Pipe Dream: After spending a semester here, are you surprised by what you found here?

Harvey Stenger: Now I’m saying I’m surprised. It’s not just that we have a great university, great professors, great academics, we’ve got students who come here with this other expectation of what they can do on this campus. I was at Cornell a couple of weeks ago, and I had to walk to my car and everyone was just marching. I came back here around 7 at night and I went to my office and I looked outside and everyone was playing. Everyone was having fun. Then I go to the award ceremonies and I’m blown away by the community service. The kinds of things that students want to do here outside of the classroom blows me away. It’s this special feeling that Binghamton students have this unique feature that attracts more students like them to come here. They don’t just want to come to college to get a degree; they want to come here to learn how to make a difference.

PD: What do you think about the faculty?

HS: I have met almost all the faculty now. The passion of the faculty is the other thing that’s incredible here. It’s not just passion about their discipline. Here, they love their research, but they’re very passionate about the success of their students.

PD: What are some immediate issues that you think need to be addressed?

HS: We need to provide students with more opportunities to be successful after they graduate. Getting a job is really hard. I’m going to send out a Request for Proposals soon to create new masters programs that can help students stay for one more year, maybe do a 3/2 and move themselves from the liberal arts degree to a career more quickly. I’ve been talking to the different departments and asking them, “Do you think that in your field there is a master’s degree that can help our students take the next step?”

PD: Are you trying to change anything in terms of admissions and recruiting?

HS: We’re missing students who are very good where we’re not offering them anything special. The top students who come here get admission. No special financial aid. No special programs. We don’t want to have an honors college. We’re already so good that our average student would be an honors student at most universities. The idea that came out [of discussions] was something called the President’s Scholars. There will be around 120 students in this first class. There will be some special attention. There will be mentoring by senior administrators and there will be special events that we plan for them. Right now there’s no scholarships attached to that, but I really would like to work with our alums to find scholarships for that group of students to meet their unmet need.

PD: It seems like much of NYSUNY 2020 is about research and job growth. What about the students?

HS: It’s packaged in a way that makes it seem like we’re all about science, engineering and creating jobs. I completely understand that. It is two pieces. It is about expanding green energy research, but it is also growing a smarter, bigger, better-taught university. It’s growth to improve quality. Not growth for growth’s sake.

PD: What do you think about the funding that the State is guaranteeing Binghamton under NYSUNY 2020? Last we checked the State provides around 30 percent of the University’s total budget.

HS: That money pays the faculty, it heats the buildings, it takes care of the maintenance. The other 70 percent is research grants and contracts, housing dormitories, tuition. That 30 percent really does support our core mission. Our research expenditures are around $38 million a year, so that’s on top of all of this. If [the grants] all went away, we wouldn’t have some graduate students, we wouldn’t have some labs operating, but we’d still have all of the professors. None of the professor’s salaries are paid out of that, none of the buildings are maintained out of those funds.

PD: Do you trust Albany to maintain the funding they promised under NYSUNY 2020?

HS: Trust is very important. Albany needs to build a sense of trust with its population. Cuomo made a promise, the legislature made a promise, we’re not going to cut the SUNY budget, and everyone said ‘sure wait until next year.’ So April came and they didn’t cut us, so we made it. So one year out of the five, we made it. There’s enough people in the legislature who are logical.

— This interview was conducted by Nate Fleming and Daniel S. Weintraub and has been edited for length and clarity.

Although Sodexo offered all of the workers new positions, many of the employees felt the process of job selection was rushed, and lamented that their union, the Rochester Regional Joint Board, did too little to protect their interests.

Several Sodexo employees, with jobs in the Unions, spoke with Pipe Dream and were granted anonymity because Sodexo management bars employees from talking to the press.

“A lot of people had to take jobs that they didn’t really want, and some that they weren’t even qualified for,” said a Sodexo employee working in the New University Union.

In an email to Pipe Dream, Emily Vick, the Albany District Director of the Rochester Regional Joint Board — a subgroup of the large national union, Workers United — acknowledged that change and transition are always challenging, but emphasized that each of the workers affected by the renovation had secured a new position with Sodexo.

“Now is the time to focus on our upcoming negotiations where we will be fighting to maintain and improve upon the victories the union has won for our members in previous years,” Vick wrote, referring to the upcoming collective bargaining process once the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) expires in June.

Vick did not respond to questions asking if the actions she took regarding the employees affected by the renovations were influenced by considerations of the upcoming negotiations.

Robert Griffin, the district marketing manager for Sodexo, wrote in an email that Sodexo worked closely with the union to assist workers placing them in jobs of the pay and job classification, as stated in the CBA.

“The process has been closely coordinated with the union, and we are very pleased at the spirit of cooperation and support that has been evident through the process,” Griffin wrote.

The collective bargaining agreement classifies workers positions into categories based on job requirements to determine pay. One employee said positions with the same classification can have very different responsibilities. The employee argued that some of their colleagues were forced to take jobs with unrealistic expectations to avoid taking pay cuts.

”A kid has a disability, and they now told him he has to work three 10 to 11-hour days,” the employee said. “You know they’re not going to make it. They’re not going to make it through these jobs.”

The employee admitted he or she did not feel totally comfortable with the added responsibilities of the new position.

Neither Griffin nor Vick commented on whether employees’ special circumstances were considered during the job bidding process.

Several Sodexo employees claimed they learned the University Union was closing from a December Pipe Dream article.

Sodexo did not complete a list of available jobs for the University Union staff until mid April, and an email from Griffin said Sodexo hoped to conclude the job bidding process several weeks later by May 11.

“The Union was consulted in the plans laid out by Sodexo, and their feedback was useful in ensuring as prompt a course of action as possible,” Grifffin wrote.

The employees said they did not have enough time to research the new positions. The posted list of positions contained the job classification and hours of the available jobs, but did not include any description of the responsibilities the job will entail. The employees also said they felt rushed when they were called into meetings to choose a position.

“We knew something was going to happen, but we didn’t know when, why, where. The jobs weren’t posted, and if they wanted people to make decisions they should have been,” an employee said.

This employee claimed negotiations between Sodexo and the union were conducted behind closed doors, without direct representation for the workers themselves. The employee accused the union of working too closely with Sodexo management, and neglecting the concerns of the workers.

The employee said more than 20 employees called Vick expressing their grievances over the job bidding process. However, Ms. Vick did not respond directly to many of the employees and was slow to respond to any complaints at all.

“These people pay $10 a week [in union dues], and only make $7.25 an hour, for that kind of service,” the employee said. “I told them they should have posted the jobs. My union didn’t care. They didn’t even return my phone calls.”

Vick opted not to elaborate on the extent of her interaction with employees throughout the job bidding process. She did not respond to inquiries from Pipe Dream asking if she returned calls to any of the employees.

“We need you, we need you desperately. I said please come down here, we need you down here,” an employee said describing their phone call to Vick.

In a brief statement included in the email from Vick, she wrote that the Labor Management Committee, composed of “rank and file” union members, collaborated with Sodexo and Union representatives to make the transition between jobs as smooth as possible, however the employees contend they had no direct representation at the negotiations.

Vick used the statement to emphasize the benefits the added employees as union members.

“We will be fighting to maintain and improve upon the victories the union has already won for our members in previous years, including 100 percent employer paid health insurance, pensions, as well as the seniority rights, job security and job protections that allowed the members at the Food Court to be able to choose from the many open positions, with respect given to seniority, rather than having one forced upon them, as many non-union workers face in the work place every day,” Vick wrote.

Although the employees said they were glad the positions were offered on the basis of seniority, they felt this victory did not overshadow the overwhelming absence of the union among the employees it is supposed to represent. They said Vick made one brief visit to campus during the three weeks of job bidding.

“If you’re going to place 39 people, you better be down here fighting for these people’s jobs, and telling them what you think,” one employee said. “Nothing at all from our union. And that hurt. That really hurt us, and I told them we’re just really getting taken advantage of here because people just don’t know what they want, and she just blew it off.”

In 2005, the Faculty Senate passed a resolution stating that no instructor can be required to use and report evaluations of any kind, according to Laura O’Neil, Faculty Senate secretary. The Student Association successfully pushed for the public listing of Student Opinion of Teaching (SOOT) surveys online, but the current list is incomplete because many professors simply do not participate in the evaluation process.

The format of the voluntary surveys vary drastically across departments and professors. Some use SOOT surveys, which require the student to bubble in a ranking across many categories online, while others provide forms with more open-ended questions where students can write out their thoughts about a particular class.

Professors in all departments are encouraged to distribute some version of these forms to their students.

Nicholas Nace, a visiting assistant professor in the English department, however, is troubled by the administration’s lack of oversight and thinks the student evaluation forms should be required.

“Students, a while ago, voted for having evaluations across the board, and the administration and the faculty voted it down,” Nace said. “The faculty doesn’t want to be monitored because they like being guided only by their own sense of what’s appropriate or effective in the classroom.”

Nace, who was denied a position on the tenure-track at BU, felt that his situation was unfairly assessed by higher-ups. Students in his classes even made an effort to speak out to administration about Nace’s position.

Nicholas Wilsey, a student in Nace’s ENG 380T “Lyric Poetry” course and a sophomore majoring in English, publicly addressed Donald Nieman, dean of Harpur College, on Friday concerning Nace’s case.

Wilsey told Nieman that students’ voices had been overlooked by administration in determining the Nace’s future at BU.

“My question regards the fulfillment of the University’s vision to include students in the administrative decisions that affect our education,” Wilsey said during the forum. “Upon finding out that professor Nace’s professorship in future years was at jeopardy, a dozen of us students wrote describing how we value professor Nace’s professorship and would be disappointed if he were lost.”

Wilsey added that he and other students did not receive a response from the administration, and the decision was made without their input.

“We feel that there is an unapologetic disconnect between us and the administrative decisions that determine our education,” Wilsey said. “We showed a clear desire to be involved and informed about the decision regarding Professor Nace, but were generally overlooked.”

Nieman told Wilsey he could not discuss the specific case involving Professor Nace, but said he strongly values student feedback.

“I certainly read the emails and the letters and I think I responded to most of them — I probably didn’t respond to all of them — but I responded to a lot them … and I listened to what students had to say. And I always try and listen to what students have to say,” Nieman said.

While some students like Wilsey feel the administration does not value student opinion in making hiring decisions, they also recognize that professors are not making student feedback a priority.

Nace said he greatly values student opinion, but fears that select professors do not.

“I offer evaluations to the students on the assumption that I am the only person carefully reading them,” Nace said. “I will benefit from them, and I think of course it’s very important to get student feedback. How else is someone going to improve, unless students are giving you feedback? It’s not something you can simply ignore.”

The evaluations are tabulated and distributed by department heads and given back to the faculty and to department chairs, according to Jean-Pierre Mileur, interim provost and vice president of academic affairs. Deans, the provost and the president have access to the forms, which then become part of the instructor’s personnel file for use in evaluations, Mileur said.

“Students assume it doesn’t mean very much but the fact is teacher evaluations are essential to personnel evaluation process,” Mileur said. “It really counts that they take them seriously.”

He added that professors who do not have student evaluations in their personnel files would be required to explain why they are missing.

Nace said that while the administration encourages professors to add student evaluations in their files, they have the ability to weed out forms based on their content because no one checks to make sure they are all there.

He also pointed out that some professors on tenure-tracks are less invested in making changes to their teaching.

“The real problem is that some faculty members simply don’t care what the students think,” Nace said. “It’s easy for some professors to feel that they have absolute power, that they get to a point where nothing can be done to them it seems. These professors can do whatever they want.”

Michael Sharp, an assistant professor in the English department, agreed with Nace’s concerns.

“Everyone says they value teaching, but the institution isn’t structured to support or reward it in meaningful ways,” Sharp wrote in an email. “Unless students (or whoever’s paying their tuitions) cry bloody murder, the system won’t change, and teaching won’t be seriously monitored, evaluated and valued.”

Sharp stopped giving his students evaluations about five years ago because he realized the administration wasn’t keeping record.

“This doesn’t mean I don’t think they’re important,” Sharp wrote. “I was actually waiting for someone, anyone, to ask why I didn’t do them — to question the rules and the process. No one ever has.”

Patricia Ingraham, dean of College of Community and Public Affairs, has more in faith in her professors.

“There is nothing mandatory to make sure that every one is submitted,” Ingraham said. “We trust professors to provide information that is critical.”

Students like Kate Flatley, Student Association vice president for academic affairs, also argued for required forms that would value the voice of the student body.

“Education is a product and we’re the consumers,” Flatley said. “It’s a difficult market, we have high expectations of students and if something isn’t working it needs to be rectified.”

Like Nace, Flatley supports a mandatory system that would gather a wider range of feedback.

“They are voluntary based on department,” she said. “That is something I would like to see made mandatory. We should make professors held accountable. We’re not getting a clear picture.”

Serge-Edouar Joseph, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering, said the administration should more thoroughly oversee teaching evaluations and respond accordingly to students’ concerns.

“I feel like teaching evaluations should absolutely be mandatory,” Joseph said. “As much as it is the job of students to learn, it is the job for professors to teach. Being in engineering I feel like that are plenty of professors that do not reach the interest of the majority of their students and since these evaluations are not mandatory, these problems go unnoticed, leading to students losing interest in their classes and ultimately having their grades suffer.”

Jason Dirig, a junior majoring in music, said he thinks the evaluations should be required and reviewed by department chairs.

“Teaching evaluations should be mandatory, and I do think it should be made known when a majority of students aren’t happy with a professor because some of us pay out of own pockets to go here,” Dirig said. “If BU maintains that it is the public ivy than perhaps it should make sure it’s professors meet that standard.”

Al Vos, Hinman faculty master and an associate professor in the English department, said he administers evaluations mid-semester so he can make changes based on student feedback to improve the class.

“I see a range of students investment in the process, some give extensive high-quality feedback and some just do a very quick minimal response,” Vos said.

Students and professors agree that the wide range of students’ responses is reflected on RateMyProfessors, a website where students can freely post comments about their professors.

“I have been on it and I don’t have any problem with it,” Interim Provost Mileur said. “But RateMyProfessors tends to draw the extremes.”

Professor Nace and Flatley shared similar opinions to Mileur. They said the website commonly attracts students who either had a great experience or a particularly poor experience.

While some seem are skeptical about the website as a valid source for assessing teachers, RateMyProfessors is the highest-trafficked college professor ratings site in the U.S, according to the SUNY website.

Last month, the website teamed up with Princeton Review to rank the 300 best professors nationwide. Mary Haupt, a professor in the English department, and Jennifer Wegmann, an instructor in the Health and Wellness department, were included on the list based on positive reviews on Rate my Professors.

The University released an official press release celebrating Haupt and Wegmann’s recognition.

“That to my mind sort of raised its legitimacy,” Nace said. “If we’re going to give her the credit that she is due for that distinction, we have to also look at the other end within our own department.”

MONDAY, MAY 7, 2:30 p.m. — A 19-year-old male student reported to University Police that several items had been stolen from his room in Newing College’s Bingham Hall during spring break, Reilly said. The student said when he came back he found a box of condoms and an Xbox game missing from his room. The student had waited to report the missing items because he had gone to Residential Life first. There are no suspects and the case is still under investigation.

MONDAY, MAY 7, 4:46 p.m. — Officers on patrol responded to College-in-the-Woods’ Mohawk Hall for reports of the smell of marijuana on the building’s second floor, Reilly said. The officers were unable to find a specific room where the smell was coming from. A resident assistant told the officers that several students had already left the floor, and the case is still under investigation.

MONDAY, MAY 7, 7:49 p.m. — Officers on patrol responded to reports of a domestic dispute in Glenn G. Bartle Library, Reilly said. Two students, a 19-year-old male and a 19-year-old female, were having an argument when the female took her boyfriend’s phone to go through his text messages. The male then slapped the female and reportedly grabbed her by the neck and threw her to the floor. Both students denied that anyone was grabbed by the neck when interviewed, and the officers told the students to separate for a while.

The selection process is extensive, with candidates submitting two letters of recommendation and a copy of their potential speech with their application.

Janathri Nanayakkara, a senior double-majoring in economics and political science, will speak at the 3:30 p.m. ceremony on Sunday.

A transfer student from Sri Lanka, Nanayakkara wanted to speak at commencement to give her parents something a little extra to see after their 23-hour journey.

Her dad went to school in England, so going abroad for a college education is something that she always thought she would do.

She started school at the University of Maine on a full scholarship, but wasn’t happy with the level of diversity. She decided to transfer to Binghamton despite her parents having to pay tuition.

“I wanted to do this basically to say thank you,” she said. “To my parents it was more important that I was happy. I am so grateful, so I had to do something special.”

Nanayakkara is no amateur at public speaking. In high school she was part of a group called Toastmasters that participated in public speaking events regularly. In 2006 she was internationally recognized as Asia’s best orator.

“I get excited about it and I’m someone I think who feeds off of the audience,” she said of public speaking.

Nanayakkara has held internships at Law and Society Trust and UNICEF in Sri Lanka, as well as at the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York City. Focusing on the realm of international human rights, she claims some of the experiences she has gained through these internships have changed her life.

When she worked with Law and Society Trust and UNICEF, Sri Lanka was undergoing a civil war. The war included a lot of terrorism and during her internship she went to help some of the innocent victims in the north.

During this summer internship, Nanayakkara taught English, basic Sinhala, her mother tongue, and math to children living in refugee camps. She was living in a war zone and wasn’t able to have any communication with her family at the time.

“I feel very strongly about the well-being of people,” she said. “I saw gruesome things, heard gruesome stories, but I helped people out.”

Nanayakkara will work at the United Nations as a diplomat next year, but is unable to disclose her assignment because of confidentiality reasons. She said she hopes one day to become an ambassador for Sri Lanka.

“I grew up in a country where every day, bombs would go off, people I knew died,” she said. “Just to see Sri Lanka improving and doing so well economically and politically makes me happy and gives me reason for my passion. I want to stand up for countries like that.”

She credits Binghamton with giving her the confidence to talk about her accomplishments after experiencing a bit of a culture shock at first.

“I went to job fairs here where people were pitching themselves to employers and I was shocked,” she said. “Later on I got that confidence, and now I can talk to you about who I am.”

Nanayakkara said her speech will incorporate her “foreign sense of humor.”

Benjamin Summers, a senior majoring in history, will speak at the 8:30 a.m. ceremony on Sunday, and plans to focus on perspective and the fact that nothing in life comes easy.

“It’s kind of like being at the starting point of a board game,” he said about graduating. “It takes a lot of dice rolls and twists and turns, but you’ll make it in the end.”

Delivering a commencement speech is something Summers said he always pictured himself doing because he likes public speaking, but it wasn’t until this year that he knew what he wanted to say.

“None of us are the same as we were freshman year,” he said. “We’re different forms of ourselves, one could say more developed forms, but I would say we’re just a lot more confused.”

Summers hopes that the speech will help people feel like they’re not alone on this journey. Whether it’s the day of graduation or over 20 years from now, Summers said that he wants everyone to know he will be there for anyone who needs him as they head toward the future.

In addition to honoring his graduating class, he also wants to honor his family and thank them for the time and energy they spent raising him.

After graduation, he plans to go to Atlanta, where his parents live.

“I’m going to go to a new city and starting my adventure from scratch,” he said. “Where that takes me and what that means, I don’t know and frankly I don’t think I want to know. It just makes it more exciting.”

Michelle Eberhart, a senior double-majoring in human development and English, will speak at the professional schools ceremony at noon on Sunday.

Speaking at commencement wasn’t something she planned early on, she said, but when she saw the opportunity she jumped at it.

“I was at Starbucks procrastinating and I said, ‘I’m going to try it and see what happens,’” she said. “I enjoy writing and want to pursue a career within the writing spectrum so why not?”

Eberhart plans to work as a personal trainer before applying to jobs in social media and public relations.

She said her time at Binghamton has taught her independence.

“When I came in as a freshman I thought I knew everything,” she said. “Then Binghamton came, and I realized I knew not nearly as much as I thought I did. I’ve been able to develop as a person and learn skills that I’ll be able to take with me forever.”

Eberhart plans to focus her speech on social media because of its relevance to today’s generation and her interest in the subject.

She wants to send a message that stresses the importance of interacting in person, rather than just communicating through a phone.

“I want to make sure people appreciate everything going on around here at Binghamton because our time here went by in a blink of an eye,” she said.

Jennifer Tomas will be the graduate commencement speaker at Saturday’s ceremony at 5 p.m. She has just completed her doctorate in American history.

She plans to teach two courses at Binghamton next year and then proceed to look for other jobs and publish some articles from her dissertation.

Tomas was nominated by her department chair to speak and was asked to submit a speech. She said she felt surprised when she was chosen and is grateful for the education she received at BU.

“I didn’t ask for this,” she said. “I am going to talk a little about my own experience at Binghamton and also about the value of a public university education and where I think that fits in American society.”

Tomas received her undergraduate degree at Wells College and entered Binghamton’s doctoral program in 2005.

Throughout her time at Binghamton, Tomas has completed a 500-page dissertation and hopes to mentor graduate students in a similar position one day.

Her time at the University has reshaped her conception of someone who could be a research scholar as well as a teacher and educator, she said.

“There are so many role models within the history department,” she said. “I came into this changed idea of who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do.”

According to a recent New York Times article, 4 million college students took at least one online class during fall 2007. Recently, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology committed $60 million to offer free online courses from both universities.

Binghamton’s department of Continuing Education & Outreach (CEO) reported that at BU, about 44 percent of total student enrollment of 7,230 during the 2011 summer and winter sessions was associated with distance learning courses. Between 2003 and 2011, summer and winter sessions have served 12,986 students through 666 distance learning courses.

CEO anticipates that both the total number of students participating in distance learning courses and the percentage of total student enrollment associated with distance leaning courses will increase at Binghamton University in 2012.

At TEDx Binghamton University in March, a forum for academics to discuss their fields, University President Harvey Stenger emphasized the importance of hybrid teaching and the integration of technology in the classroom, calling it “a fundamental priority for higher education.”

“Using technology in a variety of ways to enhance learning, such as video capture of lectures, is and will continue to be an important part of higher education,” Stenger wrote in an email to Pipe Dream. “I have found that many faculty at Binghamton University are using various aspects of electronic course delivery to effectively enhance our students’ learning and improve access to course material.”

At TEDx BU, Stenger said that students must be “technologically proficient,” and that “higher education needs to evolve to meet these needs.”

“Students can learn anywhere — in their dorm room, their parents’ basement, even in a military base or research station on the other side of the world,” Stenger said at TEDx BU, referring to online courses.

Murnal Abate, assistant director for summer and winter sessions, said BU has been using distance learning since 2003.

“Continuing Education and Outreach — the parent organization of summer and winter session — is a strong supporter of online education and we have been strongly championing that cause on campus since we first conducted a pilot project of five distance education courses during the 2003 summer session,” Abate wrote in an email.

Abate said online education has potential to positively impact the way that university students obtain an education.

“Not only does it tap into a method of information transmission that modern students are skilled at, but in many cases, online learning provides a flexibility in one’s educational plan that allows individuals to become more productive through multi-tasking,” Abate said.

Abate, like Stenger, said that a university education can be enhanced by adding an effective educational technique like distance learning.

“It allows another way for students to learn, it increases the efficiency of the educational process and it is very much in line with the increasing use of technology in our day-to-day lives,” Abate said.

Abate said there are several advantages to online education. Students do not need to be physically present on campus to take classes, and course materials become available everywhere.

He said there are also advantages for both professors and administrators in online education. For professors, online classes allow instructors to set up the course content ahead of time, making it easier for high-speed connections between students and professors. For administrators, online education allows your institution to educate increasing numbers of students in a cost-effective manner.

“Distance education at Binghamton University has improved tremendously since those first few courses were offered in 2003,” Abate said. “Course structure and methods of teaching have become more sophisticated, a change that is being driven both by innovation on the part of course designers and also in response to demand on the part of increasingly skilled and capable students.”

According to Abate, distance learning is offered in all seven of the University’s schools.

“The good news is that Binghamton University students overwhelmingly support multiple methods of education delivery on campus,” Abate said.

In a survey conducted after the 2011 summer session, 96 percent of the survey’s respondents said they would recommend Binghamton University’s summer session to other students. Of the group of respondents, 57 percent had enrolled in distance learning courses.

Abate said that there is a clear indication that distance learning will play a key role in BU’s growth in the coming years.

“We were pleased to read in Binghamton University’s NYSUNY 2020 Challenge Grant Application that the university plans to ‘… expand classroom space and increase the diversity of teaching methods …’ through online and hybrid lecture courses,” Abate said.

As the University begins to use online education more, questions of possible negative effects on students arise. Stenger stated that although online education will be a part of BU’s future, on-campus learning is beneficial.

“I strongly believe that the benefits of a residential college experience can not be replaced using online education,” Stenger wrote.

Abate said that for students to successfully navigate online classes, they need to be highly motivated and disciplined.

“It is true, however, that not all students are suited for online learning, however,” Abate said. “If you are not comfortable with interacting in a virtual classroom and prefer the more traditional model of face-to-face interactions with professors and fellow students, then a distance learning course might involve a bit of a learning curve. If you tend to procrastinate, you might find yourself playing catch-up with the rest of the class, which is not the optimal way to learn anything.”

Lynne Schneider, an English instructor, said she likes teaching both in person and online even though they are not the “same thing.”

“Using current platforms to replicate a classroom setting online is a poor use of the resource,” Schneider wrote in an email. “We can see this in the success of the mega-classes that do not try to replicate the classroom offered by top schools on the east and west coasts. That said, I am skeptical of the cost-effective ‘benefits’ of the medium, but given the flood-spate rush to digitize education, I look forward (at least) to the swift development of (user-friendlier?) less cumbersome platforms.”

Andrew Bryant, a senior majoring in political science, said he believes online classes are vital for universities such as BU.

“The option to earn credit from any place with an Internet connection is crucial,” Bryant said. “Students today try to earn credit in the intersessions in order to cut down on the time and money spent on higher education.”

Twin River Commons and 20 Hawley are two separate apartment complexes owned by different groups, and are estimated to bring about 700 new students Downtown.

Twin River Commons is being developed by Newman Development Group, LLC, which also developed University Plaza.

Jeff Smetana, vice president of Newman Development Group, LLC, explained why the group decided to develop Twin River Commons.

The group decided that Downtown life would appeal to students and “address the pressure building with expanding student housing in traditional residential neighborhoods, boost activity for Downtown business and generally help revitalize the city,” Smetana said.

20 Hawley is owned by Alfred Weissman Real Estate LLC, a real estate development group headquartered in Rye, N.Y. The company specializes in repurposing and developing older buildings

The development of 20 Hawley is being overseen by Alfred Weissman himself, along with his son Alan Weissman. This is the first time Alfred Weissman Real Estate LLC has repurposed a building into student housing.

“What we saw here in Binghamton was a structure that was beyond its useful life as an office building,” Alan Weissman said. “But there is a need for high-end student housing.”

The Weissmans have experience in repurposing and developing buildings in locations in economically suffering areas, such as Yonkers and Garden City.

“We feel that this town has great potential, and that’s where we see opportunity to find something and to help reposition and change things,” Alan Weissman said.

Alan Weissman believes that both 20 Hawley and Twin River Commons will change the face of Downtown Binghamton for the better. New businesses, such as brewery pubs and restaurants, are already opening in the area.

His father expressed similar sentiments about the Downtown area.

“Things are going to get better, “ Alfred Weissman said.

Alfred Weissman also believes that the complexes are already boosting the local economy.

“We buy paint, we buy sandwiches, we buy sheet rock, we buy nails, we buy chairs, we buy garbage cans,” Alfred Weissman said. “That’s a shot in the arm for a lot of people.”

People, such as Clifford Kern, a member of the Downtown development commission, who have been paying attention to Downtown Binghamton’s issues over the years also think things will change soon.

“I think that all this new housing of students Downtown is a very positive development for Binghamton,” said Kern, who is also an economics professor at Binghamton University.

According to Kern, there have been efforts since the 1970s to revitalize Binghamton’s Downtown area, such as the construction of the metro center.

“As you can see, the success has been limited,” Kern said.

Mayor Matt Ryan shared Kern’s optimism for Binghamton’s revitalization.

“These student housing projects promise to bring even more positive activity to Downtown Binghamton,” Ryan said.

Ryan made reference to the increase in loft-style living in the Downtown area in recent years and the growth of Downtown businesses.

“We’re especially pleased that these two projects are transforming vacant sites into true community assets,” Ryan said.

Michelle Bleichert, owner of the Water Street Brewing Co., one of the businesses that just moved into the area, said she believes that the incoming student population will bring economic growth.

“When you bring bodies into an area it’s going to create some sort of change down here,” Bleichert said. “They’re going to want to shop and eat within walking distance.”

Kathryn Gallardo, a junior majoring in human development, will be living in Twin River Commons this fall and believes it will help the Downtown economy.

“I think once they are done being built, the city will begin to realize that since students are going to be living Downtown, there are going to be higher demands for new stores such as supermarkets or pharmacies which in turn could really help Binghamton grow,” Gallardo said.

The renovations to the lecture hall, Chenango Room and University Downtown Center will finish before fall 2012, according to the Physical Facilities website. These projects will cost the University a combined $8.8 million.

In addition to those renovations, the Physical Facilities website states that there will be improvements to the English department corridor, including new floor tiles, asbestos abatement and better lighting. These improvements are also set to finish before fall 2012.

Construction on the Central Campus Quad Project, which is already underway and will renovate the area between the Fine Arts Building, Science I and Library Tower, will continue during the summer, but the project will not be complete until November, according to the Physical Facilities website. The project will cost an estimated $3.7 million.

“[Eventually] there will be all new grass, plants, planting beds and a granite fountain,” said Karen Fennie, Physical Facilities communications specialist. “Right down the center will be seating areas, which will be a continuation of other nice outdoor space where students hang out when the weather is nicer.”

Renovations on the University Unions will begin mid-summer. Physical facilities will renovate the Food Court and the Susquehanna Room, and plan to add 505,000 square feet of enclosed space that will extend out toward the Peace Quad. The project will also add additional office and programing space to the Unions.

The Athletic Field Upgrades currently underway will cost the University $5 million. According to Fennie, this project, which began last August, will provide students with new outdoor baseball, softball, tennis and basketball courts. Fennie said the project would be completed by the fall 2012 semester, but the Physical Facilities website states that tennis court construction will not be complete until spring 2013.

Contractors will also begin work on the High Temperature Hot Water Line Replacement Project. Fennie said contractors replace an old high-temperature, hot water line between Science II and III. The Physical Facilities website states that pedestrian traffic will be re-routed as construction will require the removal of above-ground high-temperature hot water lines. The University has granted contractors a budget of $3.4 million to execute these improvements.

“Projects like this are just a part of the whole process to upgrade infrastructure, so there will be a lot of excavating in that area which will start over the summer and be completed in late fall 2012,” Fennie said.

Walkway improvements will also occur during the summer and most of the work will be completed by the fall. Blacktop walkways, seen outside of places like the Old University Union near the former Dickinson Dining Hall, will be upgraded to concrete.

One of the most noticeable projects currently under way is the construction of the four new Dickinson Community buildings, Fennie said. The construction is part of the East Campus Housing projects, which also included the construction of four new Newing College buildings and the Chenango Champlain Collegiate Center, which opened in the fall, and will cost the University $350 million. The project will not be finished until fall 2013.

Construction on the old Dickinson Dining Hall will begin this summer starting with asbestos removal. The removal will begin soon after Commencement and will take about one month to complete. The building will be fenced off during the fall semester and renovations will begin in early 2013. Fennie said the Dickinson Dining Hall will be transformed into a one-stop student center, although plans have not been finalized.

“We try to time these projects to start over the summer, even though we’re still pretty busy with orientation, but we try to coordinate with other departments and try to do the more disruptive stuff when the students are away,” Fennie said.

Asbestos is a group of mineral fibers commonly used in building construction up until the 1960s and ’70s for its strength and flame-retardant qualities.

According to Arthur Frank, a physician and chair of the department of environmental and occupational health at the Drexel University School of Public Health, asbestos exposure can cause both non-malignant diseases like asbestosis — scarring of the lungs and the lining of the lungs — and cancers, typically mesothelioma or lung cancer.

The University has overseen asbestos removal work this semester in the Old University Union, Lecture Hall and West Gym, among other buildings. Asbestos removal projects will begin between now and the start of the fall semester in the Heating Plant, Fine Arts Building, Central Campus Quad area, Couper Administration Building and other campus buildings.

Many campus buildings not already named contain asbestos, from the numbered Science buildings to the Engineering Building, Computer Center, and all the residential buildings of Hinman College, College-in-the-Woods and the Dickinson Community.

Asbestos is now highly regulated by New York state and federal agencies. Karen Fennie, spokeswoman for Physical Facilities, said that BU goes “above and beyond what is required regarding monitoring and testing” for asbestos.

“We’ve done removal of asbestos for years on campus without any safety issues, without any exposure issues, probably because we are so diligent about the way we go about managing this,” Fennie said.

Some see reason for concern, however.

Jenna Fierstein, president of Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) and a senior double-majoring in biology and environmental studies, said that she was bothered by the proximity of asbestos work in a Science II hallway that remained open to foot traffic and where classrooms remained in use.

“I’ve had a lot of classes in Science II this semester,” Fierstein said. “And every time I go in there, I see the construction thing with that big plastic barrier that says, ‘warning, asbestos.’ It kind of bothers me that they’re just doing construction in an area where students are heading back and forth.”

Buildings undergoing asbestos removal are not limited to abatement workers because such a step would be beyond what is required of BU under New York and U.S. laws and regulations, Fennie said.

“We do what we’re required,” Fennie said. “We do asbestos removal in a safe manner. The state set up the parameters for us to follow and we follow them.”

Fierstein expressed doubts.

“Following state laws and regulations just means that they’re doing only what’s minimally required,” she said. “And that’s not a very good defense. I mean, it’s a good legal defense if you don’t want to sued … but it doesn’t actually make it so that they’re putting students’ safety and health as their top priority.”

Kate Harrigan, a sophomore majoring in French, said she has not taken much notice of campus asbestos projects.

“I think I saw some signs in the library during my freshman year about asbestos removal,” Harrigan said. “It concerns me that I’m not more aware about it.”

The majority of Binghamton University’s Vestal campus was built in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, when asbestos use was still prevalent. Buildings constructed with asbestos in them include campus mainstays like the Lecture Hall, Glenn G. Bartle Library, Old Union and the dormitories of Dickinson Community, Hinman College and CIW.

The Binghamton University Asbestos Field Guide, a document Physical Facilities maintains for its employees, states that “as a generality, unless there is documentation otherwise, assume that asbestos may be present” in campus buildings.

The Field Guide, available on BU’s website by computers connected to the campus network, lists the most common locations of asbestos within campus buildings — ranging from ceiling tiles to window caulking, dry wall compound and fire doors — and checks off for each building the status of asbestos at these locations.

Fennie said the Field Guide may not include the location of all asbestos on campus. She called the possibility that campus buildings built in more recent decades contain asbestos “highly unlikely,” but she did not rule it out.

“Think about the complexity of constructing a building and all the materials that are used,” Fennie said. “And think about every single ingredient in a product used that you’d have to go through to say, ‘this building is 100 percent asbestos-free.’”

Robert Mulcahy, asbestos coordinator and safety manager at BU, said that BU aims to say just that, at added expense and effort, for at least one facility: the Innovative Technologies Complex (ITC) across Murray Hill Road from campus. He said guaranteeing that the ITC is free of asbestos is a necessary step for the University to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification as to the ITC’s status as a “green” facility.

Fennie said that BU tests for the presence of asbestos in any building prior to beginning renovation work, regardless of the building’s age, in order to comply with OSHA regulations. She also said that for reasons relating to funding, BU will often wait to have asbestos removed from a building until a time when the building is also set to undergo other renovations.

“It’s kind of done on a project-by-project basis,” Fennie said. “[Funding for asbestos abatement] all comes from the State. In the case of a capital project like the East Gym renovation, the cost of asbestos removal was rolled into that and paid for with our capital project funds … But it’s not like the State says, ‘we’re gonna give you an infinite amount of money to remove all the remaining asbestos on campus.’ I don’t think the State has that kind of money.”

Mulcahy said that costs of asbestos abatement projects on campus vary widely depending on projects’ sizes.

“If we just have one of our construction crews doing a job, it could be $2,500, all the way up through $1 million, depending on the scope of the project,” Mulcahy said. “With the East Gym, I know it ended up being more than $1 million.”

Within the last four years, asbestos removal has also occurred in College-in-the-Woods as well as in the Engineering Building, East Gym, Decker Student Health Services Center and other areas of campus.

The Decker Student Health Services Center is the only one of these buildings that is now completely free of asbestos, according to the Field Guide.

Asbestos removal projects are currently underway on the third floor of Science II and in the Tuscarora Office Building. Two Brothers Contracting, Inc. of Whitesboro, N.Y. is performing the abatement in both buildings. Two Brothers Contracting’s workers are removing some 3,940 square feet and 500 linear feet of asbestos containing material from Science II, and they are removing some 10,307 square feet and 200 linear feet of asbestos containing material from Tuscarora.

BU’s construction news webpage also states that the north end of the Old Union, the English department hallway in Bartle Library and the former Dickinson Dining Hall will undergo asbestos abatement this summer.

Ariella Sklar, a sophomore majoring in psychology, said asbestos projects on campus do not trouble her.

“It doesn’t bother me if [University officials] say it’s safe,” Sklar said. “We have to trust them.”

Festivities began at 1 p.m., and doors at the concert, which was moved indoors because of campus construction projects, opened at 7 p.m. Timeflies, The Cataracs and Passion Pit performed.

Presented by the Student Association Programming Board, the theme of the day was “Show Me Your Passion,” inspired by the night’s headline performer. During the day, the Binghamton Crosbys, the Binghamton Ballroom Dance Association, Binghamton Stand-Up and other student groups also showcased their talent to campus.

Student groups tabled around the Peace Quad, offering prizes for participation in mini games and encouraging involvement from students in the years to come.

Also seen in front of the Couper Administration Building and in Dickinson Community were various free rides including the Sizzler, the Sidewinder and Boat Ride. Free novelties like the rock wall, sticky wall and airbrush tattoos were offered to a wide range of the students as well.

For Allyson Kritzer, a freshman majoring in bioengineering, this was her first Spring Fling.

“As a freshman, I completely underestimated Spring Fling,” Kritzer said. “I went down to the Peace Quad not expecting much, but after seeing all the rides and activities available, I realized I had completely underestimated this event. I had a lot of fun and I like how Binghamton offers this to students before the work of finals becomes overwhelming.”

Others like Rachel Appel enjoyed participating in the Spring Fling activities.

“I think it’s a great way to get the campus out and interacting. I wish we had more similar events throughout the year,” said Appel, a sophomore double-majoring in management and political science.

Denise Erani, a sophomore majoring in art history, enjoyed the free aspect of Spring Fling.

“What could be better than walking around on a beautiful day collecting free stuff?” Erani said.

— Davina Bhandari

Mary Ann Swain, the previous provost and vice president for academic affairs, stepped down during the 2009 investigation into the men’s basketball program, to return to teaching. Since then, Jean-Pierre Mileur has served as interim provost.

Susan Strehle, the co-chair of the committee in charge of finding a new provost, said the provost and vice president for academic affairs is a critical addition to the administration because he acts as the University’s chief academic administrator.

“The president is the fundraiser, the politician and the figure-head leader, but this person is the academic leader,” she said. “He’s the one who spends the budget and decides if your department gets to hire somebody new and my department doesn’t.”

Strehle added that the administrative turnover following the scandal quelled any doubts about the repeat of a similar scandal.

“The campus really did learn its lesson in that, there’s a new director of athletics now, so I don’t even think anyone thought about that,” she said. “But we are looking for someone with strong ethics, and in listening you can tell if someone cares about those kinds of things.”

The Provost Search Committee is composed of faculty members, administrators, the vice president for student affairs and two student representatives.

The faculty members on the committee were appointed by the Faculty Senate, according to Strehle, who is also the chair of the Faculty Senate, while the Graduate Student Organization and the Student Association appointed the graduate and undergraduate representatives, respectively.

“We attempted to take the faculty which the faculty appointed and broaden the constituency,” Strehle said, referring to the inclusion of student representatives.

David Ostermann, the undergraduate student appointed to the committee, and Latoya Lee, the graduate student appointed, did not respond to phone calls or emails from Pipe Dream.

Over the next week, the finalists will speak about what constitutes a premier public university before the search committee and faculty members. The talks are scheduled for 3 p.m. on May 10, 11, 14 and 16 in the Old Union Hall, and are open to the public.

Robert McMaster, the first finalist to address the committee, spoke yesterday. McMaster is vice provost and dean of undergraduate education at University of Minnesota.

During his presentation, McMaster said that though many universities are choosing to focus on contract faculty, he remains a strong defender of tenured and tenure-track faculty.

“At our own peril, we let the number of tenure-track faculty decrease,” McMaster said. “In many ways they’re the hard currency of higher education. Tenure is almost a lifetime commitment to the institution. These are the people who are going to be educating at Binghamton for their whole careers.”

He told Pipe Dream these statements did not pertain to BU directly, but reflected his general philosophy on higher education.

“To make those changes I’d have to come here and look at the existing structure, and see what the pedagogical needs were,” he said.

McMaster was sure to note that he finds adjunct faculty crucial to higher education as well.

“I’m not arguing to eliminate adjunct in any shape or form, I’m just saying let’s not shift the emphasis away from tenured and tenure track faculty,” he added.

To protect the identity of the candidates, Strehle said the names of the remaining four finalists will not be released until two days before they speak.

“In some cases the candidates don’t want their home campuses to know that they’re interviewing, so we’re trying to keep it as confidential as possible,” she said.

She said she expects the next provost will be hired in the next few weeks.

Stossel, a former correspondent for “20/20” and current host of “Stossel” on the Fox Business Network, stopped at Binghamton University as a part of his tour promoting his latest book, “No, They Can’t.” Stossel discussed his book as well as a number of other topics.

With more than 300 people in attendance, the Emmy-winning journalist spoke about the economy, government involvement in health care, natural gas extraction and more. The first 100 people in line received free “Stossel Staches” courtesy of the College Republicans, who hosted and co-sponsored the event with the College Democrats and the College Libertarians.

“I should also say I’m weirded out by these mustaches,” Stossel said.

Stossel told the audience that he considers himself to be a “lousy conservative.”

“I’m a libertarian,” Stossel said. “I think homosexuality is fine. I think drugs should be legal. I think prostitution should be legal.”

Before the event, Stossel told Pipe Dream he hoped students would walk away from his presentation knowing that our intuition is faulty.

“Our intuition is that central planning and more government will make our lives better,” Stossel said. “And I wrote ‘No, They Can’t’ because what I’ve learned in 43 years of reporting is they can’t, they don’t. They’re just putting us deeper into debt and making things worse. We should know the subtitle is key. Government fails but individuals succeed if they’ll just leave us alone.”

Stossel also discussed his view that spending is one of the U.S. government’s biggest problems.

“We’re in big trouble because we’re spending ourselves broke and we keep passing the spiderwebs of rules so that we can’t draw our way out,” Stossel told Pipe Dream.

His solution is simple: limit the government.

“The founders had it right: fewer rules, government to keep us safe, some pollution control rules and freedom,” he said.

During the presentation, Stossel said that government should stay out of the way of private enterprise.

“The government is like someone who jumps in front of a parade and pretends they’ve led the parade,” Stossel said. “Things get better without government. People were lifting themselves out of poverty in this country, then government stopped the progress and took credit for it.”

Throughout his presentation, Stossel made use of PowerPoint and video. He had several graphs that explained how different kinds of fear take days off human life.

“If you’re below the poverty line in America, your life is seven to 10 years shorter,” Stossel said.

Stossel also mentioned the recent Greek Life scandal that brought BU onto the pages of The New York Times.

“At this school, there was a fear of hazing,” Stossel said. “In my opinion, it was an overreaction. We worry about the wrong stuff.”

During the question-and-answer portion of the afternoon, Scott Sommer, a member of BTV and a junior majoring in cinema, asked Stossel for advice for their new daily morning and nightly news shows.

“Just go do it, try stuff,” Stossel said. “Learn what you’re good at. The best training for it is to write for your school paper.”

Frederick Sung, a senior majoring in philosophy, politics and law, said he was a fan of Stossel prior to event, and enjoyed hearing what he had to say.

“It was typical of what he would have done,” Sung said. “It was everything I expected. I thought a lot of what he said made sense. I’m a fan of his, but I disagree with a lot of what he believes. But, I thought it was a good presentation.”

Tara-Marie Lynch, president of the College Republicans, said she was pleased with the event’s turnout and thought Stossel was well-received by the audience.

“Many students enjoyed that Mr. Stossel tailored his speech to Binghamton University, touching on controversial issues like hazing and fracking,” said Lynch, a senior triple-majoring in economics, political science and international political economy.

Traditionally, Holi is celebrated by people throwing colored powder at each other. For the campus event, called the Festival of Colors, the Hindu Student Council (HSC) and the Interfaith Council (IFC) also included the use of water balloons “because it’s just fun,” according to Priya Chavan, HSC multicultural chair and a sophomore majoring in biology.

Chavan said that Holi is now widely observed here in the United States.

“It’s gotten so big at colleges and universities, even bigger than in India,” Chavan said.

Although HSC celebrates Holi every year, this was the first time it teamed up with IFC to collaborate on the event.

“The event came together after IFC talked to us about wanting to collaborate on Holi,” said Gauravi Patil, president of HSC and a sophomore majoring in integrative neuroscience. “We held a meeting and then all decided that it would be a great idea to team up. HSC already had bought the supplies for Holi, IFC bought the refreshments, helped with the water balloons and we planned out how we were going to play out the festival together.”

This year, about 50 students attended. Participants chose from two different stations where powder and water balloons were set up for throwing at fellow participants.

Patil said she thought the event was a success and Chavan agreed.

“It was so great seeing many different demographics here,” Chavan said. “People who don’t even know what Holi is came to support and participate.”

Jeanette Russo, a junior majoring in psychology, said she enjoyed participating.

“Holi was such a fun celebration and one of the biggest highlights of my semester,” Russo said. “There’s no better way to relieve stress from finals than a water balloon fight with friends and being covered in paint from head to toe.”

Shreyans Sanghvi, a sophomore majoring in integrative neuroscience, said he would love to see more student organizations join HSC for the event in the future.

“Despite it being an Indian event, we loved the amount of diversity at today’s event,” Sanghvi said. “It’s a lot of fun and we look forward to having a bigger and better Holi next year.”

The “Get on the Ball” charity event started on Monday and concluded on Saturday. While bouncing the 6-foot ball around campus, ZBT collected signatures for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Sponsors will donate money for every signature collected.

Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals is a non-profit organization that raises money to benefit children’s medical issues. The organization donates to more than 170 children’s hospitals around the country, and covers a variety of issues.

According to Adam Cohen, treasurer of ZBT and a sophomore majoring in accounting, this charity event is specific to the fraternity.

“This is the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity’s signature philanthropy event,” Cohen said. “Chapters nationwide use Children’s Miracle Network as their receiving charity.”

Sponsors including Mario’s Pizzeria, Monroe Muffler, Binghamton Hots, Sugar Mountain, Sall-Stearns and Cyber Café West, among other local businesses, pledged money for the charity. Alumni from ZBT also donated.

Dominick Matarrese, president of ZBT and a senior majoring in finance, detailed how local businesses sponsored the charity event.

“We gave businesses a few options to maximize potential donations,” Matarrese said. “Businesses could either donate any amount directly to the Children’s Miracle Network or donate 10 or 25 cents per signature based on how many signatures we obtained by the end of the week.”

ZBT has wanted to hold this charity event for a few years. Planning began halfway through this semester, and they decided it would be best to schedule it alongside Spring Fling.

Prior to the event, Matarrese told Pipe Dream that ZBT expects to hit its goal for this year.

They received 650 signatures and $700 so far in general donations, but this number does not include business sponsorship.

Cohen said the event was a good way to show the positive side of Greek Life.

“Especially within the past few weeks, the reputation of Greek Life has been tarnished and its credibility put into question,” Cohen said. “We are trying to remind Binghamton University of why we, as well as other fraternities and sororities, deserve to remain as a prominent institution in the college atmosphere.”

Anthony Foiles, vice president of ZBT and a junior majoring in integrative neuroscience, said ZBT plans to get the ball rolling again next year.

“This event is something that, as a chapter, we will continue to do annually, and wish to increase donations each year,” Foiles said.

Matarrese commented on the benefits of seeing the charity through.

“It’s just a good feeling when you put so much work into something and then finally see it come to fruition,” Matarrese said.

Marc Leniek, a UPD lieutenant, took a Pipe Dream reporter on a ride last Friday night. While the night lacked traumatic events, Leniek still managed to impart his knowledge of life on the job during the first hours of his night shift.

We headed out to Leniek’s unmarked car and hit the road on patrol. He said taxis often give him trouble — there were even multiple occasions when his unmarked car was mistaken for one, much to the pedestrian’s embarrassment. However, Leniek said his real problem with taxis comes from the constant overpacking of cabs returning from Downtown.

“It’s a big deal when the cabs overload,” Leniek said. “The overload affects the braking systems and the suspension and has lead to accidents in the past.”

At least once a semester, UPD sets up a state-funded DUI checkpoint at the gates to check for fraudulent IDs and intoxicated drivers. On the nights that the checkpoint is not up, it is up to Leniek and his comrades to remain diligent.

“It has been a calm semester,” Leniek said, searching for wood to knock on. “Usually Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights are the most hectic, but we haven’t been seeing that many problems this year.”

Most patrol related incidents occur after 2 a.m., Leniek said. However, there are still routine occurrences before the hour when BU students flood back to campus from State Street.

Our first stop of the evening had us outside Champlain Hall in Dickinson Community to witness the final moments of a Harpur’s Ferry visit. A student was being taken to the hospital for pre-gaming too hard. Just as Leniek remarked on learning from mistakes, it was announced that this was the student’s second trip. As Harpur’s Ferry made its exit, we departed on the rest of the night’s watch.

Several more stops punctuated the night, as Leniek arrived to support officers already on the scene of various incidences. One stop was in response to the broken headlight of a Mini Cooper outside the University Health Services building on Vestal Parkway. Another stop took place on the road outside Science IV — a Volkswagen Jetta had piggybacked off a bus going through the main gates, failing to show identification to the entrance kiosk.

With the major events of the first few hours behind him, Leniek returned to his surveillance post outside the Chenango Champlain Collegiate Center. Leniek said that it takes a great amount of patience to patrol correctly.

“It is important to take things in and view them in a different light, different than a civilian would,” Leniek said. “Another key to patrolling is to be visible, to have your presence known. This helps to deter criminal activity.”

Leniek’s vehicle of choice is an unmarked car outfitted with dual spotlights, a laptop for quick searches on stopped vehicles, and of course, tinted windows. He also employs a specific set of sobriety tests, such as the Nystagmus, or follow-the-pen test, walk-and-turn test, and the standing-on-one-leg test, that enable him to determine whether an individual is inebriated and operating above the legal blood alcohol level of 0.08 percent. He is also equipped with an in-car B.A.C. device. While this device is accurate, according to Leniek, the results gained from it can only be used for ticketing purposes and are not admissible in court.

Currently, Leniek oversees 14 subordinates, including officers, dispatch and students. In his 15.5 years on the job, the last 13 have been at Binghamton with the first two-and-a-half years at SUNY Oneonta.

“When I first got on the job at 24, I was able to understand the perspective of the students toward the police,” Leniek said. “I had a better idea of where they were coming from. Now, I can really see it from the point of view of a parent, and it makes all the difference.”

Jonathan Lippman, chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals, announced this new requirement last Tuesday. Lippman said the requirement will help provide those in need with necessary legal services because they will be represented by aspiring lawyers who are not taking pay for their work.

According to a report in The New York Times, the need for free legal aid for lower-income and middle-income families has increased throughout the course of the economic downturn as people try to get by with less. Legal issues with foreclosures, evictions, credit and employment problems have compounded the problem.

Lippman said he believes the requirement will instill volunteerism in lawyers throughout the length of their career.

“Not only will they get a tremendous lift in terms of hours directed toward pro-bono, it is my hope that that will carry over into their careers as lawyers,” he said in an interview with USA Today.

John Appelbaum, Harpur academic adviser for pre-law students and a law school graduate, said he is optimistic about the new requirement.

“I personally view it as a generally good idea and I think we have to wait and see how the courts of New York and the Bar Association … actually put it into practice,” Appelbaum said.

Appelbaum also said that the practice pro-bono work gives to lawyers-in-training is important and helpful, although he does foresee a potential flaw in the requirement.

“It’s certainly a good idea for lawyers to have practical experience or new lawyers to have practical experience in the law before they’re actually admitted,” Appelbaum said. “However, obviously you cannot represent clients as an attorney until you have been actually admitted into the bar.”

Shanise Kent, associate director of Binghamton University’s McNair Scholars Program and also a law school graduate, said that while the program is positive, it also imposes a burden on students.

“Candidates should be required to do pro-bono work, should have that hands-on legal experience,” Kent said. “And this is a great way to get more pro-bono and more legal services out there for people, but I also think it could be a burden too.”

Julia Mielczarek, a junior double-majoring in English and philosophy, politics and law, is planning to attend to law school, and said she does not see the requirement as being overly burdensome.

“The only thing that I feel may be a problem would be the time commitment itself, because law school is so rigorous,” she said. “But I feel that if it’s something you do over the summer when you’re not in class, I don’t see that being a problem.”

However, she said it is doubtful that the new rule will inspire lawyers to continue pro-bono service throughout their career.

“I think it’s just something that they’re going to see as a requirement,” Mielczarek said. “But it depends on the person also … I don’t know, I don’t see myself doing pro-bono after but then again I can’t say because I haven’t done it yet.”

Roughly 30 students went to Whitney Hall’s study lounge to participate in the discussion led by Ticia Eaves, a community educator from the Binghamton branch of the family-planning organization.

Afua Donkor, a resident assistant in Whitney and a senior majoring in integrative neuroscience, said she planned the talk because there was a lack of events of its kind.

“This year I didn’t see any events that addressed sex education,” Donkor said. “I knew Planned Parenthood would make it fun and informative.”

Eaves, the speaker at the event, said it was important that students know how to protect themselves.

“A lot of them think they do it correctly and really they don’t,” Eaves said.

Eaves informed students that Planned Parenthood offers STD testing, pregnancy testing, well-men and yearly health examinations.

“We see both men and women,” Eaves said. “And a lot of our services are low-cost or free for students.”

During her presentation, Eaves used games and visuals to make it easier for students to understand common misconceptions about STDs and pregnancy.

One of the games showed that every person could have been exposed to HIV just based on one encounter. She also debunked the myth that multiple partners or unprotected sex is the only way to contract the disease.

“Planned Parenthood is anything to do with reproductive health care,” Eaves said. “We see anyone who is of reproductive age. We can give birth control, we give condoms away for free. We can now give emergency contraceptives for free through a grant from New York state that allows us to do it.”

Eaves asked students which STDs they knew about and then gave them information that a few found surprising.

“The most common STD is trich and most people don’t even know about it.” Eaves said, referring to trichomoniasis, a cause of vaginitis. “And the most common symptom of an STD is nothing at all.”

She also asked students which STDs are treatable, but not curable. Many students in attendance knew the answers.

“Herpes, HIV, HPV and Hepatitis C are all treatable, but not curable,” Eaves said. “Gardasil is for men and women now. We recommend getting shots before you’re sexually active, but if you’re already sexually active, you can talk to your doctor about it.”

Eaves reminded students that they should know their partners’ sexual history and that they should be tested every three to six months.

“If you’re in a relationship or not, it’s really important,” she said.

Eaves gave the students bags of condoms and free Plan B emergency contraceptives.

Adam Rasefske, a sophomore majoring in computer science, said he thought the event was engaging.

“It was fun and informative,” Rasefske said. “We got free sex stuff.”

Julianne Rocco, a freshman majoring in biology and a Health Services employee, also enjoyed the free goody bag and useful information.

“It was educational and really informative,” Rocco said. “I thought it was great that she was giving away Plan B for free because we don’t even do that here at Health Services.”

Donkor was happy people left the event feeling more informed.

“Everyone was really responsive, they were a great crowd,” Donkor said.

SATURDAY, MAY 5, 9:01 a.m. — Officers on patrol were called to College-in-the-Woods’ Seneca Hall after a fire extinguisher had been discharged in the building, Reilly said. The officers saw the cleaning crew mopping up the discharge from the extinguisher. The crew said they did not know who had set off the extinguisher. The officers then found another extinguisher discharged and a third one outside of the building. The officers took all three fire extinguishers to the police station. The resident director of Seneca Hall was told to find out if the other buildings were missing an extinguisher. The case is still under investigation.

SATURDAY, MAY 5, 2:18 p.m. — Officers were dispatched to the space between Academic Buildings A and B after reports of an adult male harassing students in the area, Reilly said. The officers found the suspect, who was highly intoxicated, and asked him to leave the area. The suspect was uncooperative, refused to leave the area and told the officers to “fuck themselves.” The suspect was handcuffed and arrested for disorderly conduct and brought to Binghamton General Hospital for observation.

The protesters, who began their demonstration at the Pegasus statue in front of the Glenn G. Bartle Library, had demanded that Stenger respond to their concerns.

Their primary request was for the state to negotiate a new contract with the Graduate Student Employees Union (GSEU).

The previous contract between SUNY and the GSEU lasted from 2007 to 2009, and the two sides have not agreed on new terms since. It provided the graduate students with a 3 percent increase in salary each year to account for inflation.

However, after the contract expired, graduate student salaries regressed to the 2007 rates, according to Antoine Dolcerocca, a teaching assistant in the sociology department.

“The GSEU isn’t asking for much, we’re just seeking for our salaries to be adjusted for inflation,” Dolcerocca said.

Stenger, who spoke at the May Day protest, sent an email to Pipe Dream addressing the graduate student protest.

“The growth in our graduate programs is one of my top priorities, and having good teaching assistant salaries and benefits is one way for us to attract the best students,” Stenger wrote. “Limited funding is making this a challenge, but we are, and will continue, to find ways to increase TA stipends.”

President Stenger responded to calls of the protesters, and addressed the crowd for more than 30 minutes, addressing the protestors’ complaints that their lower salaries required them to take out larger loans.

“The money we pay you and the tuition that we cover for does provide you with enough money to pay rent, buy food, to have clothing, to have transportation,” Stenger said at the protest. “You might have to take a little bit of a loan. I took out $2,000 to $3,000 of loans every year when I was a grad student. But I knew eventually I would have to pay that back over 10 years. It’s part of the process of being a grad student.”

But many of the students were not swayed.

Shehryar Qazi, a graduate assistant in the sociology department, brought up the raise Stenger received upon becoming president.

“While the costs of living are going up, and students are taking out emergency loans, we’re being told it’s time to cut back,” Qazi said. “Meanwhile the president is being paid more.”

Dolcerocca also commented on Stenger’s raises.

“All new presidents get relocation money but an extra $200,000 is a bit extraordinary,” Dolcerocca said.

In a previous interview with Pipe Dream, Stenger explained why he felt his salary is fair.

“The SUNY Board of Trustees sets the salary of the presidents on SUNY campuses. In their opinion, the salary they offered me was a competitive salary that would be similar to similar institutions, and I did agree with that,” Stenger said.

Although Stenger did not promise any direct action, some students, such as Dolcerocca, appreciated the gesture.

“This is the first time a president has spoken with the GSEU in a long time,” Dolcerocca said. “Other have barricaded themselves away, so this is a good sign.”

Ryan Smith, a senior majoring in computer science, believed the University has no compelling reason to increase the wages of TAs.

“If their wages are on par with other institutes I do not feel like they should be paid more,” Smith said. “In my experience here, I have not felt like graduate students teaching or being TAs have really gone above and beyond and deserve a raise.”

As the only Jewish a cappella group at Binghamton University, they cater to the extensive Jewish population on campus, but also work to appeal to anyone who enjoys a cappella.

“The group’s message and sound is universal,” said Max Buckler, the show’s coordinator and a senior double-majoring in history and English. “I’ve had people say to me ‘I’m not Jewish, but I could understand exactly what you were singing about from the emotion and sound of the performance.’”

Unlike most of their shows, Saturday’s show will feature Kaskeset alumni for most of the performances, according to Buckler.

“This will be our biggest show ever because instead of 15 people singing, they’ll be 50,” Buckler said. “Our alums have been instrumental in the progress of our group. It’s so important to bring them back and do a big show and show our appreciation.”

They plan to perform a total of 16 songs that will include well-known tracks like “Belegan” and original music, Buckler said.

The group currently has 17 members, and Buckler said he admires how much they’ve grown in just his four years at Binghamton through touring and other efforts.

“We’re always trying to expand and take on new things,” he said. “We maintain a very professional attitude about the way we operate.”

The group is known to take classic Jewish and Israeli songs and incorporate different rhythms and languages to make them more original.

“We’ve sung in Spanish, Italian, Yiddish, Hebrew, English and Arabic,” Buckler said. ‘We take a lot of pride in the subtleties, which is something the audiences pick up on.”

This pride and identity is something Buckler holds close to him after watching the group grow. He’s worked with other members to improve the group’s caliber and professionalism.

Debbie Veetal, a BU alumnus who graduated in 2000, is one of the original members of the group.

Veetal said she is looking forward to being back at BU and having the opportunity to sing. Now an elementary school math and science teacher, it’s one of the few chances she gets.

After watching Kaskeset develop for 15 years through her strong connections with the group, she is amazed at how much they have grown and how the talent has improved.

“I never would have gotten into the group if I was auditioning now,” she said, laughing.

When she was in the group, they rehearsed one night a week, which has now changed to three nights a week. While singing was just a hobby of hers when she started, being involved in Kaskeset turned into a way she formed life-long relationships.

“I probably wouldn’t have been friends with most people in Kaskeset unless I was in the group, but there’s no question that those people became my closest friends,” Veetal said. “I still hang out with people from Kaskeset in New York all the time.”

This isn’t Veetal’s first time back with Kaskeset, as she was involved with rehearsals in New York City this semester with some other alumni to prepare for the upcoming show.

In our digital era, Veetal said she learned her part, as did others, by communicating via the Internet.

“It’s really amazing how just even through technology you can send voice parts over email or through a website,” she said. “You can learn your part at home, and then everyone comes together.”

Veetal has come to support the group at almost every show since her graduation and continues to form friendships with Kaskeset’s new additions.

Even the group’s youngest members feel this sense of community. Rachel Schy, media correspondent for the group and an undeclared freshman, explained the closeness between everyone.

“You get to do something you love with people you love,” she said. “It’s hard not to become close with these people.”

The group continues to grow each year. They have toured extensively around the country and hope to travel abroad one day, according to Buckler.

Kaskeset’s ambitious spirit is complimented by a down-to-earth energy and love for singing anywhere from a synagogue to a lecture hall, according to Buckler.

“I can’t wait to come back for the 20th anniversary show and sing with the fresh-faced college students when I’m out in the real world — I mean teal world,” Buckler said, referring to the group’s colors of teal and black, which they wear to most shows.

“It’s important to keep it going because the experiences that we get from doing it is something you want to see other people get to experience,” he said.

The doors open at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday in the Osterhout Concert Theater. Tickets are $4 at the door.

After Decker students were called to aid victims in an actual disaster caused by devastating local floods last September, the experience of planning a drill to train workers for real-life situations became more meaningful, according to senior Danielle Ponticiello.

Margaret Decker, a clinical lecturer in Decker and a 14-year veteran of the drill, said that the September flooding showed just how necessary the drills are.

“We had areas that needed improvement,” Decker said.

This year’s mock scenario was an earthquake striking Schoharie County, causing local hospitals to fill up. Some senior nursing students and community members played the role of patients, while other nursing students treated them. A boy scout troop also assisted in the drill, playing victims to earn a badge for emergency preparedness.

Each patient was assigned a scenario, with a specific ailment, given to them by Decker faculty members. A number of the patients were transported in emergency vehicles to the the mock surge facility.

The drill took place Tuesday morning in the Events Center. Nearly 175 senior nursing students, 20 graduate students working as evaluators, and about 10 junior nursing students participated in the disaster drill. Events Center staff members set up the shelter after reviewing a floor plan with Decker staff and students on Monday.

Graduate students used quality indicators from the federal government’s Agency for Health Care and Research Quality to evaluate participation in the drill. Students also received feedback from the Broome County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), UHS and Dr. Christopher Ryan, medical director for the Broome County Health Department.

In addition to CERT and UHS, the students collaborated with American Red Cross, Vestal EMS, Harpur’s Ferry, Binghamton’s New York State University Police, Susquehanna Nursing Care and Rehabilitation Center and the Broome County Health Department.

Ponticiello said the drill is a “great teaching tool” for nursing students.

“It is an important experience for us to be a part of,” Ponticiello said. “You learn how to work in a high stress situation that isn’t exactly textbook but for many of us could be a reality.”

The nursing students began to plan and organize the annual drill in January. All of the Decker seniors helped with the planning. Jennifer Houseknecht and Ponticiello were designated by the Decker professors as the two student incident command leaders.

Some mock patients were assigned scenarios that required them to be decontaminated. A group of students participating in the drill volunteered to learn how to do HAZMAT decontamination to practice treating them.

Students helped patients in the drill order prescription drugs from doctors and communicating with doctors to determine which of each patient’s regular medications needed to be ordered immediately and which medications could wait.

Decker said that the Events Center shelter during the flood had issues with tracking patients. Because of this, she told nursing students that they needed to organize a new system for tracking patients, and suggested a switch from using clipboards to a computer database system to record information about patients.

“I said to them, ‘This year you’ve got to really focus on tracking patients,’” Decker said.

Students decided to use laptops during the drill and shared information using Google Docs.

Binghamton’s department of social work helped with the drill to tend to the mock psychological needs of patients, according to assistant clinical professor Laura Kasey.

“A lot of the medical and psychological issues that occur during a disaster need to be addressed,” Kasey said.

Kasey also teaches disaster preparedness classes on campus and has been a part of the drill for about 12 years. She has been writing scenarios for the drills since 2005 and penned this year’s earthquake scenario.

Kasey was a part of the disaster relief effort in the Events Center during the flood that hit Binghamton last fall. She said that practicing during drills will help workers to be ready for real disasters.

“It’s hard to do the real thing if you haven’t practiced together,” she said.

Decker said that the drill takes place each May and students apply the clinical nursing skills they have learned throughout the year to running the drill.

“It’s a culmination of the preparation all year,” Decker said.

“Our E-Board felt that at the beginning of this year, BTV was in no way functional,” said Kleiner, a junior double-majoring in computer science and cinema. “BTV did not have the technology, skills or expertise to produce good TV.”

Kleiner said a lack of content on the station caused the SA to slash BTV’s budget from $15,000 in 2010-11, to $5000 in 2011-12. The new executive board made the decision to pull all content from its station and upgrade the studio on its smaller budget, purchasing new cameras, refurbished computers and software.

“Our goal this year was to completely finish a brand new workspace, which we have done,” Kleiner said. “We made sure we got the cheapest and most efficient equipment, where it’s incredibly easy to crank out high-quality videos. On a small, small budget, we have gotten this place to the point where anybody could walk in and have everything they need to make something great.”

However, rebuilding the station took longer than BTV’s E-Board had anticipated. Getting approval from the Student Association to use their budget to purchase a single piece of equipment took anywhere from weeks to months, according to Kleiner.

Michael Zagreda, BTV vice president-elect and a sophomore majoring in computer science, said purchase requests were frequently denied or were sent multiple times before they went through.

“Definitely with a television studio, it was tough to convince the SA that we needed these things because the equipment costs are astronomical,” Zagreda said. “It took a long time for things to get approved, set up, and delivered.”

According to Kleiner, by the time BTV’s studio was fully functional, the E-Board decided to wait and launch its new content the second week of fall, instead of premiering this semester as originally planned.

“We are completely put together now, and we decided at this point, why have a big grand launch at the end of the year?” he said. “We have a whole bunch of shows ready to go, but we don’t want to throw them up now during the last weeks of school.”

With this in mind, Kleiner said BTV approached its annual budget meeting with the SA’s Financial Council feeling confident. They requested their 2010-11 budget of $15,000. However, FinCo allocated BTV a $0 budget because of the lack of content on Channel 6, according to Kleiner.

“This was supposed to be a make-or-break year,” Nick Valiando, FinCo member and a senior majoring in political science, explained at the budget hearing on Monday. “They were told they needed to get their stuff in order, and they didn’t.”

Eric Larson, future SA vice president for finance, said there was concern by FinCo over BTV’s focus.

“We were really looking for expenses we could see from year to year that didn’t include equipment costs,” Larson said. “When it came down to programming, we could not get an answer for approximately how much it would be per show.”

According to Kleiner, BTV turned to the administration and BTV alumni for support, which included 10 letters of recommendation. Among the supporters were Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger and Donald Nieman, dean of Harpur College, who both worked with BTV on their TedX event this year, as well as alumni who were given tours of the rebuilt station.

In response, FinCo increased BTV’s budget to $250. BTV appealed this decision at the SA budget meeting on Monday, and was allocated a budget of $1,000 by the Assembly.

“Recently, through the appeals, they gave us information, so I’m a lot more confident in the direction they are going,” said Valiando, who argued on behalf of BTV despite being a FinCo member. “I wanted to give them one last shot.”

Zagreda said their $1,000 budget is not ideal, as it will not allow BTV to replace its broadcasting equipment, which is from the 1990s. Still, he said the funds will be enough for BTV to launch productions in the fall and generate revenue from advertising.

“It was great seeing so much support from the SA,” Zagreda said. “We’re always going to want more for that next big step, but at the very least the SA was willing to support us for our first shows, and hopefully that will spark a chain of events that will lead to more funding in the future.”

Kleiner echoed that sentiment.

“We believe we can at least function with a budget of $1,000. It will give us some security,” Kleiner said. “But with our minimal budget, we have no room for anything to go wrong, and there are still things that we would like to do to make BTV fantastic.”

In addition to the SA, BTV also received support from Brian Rose, vice president for student affairs. Before the budget meeting, members of the BTV E-Board met with Rose to discuss the possibility of BTV receiving funding from the administration.

“We spoke with Brian Rose about the situation, telling him we are not sure how the appeal process is going to go,” Kleiner said. “We’re not only looking into support from the SA, we’re also hoping the administration can find ways to support us as well, whether it be through funding or helping us build community support.”

Rose told Pipe Dream that he and BTV leaders had discussed providing one-time minimum operating support to BTV, giving them one more year to demonstrate to the SA that they can satisfy funding criteria.

“The existence of student broadcast media is an asset to the campus community that once lost, would be difficult to re-establish,” Rose said in an email. “It is with that in mind that the VP for Student Affairs is willing to discuss with BTV options to operate for one year so that BTV might have more time to seek restoration of regular funding.”

Kleiner said he is looking forward to working closely with the administration next year.

“It seems that a lot of people on the administration really believe that this campus television station is unique for the campus and something that could be really great,” he said.

With the year coming to a close, BTV is looking towards the future and its launch in the fall. According to Zagreda, the station has plans to air a daily morning news show, a weekly evening news show, a game show, and member productions like comedy series “The Bro Code.”

“We want to film different events on campus and broadcast those events,” Zagreda said. “It was tough for the campus this year because we had to fix everything. We were afraid that the campus would lose their faith in us, but we are convinced with next year’s productions, they will appreciate what we have accomplished.”

However, some students, like Doug O’Donavon, a junior majoring in philosophy, politics and law, may find it difficult to forget the past. O’Donovan said he is sick of seeing nothing on TV when he flips by Channel 6.

“If they are not airing anything, their budget should be cut,” O’Donovan said. “I think everyone deserves a second chance, but if fall rolls around and they’re still airing nothing, then they should lose their budget. They’re not credible right now.”

Kleiner said BTV’s launch the second week of fall is a guarantee.

“It is not a matter of something on the cusp of falling apart,” he said. “That was the case a year or two ago. At this very moment, this place is ready to launch as a mainstream production factory. All we are waiting for now is the right moment to say ‘hello.’”

Zagreda encouraged students to stay tuned.

“BTV is coming soon,” Zagreda said. “And we mean it this time.”

Maoz Rosenthal, a visiting assistant professor of political science, and Professor Moulay-Ali Bouânani, a lecturer in the Africana studies department and an expert on Arabic civilization, held a two-hour debate in the Mandela Room before an audience of nearly 100 people.

The professors responded to a series of questions about contemporary obstacles preventing peace between Israelis and Palestinians, presented by a panel of the four students who arranged the event.

The debaters considered the logistics of a two-state solution and whether or not U.S. involvement in the controversy is necessary to facilitate peace in the region.

Rosenthal argued that a one-state solution is not realistic given the current circumstance, whereas Bouânani stated that a one-state solution is the most attractive resolution.

“I will just say that the one-state solution has failed,” Rosenthal said. “It’s a very divided place, and without involvement of the international community I really don’t see any other way to come to an agreement.”

Bouânani said that if an external police officer is needed for resolution, the United Nations is a more acceptable overseer than the U.S. He also said that given the effects of globalization there is no longer any need for an exclusively Jewish state.

“The problem is that the Jews of Israel don’t want to be diluted,” Bouânani said. “They want to keep their uniqueness, which is the ‘Jewish state,’ and that’s the problem, but I do think in the long-run they have to sit together and try to find some sort of compromise.”

Each debater was given five minutes to answer the student’s questions, followed by a two-minute rebuttal period in response to his opponent.

Last week, hundreds of students celebrated Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day. According to Bouânani, Palestinians recognize that as the day their people were displaced from their homeland. Rather than rejoice, he said, they reflect.

“For the Arabs, it is called the Nakba Day, which means ‘day of the catastrophe’ in English,” Bouânani said.

The professors discussed how historical accounts of Israel’s independence vary based on who is telling the story. Both parties agreed that there are inevitable differences in perspective on the issue.

“If you go to Jaffa, an area in Tel-Aviv, you might hear one version of the story about rejoice, while others will talk of the occupation,” Rosenthal said.

The professors said that the most delicate issue Israelis and Palestinians cannot agree on is the status of Palestinian refugees.

According to the debaters, Palestinian settlers were forced to leave Palestine after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and refugee camps were established to house the displaced Palestinians. They said refugee camps still exist in various areas in the Middle East, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Bouânani shared what he considered to be the Palestinian perspective on the creation of the state of Israel. According to Bouânani, many Arabs feel that the Israelis have no reason to prosecute the Palestinian people, since Palestinians never tried to prosecute or exterminate them. He said that with the declaration of the Jewish state, Arab settlers were forced to leave their homes or, if they stayed, were demoted to the status of second-class citizens.

Rosenthal, however, argued that national security is a top concern for most Israelis.

“You will see lots of countries using borders,” Rosenthal said. “Israel’s are based on contemporary issues of defense, and were decided on the basis of personal security issues.”

Rosenthal argued that in contemporary society, issues of land and citizenship status can all be solved by formulas, and that the Israeli government has already come up with blueprints that will solve the equation.

“As long as the refugee problem has not been resolved I really don’t think there is going to be a solution to the problem,” Bouânani said.

Rosenthal agreed that refugees deserve some form of restitution from Israel, but he couldn’t say for sure what the best solution would be.

Students who organized the debate said they were wary of the sensitive nature of the conflict.

We thought this would be a really good issue, because it’s current and controversial,” said Charlie Heim, a sophomore double-majoring in English and physics who helped plan the event.

Derek Gumb, a junior majoring in philosophy, politics and law, said the student panel knew student response to the debate would be mixed.

“We wanted it to be cordial, and we really stressed that,” Gumb said. “We had a disclaimer on all of our promotional materials, and I got a lot of emails from rabbis, students, saying this is a really sensitive topic and that they didn’t want this to get out of control. So people were really concerned, but I think it turned out alright.”

Tareq Haddad, a senior majoring in finance and president of the Arabic Student Association, thought the discussion gave a fair account of both sides.

“I think I was very informative, and it gave a lot of hope for the future. It dealt more with pragmatic issues as opposed to long-rooted differences between the two countries,” Haddad said.

Gregory Hernandez, a junior majoring in creative writing, felt both sides presented their opinions well.

“I thought both professors represented both sides in a very respectful way,” Hernandez said. “The debate was courteous, and I was glad with the questioning and how it was organized. All of their points were very logical and insightful.”

Bouânani and Rosenthal agreed that while tensions in the region remain high, there is room for optimism that the Israelis and Palestinians will come to a resolution in the future.

“I think there will be some kind of peace, because they’ll stop fighting,” Bouânani said. “They’ve become more mature so to speak, politically. All of a sudden Israelis will find themselves facing a ‘civilized’ Palestine and won’t be able to sell the idea of terrorist Palestine anymore to the rest of the world, and that’s what the Palestinians have begun to realize.”

In addition to Schumer, Representative Maurice Hinchey and New York State Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo spoke about the importance of the new facilities before roughly 30 local media and business professionals.

Schumer spoke about the $8.5 million in Department of Defense funding he and Hinchey helped secure.

“[The Department of Defense] knew that it was important for both our national security and our economic security,” he said.

The labs research methods to make solar panels more efficient, durable, flexible and smaller. He said new research positions will create jobs helping the local economy.

Donna Lupardo summed up what the laboratories will be more simply.

“The short version of what they do here is take big things and put them into small packages,” she said.

The labs, known as the Center for Autonomous Solar Power (CASP) and the Integrated Electronics Engineering Center (IEEC), are both a part of the New York State Center of Excellence in Small Scale Integration and Packaging (S3IP) located at the Innovative Technologies Complex (ITC).

Roger Westgate, the CASP director, told Pipe Dream that the University does not directly provide funding to the facility.

“Funding for the center comes from the Department of Defense,” Westgate wrote in an email. “We are fully funded and do not derive revenue from the campus. All of the equipment was purchased from research funds from our sponsors.”

According to Schumer, the facility could have a real-world impact both nationally and internationally.

“The research is going to have a wealth of practical applications, including personal power generators for cooling systems for our soldiers in hot climates, solar-powered sensor networks, and self-powered highway signs, solar-powered systems to charge cell phones and laptops without using batteries,” he said. “If you make it smaller you can get more energy. That’s the whole idea.”

Schumer said that solar panels aren’t efficient enough right now to power entire skyscrapers because there is not enough room on the roof. CASP will try to shrink solar panels enough to allow large buildings to be powered entirely by solar power.

Hinchey said during the opening ceremony that CASP marks “a step forward very much for renewable energy, which is critically important in this country and everywhere around this word.”

Much of Shumer’s speech during the opening ceremony extolled the labs’ role in job creation and economic stimulus in the Southern Tier. He said they are a part of the “bright solar powered economic future” of the region.

“The good news about all of this is that it means a four-letter word — jobs,” Schumer said. “Too often, New York institutions did research that was very nice in the ivory tower, but didn’t create any jobs. We are now focused on things that create jobs.”

He added that BU was essential to the government’s job creation measures.

“When we’re looking for jobs here in the Southern Tier, we look to BU,” Schumer said. “If we are the leader of the new generation of solar cells, we will employ people here in the Southern Tier instead of in China.”

Hinchey also spoke about the economic impact of the S3IP.

“The center has generated over $70 million in economic impact to New York businesses since 1996,” Hinchey said.

“Universities are places where we expect to find a reasonable and thoughtful focus on the future, places where students can gain inspiration that they will carry with them throughout their lives and make their lives more stronger, more productive,” Hinchey said. “Binghamton University is clearly embracing this role with the new this new Center for Autonomous Solar Power.”

Neither Schumer nor Hinchey focused on the role of students in new facilities.

According to Westgate, there are currently four undergraduate students working in the program, and 20 graduate and postdoctoral students are supported by CASP. He added that there may be more undergraduate students working with faculty who are supported by CASP and other funded research projects.

In an email to Pipe Dream, Brendan McQuade, business agent for the Graduate Student Employees Union (GSEU) and a graduate student in the sociology department, objected to the concept of the University partnering with private interests.

“Public-private partnerships threaten the autonomy of the university and its historic mission to produce knowledge for the general welfare,” McQuade wrote. “They produce knowledge for the instrumental purpose of generating private wealth.”

However, Westgate said the partnerships are beneficial to students.

“Binghamton is a leader in working with industry and our research programs attract strong students, give them rich research experiences at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and give them opportunities to find great jobs,” he said.

Stossel, a libertarian columnist and advocate, is the former host of “20/20” and the anchor of a weekly news program on Fox Business Channel. He has been called a prime time propagandist by his opponents on the left, but is revered as a free market prophet by his supporters on the right.

Stossel will discuss his newest book, “No, They Can’t” and offer his slant on education, the economy and the fallacies of common sense.

Binghamton University’s College Republicans teamed up with other student groups, including the College Democrats, the College Libertarians and the Young America’s Foundation — a national conservative youth organization — to secure Stossel’s campus appearance, according to Tara-Marie Lynch, executive chairman of the College Republicans.

Lynch, a senior triple-majoring in economics, political science and international political economy, said Stossel will donate his lecture earnings to charity, though she would not disclose his speaking fees.

“What’s neat about John Stossel is that he doesn’t pocket the money given to him for his speaking events,” she said.

Lynch said she is proud that her club brought a big name to campus.

“Bringing John Stossel to campus has been a long-standing goal of the Binghamton University College Republicans and we’ve finally made it a reality,” she said. “The fact that Binghamton University is on Mr. Stossel’s agenda is a pretty big deal.”

Lynch spoke highly of Stossel and said people should attend the event not only to hear his thoughts, but to enjoy his humor.

“Not only is Mr. Stossel an extremely intellectual person, but he is also entertaining,” she said. “In other words, he is not some ‘Snooki’ coming to Binghamton.”

Kevin Greer, the publicity director for the College Republicans, said his group will offer the first 100 attendees a complimentary piece of fake facial hair to help make the event memorable.

“We’re giving away free Stossel ‘Staches, which has gotten a lot of attention considering that most people know how awesome Stossel’s mustache is,” Greer said.

Greer added, however, that Stossel brings more to the table than just his famous ‘stache, because he challenges both Republicans and Democrats.

“I’m particularly excited for Stossel to come because although he’s a guy who is on Fox, he really takes a lot of libertarian views that force both liberals and conservatives to really think,” Greer said.

Catherine Cornell, SA vice president for programming, said that while the SAPB was not involved in bringing Stossel to campus, his visit bodes well for the University.

“Hosting world-class speakers like John Stossel shows Binghamton’s strong academic core and reflect our standing as the premier public,” Cornell said.

After his talk, Stossel will be available to answer questions from the audience and sign copies of his books. The event is free and will open its doors to the public at 2 p.m.

This year, proceeds from Casino-in-the-Woods will be donated to the United Way’s flood relief fund.

The CIW Area-wide Council secured a one-night Game of Chance license from the state to turn the dining hall into a fully operational, student-run casino that featured blackjack, roulette, money-wheel, beat the dealer and joker seven tables.

The money raised from the event goes toward a local charity each year. The council decided to donate the money to help with the continued flood relief following the September floods, according to Samantha Eilenberg, co-chair of the Casino-in-the-Woods committee and a senior majoring in psychology.

The event had slightly more than $5,000 in revenue, but after deducting for the event’s expenses, the relief fund should receive between $2,000 and $3,000, according to Eilenberg.

“We decided to donate to the flood relief because there was such terrible flooding in the fall, and we saw how devastated the community was by it,” Eilenberg said. “It’s something that hit so close to home and we had the perfect opportunity to give a lot back.”

Although approximately 100 fewer students attended Casino-in-the-Woods this year, Eilenberg said the casino this year generated more money — a sign that students were staying longer and spending more money.

“The fact that we raised more money this year, even with fewer people, says that the people who did come were having a great time so they ended up staying longer and gambling more,” Eilenberg said.

Ellenberg attributed the increase in revenue to the inclusion of live music to this year’s event.

The Binghamtonics, Rhythm Method and a band fronted by a CIW resident director performed for the event.

“The music was amazing — it really added a lot to the event,” Eilenberg said.

Evan Perlmutter, co-chair of the Casino-in-the-Woods committee and a resident assistant in CIW, said he helped oversee the training of the 40-plus student dealers running the tables.

Perlmutter, a senior majoring in political science, said he focused on teaching them the proper techniques to run a blackjack table, such as burning cards before each hand and saying, “All bets in.”

“People picked it up pretty easily,” Perlmutter said. “People were a little nervous at first, but once they got on the table and got comfortable, they did fine.”

The event did not have any huge cash-outs this year, Eilenberg said, nor did she believe there were any heavy losers.

“I heard that somebody cashed out over $100,” she said. “And I think some people brought $50 or $60 knowing they were probably going to lose it.”

Allyson Guidera, a senior majoring in human development, said she brought $10 to the event but intended to stay until she lost it, knowing the money went to a good cause.

“I was up for a little while,” Guidera said. “I kept my money by playing blackjack. I lost my money playing money wheel.”

The bill, known as the “2012 Fair Elections Act,” would give candidates for state offices $6 for every $1 raised from individual donors who contribute less that $250 to the campaign. The bill was introduced in the Assembly by Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, and by Minority Leader John Sampson, his counterpart in the Senate.

Jonathan Krasno, an associate professor in Binghamton University’s political science department and a nationally recognized campaign finance expert, said that bills like this are meant to incentivize fundraising from small donors who are attractive for campaign finance reformers, because large donations give the aura of corruption. Campaign rules that match donations from small donors are thought to discourage candidates from seeking large donors.

According to Krasno, people get suspicious of large donations because they believe the donors can disproportionately influence policies. Since this bill would encourage candidates to reach out to many instead of a few larger donors, a larger number of people would be given a voice.

But though he said he sees merit to the bill, Krasno thinks that this bill won’t go anywhere in the Republican-controlled State Senate.

“There’s a real question as to whether this is a proposal that has a serious chance of getting passed,” Krasno said. “I’m very skeptical.”

Krasno added that Silver likely had ulterior motives when he introduced the bill, knowing it wouldn’t go anywhere.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if people like Sheldon Silver introduced it just so they can say ‘look, I’m for reform,’” he said.

In a statement forwarded to Pipe Dream by a press secretary, Silver said that he wants New York to become the role model for fair elections.

“In light of the devastating effects the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has had on federal elections, we in New York should be leading the way in reducing the influence of money in our own elections,” he said referring to the recent Supreme Court decision which allows private organizations to spend an unlimited amount of money on political campaigns. “Let us be the model for the rest of the nation and lead the way to establishing and preserving fair elections.”

Garry Ginsburg, the deputy press secretary for the Democratic Conference of the New York State Senate, expressed similar sentiments.

“We have seen the terrible effects and influence that money has had on all levels of our government,” Ginsburg wrote in a statement to Pipe Dream. “New York State must once again take the lead by implementing appropriate limits on financial contributions to ensure voters have faith and trust in their elected leaders.”

Scott Reif, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Republican, told Pipe Dream that the Republicans will oppose the bill.

“We have consistently opposed taxpayer money going to campaigning,” he said. “We think the money would be much better used on education for road and bridge repair and initiatives that would help create jobs.”

Krasno said the Republican Party’s response is expected given the historical opposition to using pubic money for campaigning.

“Everybody is always afraid of taxpayer money being used for campaigns,” he said.

The fear of using taxpayer money for campaigning has kept the public funding option out of the Senate, according to Krasno. Instead, taxpayers have to opt-in to paying taxes that will go toward presidential campaigns by checking a box on income tax returns. Opting-in would not cost taxpayers additional amounts, it would only allocate a portion of the taxes they already pay into the campaign system. Still, very few people think the money should be used for campaigns.

Krasno said that even Democratic members would be unlikely to vote for the bill.

“Why should they stick their neck out and vote for something that can’t become law?” he said. “They know it’s unpopular.”

The event had free food, music, as well as henna tattoos, games, fortune telling and other culturally themed activities. International Fest was intended to bridge the gaps between students of different backgrounds.

“With all the stuff going on in the world, it’s really important for a school this diverse to come together because it will only make us stronger and wiser and tolerant,” said Francine Ndjatou, one of the festival’s organizers and a senior majoring in accounting.

The event was also hosted by International Connection and Office of the Vice President of Multicultural Affairs.

“What this campus lacks is unity,” said SA VPMA Carlton Ramsay, a junior double-majoring in economics and biochemistry. “This really explains the importance of the VPMA position to the SA … and hopefully the next VPMA will continue with that.

The festival featured tabling from nearly 50 student groups, along with cultural music and dance performances. Groups involved included Black Dance Repertoire, Arabic Association, French Club, Binghamton Bhangra, JUMP Nation, Hillel-JSU, Sul Poong, the Binghamton Crosbys and MALIK Fraternity Inc.

Quimbamba, Latin American Student Union’s dance team, won for best performance and the Chi Upsilon Sigma sorority won for organization endorsement, based on the votes of attendees.

International Fest was catered by Mediterranean Gyro, Buffet Star and Gances. Some student groups also provided food at their tables, like the Arabic Association, which served homemade hummus and provided the recipe.

Sereena Karsou, a member of the group and a junior double-majoring in environmental studies and philosophy, politics and law, said that they wanted to spread awareness of their club.

“We hope to gain recognition and get the word out there because we haven’t been chartered that long,” Karsou said.

Daniel Bonilla, a junior majoring in English, attended the event. He said the allure of trying new cuisine sold him on coming.

“My friend said there was free food, so I came,” Bonilla said.

He added that once he got there, he learned from the experience.

“I’ve never been exposed to the minority kind of frat life here, so I was interested.”

Planning for the festival began in February. The event was sponsored by the VPMA office as well as the Multicultural Resource Center, International Student and Scholar Services, Convocations and Heart to Heart International.

This change has the potential to add two additional pathways to graduation. The first would assist students interested in Career and Technical Education (CTE) and the second helps students with a strong interest in the sciences, according to James Tallon, a member of the New York Board of Regents.

The traditional path, which requires a score of 65 or higher in English, algebra, global history, U.S. history and science, will remain untouched.

The Board of Regents has been discussing the advancement of technical education in New York high schools for at least the past three years, according to Tallon. These discussions resulted from concern over lower graduation rates in less-privileged school districts.

“The underlying motivation is that you have persistent problems with graduation rates where students have economic disadvantages,” Tallon said.

New York State Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo of the 126th district, which encompasses Binghamton University, is the chair of the legislative commission on science and technology.

Lupardo said she thinks that parts of the proposal are beneficial to students.

“CTE provides students with a pathway to post-secondary education and careers by exposing them to technical education and practical problem solving,” she wrote in an email. “I think this would certainly help local schools, like the Binghamton City School District, improve their graduation rates.”

Students from high schools with technical programs generally receive higher grades in the Regents exams than other schools, Tallon said.

S.G. Grant, dean of Binghamton University’s Graduate School of Education, whose past research includes state curriculum and standardized tests, said that though tests are not a good determinant of what kids actually know, making an exam optional raises doubts about the future of a course.

“Less testing is, I think, a good thing,” Grant said. “But what’s really clear now is that if a course isn’t tested, its importance declined substantially … To say that it can be optional for those grades is really just saying you don’t have to do it, and schools will drop it, frankly. I think that would be bad.”

Grant also expressed concern over the future of students who would choose the two new focuses.

Grant said that even if the Regents proposal were to pass, the education of teachers would be unlikely to change. He added that given the costs of technical education, BU’s school of education would not invest in that area.

“The career and technical areas, we don’t have programs in that area anyway, but most of the SUNY schools don’t,” Grant said. “I believe that only one or two of the SUNY schools do that kind of training.”

Though Lupardo spoke positively about some aspects of the legislation, she also expressed concerns about the elimination of the tests.

“In order to compete in the global economy, it’s critical to have an understanding of world history and geography regardless of career path,” Lupardo said.

The Board of Regents is still discussing the exact extent of the changes and, according to Tallon, will likely make a decision in June or July.

If passed, the proposition will go into effect in fall 2014.

The budget finalizing process took a mere 45 minutes, in comparison to the budget meeting two years ago that spanned 11 hours.

Kate Flatley, SA vice president for academic affairs, spoke at the meeting, and said she was disappointed that more groups were not represented. According to Flatley, the Eating Awareness Subcommittee had sent out an email asking for a representative to speak on its behalf for a budget increase.

“I just want to say I’m really disappointed, and I hope that people who are going to be here next year will stand up and give more groups a voice,” Flatley said. “For too long it has been a habit to stand up for a group only if you know a member personally. I really wish that someone had reached out to the Eating Awareness Subcommittee since they were willing to reach out to us.”

The two groups whose appeals did find representation were Binghamton Television and Explorchestra.

BTV appealed its budget, which was slashed from $5,000 to $250, a decrease of 95 percent — one of the largest cuts this year.

In a vote of 21 to 9, the $1,000 budget for BTV was approved.

“Based on the flaws of past administrations of BTV, I can understand where the SA is coming from,” said Michael Zagreda, BTV’s technology intern and a sophomore majoring in computer science. “I understand that the SA is under budget constraints, but I am hopeful that we can convince them that BTV is something the campus needs.”

In an untraditional twist, FinCo member Nick Valiando argued in favor of increasing BTV’s budget.

“There’s an immense amount of history in that organization, and I wanted to give them that shot,” said Valiando, a senior majoring in political science. “They need another year. They need at least one last chance. If we don’t give it to them, we’ll be destroying a group with so much history.”

Explorchestra, a student-run orchestra, appealed its allocated budget of $300. According to its written appeal, Explorchestra requested a budget of $600 to purchase new musical equipment.

“It’s $300 that goes directly to something tangible — new instruments for the student body,” said Anthony Galli, an SA representative, arguing for the increase.

Ultimately, the SA voted 19 to 8 to increase Explorchestra’s budget to $600.

The SA decreased the portion of money withdrawn from its reserve account for the 2012-13 year, according to Aaron Ricks, SA treasurer and a junior majoring in political science, because the amount released in previous years was unsustainable in the long term. In contrast to the $688,894 that was allocated for student groups in this year’s budget, next year’s budget allocates a lesser $657,695.

This meant many student groups’ budgets saw decreases, including the Binghamton University Pre-Medical Association, Harpur Jazz, Binghamton Animal Alliance, Pre-Veterinary Alliance and the Indian Christian Fellowship.

Sherry Liao, Habitat for Humanity E-Board member and a junior majoring in biochemistry, saw her group’s budget cut from $4,000 to $2,500.

“It is understandable that the SA lowered our annual budget for the 2012-13 school year, and while it is unfortunate that we will no longer have the same flexibility in terms of event planning as we did this past semester, I am optimistic that with our collective creativity and initiative, we will manage,” Liao said.

Many groups lost all their funding for the 2012-13 academic year, including Project Companion, Undergrad Chem Club, Breakdance Club, Italian Club, Collectible Card Gaming Group, Campus Pre-School, Neuroscience Association and the Dickinson Community Players.

It was a tough year for engineers as well, as the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the National Society of Black Engineers and the Society of Hispanic Engineers all saw their budgets cut to $0.

Groups that saw their budgets increase, on the other hand, include Relay for Life, the Binghamton Crosbys, Rhythm Method, Ballroom Dance, Han Perspective, Haitian Student Union, Live Action Role Play, Binghamton Media Group and the College Republicans.

The SA’s stipends for E-Board members also increased to $44,450 from $43,250, a change that reflects a larger allowance for the vice president for finance’s summer stipend and an increase to the VPF’s assistants’ stipends.

“Over the summer, the Student Association still has to operate. The Financial Council decided that the job requirements for the VPF merited an increase to the summer stipend for the VPF,” Ricks said. “In addition, the Financial Council recognized the need for more assistants in the VPF office to help with paperwork and audits.”

In an attempt to make the budgeting process smoother and more effective, this year saw the option of automatic level funding. This status was offered to student groups operating according to the SA’s expectations, and it protected their budgets from being decreased by SA representatives at yesterday’s assembly meeting.

Ricks said he credits the smoother budgeting process to these changes.

“I am extremely pleased with the new budget procedures that we enacted this year,” Ricks said. “I hope that the next SA treasurer continues to make improvements to make the process simpler and even more objective in the future.”