying waste to the world,” at least to its thinking, its preju-dices, and its conditioning. Change requires struggle and Mills women are not passively standing on the sidewalk saying look here, look there, to “rebuild the world as a bet-ter and more just society.” They are taking their convictions and their

conscious integrity on the road and creatively stepping into oncoming traffic.

As a caricature I think there’s only so much you can ask of a sports mascot. They’re goofy, playful, lighthearted, and fun — not meant to be a shinning beacon of enduring wisdom and courage. A lion may be the noble king of the jungle, but as a fuzzy, life-sized puppet dancing along the sidelines waving pom-poms, his credibility goes straight into the toilet. But it’s better that way; trust me, there’s a lot to be said about the joy of laughing at oneself. However, as a symbol a cyclone is many things to many people: dangerous, frighten-ing, destructive, male, aggressive, sublime, enduring, captivating, and mysterious. In the end it’s all a matter of perspective. Over time one realizes that with perspec-tive, imagination and humor there is very little in life that does not evoke character. Even “the ferocity of gale force winds” can illuminate potential and make your heart glow. Go cyclones!

Violence against women no longer shocking

Response: why we are the Cyclones

8 Health & SportsFeb. 26, 2013


Two weeks ago, The Mills College Swim Team traveled from the familiar waters of Oak-land to tread the waters of Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for the Liberal Arts Champion-ships (LAC).

“Overall, the entire team swam hard and achieved many personal bests, with nearly everyone on the team swimming at least one per-sonal record,” Elese Lebsack, As-sociate Director of Athletics said.

This was the second time that Mills College has participated in the LAC. There were 12 schools competing at this year’s meet and Mills came in 11th with 92 points.

Three swimmers were at the top of their game: Gabriella Am-berchan, Chloe Gonzalez Coyle, and Anna Tai Owens represent-ed Mills College to the absolute best of their ability, according to Lebsack.

Gabriella Amberchan has been swimming since she was five years old, and began competing in high school. She swam com-petitively for the duration of her high school career and has contin-ued to swim at Mills.

In order to prepare for this tournament, Amberchan focused on perfecting her stroke tech-nique.

“Last semester I focused on trying to perfect my strokes and turns,” Amberchan said. “This semester, our coaches focused the practices around honing our speed and reactivity time, which definitely affected the outcome of our championship meet.”

Chloe Gonzalez Coyle used a

similar strategy as she prepared for the championship.

Coyle began swimming com-petitively when she joined the Mills College Swim Team in Sep-tember 2012, and used the entire season to prepare for the LAC.

“Since I had never swum competitively I had to do a lot of catch-up,” Coyle said.

Coyle was originally a soc-cer player and was one of Mills College’s soccer captains in Fall 2011 until she injured her knee. She still wanted to be on a team, and with the support of Nata-lie Spangler, the Head Athletic Trainer at Mills, Coyle decided to join the swim team after taking

Coach Neil Virtue’s swimming class in Spring 2012.

“I started out the season do-ing every flip turn with only one leg pressing off the wall,” Coyle said. “It has been a long jour-ney. I personally, along with my team, prepared for this tourna-ment by training 15 hours a week at times.”

Coach Virtue also offered op-portunity doubles, or “double days” upon returning from win-ter break, which were two extra swim practices that came close to a distance of 5,000 meters a day.

Anna Tai Owens, along with Amberchan and Coyle, attended each of these double days, show-

ing an immense dedication to the team.

Owens has been swimming for her entire life but began swim-ming competitively with Mills College two years ago, her first time competing as part of an or-ganized team.

“In order to prepare for the Liberal Arts Championships, I went to as many practices as I could, and at each practice I swam as best as I could,” Owens said. Owens participated in the 500 yard freestyle, the 400 yard Individual Medley (IM), and the 1,650 yard freestyle (also known as The Mile).

Before the LAC meet, Owens

EdEn Julia

hEalth & sports Editor

had made a few good times, and was excited that she swam her fastest times at the last meets of the season.

“I was very surprised with my results at the meet, especially for the 400 IM,” Owens said. “I dropped time after each time I swam it.”

The overall results of the championship were great, as re-layed by each of these Cyclones.

“The results were amazing!” Amberchan said. “I believe ev-eryone dropped time in at least one of their events, while I per-sonally dropped time in all four of the events I swam in, which was exciting.”

Amberchan’s total swim times have progressed and become fast-er in each race she competed in over the course of the season.

Coyle beat both of her 50 me-ter and 100 meter freestyle times, dropping each of them down to 32 seconds and 1 minute and 12 seconds, respectively, resulting in swimming her fastest 50 meter and 100 meter freestyle swims of the season.

Owens also made consolation finals for the 400 Individual Med-ley — meaning that she swam it once in the morning and then again in the evening — in addi-tion to dropping her swim times.

Each of these Cyclones took away a different experience from their time spent with the team, leading up to the LAC.

“I found swimming to be a helpful metaphor for life,” Coyle said. “Even though you are physi-cally exhausted to the point that you cannot feel your body any-more, are gasping for breath, with your heart pounding through your chest, you realize you can over-come it and just keep going. It is an empowering realization. I learned that I could always do another lap and I never gave up.”

Anna Tai Owens, went to extra swim practices before going to the Liberal Arts Championship

Gabriella AmberchanChloe Gonzalez Coyle

Swim team returns from successful championship swim meet

ALL PHOTOS BY KURT LOEFFLER

Documents

Issue 17 Spring 2013