Alternative media at Vassar

I was speaking to a visiting professor the other day and he asked about the republicans and conservatives on campus, to which I had to answer that there are not “many of them” at Vassar and that their voice, after the incident with MICA, has been mostly silenced. This got me thinking about how “alternative media” on campus plays out. Where are students expressing their views, many of which are not shared by all students on campus? Yes, the Misc does allow for students to give their input on issues pertaining to campus life, and yes, there are many blogs (such as the Class of 2011 blog http://
madsvassar.blogspot.com/) around. However, who is actually reading these publications? What voices do they represent? I started looking through the number of publications I have managed to accumulate in my room, from the magazine recently published by Blegen house, to the Catalyst. I was pleased to find that, though limited, students and groups on campus are finding ways to make their views and opinions public. Is this enough though? How can students find ways of taking what they discuss in the classroom of with friends beyond the academic setting and into the public realm? And once they do, how are these voices received?

Juliana