Binghamton University students don’t have to look far to travel back to the days of Old Hollywood – Saturday’s University-wide semi-formal will be reminiscent of those times. The semi-formal, “Casablanca,” will be a night of black and white and 2-foot martini glasses. It will be held from 8 to 11 p.m. Saturday in the Old University Union’s Mandela Room. Mediterranean Gyro will cater the event, and there will be a chocolate fountain and music spun by DJ Decibel, who plays at The Rathskeller Pub. This year’s semi-formal is the first time all of the residential communities have united to throw…

Matt Allwood announced his plans to resign as Student Association vice president for finance at Monday’s Assembly meeting. He made the announcement at the same time he informed the Assembly about his decision to withdraw from school because of a medical condition. “I have already begun the paperwork for my medical withdrawal, and it is my hope that it will be completed by the end of the week,” he told the Assembly. Allwood has only announced plans to resign at this point; a date for his actual resignation has yet to be set. A senior majoring in accounting, he could…

The Student Association executive board candidates presented their platforms at sweeps Wednesday night to the residential communities. Karen Galan, elections committee chair (full disclosure: Karen Galan is a photographer for Pipe Dream), organized sweeps differently this year in hopes of making them more efficient. The event was held in Lecture Hall, rather than having candidates visit communities. Each community had its own Lecture Hall classroom, which candidates rotated between. Residents from Hillside and Susquehanna communities did not attend the event. Approximately 80 students attended overall. “Our concern as a committee is voter turnout and sweeps is the way to do…

The Binghamton University Student Association is making the move to connect popular technology and schoolwork by putting class lectures up on iTunes U. The information on iTunes U, found through the iTunes store, is completely free and as of now only available to BU students, according to Daniel Rabinowitz, SA vice president for academic affairs. Students will need to go to itunesu.binghamton.edu and enter their PODS username and password. To access the Web site, students need to have the iTunes application installed on their computers. “The ultimate goal of this essentially would be to have 100- and 200-level classes on…

Candidates for next year’s Student Association Executive Board positions will present their platforms before the student body starting at 9 p.m. Wednesday. Sweeps, as the speeches are more commonly known, will take place throughout Lecture Hall. The event was moved into Lecture Hall this year in response to past problems related to candidates’ ability to travel in a timely manner between the communities. Mountainview College and BTV will be in Lecture Hall 1, Off Campus College in Lecture Hall 2, Dickinson Community in Lecture Hall 7, College-in-the-Woods in Lecture Hall 8, Hillside Community in Lecture Hall 9, Hinman College in…

Students at Binghamton University will gather in the East Gym Thursday to celebrate the 19th annual Purim Carnival. The carnival, which is scheduled to be held from 8 to 11 p.m., honors the Jewish holiday of Purim, which commemorates the salvation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia from genocide. The holiday, which falls on Feb. 28 this year, is celebrated with costumes, games and fruit-filled cookies called Hamantaschen. In addition to the annual costume contest and Hamantaschen, this year’s main attraction is a mechanical bull. Jonathan D. Cogan, treasurer of Chabad and Purim Carnival chair, describes the occasion as…

It was a snowy Wednesday morning when senior Tufan Gebecelioglu received his eviction letter from his suite in Hinman College’s Lehman Hall. Andrea Cronkrite, resident director of Lehman Hall, knocked on his door at 9 a.m. to inform Gebecelioglu that he needed to evacuate and move out of the building by 5 p.m. that same day. According to Gebecelioglu, the letter of eviction was signed by Suzanne Howell, director of Residential Life, and it explained that Gebecelioglu was banned from entering any residence or dining hall because he was considered to be a threat to the other residents in the…

The Binghamton University Council is in the process of appointing a search committee to participate in the hiring of President Lois DeFleur’s successor. The Council, which is charged with running the presidential search, is made up of 10 members: nine governor-appointed members and one student-elected student representative. Matt Allwood, vice president for finance of the Student Association, is the student representative who acts as the voice for both the undergraduate and graduate students. Currently, the Council is working on assembling the members of the presidential search committee by following a set of SUNY guidelines. According to Kathryn Grant Madigan, chair…

Many students and adults are familiar with the old Aesop fable of the tortoise and the hare. Dr. Shana Clark, author and psychiatrist, applies this fable to everyday life in her new book, “My Money’s on the Turtle.” The fable describes a slow tortoise who believes he can pull through and beat a hare to win a race. Clark puts her faith in the turtle in her new book, as she believes that the tortoise wins by putting his negative resentments aside and being positive. Clark will hold a book signing in the Binghamton University Bookstore Wednesday and Thursday, from…

Binghamton University’s Student Association is one of the only student governments in the country that is not a subsidiary of its university. The SA is an independent, non-profit organization in control of a $2 million budget. Check out the information below to get reacquainted with the Association’s members, before their positions go up for election in March! ADAM AMIT As president of the SA, Adam Amit, a senior majoring in philosophy, politics and law, has the job of representing student interests to the administration, the city and other students on campus. During the day, he can be found in a…

The end of every semester is filled with stress, library overflow and professors urging students to complete online SOOT surveys, but as of right now, that’s the last time most students see the surveys. But this is something Daniel Rabinowitz, vice president for academic affairs of the Student Association, is looking to change. As of now, the surveys are sent to the Office of Institutional Research where they are analyzed, and professors can then see them upon individual request. Rabinowitz is calling for the surveys to be released to students as well. Rabinowitz filed a request to the New York…

Graduating seniors at Binghamton University have the opportunity to host a program and be a group leader in another country through the Experiment in International Living. The program, which has chapters in 30 countries worldwide, gives leaders the opportunity to immerse themselves in the culture of another country and help a group of American high school students do the same. Applicants for the group leader position require a bachelor’s degree, leadership experience in working with high school students, living or learning experience in the host country and competency in the language of that country. Stephanie Holleran, a 2007 Binghamton University…

As the reality sinks in of the Dec. 4 stabbing at Binghamton University, some prospective students and alumni say that the tragic incident will have a minimal impact on their ties to the school. Josh Ciolek, a 17-year-old high school senior from Rochester, N.Y., only heard about the attack once he got to campus for his tour and read about it in the newspaper. “At first I was curious about why something like this happened. But when I saw it was a graduate student I wasn’t too concerned,” Josh Ciolek said. “Violence happens everywhere you go. I’m from Rochester and…

A student’s freshman year in college brings about a slew of changes that require some adjustments — notably to a heavier workload, larger classes and greater responsibilities. Although many first-year students feel adequately prepared for the large amount of work, some aspects of college exceed their expectations. “High school was a joke,” said Jaymee Nusbaum, a freshman majoring in human development. “I didn’t have to do anything and I was able to get As. Here, no one is telling you when to do things. It’s manageable but you have to take full responsibility.” With finals on the way, freshmen are…

It’s 4 p.m. and you’ve returned to your room. Your back is aching, your shoulder is sore and now you get the privilege of digging through your seemingly endless stack of books only to discover that there is one more you need to shove in your bag to lug on your trip to the library. To those lucky few who only have a notebook to carry, that trip is just a short walk from the residence halls, but for others carrying a shoulder bag full of heavy textbooks, it is a daunting journey that results in an uneven frame and…

The final Student Group Council meeting for the fall semester focused on two major aspects of a student group’s existence: the allocation of group funds and ideas on how to increase membership and performance. At Wednesday’s meeting, both Matt Allwood, vice president for finance of the Student Association, and Adam Shamah, Assembly representative for Off Campus College, discussed a change in how student group funds will be spent. Student groups at BU are funded through two sources: one is a mandatory student activity fee paid by all students along with tuition, which the SA divies up each year in a…

Binghamton University is making its way to the top of the communication ladder as the school was recently named one of the top 20 using Twitter, according to the U.S. News and World report. According to Universitiesandcolleges.org, a school’s ranking included statistics on the number of accounts, the total number of followers per account, total number of users following each account, number of “tweets” per day and total number of tweets on Twitter, a social networking service. The Web site collected data during September from Twitter.com, with additional statistics calculated using TweetStats. Only accounts officially affiliated with the university were…

Just as quilts have many layers, so do the stories that go behind them. The “Full Spectrum” exhibit in the Binghamton University Art Museum unravels the colorful threads to uncover the life behind the fabric. The museum tour begins at the lower level of the Art Museum with “Vibrations: Color Resonance in Antique Quilts,” where most of the history lies. Amish quilts that date back to 1860 still hang, preserved in the Kenneth C. Lindsay Art and Study Room. Owned by Gerald Roy of the Pilgrim/Roy Collection, the quilts were made by the Amish and Mennonite quilters of Ohio and…

An upcoming on-campus performance plans to take a different approach to the tension in the Middle East — comedy. The Nov. 12 show, “Stand Up for Peace,” will highlight the similarities between Israelis and Palestinians, and not their differences. Hillel’s Bearcats for Israel and the Muslim Student Association will be holding the event at 7 p.m. in Studio B of the Fine Arts Building. Shayna Eichen, a senior history major and co-coordinator of the event, called it a “two-comedian solution to peace in the Middle East.” “The basic idea is that once both sides can relate on a personal level…

Two new majors in the Asian and Asian American studies department were proposed and carried, or passed, during Wednesday’s meeting of the Harpur College Council. The topic of adding Korean and Japanese majors was brought up through new business and was met with questions regarding the amount of faculty available to support both majors. The council is made up of 55 percent faculty, 32 percent undergraduate students, 8 percent administration staff and 5 percent graduate students. The motions carried unanimously and will now be sent to the Faculty Senate for approval. If approved, an announcement will be sent out to…

The H1N1 vaccine is expected to become available, free of charge, through Binghamton University’s Health Services within a matter of weeks. The vaccine will be available in two forms: a nasal spray and an injection. Officials said the nasal spray, a live vaccine, will arrive first. The injection, which is a killed vaccine that will be inserted into the arm, is similar to a seasonal flu shot. Since needles are involved, this form of the vaccine is more difficult to distribute, and patients will need to be in a safe area with proper accommodations in case they feel dizzy or…