The 20-Somethings Issue

BUZZSAW So Now What?

December 2011

News & Views

Civil Disservice Healthcare Check-Up “Model” Behavior The somber story of Ithaca’s Keith Shumway

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Chronicles of IC’s un- and underinsured

An analysis of celebs’ influence on our generation

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BUZZSAW Buzzsaw presents...

The 20-Somethings Issue

News & Views Upfront Ministry of Cool Prose & Cons Sawdust Design Art

Kacey Deamer Alyssa Figueroa Emily Miles Carly Sitzer David Lurvey Catherine Fisher Danielle West Daniel Sitts Anika Steppe David Lurvey Adam Polaski Andrew Rivard Francesca Toscano

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

EDITORS’ COMMENT

In her article “What is it About 20-Somethings?” New York Times writer Robin Marantz Henig claimed that our generation is “taking too long to grow up.” We are no longer following the American Dream-paved trajectory of success. We can’t seem to move out of our parents’ houses, secure jobs or even get married.

Website As American 20-somethings, it would seem that we’ve been handed the world — and that we should know how to handle it.

Seesaw In spite of this — or perhaps as a result of it — we are straying Marketing from the path and inventing new ways to live and get by. And yet, we are being punished for our rebellion. By not participating in the life expected of us, our rights as Americans are being Production Zachary Anderson, restricted. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are now in Cecily Brown short supply.

Chelsea Hartman, We’ve inherited an economic depression, and now we’re graduMalti Jones ating from massively expensive colleges without any job prosGena Mangiratti, pects in sight — left only to create as many blogs as possible Meagan Mcginnes, before our unpaid internships run out (“Will Work For Free” by Jenni Zellner Kristin Leffler, pg. 23). When that doesn’t work, our parents or the insurance companies cut off our health insurance and we’re Jeff Cohen left to pay thousands out-of-pocket for medical care (“At the Abby Bertumen Health of the Matter” by Merdina Ljekperic, pg. 18).

Adviser Kelly Burdick The American Dream is not just out of reach for the average Bryan Chambala Founders 20-something. Try being an undocumented immigrant and leadSam Costello ing a life in which these rights are not only unattainable, but Thom Denick illegal (“The Right to DREAM” by Moriah Petty, pg. 17). While Cole Louison James Sigman our government shoots down progressive policies such as the DREAM Act, its constituents are left to fight for rights in a country that supposedly prides itself on its ability to provide.

The big, bad world we’re now facing also helps explain the Buzzsaw is published with support from Campus fact that the large swell of national protests is powered by the Progress / Center for 20-somethings (“Age Against the Machine” by Kacey Deamer, pg.

American Progress 14). (online at CampusProgress.org).

According to Kait Hulbert’s article, “Idle Worship of CelebriBuzzsaw is also funded by the Ithaca ties”, page 32, the week that Kim Kardashian got married, the College Student Government Association and Google search rate for “Kim Kardashian” was ten times higher the Park School of Communications. than that of “Libya.” Yes, that’s embarrassing. But are our generation’s tech and entertainment addictions the only things Our Press is our press. (Binghamton, NY) at fault for our trend of celebrity obsession? Or is this the result of the world that we’ve inherited?

Buzzsaw uses student-generated art and photography Positive, young role models who don’t appear in tabloids are and royalty-free images. in high demand, leaving our men questioning their gender roles (“Mister, I’ll Make A Man Out of You” by Cady Lang, pg. 21). But Views expressed in this magazine are not necessarup-and-coming 20-somethings are moving to fill the position. ily those of the editorial staff or of Ithaca College.

We’re making new jobs, taking new opportunities and in some Feedback and contributions should be sent to cases even finding success. Hell, 24-year-old Svante Myrick was buzzsawmag@gmail.com. just elected mayor of the City of Ithaca (“The Young Also Rises”

by John Vogan, pg. 13). That sounds like success to us.

Front & back cover by Daniel Sitts & Anika Steppe In this issue, Buzzsaw breaks down the modern 20-something Table of Contents image by Cecily Brown and discovers that most of us are growing up. We’re just doing Center spread by Daniel Sitts & Anika Steppe it in different ways. So keep doing the internship thing, keep beUpfront divider by Colleen Cunha ing confused at what you’re supposed to be doing each day and Ministry of Cool divider by Emily Miles keep occupying whatever the hell is pissing you off. We’ll figure Prose & Cons divider by Jess Hock it out. We always do.

Sawdust divider by Daniel Sitts Right…?

-The Editors <3

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WRITE US

Our magazine exists to inspire thoughtful debate and open up the channels through which information is shared. Your comments and feedback are all a part of this process.

Reach the editors by email at: BUZZSAWMAG@GMAIL.COM

Table of Contents News & Views .................................................4 Current events, local news & quasi-educated opinions.

Upfront .......................................................12 Selected dis-education of the month.

Ministry.of.Cool ........................................28 BUZZSAW News & Views

Arts, entertainment and other things cooler than us.

Prose & Cons ............................................38 Short fiction, personal essay and other assorted lies.

Sawdust ......................................................43 Threatening the magazineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s credibility since 1856.

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buzzcuts

Compiled by Kacey Deamer Images by Daniel Sitts

Americans today go through an average of

7

jobs in their 20s -The New York Times

15

Average net worth of an American based on average income and age

in

$1,475

18- to 24-year-olds is in â&#x20AC;&#x153;debt hardshipâ&#x20AC;?

(under age 25)

-www.creditcards.com

$8,525

(between age 25-34)

6 Facts About

-CNN Money

20-Somethings 37%

of 18- to 29-year-olds are unemployed or out of the workforce.

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

14

-Pew Research Center

in

20- to 29-year olds moved during 2008.

-The New York Times

25 in

Millenials have tattoos -Pew Research Center

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The TCAT Fight

Union battle, fare increases and budget cuts for bus service

By Pete Blanchard

A

fter more than three months of negotiations, Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit workers, represented by United Auto Workers Local 2300, recently rejected a contract proposed by management by a 76-9 vote.

During the past few months, UAW Local 2300 and TCAT have been in a contract dispute over TCAT’s position to deny wage increases, increase benefit costs and require UAW members to contribute to their current healthcare policy, which TCAT said in a Dec. 2 press release it can no longer sustain given its $530,000 budget deficit.

services as well as the need to make cuts within their organization. She said the organization is dealing with significant losses in state funding.

“For the fourth year in a row, we expect our funding to remain flat,” Poist said. “Everybody’s in the same economic downturn, so it’s very hard to raise revenues in this environment.”

Also for the fourth consecutive year, TCAT’s ridership has increased, up 13 percent in 2010 according to Poist.

The American Public Transportation Association recently named TCAT a 2011 Outstanding Public Transportation System in North America.

“We’re known as being a small transit agency that offers big city service,” Poist said.

The news also comes as New York state cut funding for the bus service.

A bulk of TCAT’s revenue, about 33 percent, comes from the state, according to Poist. Locally, the City of Ithaca, Tompkins County and Cornell University account for 20.4 percent of revenue; passenger revenue accounts for 10.5 percent; Federal Operating Assistance provides 11.4 percent in revenue, with the remaining revenue coming from advertising. Ithaca College subsidizes student fares to encourage ridership, but does not contribute directly to TCAT. Pete Meyers, coordinator of the Tompkins County Workers’ Center, said he’s curious as to what percent of TCAT ridership is related to Ithaca College faculty, staff and students.

“Ithaca College is not paying into the system at all,” Meyers said. “Why is Cornell a part of the system but not IC?” Kaminsky said that while the workers rejected the contract, the union is willing to continue negotiations.

“We are working on scheduling, everybody’s schedule is conflicting at this point in time,” Kaminsky said.

“But we do hope to get back to the bargaining table in the near future.” ____________________________________ Pete Blanchard is a senior journalism major who would like to travel by public trolley. Email him at pblanch1@ ithaca.edu

News & Views

reaching a fair and equitable contract for the membership as soon as they’re ready to schedule a meeting.”

The union has contacted a federal mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, a Syracusebased independent government agency that looks to resolve labor disputes.

On Dec. 1, TCAT’s Board of Directors unanimously approved a budget of $12.8 million for 2012. At the private meeting, the board also looked at routes with fewer riders and consolidated some to curb costs, according to the press release. In addition, the board approved a measure to increase the price for rural riders from $1.50 to $2.50, which will go into effect on Jan. 15. The higher fee will only be imposed on riders who are traveling from outside the Ithaca area into the city. For those traveling TCAT workers are shorted by their management, their management is shorted by outbound to state and riders are paying the price. Photo by Emily Miles. rural zones, the fee will UAW Local 2300, which includes bus remain at $1.50. The increase will drivers, mechanics and custodians, have little impact on Cornell and has been negotiating with TCAT, Ithaca College students.

Inc. since August. UAW Local 2300 TCAT Board Member David Lieb President Jack Kaminsky said the addressed the concerns regarding the contract was rejected because it did increase to rural riders in the Dec. 2 not include a “Me Too” clause. press release.

“To put it simply, it’s a clause “The rural service is the most stating that if extra funding should expensive to run, and we realize happen to come TCAT’s way, it would its importance,” Lieb said. “We are be shared not only with management well aware that there are transitpersonnel but also with the UAW dependent riders in these outlying members,” Kaminsky said. communities that are facing economic Frank Howells, TCAT driver challenges; we realize, too, that there and chairman of the local UAW are urban residents who face the same workers, has been at the forefront of challenges. We believe it is equitable negotiations. to charge more for long trips that are “There was a vote taken and members costly to run, than for short, highlyexpressed their non-acceptance of efficient trips in the urbanized area.” the proposal by an overwhelming Patty Poist, communications and majority,” Howells said. “We have marketing manager for TCAT, said contacted the mediator to return the sluggish economy has resulted to the bargaining table in hopes of in both loss of funding from outside

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Tongue-Tied with Tenure

The complexities of job security and free speech at Ithaca College

By Alyssa Figueroa

I

thaca College students are awake publicly taking part in some of these and aware. For the past year, political campaigns on campus. students have taken a stand on Though Alex was not specifically campus by challenging a variety of the advised not to participate, Alex felt it was wise to abstain. college’s policies.

“There’s a subtle sense that you’re Last spring, the Labor Initiative in Promoting Solidarity (LIPS) demanded always being observed,” Alex said. “We that the college provide a living wage supposedly have academic freedom, for all its dining service workers. but yet when you express opinions This semester, the Environmental … you have to be really careful of not Leadership Action Network has offending people.”

Alex said tenure plays a large role insisted the college change its paper in what policy for use of employees post-consumer are willing paper while to speak out Frack Off is against. fighting for “There’s the college a culture to formally of anxiety ban natural a r o u n d gas hydraulic tenure,” fracturing.

- Don Beachler, Alex said.

The Occupy IC Ithaca College Professor of Politics “We’re in an group called economy for students to walk-out of their classes to stand in where nobody wants to lose their solidarity with the Occupy movement, job.”

Taylor said serving the college as while Students for a Sensible Drug Policy continues to fight for equal an employee at-will, without access to disciplinary penalties for marijuana tenure or any other type of protection, means that you are replaceable. and alcohol possession.

“Whenever someone doesn’t fall As students have become increasingly active on campus, a few within the status quo, whatever the faculty and staff members have been administration determines that to hesitant to take part in such political be, they can easily be removed for activity in fear of repercussions. At someone that’s a little more docile,” least one Ithaca College employee was Taylor said.

Tenure was created to cultivate a even told by superiors not to take part in an event. Other stories could not be space in which professors can freely express themselves in and out of disclosed because of anonymity.

Taylor,* the aforementioned Ithaca the classroom. According to Provost College employee, said it was both Marisa Kelly, about 60 percent of the shocking and discouraging to be nearly 500 full-time faculty members at Ithaca College are either tenured or advised not to partake in the event.

“It’s a reevaluation of ‘Who do these on the tenure-track.

Kelly said faculty members are people really stand for?’” Taylor said. hired for tenure-track “Do they stand for the students [who usually are] critical of the administration as contracts when the department is in need of a permanent position. well as the students who aren’t?”

“I think tenure, as an institution, Taylor said it provoked questions as to the purpose of working in higher is very important in terms of encouraging faculty to make long-term education.

“We are finding ourselves commitments to the institution and to reevaluating a world that’s supposed our students and to the development to be built on the ideals of free speech of the curriculum,” Kelly said.

Regardless of whether faculty — institutions that claim to be this members are tenured, Ithaca College marketplace of ideas,” Taylor said.

Alex,* another Ithaca College is committed to freedom of speech for employee, has also refrained from all categories of faculty, Kelly said. She

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

“Academics aren’t any more tolerant than anyone else — we just like to think we are.”

said sometimes professors who do not speak their beliefs are self-censoring.

“I think there’s that natural tendency,” Kelly said. “But I don’t think it is founded in anything real here at Ithaca College.”

Yet, Taylor experienced something very real.

“Just because it’s a college, and just because it’s in a place like Ithaca, doesn’t necessarily mean it is openended,” Taylor said.

While some Ithaca College employees experience or self-impose censorship on how they wish to express themselves, others have neither feared nor faced repercussions for speaking their mind.

Ithaca College politics professor Zillah Eisenstein participated in and spoke out at LIPS’s march to demand that dining service workers are paid a living wage.

“It’s an issue I care deeply about, and so I was going to speak out,” Eisenstein said.

She, as well as Ithaca College politics professor Tom Shevory, who spoke at Occupy IC’s walkout, said they participated in activities they felt strongly about before and after receiving tenure.

Ithaca College Center for the Study of Culture, Race and Ethnicity professor and program director, Asma Barlas, has also spoken out continuously throughout her career and said she never faced repercussions for expressing her viewpoints. She said that although there can be repercussions for speaking out, sometimes employees censor themselves amidst a climate of fear.

“In many cases the repercussions are very real — sometimes when faculty are coming up for tenure, deans and people higher up can raise objections about their politics,” Barlas said. “But I think sometimes people are self-policing because of a culture of fear.”

This is not restricted to Ithaca College or academia in general.

According to Barlas, there is a culture of fear in the United States, where people are not willing to speak their minds.

Shevory said tenure often does

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Image by Alex Parkin

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offers.

Job security and freedom of speech are intricately connected because it may seem difficult to risk speaking one’s mind when one knows they need money in order to live. Beachler said he wishes all faculty, full- and parttime, were extended protections.

“I would rather the tenure system did not exist and we just had unionized contracts — as long as you performed satisfactory you can keep your job,” Beachler said. “I don’t like all these distinctions. We should be one big group — equal conditions and equal pay for equal work.”

Alex agreed that representation would foster a feeling of protection.

“We would all be wise to see ourselves as workers and build solidarity,” Alex said. “Our understandings of how the political economic system in the U.S. works are really confused if we think anybody doesn’t need collective representation.”

Shevory points out that sometimes these tangible protections don’t really matter.

“When you got people really under the gun, I don’t know how much tenure will protect you,” he said. “In some ways, it’s a false promise.”

Taylor said, at the end of the day, it is clear that those with authority determine one’s security.

“I can’t get around the fact that I work for people that are ultimately responsible for the financial well-being of an institution, and that the people that they answer to are financial backers, investors, trustees,” Taylor said.

Instead of tenure fostering free speech, some see it as some sort of act of compliance.

“The tenure process is one big exercise in conformity,” Beachler said. “[Though] they say it’s about excellence.”

Kelly said once a decision is made to offer a tenure-track position, the

college looks for someone who will be an excellent teacher, remain engaged as a scholar and provide service to the college.

Yet the process is still subjective and abstract, which spreads a feeling of uncertainty.

“There’s sort of this sense on this campus that we’re always being judged and held up to a standard of excellence that isn’t entirely specific or explicit,” Alex said.

Barlas, however, said tenure is ultimately about having the ability to create a democratic space amidst a society that’s authoritarian.

“Tenure is about being able to teach in a classroom different kinds of ideas which a police state might not want you to teach, so at least you have that kind of intellectual freedom,” she said.

However, receiving tenure does not mean an employee will suddenly start taking risks.

“There will always be something that can be used to silence you, like promotions, merit raises, etc.,” Eisenstein said. “If faculty begin to censor themselves in lieu of these prizes then we have acceded to the losses and curtailment of ‘thought and action’ in silence.”

On the one hand, a culture of fear pervades many levels of society, reaching all professions, that makes people question their thoughts and actions. Having job protection to guard against this fear is both a very real security and very much an illusion.

In some cases, this safeguard has protected freedom of speech, while in others it simply did not matter. On the other hand, the only way to fight back against the structures that create this both real fear and sense of fear is to think and speak freely. Perhaps, then, we realize we may always have to live stuck in the middle.

“It makes me question the work that I do,” Taylor said. “Perhaps I can’t have it both ways, where I can be there for the students in every way possible, but I can also be within the boundaries of what my superiors determine to be legitimate.” * Names of Ithaca College employees have been changed to protect anonymity. ____________________________________ Alyssa Figueroa is a journalism and politics major who believes fear is what we must fear. Email her at afiguer1@ ithaca.edu.

News & Views

not change someone’s willingness to vocalize their beliefs.

“I think sometimes there is selfcensorship whether people have tenure or not,” he said. “I think the people who are inclined to censor themselves are going to do that under any system that they’re within, and I think the people who are going to speak out are going to speak out.”

Ithaca College politics professor Don Beachler, who worked as a non-tenured professor for 23 years before receiving tenure this academic year, said the repercussions an employee could face should not be underestimated.

“In some cases it’s self-censorship, and in some cases they would get in trouble — it depends what they say,” he said.

Beachler, who is the faculty adviser for LIPS, said he was not hesitant to take this position because the politics department was very supportive of the student organization.

“Imagine a conservative in the politics department,” he suggested, reiterating that one can face repercussions if what they say is unpopular. “Academics aren’t any more tolerant than anyone else — we just like to think we are.”

Alex said fear is definitely prevalent for non-tenured employees who have little sense of security.

“The climate in higher education is one in which a lot of faculty know our jobs can easily be eliminated, downsized, converted to adjuncts,” Alex said.

In fact, around 30 percent of Ithaca College’s more than 700 faculty members are parttime or adjunct professors.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, tenure and tenuretrack faculty hires across the nation have decreased dramatically, while part-time faculty positions have increased, from 24 percent in 1975 to 41 percent in 2009, largely due to the appeal of the financial flexibility it

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Mystery Meat

Students push for sustainable dining at Ithaca College

By Meagan McGinnes

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

T

he typical American consumes approximately three hamburgers and four orders of french fries every week, according to Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. The typical college student probably eats twice as many.

On a crunch for time, students opt for the easy dining choices. These are usually unhealthy, processed and filled with preservatives — it’s fast food. However, Ithaca College students are looking for Sodexo, the college’s food provider, to slow it down.

Slowfood Ithaca College is an environmental organization on campus, a chapter of the national Slowfood movement, petitioning for healthier, local food choices in campus dining halls. It strives to preserve regional foods and encourages farming that keeps the local ecosystem and economic system thriving.

Slowfood members want Sodexo to expand their organic and locally bought dining options. Slowfood also seeks to implement a labeling system in the dining halls so students know what is in their food and where it is coming from — even disclosing the number of gas miles needed to get the food on campus.

Co-president of Slowfood, Emily Shaw, said the only way to meet these objectives is to show a demand from students. Ithaca College stresses sustainability as one of their most important values, but Shaw said the college is more narrowly focused on their LEED buildings, rather than their food options.

Members of the college community are asking if students are educated enough on sustainablity and food’s impact on the environment at the college that prides itself on that very value.

In a discussion panel about eating and buying local on campus in IC Square on Nov. 17, the panelists agreed many freshmen and sophomores know little about what “local” is and by the time they do understand they are not on campus anymore so it is not their problem.

Slowfood is defining “local” as within 250 miles of Ithaca College — organic foods, fair trade, equal trade, etc.

Sodexo advertises itself as a sustainably conscious institution.

“We recognize that we have a responsibility to use our resources

wisely and to protect them for future generations,” the company website states. “Natural materials, foods, and packaging, proper farming and trade practices and innovative recycling programs are just a few of our sustainable practices.”

However, Sodexo at Ithaca College, only purchases 10 percent of its food locally — distributed only from the Emily Shaw, co-president of Slowfood Ithaca College Fresh Food Market at the Towers at the fresh food market flash mob.

Dining Hall, according to Slowfood Photo by Meagan McGinnes Ithaca College’s website.

Shaw said Sodexo should meet its but that they choose more carefully advertising claims. the items they eat and buy if they want “You can’t just slap a leaf on something, a change in the food available to them. color it green, and call it sustainable,” Support the good things that Sodexo is Shaw said. “It has to be backed up with doing and make them and the college those words and we are hoping to aid in want to do more. I believe that both that change and aid in living up to that IC and Sodexo want to do more in the name.” realm of sustainability, but to kick it There are a few complications with an into high gear students need to show institution as large as a college buying support.” locally. Many local farmers do not have To show this support, Slowfood the resources to meet the strict regulation sponsored a Fresh Food Market Flash requirements of this type of high-risk Mob on Friday, Dec. 2. The mob was institution. Even if local farms passed in response to Sodexo encouraging these strict regulations, many of the students to show demand for the food foods students want to eat year round they want. Stephanie Peich, Sodexo (i.e. fruits) could not be entirely produced Sustainability Coordinator, said she locally because of the high demand and was pleased by these student efforts. the want for fruits all year that may not “I think its great. What I have tried be in season or able to grow locally. Also, to empower many students, including there are many financial concerns seeing Slowfood students, to do is to eat at that buying organic tends to be more the places where we do offer things expensive. Processed foods are not only that they like or that they agree with or convenient, but also cheap. support, like the Fresh Food Market; However, students are pushing for because that’s where we can expand sustainability in their dining halls, and if they show their support by actually the campus has responded.Trayless eating there,” said Peich. dining was an initiative to reduce the Though the mob had a small turnout, amount of water and detergents used members of Slowfood Ithaca College during tray washing. Between 1/2 and were still pleased with the message 3/4 of a gallon of water is used for every they were able to spread. tray during washing, beginning at the “I think because it is a relatively small Campus Center dining hall in 2008. dining hall we got all the attention of Using a tray statistically causes people the dining hall, and we pretty much to take more food. got the petition going and I think it Since the Ithaca Dining Service’s went well. People are noticing that we energy audit in 2009, they have installed are trying to increase the local and significantly more efficient appliances organic food in the dining hall,” said including ovens, dish washing machines junior Sachiko Ishihara. and LED lighting. Sodexo has also trained staff on using the equipment to Slowfood Ithaca College meets on maximize efficiency.

Mondays at 7 p.m. in Circle 150-08.

Sodexo student intern Spencer _____________________________________ Grossman said it is these initiatives that Meagan McGinnes is a sophomore allow Sodexo to stay true to their mission. journalism major who only eats food He said sustainability is not solely about that’s traveled across the globe. Email food, but the entire process. her at mmcginn1@ithaca.edu.

“Students are voting every time they eat,” Grossman said, “I’m not suggesting that students stop eating if they don’t want Sodexo as a food service provider,

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It Isn’t So Great in Great Neck

Competitive spirit encouraged SAT/ACT cheating

By Carly Sitzer

M

y hometown — Great Neck, N.Y. — is known for a number of things and people; it’s home of the United States Merchant Marine Academy and the temporary headquarters of the United Nations; it hosted a parade when then high school student Sarah Hughes won a gold medal at the 2002 Olympics and sang along when Nikki Blonsky took her talents from our local Cold Stone to the big screen in Hairspray.

Most recently, however, Great Neck has been making headlines as the background of a cheating scandal, which involved students — mostly from Great Neck North High School — taking the SAT and ACT exams on behalf of younger students in exchange for money.

According to reports by the press, 20 students have been arrested for taking the exams for others who paid, in some cases, thousands of dollars; in exchange, students allegedly scored anywhere from a 1710 on the SAT or a 28 on the ACT, out of a total 2400 or 36 points, respectively.

Immediately following the initial arrest, I couldn’t go on Facebook or mention my hometown without hearing about the scandal. Whether we like it or not, the students involved have joined the list of people, both famous and infamous, associated with Great Neck.

Of course, no list of my town’s famous residents is complete without our most well-known resident: Jay Gatsby. To be fair, he technically lived in West Egg, but F. Scott Fitzgerald once lived in Great Neck and was never shy about West Egg’s inspiration.

Gatsby personifies the American Dream — he’s a self-made man who “made it” blending in with high society — but for Great Neck, it’s personal. The town has never been able to separate itself from its fictional counterpart, nor has it ever wanted to. Like Gatsby, Great Neck prides itself as an affluent

community where hard work is welcomed and valued.

However, you can’t acknowledge Gatsby’s wealth without considering how he earned it; he worked as a bootlegger and participated in illegal activities for the sake of “making it.”

To a lesserspoken extent, hero Jay Gatsby — is what G a t s b y ’ s we’re working for all along. competitive While I don’t necessarily nature has consider myself an long been academically competitive synonymous person, I realized that with Great I’ve fallen victim to my Image by Zachary Anderson Neck as well. environment when I saw At my high my peers from North and one school, Great Neck classmate from my high school South — which handcuffed, arrested and escorted although less involved, was still a part by the police; my first thought wasn’t of the cheating ring — competition is “they should be embarrassed that they in our roots. In fact, the campus of my cheated,” but rather “they should be high school was once the property of embarrassed of those scores.”

Henry Phipps Jr., who was Andrew While I don’t think cheating is Carnegie’s business partner. Carnegie justified or excusable, it’s important Steel Company was not only the first to put the cheaters into context. As example of vertical integration, but someone who went through Great also one of the most famous examples Neck’s competitive system, I definitely of a monopoly. understand the pressure put on these I don’t doubt that it’s a great school students to achieve and get into a and the “experts” seem to agree: “good” college. I live in a society, and US News and World Report recently a town where we’re taught the ends named South as one of the top 100 justify the means — as long as the high schools in the United States. And, end is success, regardless of whether apparently, success is determined by it’s acceptance to higher education or what others say. acceptance to higher society.

In high school, few things measure And if we should all aspire to be like success; as a result, people are Gatsby, there’s no greater way to honor obsessed with their GPAs and board him than a good ol’ scam. scores, which determine what school _____________________________________ you get into. Ultimately, this will Carly Sitzer is a junior journalism major dictate not only your career path, but who has sold her soul for success. Email also your professional and financial her at csitzer1@ithaca.edu. success, which — according to our

News & Views

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Keith Shumway: A Wrongful Death

Cuts to mental health services have fatal results in Ithaca

By Pete Blanchard

I

n June 2008, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report that examined young adults between the ages of 18 and 26 with serious mental health illness.

The report found that at least 2.4 million young adults had a serious mental illness in 2006, in addition to having lower levels of education than other young adults.

Catherine Wedge is a community educator for the Tompkins County Mental Health Association, a non-

window and ripped the gun from the officer’s duty belt and fired a shot that grazed the officer’s leg. The injured officer called for backup.

Backup officer Brandon Goldsberry, whose name was kept confidential at the time, told Keith to drop the gun.

Keith pointed the gun at Goldsberry.

After repeated warnings to drop his weapon, Goldsberry shot Keith.

This was the account recorded by the Ithaca Police Department. The identity of the police officer that was

“I’m frightened because I really don’t think the public or even a lot of legislators understand the consequences of not providing adequate community services to individuals who have a real need.”

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

- Catherine Wedge profit organization with the goal of connecting people to mental health services. She said mental health agencies in Tompkins County and New York state have been experiencing drastic budget cuts in recent years.

“The last couple of years have been far worse, far bleaker,” Wedge said.

“We got cut $12,000 this year and this coming year we anticipate another $12,000. Plus, there’s rumors there will be 8 percent cuts across the state.”

The GAO report also noted that young adults with mental health illness have trouble getting the services they need to transition into adulthood. Wedge said that partly has to do with stigma.

“People with mental health illness are best kept out of sight and out of mind,” Wedge said. “That has to do with stigma, which is one of the reasons individuals with mental illness are unable to get the services they need in order to recover.”

“The cops just shot Keith!”

On the night of Aug. 25, 20-year-old Keith Shumway attacked a uniformed officer who was filling out paperwork at a Citgo gas station at 435 W. State St. Keith reached through the car

reportedly shot in the leg has not been released.

Mary Ann Walters-Sokol was sleeping at her house on South Corn Street when a neighbor who heard the gunshots came over to wake her up. She walked down to the corner of State Street to see what had happened. Walters-Sokol was aware of Keith’s history with mental illness and feared how the police reacted.

“He was visibly more and more depressed every week,” she said.

After hearing the account of the incident from the Ithaca Police Department, Walters-Sokol said she was, and still is, skeptical of the report.

“How is it going to be that he can reach into the driver’s side, past the steering wheel, past the cop’s belly and get the gun from a holster?”

Walters-Sokol said. “This is just a case of another kid being shot by the police, and they’re gonna get away with it because people don’t want to step forward. They’re afraid of the Ithaca Police Department.”

The case has been loosely compared to that of Shawn M. Greenwood, an Ithaca resident who was shot by an on-duty police officer in Feb. 2010.

Various New York police departments

had obtained a search warrant for Greenwood, who they believed was involved in drug trafficking.

On the night of Feb. 23, Greenwood was in the parking lot of Pete’s Wine & Liquor store on West Buffalo Street when two Ithaca cops approached him with the warrant. Panicking, Greenwood attempted to flee the scene, striking an unarmed Dryden police officer with his vehicle in the process.

Greenwood’s relatives, friends and the general community came out and harshly criticized the way the police handled the event, which has not been the case with Keith.

Walters-Sokol said she is frustrated that witnesses have not spoken out.

“What angers me is that people know the truth and they’re not letting it out,” Walters-Sokol said.

A Lost Soul Keith Thomas Shumway was born July 7, 1991. His grandparents raised him in the small town of Harvey’s Lake, 15 miles northwest of WilkesBarre, Pa. As his grandparents approached old age, they decided their grandson could use a change.

In Oct. 2009 Keith moved in with his aunt and cousin in Ithaca, N.Y. Keith was living with his aunt and cousin at their home on Cleveland Avenue without attending college or maintaining a steady job. His aunt, Diane Shumway, contacted Rick Alvord, a close friend and a volunteer at a local Youth Outreach Program, an independent living program that seeks to help teenagers become independent adults through apprenticeships, work programs and hands-on learning experiences.

Alvord said Shumway expressed her desire to get her nephew off the couch and help him find some form of employment. Alvord landed Keith an apprenticeship at Loaves and Fishes, a local non-profit agency providing meals and other services for those in need. After conducting an evaluation assessing Keith’s attitude, dependability and willingness to work with others, Alvord said Keith

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The Future of Mental Health On Nov. 4, a Tompkins County grand jury determined that the Ithaca Police officer’s shooting of Keith Shumway was justified.

Cayuga Medical Center’s decision to deny Keith admittance, despite pleas from friends and relatives, may be just as lethal as the bullet that took his life.

Denials of assistance for mental health are not uncommon. Some have also had fatal results. In 2009, a young man murdered his mother in Cayuga Heights — 12 hours after his mother tried to have him admitted to the Cayuga Medical Center. The center refused to admit him.

In addition to losing revenue in the form of state aid, Tompkins County has been cutting costs to its mental health services over the past several years. Since 2009, funding for the Tompkins County Mental Health Clinic has gone down $876,000. In 2012, it will be cut another $72,000. In the Tompkins County Mental Health Department, 10 full-time positions have been lost since 2009, and another four will be lost in 2012, according to the 2012 budget for Tompkins County.

With cuts to mental health services likely to increase in the coming years, mental health agencies are forced to cut costs within their own departments to make ends meet.

Similarly, if a hospital like Cayuga Medical Center lacks sufficient resources for mental health patients, incidents of patients being turned down may increase.

Wedge, whose organization relies on funding from the New York State Office of Mental Health, said more and more agencies are being asked to provide more services with fewer funds, and the cuts to mental health services could have broader impacts on society.

“I’m frightened, not for myself,” Wedge said. “I’m frightened because I really don’t think the public or even a lot of legislators understand the consequences of not providing adequate community services to individuals who have a real need.” ___________________________________ Pete Blanchard is a senior journalism major. Email him at pblanch1@ ithaca.edu

News & Views

A Turn for the Worse In April 2011, Walters-Sokol began to notice a change in Keith’s behavior. She said he seemed more and more depressed.

“It was like there was a black hole and it was pulling Keith in,” Walters-Sokol said.

Alvord said he saw Keith less frequently in the months leading up to the shooting.

“It’s hard for me because I really did make a conscious effort not to reengage with Keith, and the results, as they were, it’s hard for me to start to think about,” Alvord said.

“But I’m not sure what a Keith Shumway with his 2-year-old daughter, Shynowah Nicole Moon Webster. Photo courtesy of Shumway Family. program like ours could have done to did very well, though he admitted help him.” something seemed off about Keith.

Just weeks before the shooting, “You got the sense that there were Keith had an incident with the some mental health issues going on,” police. Walters-Sokol came home one Alvord said. “Sometimes he would night to find several cop cars and an come in brooding or upset, other ambulance a few houses down from times he was kind of jovial.” her residence. She saw an intoxicated

By Nov. 2009 Alvord had set up Keith acting violently toward two Keith’s first meeting with a therapist Ithaca Police officers. After Waltersat Tompkins County Mental Health Sokol explained to them he had Clinic.

According to Alvord’s mental illness, the officers decided case notes, Keith was making not to charge him and instead took his appointments and receiving him to Cayuga Medical Center, an medication until Feb. 2010, when area hospital.

Alvord said Keith grew frustrated After arriving at the hospital, he with the system. was put in 4-point restraint, a method While living in Ithaca, Keith became that consists of strapping one’s arms close with one of his aunt’s neighbors, and legs securely to the bed, used Walters-Sokol. He began doing odd when a patient is considered a threat jobs for her, such as heavy lifting, to themselves and to others. He was pulling weeds and reorganizing her also heavily sedated. garage.

Keith woke up four hours later. Two Keith’s cousin Fatima Bintu said nurses evaluated Keith as his aunt he had a natural instinct to help and cousin explained to them his others. history of mental illness. They begged “He would go out of his way to the nurses to admit Keith, but they make people happy,” Bintu said. “No would not do it. matter what, he would do anything for “Me and my mom were kind of anybody, even people he didn’t know. happy that happened because we That’s the type of person he was. He really thought they were going to might not have cared so much about admit him,” Bintu said. “That would himself, but he cared enough about have been the best help he could everybody else.” have ever gotten.”

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BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

PFRONT. UPFRONT. UPFRON

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The Young Also Rises

20-somethings stepping up to lead

By John Vogan

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began a year before he graduated from Cornell in 2009.

Officially the youngest mayor in the history of Ithaca, Myrick has made impressive achievements at the young age of 24. Even with his quick rise to success as a public figure, he isn’t thinking about what will help advance him politically. He instead focuses on the well-being of future generations, chairing a committee that created the Ithaca Youth Council in 2008.

“My experience as a tutor and mentor for young children in Ithaca has convinced me that young people have the energy and creativity necessary for the problems we are facing today, and the problems we will face tomorrow,” he said. “Giving young people an opportunity to lead right now will provide them with the communication and decision-making skills they will need to lead in the future.”

If there’s one thing all these 20something movers and shakers can attest to, it’s that anyone, no matter how young or inexperienced, has the potential to act on brilliant ideas that could someday change the world. ____________________________________ John Vogan is a sophomore journalism major who is excited to be a 20something in February. Email him at jvogan1@ithaca.edu.

Upfront

older generations trying to use newly unveiled technologies, merit is certainly owed to those who can utilize such innovation to their advantage. Another example of an Internet startup is a company called Tatango, which offers an online SMS messaging system for businesses to connect with clients.

Derek Johnson, the founder and CEO of Tatango, was named by BusinessWeek as one of the Top 25 Under 25 Entrepreneurs in the United States.

Johnson launched the company from his dorm room in 2007 and now caters to clients in every U.S. state.

“Anyone can start their own business if they have a good idea and the will power,” Johnson said. “For me, it wasn’t about the money. I just wanted to be in control of my own career, and I came up with a better method for people to communicate in mass to other people.”

Johnson’s drive in the private sector has aided numerous businesses in effectively reaching out to their customers. His company even crossed wires with the political scene when it helped Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) win an unprecedented election in 2010 by mobilizing tens of thousands of supporters via text message to attend rallies, raise awareness and ultimately vote on Election Day. Similarly, young politicians have independently elevated their visibility through the use of social media.

Ithaca’s very own Svante Myrick used Facebook and Twitter to connect with constituents and gain valuable feedback on the issues that are important to them. Before winning the mayoral election in November, Myrick served a term as the representative of the City of Ithaca’s Fourth Ward, which

Image by Cecily Brown

n today’s world, people in their twenties are increasingly becoming prominent stakeholders in the realm of business and politics. It used to be that ambitious employees could work their way up to high-level positions if they remained loyal to one company for several years. Now, the average person changes jobs at least eight times, and 20-somethings are changing the dynamic of moving up the influence ladder.

Mark Zuckerberg, 27, the founder and CEO of Facebook, launched the successful social networking site out of his Harvard University dorm just before turning 20. He landed the cover of Time magazine as the 2010 Person of the Year and currently holds a net worth of $17.5 billion. Zuckerberg is perhaps the most prominent example of an emerging trend of young leaders.

His sister, Randi Zuckerberg, also an Internet entrepreneur and formerly the director of marketing development at Facebook, recently spoke at Ithaca College to give students insight on how to maximize their influence and stay in power through the use of social media.

“Everyone now has access to a digital megaphone,” she said in her speech.

“This emerging online technology presents an unlimited potential for new opportunities.”

The 29-year-old innovator is currently in the process of launching a new company called R to Z Media, which she described as the first production-based business that will fully integrate social technology. One of the company’s first projects, while still in “stealth mode,” occurred on Cyber Monday when it partnered with multiple celebrity designers to sell jewelery solely through social media — a shopping experience they envision will become the “QVC of the future.”

“After working for six years at Facebook, I got that entrepreneurial itch again,” Zuckerberg said. “I think it’s really important to keep moving forward. As soon as you start feeling comfortable with what you’re doing, toss all the balls up in the air. It’s good for the soul.”

Technology plays a large role in the advancement of young entrepreneurs.

While many jokes have been made about the trials and tribulations of

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Age Against the Machine

Students across the country are occupying today for tomorrow

By Kacey Deamer

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

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She said it is college students that hey are the future. The future is theirs. And right now, that can truly make a difference.

“We’ve got educated masses who future isn’t as inviting as they had hoped. So why not change the know what’s going on and who want to raise awareness, and the best way future?

When the Occupy Wall Street to do so is on college campuses,” movement began in September, it Hoffman said.

As some politicians, banks and was a blip on the nation’s radar.

Now, Occupy has spread beyond media have asked “What is Occupy Hoffman said Manhattan’s Financial District to accomplishing?” locales across the country and the their measurement of success isn’t appropriate. The movement’s efforts globe.

The voices behind the movement’s are beyond making one concrete now-famous peoples’ microphone are college students, graduate students, 20-somethings who are fed up with the 1 percent controlling the country. They are ready to take back democracy and put the country into the hands of the 99 percent.

These students are taking to the streets they know best — their college campuses. Ericka Hoffman, 26, is an organizer and facilitator with Occupy College, an organization that acts as a resource for students interested in joining the Occupy movement.

Hoffman said the Occupy College movement is simply a microcosm of the greater Occupy Wall Street.

“The issue with our economy is one that affects everything. And it has begun to affect our schools as well,” Hoffman said.

She explained the college or university’s administrators and the students are just a smaller version of the 1 percent versus the 99.

“On separate campuses they The Occupy Ithaca movement aims to take back America from the 1%. Photos by Anika Steppe. also have their own issues, with their Board of Trustees or their campus [administration] who are also thing happen. It’s about spreading the basically participating in the same movement.

“I think they’re successful in raising kind of behavior that our government and banks and [big business] have awareness,” she said of college Occupy movements. “If you just look at the participated in,” she said.

A junior at California State University statistics, the first time that we did the Bakersfield, Hoffman was a little more walkout we had 80 schools and 5,000 than an hour away from Los Angeles, people. And then the second time that which began its own occupation soon we did an event, which was a sit-in, after that of Wall Street. Hoffman we have over 100 schools and over was inspired by the movement and 10,000 people.”

Students aren’t limited to raising thought that she and other people her awareness just on campus or in their age could make an impact.

college town, according to Hoffman.

“The UC Davis video footage, when that went viral everybody in the world [could] see that,” she said. “And so now you’re not just raising awareness on your campus or even in your outlying areas in the city — you’ve raised awareness to the entire globe.”

Guido Girgenti is not quite a 20something but he works alongside Hoffman and others at Occupy College. Girgenti, 19, is a sophomore at Occidental College in LA and saw the young people’s frustrations with the state of the country before the Occupy movement began.

“Even before Occupy Wall Street started, there were a lot of people my age, middle-class students in college, who had a really deep sense that the economy was broken,” Girgenti said.

He noted the problems college students face: debt, employment and a general sense that they are not in control of their own lives.

“I think there was this hunger for a movement that expressed our desires to live in an economy that provided real opportunities for young people with college degrees, and people without college degrees, and to live in a democracy that served the interests of the majority of people who aren’t the head of a huge bank,” Girgenti said.

Girgenti described the Occupy movement as a college student’s “one true love.” So when Occupy LA began, he and a group of students joined the movement.

Girgenti said as he became more involved, he spread it across campus.

“We started organizing students on our campus to go down to Occupy LA more often and go to the protests and start discussing it on campus,” he said. “It kind of just snowballed from there.”

Hoffman and Girgenti had the unique opportunity of attending a school so close to an Occupy hub.

However, location does not necessarily facilitate the movement.

Lee Ann Hill, 20, is a junior at Ithaca College who discovered the Occupy

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Occupy Ithaca’s tent city in DeWitt Park.

even the local mayor were supportive of the occupation.

“The whole experience was definitely worth the time and effort,” King said.

“However, Occupy Fredonia doesn’t stop there. We will be holding general assemblies and events throughout the winter to keep the cause going.”

He said sometime in the spring, when the weather is a bit more comfortable, there will hopefully be another occupation.

Girgenti said that students have been instrumental, and game-changing in the overall Occupy movement.

“When you had Harvard students walk out of Professor Gregory Mankiw’s class, protesting the fact that he had been the economics advisor to George Bush, that was a huge statement,” Girgenti said.

However, these actions and occupations are just the beginning of a much larger movement, Girgenti said.

Young people, students, Americans in general, are demanding their democracy back, he said, and that won’t be accomplished right away.

“The movement is based on anger about really deep structural problems and injustices that have been decimating working-class communities and communities of color and young people for a long time now,” Girgenti said. “The movement isn’t going to go away anytime soon because the injustices aren’t going away anytime soon.” ___________________________________ Kacey Deamer is a junior journalism major who is currently occupying the moon. Email her at kdeamer1@ithaca. edu.

Upfront

movement online, finding videos and articles that inspired her to do more research.

“What I found when trying to understand the Occupy movement was an overarching theme of justice,” Hill said. “The more I researched, the more information I found exposing the broken framework of U.S. capitalism.”

The frustrations that arose from her research were overwhelming, and Hill said she decided to put it to productive use.

“So I started talking to my friends and family about what I had been learning and how the Occupy movement relates to all,” Hill said. “I came to find that many people, after learning the facts behind the Occupy movement, really could resonate with its message.”

Hill helped to establish Occupy IC, which is in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy movement. She said the main goal for Occupy IC is recruitment, education and outreach this semester.

David King, 21, is a senior at SUNY Fredonia who helped establish an occupation at his school. However, he wasn’t ready to jump on board right away.

“I was a bit skeptical of the idea at first,” he said. “Occupations were springing up in major cities across American, including nearby Buffalo, but why waste the time and effort in occupying a small town like Fredonia, population 11,000?”

He eventually decided to take on the project, and after creating a Facebook page, King had gained more than 75 members in just 24 hours. Students, professors, community members and

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A Generation of Heathens

Twenty-somethings turn away from religion, toward secular communities

By Amanda Hutchinson strong social ties that most of the community members have with each other.”

Education has also become a factor in the decrease of religiousness among the 20-somethings, especially considering how advances in science and society as a whole are beginning to undermine many religious views on topics ranging from evolution to homosexuality.

Boston University junior Rick Berger, president of the Humanists of Boston University, attributed this exodus to a trend where “young people are beginning to realize that they’re being lied to, and they’re responding with an emphatic ‘fuck that.’”

He cites the varying acceptances of homosexuality among religions as an example.

“You read the scientific work on homosexuality and further realize that your pastor was not simply ignorant, but willfully ignorant,” Berger said, commenting that pastors are often willing to place the church above “the well-being of his fellow humans.”

But once students make this realization, Berger said that finding a new non-religious community is the difficult part.

“The only communities that provide the same benefits are church communities,” Berger said.

In fact, as churches are seeing drops in membership, they too are putting more effort into creating these communities for their parishioners, and this generation is again the target audience.

Julie Campbell is the director of Emeaus, a collaboration of a group of churches across southeastern Connecticut that is trying to gain the support of the skeptical younger generation through teen-to-teen ministry.

“Kids suddenly find a community in which faith is cool,” Campbell said.

Image by Cecily Brown

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

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onsidering the spirit of stereotypical teenage rebellion, it should come as no surprise that our generation is turning its back on organized religion. Many parents swaddle their children in the teachings of various beliefs, and once freedom is given, religion is cast off as readily as bedtimes and eating your vegetables.

As the generations progress, a trend of atheism, agnosticism and other non-theistic beliefs are becoming more prominent among our generation.The Pew Forum, a research group that primarily researches religion and public life, has conducted several surveys of 20-something religious affiliation since 2000. The lack of a reported religion among people aged 18 to 30 has increased an average of 6.5 percent each generation during the past three generations.

Twenty-somethings are at a transitional point in life when several things change, particularly independence from one’s parents and challenging beliefs that were instilled in childhood, said Nancy Menning, a religion professor at Ithaca College.

“It’s probably a long-standing pattern in Christianity in this country,” Menning said. “[After confirmation,] kids leave home and are out making their own lives and choices … but when they’re married and especially have kids, then they go back [to church].

College is the epitome of this transition. Ithaca College junior Jenna Jablonski said that her struggles were not in faith but in trying to find a new community.

“This took time,” she said. “It will not be until my senior year that I truly commit to being a part of a church community in Ithaca.”

Jablonski has been involved in church activities her whole life, including an annual service trip to Honduras with her church at home, but she said she has not been very involved with the college’s Protestant Community.

“I love what the Protestant Community does and has to offer,” she said. “But I don’t find a fulfilling place in it because I don’t have the

“And suddenly they have this great thing in common.”

Non-theistic religious organizations are working toward the same organizing strategy. We Are Atheists, started this fall by three University of Kansas students, is using home videos to promote openness and acceptance to young atheists, similar to the “It Gets Better” video project launched in 2010 to promote the LGBT community.

Berger believes that as the generation gets older, secularism will gain more popularity.

This is not to say that atheism is the answer for everyone; the best option for people “on the fence” is to educate themselves and see what is out there.

Jablonski, who recently added several Eastern tenets to her overall faith, encourages people “to define faith for themselves on an individual level, and not be afraid to completely re-define it.” _________________________________________

Amanda Hutchinson is a freshman journalism major who only worships Buzzsaw Magazine. Email her at ahutchi2@ithaca.edu.

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The Right to DREAM

Students who are undocumented immigrants advocate for a better future

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senior in Florida named Juan Escalante facing frustration and concerns over his future similar to Luna. He had big plans, yet could not see how college fit into his future.

Escalante was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He came to the U.S. on a visa at age 11 but there was an error in the paperwork, leaving his family without documentation. This is a mistake Escalante has tried to correct many times without success.

Once learning more about the DREAM Act, Escalante joined with students facing similar circumstances and formed DREAMActivist.org to promote the bill.

Escalante has since made it to college and is set to graduate in a few weeks from Florida State University with degrees in political science and international relations. He is very active in the movement for reform of immigration policy, organizing protests around the country, doing outreach to undocumented youth and educating the media.

The conversations fostered on the website’s discussion forums and chat rooms allow youth to ask simple questions they are afraid to ask, such as if they can get a driver’s license. The anonymity of online communication provides some comfort to draw people out of seclusion. Escalante himself has abandoned anonymity, but this was a difficult step.

“You’re told by your parents you don’t share [your undocumented status] with anybody,” Escalante said.

“You grow up by yourself fearing that if somebody finds out, they’re going to call immigration and you’re going to be taken away. So you don’t say anything.”

Through outreach, Escalante said the DREAM Activists are able to support visitors to the website saying, “Hey, you may be undocumented but here are the things you can do in the meantime to make sure tomorrow is a better day.”

When developing the organization,

the founders decided their mission could not be solely political. Simply talking to others in the same situation and providing support for each other is a big step toward improving the well-being of their audience. However, Escalante said he wished they could provide more mental health service, noting sadly that Luna was not the first to take his own life.

Escalante said his efforts in recent years have shifted away from the DREAM Act as activists reshape the movement to fit the current political landscape. By tallying up the votes the bill would likely receive if reintroduced this session of Congress, the DREAM Activists predict it would not pass.

There have been more deportations under the current administration than ever before in our history. Those in power are not in the position to recognize the flaws in the current system or look for creative solutions.

Escalante continues to identify as a DREAM Activist because he views the bill as “a long-term investment not only to aid students, but to recognize the flaws in our immigration policy and border system … It’s a key to a door that leads to a bigger conversation.”

To open a bigger conversation, we may first need to recognize the struggles our peers face on a daily basis. Students who are undocumented immigrants face mental health issues as a consequence of hiding their identity, living in fear of deportation and being cut-off from the opportunities open to their peers.

Regardless of Escalante’s experiences, his ideal employment would be working for the U.S. government, because, he said, “I believe a lot in the values of this country.” ____________________________________ Moriah Petty is a sophomore TV-R major who would like to see everyone have a chance to succeed. Email her at mpetty1@ithaca.edu.

Upfront

he transition period from youth to adulthood is a turbulent time. You are faced with an onslaught of responsibility and defining decisions while discovering how to live independently. There is an urgency to build your own identity as more than an appendage of your nuclear family. But the future holds many possibilities, not to mention the personal struggles and emotional stress.

Now imagine going through this life stage with the added strain of being an undocumented immigrant. That is the reality for approximately 1.5 million young adults, according to a 2008 Pew Research Study.

Motivation to succeed can have dire consequences on youth when government policy restricts their potential. One victim of such backlash is Joaquin Luna, an 18-year-old from Mission, Texas who committed suicide on Nov. 25. Luna was a promising graduating senior with a supportive family who hoped to become an engineer. He watched his classmates plan for college, but realized he would not have the opportunity to go because state schools do not offer financial aid for undocumented immigrants.

Local news stations reported that in the suicide letters left to his family, Luna wrote his hard work was wasted and settling for what he viewed as an inferior path of unskilled employment was not an option. He references the failure of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act to pass in Congress as the reason he resorted to taking his own life.

The DREAM Act serves a select group of undocumented immigrants who came to America as children when it was clearly not their decision to enter the country illegally. The Act would allow them to gain citizenship by completing at least two years of college or two years of military service.

The bill has public approval and bipartisan support in the Congress, yet has failed to pass after being voted on in ten separate legislative sessions since its proposal in 2001.

In 2007 there was a high school

Image by Kennis Ku

By Moriah Petty

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At the Health of the Matter

The story of four un- and underinsured Ithaca College students

By Merdina Ljekperic

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

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he U.S. healthcare system is unlike any other in the world. It’s a patchwork that has overlapping public, private and out-of-pocket models. Yet, in the midst of the Medicare, Medicaid and insurance companies, there remains a group who’ve consistently been missed — young adults. It is the 20somethings that have always had the highest uninsured rate of any age group, around 30 percent.

Despite major improvements for young adults by the recent Affordable Care Act, economic downturn and a bleak job market significantly weaken these impr ovements.

Employeesponsored care has been the main provider for most young adults, but as fewer jobs offer healthcare and more students take part-time jobs, that option continues to disappear.

With a system that has elements of all healthcare models, U.S. policymakers have chosen to implement small changes that are only minor chips away at the large U.S. healthcare structure, rather than one massive reform.

While these steps have done much to increase coverage, they’ve done just as much to drive up the cost. As the difficulty of obtaining insurance rises, so do health care costs.

For

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young adults, this has become a harsh aspect of their economic reality: credit card debt is 79 percent higher for young adults with medical debt than those without — a greater difference than for any other age group.

In this post-‘Great Recession’ era, young adults continue to face obstacles in their quest for medical care. Here are the stories of four Ithaca College students’ battles:

Jillian

Standing in the teen center of a local walk-in clinic, Jillian Doyle pleaded for birth control.

“I said I was really Catholic and my parents don’t know about me having sex and if they find out, they’ll kick me out of the house.”

None of that was true, of course.

“I lied and told them this story so I didn’t have to pay for it. I did get checked out and I did get some form of health care. Just kind of using the system, I guess.”

Doyle was on New Hampshire’s Healthy Kids healthcare program until she was dropped from the plan when she turned 19. She then started to search for medical care wherever she could.

Doyle said her mom warned her before entering college that she’d eventually be kicked off her plan, but she admits her own naiveté — a common theme when health care education is not the norm.

“I just went into college not knowing anything about what was going on and thinking I was just like anyone else and everything would be taken care of.”

Her freshman year she attended the University of Southern Maine, where she joined the cross-country team for the first time in her life. She shined as the number 4 runner on the team, until she got kicked off due to NCAA regulations that say athletes can’t compete w i t h o u t some form of health insurance. It was her first

slap in the face. “[Cross-country] was how I built my identity at that university. I tried to talk to my coach about it … to the people who represented the NCAA at the school — they couldn’t do anything for me.”

She looked into the college health insurance, but it was far too expensive. USM’s health insurance has a premium of a whopping $1,648 a semester. So, she looked into private plans, but everything seemed like a gimmick or scam.

She transferred to Colby Sawyer College where she only spent one semester the only way she could afford — abroad in Florence, Italy, where housing was cheaper and the program included healthcare.

Doyle then took a semester off, taking online community college courses and working as a ski instructor, where she held back from doing much of the hikes and skiing she loved for fear of paying for any injury care.

After working for a period of time, she found Ithaca College and had saved up enough to afford the school’s health care, and is now currently on her father’s employee-sponsored insurance.

Looking back, Doyle said it’s hard to explain her experiences to people.

“They are not going to see beyond their own experience. I think there needs to be more education and people need to pay attention more and…learn that this is an issue.”

Connie

This summer, Connie Honeycutt wanted to go to the doctor because of an infection, but was sent to the emergency room instead because it was a holiday. When emergency room charges came in, she wondered why her father’s insurance, his new “premium plan,” didn’t cover them.

She eventually found out that the plan left her responsible for a $2,000 outof-pocket deductible and, even then, only covered her at a percentage.

“There is so much medical terminology that is just not explained and they just say ‘[We] can do this, therefore we are, and you signed a paper.’”

Image by Anika Steppe

12/5/11 1:40:11 AM

Pamela

have the means. I don’t have the means.”

The average recommendation to see a rheumatologist is every three months.

“On days where I have flairup, I’d just start taking a lot of Advil,” Millan said. “It has been getting worse, but I just can’t afford it, and I know that I will have to figure out how to do something about it soon.”

Colleen

Over the summer, Colleen Cunha found out she had to get her wisdom teeth out, just when both her parents were switching jobs, making dental insurance unavailable.

“I go through weeks … where I can’t eat anything. My teeth … have shifted. I’m very aware of my teeth now because I know I should have gotten them out 6 months ago.”

After recently being put under her stepmother’s insurance, surgery during winter break was finally possible. Her concerns, however, aren’t over.

“In the end, it might come down to…taking out my teeth [or] having to fix them because they should have been out 4 months ago and it’ll cost more money.”

Cuhna also has a type of GERD’s disease — a digestive illness that’s rare in young people. Along with limiting her diet, Cunha has to take medicine every morning to help lower the acidity of her stomach. When she first came to Ithaca, she had issues with interstate prescriptions. She couldn’t pick up prescriptions in New York that were filed by her doctor in Massachusetts.

She went to the college health center, where they ran tests and sent her to labs, but in the end, they told her nothing was wrong and refused to

prescribe h e r anything. She is still filing insurance claims to cover the costs of those tests. As of now, she has her pills mailed to her.

On top of paying for her prescription medicine, she has to buy over-thecounter drugs to help her daily.

Cunha estimates she spends $100 a month on medication — as much as she spends on groceries.

Like most young adults, she said when she finally learned about the health care system, it was far too late.

“It wasn’t until something like this happened to me that I sat down with my parents [and] it became a big deal for me to know how to get what I need.”

Closing the Gap

Young adults received some of the largest benefits among all age groups from the Affordable Care Act. The revision that allows an individual to stay on their parent’s plan until 26 insures a million more young adults alone. While these reforms seem promising, there is still a huge void, especially after the recent economic collapse. The number of uninsured young adults ages 18 to 24 continues to drop quickly — by a total of one million in the last quarter of 2010 and first half of 2011.

There is a great struggle to get health care in the age group that both public and private providers continue to ignore — the 20-somethings. Thus, these small changes to the U.S. healthcare system are only bandages on a large, gaping wound, where we so often find stories like these. ____________________________________ Merdina Ljekperic is a junior journalism and politics major who hopes for universal health care. Email her at mljekpe1@ithaca.edu.

Upfront

Although born in Queens, N.Y., Pamela Millan lived in Colombia until seventh grade. She said she remembers paying only a few dollars to get health care swiftly and easily. After moving back to the U.S., Millan was under state health insurance because her mother’s employee-offered insurance is more than they can afford.

In her freshman year of college, she found out she was kicked off her plan because she reached an age the government deemed “too old to be on Medicaid,” while simultaneously finding out she has rheumatoid arthritis — a chronic inflammation of joints that is very rare in young people.

“I started paying my bills outof-pocket. And just to see my rheumatologist, it’s $700.”

She’s since been in a battle with Medicaid to keep her covered. Beyond her condition, earlier this year she had an anxiety attack that cost her a $1,000 hospital visit.

Despite her chronic illness, Millan said she keeps herself from getting the attention and medication she needs because of costs.

“I’ve seen my rheumatologist twice since I got diagnosed three years ago. I just don’t want to go. My mom doesn’t

Image by Erika Feldman

Honeycutt is frustrated that young people simply aren’t taught even the basics of the health care system, leaving them vulnerable to be tricked and charged. She watched her older sister, who was dropped from her mother’s coverage at the age of 18, struggle with medical care.

“There was a chunk of time in college, and then after she graduated, where she didn’t have insurance and she would self-medicate. She would just do things she probably should not have done.”

Honeycutt said she’s lost all faith in her system and in the plan that leaves her underinsured.

“I don’t trust my coverage at all.

I’m just dreading knowing that I’m going to… think ‘OK, they’ve covered 80 percent’ and I find out that they covered nothing or 10 percent ... You realize that it’s a business and it’s just making money just like any other business … and if you’re not educated and you don’t know how to work with the system, the system can really fuck you over.”

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12/5/11 1:40:12 AM

Get Your Laws Off My Body

20-something women face restricted reproductive rights

By Kaley Belval

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

T

he United States often prides itself on the notion that women have full, legal rights — to education, to employment and to make their own choices. But those legal rights face significant roadblocks when it comes to the doctor’s office; there, the country’s assurance of reproductive rights falls terribly short.

In November, a bill known as the Personhood Amendment, which would deem a fertilized egg a human being under the law, came to a vote in Mississippi. Similar initiatives are being pushed for 2012 in at least six other states. The Personhood Amendment campaign, an anti-abortion movement spearheaded by the Coloradobased umbrella organization Personhood U.S.A., has drawn parallels between abortion, eugenics, genocide and the Holocaust.

Personhood U.S.A. is supported by a number of statelevel organizations with similar missions.

One of the primary arguments of these organizations is that abortion is causing a genocide of black children, since black women are statistically the highest demographic of women who get abortions. The campaign also argues abortion is a form of eugenics and the 50 million abortions performed in the United States since the Roe v. Wade ruling signify a new type of Holocaust.

Ultimately, the Personhood Amendment was voted down in Mississippi, but the fact that it came up for a vote at all — and that similar votes are planned for next year — signifies the reemergence of the debate for women’s reproductive rights.

The debate has raged for years, but it arrived at something of a conclusion in 1973, when Roe v. Wade declared that all U.S. women had the right to have safe abortions during the first

trimester, and that abortions in the second and third trimester were to be determined by individual states.

However, access to abortions, even in the first trimester, has been slowly chipped away in recent years, and the new healthcare bill has sparked discussion of limiting elective abortions even more in some states.

Many political and social groups argue against the morality of abortion, but across the country, it remains medically and legally justified.

Suzanne Ward is an anti-abortion activist who works as the Education & Public Relations Director for Georgia Right to Life, a state-level version of the National Right to Life Committee.

“The young women that I see are very smart and very savvy,” she said. “They are knowledgeable about birth control and the side effects. The thing that they are not knowledgeable about is their actions.

Young women are knowledgeable about certain things but do not act appropriately.

Their physical, spiritual and mental health is important.

And sometimes they have to take a break from sex.”

In a generation that, for the most part, tries to shy away from commitment in relationships, balancing emotions and sexual activity safely can be challenging.

Twentysomethings now struggle to face their peers and their families when it comes to the discussion of their choices about birth control and abortion.

Options are often a taboo subject, especially since many young adults are still under their parents’ health insurance coverage.

With the enactment of President Obama’s health insurance plan, many women’s groups have been speaking out about the importance of reproductive rights.

In a March 21, 2010 statement,

National Organization for Women president Terry O’Neill said the national healthcare bill will cause “the likely elimination of all private as well as public insurance coverage for abortion.” This is because the majority of abortions, even for those who have insurance, will have to be paid for by the women out-of-pocket.

In 1992, author Susan Faludi published Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, in which she wrote, in part, about the dysfunction of American women’s rights in the medical sphere, especially in relation to abortion and birth control.

In a Q&A with Buzzsaw earlier this year, Faludi addressed her concerns.

“Even the so-called liberal politicians in Washington have caved,” she said.

“So now we have a healthcare bill in which the one goodie the Democrats signed off on to appease the Right was abortion.”

Rhonda Mapes is the executive director of the Ithaca Pregnancy Center, where she talks to women with unwanted pregnancies every day.

According to Mapes, the 2011 census reported that the number of unmarried adults over the age of 18 has increased dramatically since 1970, from more than 37 million to more than 106 million. Mapes cited a Guttmacher study, which explains that 70 percent of single women of childbearing age — about 25 million women — are sexually active.

“These days, fewer adults are married, and many more single people are sexually active than before the birth control pill,” Mapes said. “With this many people having sex, there will be lots of unwanted pregnancy.”

In the midst of a what seems to be a progressive generation, 30 years of legislation is being overturned by conservative policy. As the pressure to restrict abortions increases, women must continue speaking out to ensure the freedom to their own body. ____________________________________ Kaley Belval is a freshman documentary studies and production major hatin’ on the backlash. Email her at kbelval1@ ithaca.edu. Image by David Lurvey.

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12/5/11 1:28:29 AM

Mister, I’ll Make a Man Out Of You

The pressure on men (and women) to fit the masculine mold

By Cady Lang

P

Women have been able to adopt masculine qualities, because our society values masculinity. But it’s still socially unacceptable for a man to wear a skirt or run a household — things that have been generally associated with being feminine. And while women are often applauded for exhibiting traditionally masculine traits, men and women alike are often demeaned for displaying stereotypically feminine qualities.

Society still regards feminine values as negative and worthless.

In order for us to change the way we view gender, we need to assign value to qualities associated with both masculinity and femininity without stigma. In fact, we should assign value to human qualities, regardless of gender. We need to reevaluate masculinity and its limitations as well as the consequences of allowing it to influence our society.

Twenty-something men need to stick it to the man — literally — by challenging the idea of masculinity. ____________________________________ Cady Lang is a sophomore journalism major who doesn’t mind bro-ing out.

Email her at clang1@ithaca.edu

Upfront

The idea of masculinity is narrow.

Men who want to maintain t h e i r privileged positions in society are forced to reject anything that isn’t masculine, which can limit the way that they relate to others and the way that they express themselves socially and emotionally.

Carla Golden, an Ithaca College psychology professor, believes this limitation is due to gender construction.

“Part of masculinity is being non-emotional and I see that as part of the construction of masculinity and femininity as being opposite,” she said. “I think that human beings have emotions, that human beings have feelings and vulnerabilities. And if men, trying to live up to the real-men ideology, have to ignore those, I think that has huge costs.”

The unique thing about this struggle is that men are not oppressed, but rather repressed. Since women and other socially marginalized groups have already been devalued in their societal roles, they tend to be less scrutinized for their behavior. Men, on the other hand have a higher pressure to conform to social mores if they want to maintain their roles in society.

Lewis Kendall, an Ithaca College sophomore, feels that pressure from his friends. “I feel like I’ve shaped my personality in a certain way based on the expectation of my peers, when in reality, that’s not who I am.”

And unlike women, who have been relatively able to assume masculine qualities and roles in society, men are still unable to display feminine traits and qualities without stigma. It’s a matter of our social values system.

Image by Georgie Morley

oor 20-something year-old men. Actually, let me clarify.

Poor 20-something white, middle-class, heterosexual males.

This particular group of “privileged” individuals have been under siege for a while in American society. Obviously, they haven’t had to overcome the challenges of being a racial minority in an institutionally white society.

They haven’t had to deal with being discriminated against due to their sexual orientation. They still earn 30 cents more per dollar than women.

In fact, it seems ridiculous to focus on why these American males need help. Even though they’ll probably have no problems getting a job or being able to meld into white, uppermiddle class America, young men still have to deal with the idea and the limitations of masculinity.

Masculine, as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, means, “having qualities or appearance traditionally associated with men, especially strength and aggressiveness.”

Behaving in a masculine manner or having masculine character traits, however, carries much more social weight than this definition can provide.

The definition implies masculinity is everything that is not feminine or associated with women. If we draw the lines of masculinity at the absence of femininity, it creates a dualistic social system that disallows acceptance for fluidity or variance outside of the gender binary, creating a value system incredibly skewed toward men who fit this idea of “manhood”.

Rebecca Plante, a sociology professor at Ithaca College, thinks that this social system is maintained by the constraints of masculinity.

“Masculinity — it’s the ways in which we ask men to keep themselves at a distance. Guys made the world and there’s this irony that they made this narrow world,” Plante said. “Holding power is always double edged; there are some massive benefits to the guy at the top of the pyramid: the white heterosexual, upper-middle class guy. He does get some benefit, but at whose and what expense?”

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12/5/11 1:28:31 AM

Service and Self-Discovery

How national service organizations help graduates find their way

By Kerry Tkacik

A

called MercyWorks was her perfect middle ground. At the Mercy Home for Boys and Girls in Chicago, a residential treatment center for young adults, Rogers taught teens how to volunteer, write résumés, shake hands, how to get jobs and maintain them.

All of Rogers’ energies were devoted to service, especially because Rogers lived at Mercy Home.

“You’re living for others that entire year, 24/7, so I got the entire experience of service,” she said.

After her year was up, Rogers decided to stay put, accepting a position at Mercy Home in order to continue her service.

Kate Tkacik graduated from St. Bonaventure University with Rogers and found herself in a similar situation, so she applied Sarah Coon with her Teach For America class in San Jose, Calif.

Photo courtesy of Sarah Coon for AmeriCorps.

“I’d started working with a kid through a vocational internship through my even. But what if we don’t know what college, and it called on strengths and we want to do?

Some enter a state of limbo, located passions I didn’t know I had,” Tkacik somewhere between college and a said. “It got me all fired up about the career. Graduates who feel unsure systems these kids get stuck in. I about what to do next are increasingly wanted to help.”

Tkacik became a tutoring turning to two popular national organizations, AmeriCorps and Teach coordinator in the Learning Center at for America. Developed in 1993 and Mercy Home, working to match kids 1989, respectively, AmeriCorps who needed educational support with averages at about 85,000 volunteers volunteer community members. Tkacik annually and Teach for America found her calling, and still works as a accepted about 5,200 students this Learning Center coordinator.

Tkacik said getting kids to read year. These organizations allow graduates time to learn more about more is her greatest accomplishment, themselves and what they want to and that working for money will never do, while still being able to “get things be her motivation.

Tkacik said, “If you aren’t doing done,” as the AmeriCorps member service work, you shouldn’t be pledge states.

After graduating from St. working.”

Sarah Coon, a 2001 graduate from Bonaventure University in 2008, Katherine Rogers was one of these George Washington University, did not graduates who felt unsure about know how she wanted to contribute to exactly what she wanted to do. the education system, but she always Rogers’ ideas ranged from the Peace had in mind the goal of opening and Corps to graduate school, but she had running camps for high-risk kids. a stronger inclination toward service. Coon thus decided to join the ranks The prospect of a year volunteering of Teach for America after earning an with an AmeriCorps sponsored, faith- undergraduate degree.

“It sounded like a good opportunity based community volunteer program

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

merica’s education system: a shiny bubble-wrapped, predestined package that includes undergraduate and graduate studies. Then, the moment the diploma hits our palm, we break out of the box like a chick from a shell as we step out into the world to start the job search, and to start making our millions. It’s a good plan, a great one

to learn about education,” she said.

Coon taught in a first grade classroom in San Jose, Calif. The majority of her students were Mexican immigrants who had very low English skills.

“Some of them didn’t know the alphabet coming into my class,” Coon said. “So for them to leave reading full books was really exciting.”

Her rewarding Teach for America experience ultimately led Coon to a job in education. She now works in a district office for a network of charter schools in New York and Connecticut.

Jenny Pickett, a 1998 graduate from Ithaca College, left IC feeling lost as to what to do in the professional world.

As a Habitat for Humanity enthusiast, Pickett liked the idea of working for Habitat sponsored by AmeriCorps.

“I realized that I had been involved with Habitat all four years and that I enjoyed it,” Pickett said. “So when I heard about the program it seemed like a good way to bide my time to figure out what I wanted to do. I loved it.”

After her first year of service Pickett willingly signed on for a second year.

“I just felt like there was need in this country,” said Pickett. “For me it didn’t make sense to go elsewhere when I knew I could make a difference here.”

Pickett later landed a job at Ithaca College, coordinating the reparation of residence buildings. Pickett said it’s a job that her Habitat background makes her well suited for — one that she never thought existed.

Stepping outside of the norm and exploring our options after college appears to be one way to find ourselves and decide where we fit into the job market. Devoting our precious post-graduate time to service may not be conventional, but it helped these four women, as well as thousands of their peers discover their professional selves. ____________________________________ Kerry Tkacik is a junior journalism major who will help change the nation after graduation. Email her at ktkacik1@ithaca.edu.

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12/5/11 1:28:32 AM

Will Work for Free

A look at the booming business of unpaid internships

By Kristin Leffler

D

for students with some handson experience in addition to what they’re learning in the classroom,” she said. “Students getting some sort of experience in internships is really helpful for them.”

Loubier also struggled to find a paid position after college. She took out a loan in order to work as an unpaid intern in New York City that she is still paying off. She then moved back to New Hampshire and took a full-time paid position, but soon discovered it

and has recently been hired as a paid employee, working 30 hours per week. Even as a paid employee, she needs to work a second job, putting in about another 30 hours a week at a restaurant.

“I’m never home, but it has actually been an adventure. I feel like for me being at this age, this is the time to be busy and be doing lots of stuff,” she said. “It’s okay to be a little tight on money.”

Erin Dunphy, a junior journalism major at IC, felt the pressure of finding an internship the summer after her sophomore year.

“We’re a very competitive generation, we’re out to crush people,” she said.

She landed a paid internship with ABC News Now right before the start of the 2011 summer after, a long and discouraging internship search.

“It was the most stressful experience of my life,” she said. “I just felt awful about myself. All of a sudden I kept thinking: I have so many loans, what if this happens in two years when I go to get a job? What if I can’t find something?”

For many 20somethings, getting thrown into a time of high unemployment rates and high expectations makes Tori Loubier at her internship at Stay Classy. internship positions very Photo courtesy of stayclassy.com. appealing. Student loans, intense peer competition, wasn’t what she wanted to be doing. and a bad economy make it more After searching on Craigslist for difficult for young people to balance opportunities, Loubier was attracted getting career experience and just to the young energy of a start up getting by, but many can foresee the company in California called Stay benefits internships have on careers.

Classy. She left paid employment on “It’s not necessarily you are working the east coast for yet another unpaid for free,” Dunphy said. “You’re working internship. toward your future.”

“For me, it was worth it to take a ___________________________________ step back going from a paid job to an Kristin Leffler is a sophomore journalunpaid job because Stay Classy was ism major who is only on her 17th the type of atmosphere that I wanted internship. Email her at kleffle1@ to be in,” she said. ithaca.edu.

Loubier worked for six months as an unpaid intern at Stay Classy,

Upfront

uring a summer at the New Hampshire State House, Ben Savard sorted through mail and emails sent to New Hampshire’s governor: concerns and thank yous were transcribed into concise messages, death threats were handled by someone of a higher authority and the weekly Pixar or Disney-themed postcards from a random Florida resident were put into an entirely separate file. The following summer at Florentine Films, Savard helped make a database of all the images ever used in a Ken Burns documentary, read over scripts and answered phones.

And so was the life of an unpaid intern.

“I was doing necessary things that other people needed to do but had skills that were being put to better use not doing them,” said Savard, a sophomore film major at Middlebury College. “It was very, very cool being a small cog in the machinery but still being a part of the process and helping things move forward.”

Internships are becoming an increasingly important aspect of career preparation. Of 20,000 college graduates in 2011 that were surveyed by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, more than 50 percent had worked as interns during their college career. Half of those internships were unpaid.

For many young people trying to bolster their resumes, skill sets and networks, unpaid internships are worth the financial burden they may cause. Tori Loubier graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a journalism degree in 2010, a summer when 4.4 million youth ages 16 to 24 were unemployed.

“I had to expect I was probably only going to find unpaid internships,” Loubier said.

Between 1999 and 2009, undergraduate enrollment increased 38 percent, sending more and more college graduates into the workplace.

Kristin LiBritz, an Employer Relations Coordinator at Ithaca College’s Career Services center, helps students use their college years to best prepare for future careers.

“Employers are often looking

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12/5/11 1:28:33 AM

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

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12/5/11 1:28:35 AM

Curtailing Conformity 20-somethings are resisiting the conventional paths laid out for them

By Emily Brown

“

It’s happening all over, in all sorts of families, not just young people moving back home but also young people taking longer to reach adulthood overall,” claims writer Robin Marantz Henig in her New York Times piece, “What Is It About 20-Somethings?: Why are so many people in their twenties taking so long to grow up?”

Upfront

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12/5/11 1:28:38 AM

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

As 20-somethings begin to break free from the confinements of conformity, taking time to learn more about themselves and what they want to do, Henig, as well as others, are talking about 20-year-olds as if they have some type of Peter Pan disorder.

Yet perhaps it’s not that we’re “afraid to grow up,” but we have less faith in the traditional life path, and we’ve found more value in figuring out life for ourselves.

Henig defines adulthood as the completion of “five traditional milestones:” graduating school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying and having a child. After questioning new lifestyle trends of 20-somethings who are taking longer to reach these milestones, she concludes this phenomenon to be a newly discovered period of psychological development called the “emerging adult,” a sort of late bloomer.

Yet, this “psychological development” is not being treated as merely a new discovery, but as a newfound illness.

Some psychological institutions are even being created to help care for “emerging adults.” One of these institutions is Yellowbrick, a private physician-owned and operated psychiatric healthcare organization, which states on its website that its mission is “to provide a full-spectrum, specialized approach to the emotional, psychological and developmental challenges of emerging adults.”

This new label is a way to capitalize on young people who feel lost or parents’ fear for their own profit, rendering those who fit within its loose and broad definition mentally incompetent.

Yellowbrick, located outside of Chicago, appears to be more like a retreat or spa with classes in motivational assessment, job readiness, interview pr eparation, yoga, art

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therapy and Tempered Tones Toward 20-Something martial arts.

Yellowbrick Spark of Creation Therapy is a group practice of psychotherapists in would not Evanston, Illinois. The website claims 20-somethings expected good forrespond to tune after graduation, leaving this group feeling personally betrayed by requests to be the government and history. In a blog entry by Jack Rosenberger on their interviewed. website, they stated problems and solutions concerning 20-somethings It is and employment. irresponsible Many 20-somethings have not kept up with the rate of how the to recognize world is changing both economically and politically. For example, the “emerging many of my 20-somethings have not registered to vote in the upadult” label coming election. They sometimes even wear their ignorance of what is going on in the world as a badge of ideological purity. exists and claim it should Since their emotions freeze their emotional advancement, they be taken as lose the nimbleness necessary to compete and thus to thrive. a legitimate m e n t a l handicap in need of memories, along with the number specialized attention. This overlooks of social, economic and religious the reality that adulthood is rather influences all contribute to the overall ambiguous, both on a legal and creation of the individual. Thus, biological level. one cannot help but wonder about “The line of adulthood is blurry,” said Derek Thompson, senior editor the number of adults that divorce of The Atlantic, who wrote a counter because they and their spouses have argument to Henig’s New York Times changed since they first got married; piece. “You can drink at 21, but fight the number of housewives who are for your country at 18, and see nudity unsatisfied with their lives and go out on a large screen at 17. The law isn’t into the professional world, explore themselves, and their career options; any clearer than biology.”

Adulthood in western culture is a and the number of balding men in concept with no clear point of beginning sports cars driving down the street.

Not only is our increase in within the life of the individual. With its ambiguous definition and ability to self-discovery a factor in our span generations, this new “emerging unconventional paths, but so is the adult” label has been highly criticized current political climate. by sociologists and economists, and has “Half a century ago, it might have been questioned by psychologists. been normal to graduate from college, “I’m not ready to accept that this marry in your lower 20s, have a kid, is a new age class or embrace it as settle down at a nice firm, put in your anything,” said Jonathan Laskowitz, 40 years and clock out with a gooda sociology professor at Ithaca looking pension,” Thompson said.

College who specializes in “But that’s not the world we live in.” youth delinquency and Indeed times definitions of normality. have changed: “There are other ways to there are a measure adulthood and g r o w i n g maturity.” number of After all, c o l l e g e identity exploration graduates, an is a lifelong economy process. New i n experiences

‘‘ ’’ on top of old

Images by Cecily Brown

12/5/11 1:28:39 AM

’

recession, and a national unemployment rate of 9 percent.

Twenty-somethings may be losing faith in the American Dream and any sort of “steps” to success and happiness.

“Millions of kids have to take on lots of debt to get through school and then they’ve graduated into a horrible economy where the price of essentials like health care and energy aren’t going down but the opportunities to be paid to afford them are going down,” Thompson said.

As there are a variety of socioeconomic factors that contribute to adulthood, Laskowitz reminds us not to forget the “emerging adult” label is a term used mainly to describe those who are most fortunate.

“This label is really only applicable to privileged individuals who are not meeting those ‘milestones,’” he said. “I bet there are a lot of other kids from low-income communities in their twenties who would like the opportunity to grow up, but most of them already have.”

Stephen Hamilton, a developmental psychology professor from Cornell University agreed, “It is not universal.

The ‘emerging’ path ... is practically defined by extended higher education and is predominantly middle class or higher.”

Hamilton explains how there are three other groups of 20-somethings all partially defined in relation to their socio-economic status.

“One follows a ‘traditional’ path -actually not traditional but familiar in the mid-twentieth century, which tends to be the point of reference. Another follows the ‘emerging’ path … This group is practically defined by extended higher education and is predominantly middle class or higher. A third group assumes partial adult responsibilities prematurely — h a v i n g children a n d / o r working

instead of going to school. The fourth group’s path to adulthood is blocked by the absence of economic opportunity. They are unable to marry or support children because no jobs are available.”

This new label of emerging adult is a sign of a changing society and another generation’s inability to accept this change. Social change is always met with resistance and this legitimization of a new stage in mental development by some of the psychological community signifies an inability to accept an organic process.

We as a younger generation cannot completely conform to the traditional five milestones either by choice, or because of life circumstances.

Perhaps it is time to recognize that times are changing, the economy is changing and American culture is changing. The idea of “emerging adulthood” tries to put us into boxes and conform us to the norm. Instead of labeling a select group of young people who return to the nest or who explore their identity through alternative ways, we should embrace this change and other ways of living.

It is normal to change your mind throughout your lifetime; that is how we grow and develop as individuals. In order to become healthy individuals who are well-rounded and happy with ourselves, it is important to make mistakes and grow — anyone who says otherwise is selling something. ____________________________________ Emily Brown is a senior English and sociology major who has no clue what she is doing after graduation, and that is OK. Email her at ebrown1@ithaca. edu.

Coddled Generation the

- Meagan McGinnes

Upfront

Who knows youth culture better than 20-somethings? Ithaca College seems to agree. The college offers a popular freshman honors seminar taught by Elizabeth Bleicher. The class, called “Why Are We Here?” focuses on questioning the college generation. Each class session is led by two students from the class, who discuss the issues of the unit that affect youth culture and the college generation. In this seminar, Freshman Katie Huber is currently working on a synthesis project assessing the teachings of sexual education in high school.

“It’s really different than any class I had in high school,” Huber said. “It made me realize how much power college students have. It’s made me think about what a college stands for.”

The seminar is composed of 11 units, ranging from failures in high school education to the economics of higher education.After five semesters of the class, previous students worked to compile a collection of readings that now encompass the curriculum.

“I’ve been exposed to really different viewpoints as far as why someone would choose a community college or an Ivy League.”

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BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

OL. MINISTRYofCOOL. MIN

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I Do Not Hook Up

The demise of chivalry and its “hook up” replacement

By Jenni Zellner

I

t’s easy to note the generational differences between students of today and their parents; going to college is harder, the job market is less than desirable and the prevalence of technology is inescapable. But we also differ from our parents in other ways, specifically the way in which we interact with our peers. This means relationships — or lack thereof.

While “going steady,” was at one time the common term to describe student relationships, now the phrase “hooking up” has run just as rampant as the activity itself. When did dating become archaic and obsolete? Why has our generation accepted hooking up as the norm rather than the exception?

Although we may hear about our friend’s antics last weekend, or have seen every teen movie about college, hooking up isn’t actually as prevalent as we may think it to be.

According to research collected

by Lisa Wade, assistant professor of sociology at Occidental College, only 15 percent of students will “hook up” ten or more times in college, and 25 percent will never hook up at all. In fact, it is mostly due to the “hook up culture” stereotype that college students arrive at college expecting to hook up.

“The mass media presents college

or when I hook-up with someone I immediately text someone about it. So at three in the morning I’m walking back from wherever, and I’m managing seventeen texts from people asking me ‘OMG, who, what, tell tell!’”

Bittarelli agreed with Plante’s belief that technology is related to the expediency factor that is intrinsic to hooking up.

“Texting certainly changed the game,” he said. “You don’t even need to talk with someone really to hook up with them. Once you get someone’s number — I’ve actually done this plenty of times myself — you text someone and you head over, and you proceed to hook up. I’d say there really is a loss of communication.”

So while an ease in communication, among other factors, contributes to students’ decisions to hook up, it cannot be denied that this new take on relationships is playing a significant role in 20-somethings lives. The question is not how we should stop this behavior, but rather look at how it impacts the lives of students. Although it frequently ends in confusion and hurt feelings, perhaps as Plante said, we can begin to revaluate how we hook up with each other.

“I think, though it may not seem this way, that people learn how necessary it is to respect one another,” she said. “Because there is a lot of actual disrespect that hooking up engenders, like people hook up and the next day one person acts like the other person is invisible, and someone gets hurt.

We can make the mistake in thinking that sex with respect is what married people do.”

If we can change the hook up game, as Plante says, and learn to respect each other as well as ourselves, perhaps we’ll begin to figure out a few things by the time were 30- or 40somethings. ____________________________________ Jenni Zellner is a junior English major who thinks a polyamorous lifestyle is a viable option. Email her at jzellne1@ ithaca.edu.

Ministry of Cool

Image by Georgie Morley

as a place where an extraordinary amount of sex is happening … and what we tend to see is that a lot of first year students are more likely to hook up than second years students and so on,” Wade said. “It’s really that first year when students come on to campus naïve and with a lot of misconceptions about what college is about.”

Ithaca College senior Marq Bittarelli agreed that hooking up isn’t indicative of all college students, particularly upperclassmen.

“I think it’s pretty passé to hook up nonchalantly,” he said. “It seems like that was so freshman and sophomore year. I guess I’d say I got it out of my system. I don’t see it the same way I used to. I think now I’d prefer to date actually.”

So if hooking up isn’t as pervasive as one would think, then why are students doing it? According to Wade’s research, students hook up intending to get three things out of their casual relationships: pleasure, meaningfulness or empowerment.

But most of her students reported being dissatisfied with their hook ups.

Students are heading into these kinds of relationships with the expectation that they will get something beneficial out of it, but don’t.

But if students aren’t achieving their desires, then why bother hooking up? Rebecca Plante, associate professor of sociology and planned studies coordinator at Ithaca College, believes that the popularity of hooking up could be connected to the rise of social media.

“There is this sense that everyone is doing it, or the appearance of social acceptability that the way to conceptualize my intimate life is without privacy,” she said. “The way that I conceptualize it is that it’s totally public, so when I hook up with someone, it goes on Facebook,

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Call Me, Tweet Me If You Need Me Social media gives a voice to 20-somethings

Image by Catherine Fisher

By Francesca Toscano

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

I

am a slave to social media.

Nothing excites me more than tweeting clever musings or seeing a scandalous break-up pop up in my Facebook mini-feed. I read Perez Hilton more times a day than the New York Times and my obsession with cat blogs borders on neurotic.

However, I am not alone. Today’s generation is fascinated with talking about themselves and stalking others using modern internet technologies.

Our generation has become undeniably narcissistic, with an insatiable need to be noticed via obnoxious Facebook updates or mundane tweets. Therefore, many individuals become obsessed with how many people are actually reading their posts. For Ithaca College sophomore and self-made Twitter celebrity Josh Sherman, also known as @iamjosherman, an innocent link between his vlog and Twitter account resulted in a staggering following of more than 3,000.

“There was almost two years between my first and third tweets. I honestly thought the site would never take off,” Sherman said.

Not only has Twitter taken off, but so has Sherman’s popularity on the site. He received a direct message on Twitter from an organization that offers heavily-followed users money for tweeting about their products.

“I’m a poor college kid, and I couldn’t think of any reason against it, so I did it for a little while, but now not so much,” Sherman said.

However, reaching social-mediaceleb status does have its pitfalls, because with great Twitter power comes great responsibility.

“I made a slightly controversial comment on Twitter about a recent news story and before I knew it, I had about twenty people I didn’t know retweeting me,” Sherman said. “But on the other hand, about ten or so people yelling at me over my opinion.”

Social media has also infiltrated the world of news reporting. Today, subjective blogs are often turned to for both general news and updates in niche areas of interest. Sophomore Olivia Consol, Ithaca College’s representative for the blog College Fashionista, reports on the latest campus trends for readers worldwide.

She explained that compared to

traditional journalism, blogging has bonuses for readers.

“I think people are willing to sacrifice credibility for accessibility and because blogs usually have narrower topics, people get more personalized news,” Consol said, and noted that blogging is a great option for writers, as well.

“I have the freedom to work on my time and I have very few constraints,” she said. Still, she added “the freedom makes it hard to buckle down and get stuff done so I tend to procrastinate.”

According to Doug Firebaugh, the man behind the popular blog Social Media Blogster, the reasoning behind our generation’s obsession with social media is attributed to the basic human needs for belonging and esteem, which are part of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory. After studying the psychology of social media for three and a half years, he created the Seven Psychological As of Social Media: to be acknowledged, to gain attention, to be approved of, to be appreciated, to be acclaimed, to feel assured and to be a part of.

Sherman’s beliefs behind the psychology of social media align with Firebaugh’s assertion.

“I think people obsess a little over their follower count because I feel everyone inherently wants their fifteen minutes of fame,” he explained. “So if this website offers a few more than fifteen, why not give it your all?”

Although older generations may not understand our generation’s narcissistic and borderline stalker tendencies involved with social media sites, we have simply found a way to cyber-accomplish human needs.

“Our generation is obsessed now more than ever with social media because it is shrinking our world and making long-distance communication easier than ever,” Sherman said.

So stalk your ex-boyfriend’s Facebook wall or Britney Spears’ Twitter page with pride, 20somethings, because on the road to self-discovery, social media may be the missing link. ____________________________________ @frantoscano is a sophomore IMC major who only wrote this article so you’d follow here on Twitter. #butactually.

Email her at ftoscan1@ithaca.edu.

THREE

Blogs You Should Follow 1.Texts from Bennett textsfrombennett.tumblr.com Mac, the blogger behind Texts from Bennett, posts pictures of text messages from his cousin Bennett, who is a 17-yearold white boy who is disillusioned into believing he is a ghetto hood rat. Bennett’s hilarious antics and uneducated rants will be sure to make you ROFL.

2. Paula Deen Riding Things www.pauladeenridingthings.com Paula Deen, successful restauranteur and America’s premiere butter enthusiast, has a charismatic personality that is sure to attract any foodie. How does one make her even more interesting, you ask? Photoshop her on top of things.

This hysterical blog provides pages upon pages of Paula Deen riding everything imaginable.

3. Hell Yes Hipster Disney hellyeshipsterdisney.tumblr.com If you don’t know all of the lyrics to Aladdin’s “A Whole New World,” you either did not have a childhood or lack a soul. For the rest of us Disney lovers, Hell Yes Hipster Disney takes some of our most beloved Disney characters and makes them hipster. Whether it’s Ariel in thick-rimmed glasses or Pocahontas rocking a scarf, Hell Yes Hipster Disney transforms the characters of yesterday into today’s stereotypes.

- Francesca Toscano

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Social Networking

How Twitter is the new cover letter and résumé Image by Georgie Morley

By Marc Phillips

Y

the Internet’s many resources.

While technology-based fields such as social media and web design puzzle older generations, young adults are selling their knowledge by offering digital services.

Similar to Wormsley, I found my freelance job with The BoatYard Grill in Ithaca by chance.

I noticed the Facebook and Twitter accounts for the restaurant had been overrun with spam, duplicate posts, pixelated images and grammatical mistakes. I sent a Facebook message to restaurant’s manager (who is now my boss) and asked to assist in social media obligations. I am always learning how to create more effective strategies and marketing and The BoatYard Grill is giving me the opportunity. My responsibilities include responding to customers’ wall posts and tweets, creating promotions and buying ads on Facebook.

My friends joke I should major in Facebook and minor in Twitter, but those sentiments led me to build my online, social media portfolio — and expanded it to include a number of other companies.

Harnessing the power of social media might seem daunting, especially if you only use your accounts for following celebrity gossip or creeping on cute classmates. It is possible to find the happy medium and further your career. In a rough economy, jobs are scarce and young adults often need guidance if they are not sure of career options. With so many students graduating with nearly the same credentials, it is important to stand out among competition.

Elizabeth Venturini, president of Scholasticus, is a for-hire college admissions counselor. She said she has two types of clients: those who are focused and those who are in panic mode.

“There’s been a definite shift in the mindset of students as recent as 2009.

Students and parents I’m working with today are more career-oriented as the price of higher education continues to rise,” Venturini said.

Venturini is based out of Orange

County, Calif. and mentioned a standout client who has sights set on working in Silicon Valley.

“I coached [the client] to follow his interests, have a resume for visiting tradeshows, and to have a clean online presence,” Venturini said.

Junior Silvia Magana became an Intern Queen campus ambassador by tweeting at the Queen herself, Lauren Berger.

“I first heard of [Berger] at a Public Relations Student Society of America meeting and started following her on Twitter immediately. Berger tweeted about campus ambassadors, so I asked to be one for Ithaca,” Magana said.

Berger, whose career is based on helping students get internships and careers, is the poster child (or poster young adult) for 20-somethings seeking employment. Magana’s responsibilities include assisting promotions, creating blogs and spreading knowledge of the Intern Queen’s website.

“I blog for her monthly or bi-monthly depending on her schedule,” Magana said. “I’m also working on projects to promote her new book. It’s hard since we can’t solicit, but we have to be creative in how we get it out there.”

Magana estimated that Berger has more than 120 interns — all of whom applied online, many of whom opened the line of communication with a simple tweet. Magana will blog from Rome next semester — again appreciative of remote work opportunities.

One question remains and it’s up to young adults on how they will answer it: How will 20-somethings learn to work in a physical “workspace” after working remotely during college? ____________________________________ Marc Phillips is a junior IMC major who only thinks in 140 characters at a time.

Email him at mphilli1@ithaca.edu.

Ministry of Cool

ou can’t spell Internet without intern.

While many see it as a way to embarrass friends or stalk an ex’s digital life, some see it as an opportunity to network and get hired as interns.

Not surprisingly, I’m talking about the potential of using social media to boost your résumé. What better way to interact with potential employers than to communicate directly in an open forum?

A clean, online persona can help students excel in the digital arena.

According to Mashable, more than 90 percent of job recruiters search applicants’ profiles as part of the hiring process. Recruiters get a crosssection of their ideal applicant — such as his or her thoughts, interests or personality — more so on an entertainment platform than in a job application. In short, if you’re drunktweeting or professing your love of vodka on Facebook, make sure you delete the offensive content.

Baking for Good, a non-profit organization, tweeted about needing a new marketing director, but Ithaca College junior Colleen Wormsley offered herself as an intern. The avid tweeter, who claims to use Twitter more than Facebook, sent out a lighthearted response to Baking for Good’s tweet. Much to her surprise, the company responded favorably, asked for Wormsley’s resume, and hired her shortly thereafter.

Wormsley’s tasks align perfectly with her Integrated Marketing Communications major: seeking partnerships to strengthen brand recognition, designing promotional materials and creating social media strategies. Since the internship is remote work, Wormsley enjoys the flexible hours.

“There are many nights when I’m working on Baking for Good projects at 11 p.m. or later and I couldn’t do that if it wasn’t an online internship,” said Wormsley.

Since commercial Internet access became available in the early 1990s, nearly all 20-somethings grew up with a connection to the World Wide Web. It is fitting for the first generation who grew up with rapid access to information, to take advantage of

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Idle Worship of Celebrities

A look into who and what is shaping our generation

By Kait Hulbert

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

Image by Clara Goldman

K

im Kardashian filed for divorce just 72 days after saying “I do.” Last year, Lindsay Lohan spent more time in the criminal justice system than she spent out of it. Britney Spears dated Justin Timberlake, married K-Fed, shaved her head and raised two children in between multiple stints in rehab.

These aren’t really problems, at the very least they’re not problems that should be effecting society at large.

Kim’s lack of foresight, Lindsay’s contempt for the law and Britney’s general state of mayhem are sad, but as individual events, that’s really all they are. But they’re not just individual events — they exist within a culture that nurtures

and adolescents,” Scheibe said. “But by college age, people are more sophisticated and individualistic in terms of who they see as someone they admire.”

It’s at this age that celebrity influence becomes more than just an unconscious, unavoidable media effect. It becomes a conscious life choice. Some psychologists and media scholars believe celebrity influence is strong, and that the threat they pose is a valid o n e , because celebrities have the

celebrity idolization.

The week that Kim Kardashian got married, the Google search rate for “Kim Kardashian” was ten times higher than that of “Libya.”

The question isn’t whether American youth has a slight obsession with celebrities.

We do, and the obsession is probably more than a slight one. From early childhood, we’re inundated with celebrity images from a media environment nearly saturated with celebrity idolization. The question isn’t even why; it’s a question of effect, and the answer lies in determining what role celebrities actually play in the lives of today’s 20-somethings.

According to Cyndy Scheibe, director of Ithaca College’s Media Literacy initiative Project Look Sharp, that role is different than the one celebrities play in the lives of children, pre-teens and adults.

“On some level everyone is affected by celebrities — certainly children

potential to do a great amount of harm.

Thin, p r e t t y women a n d s t r o n g , good-looking, muscular men epitomize success in the industry, in which people with zero respect for the law or any inclination to behave according to social norms thrive.

College students especially seem to want nothing more than that level of success. A Pew Research Center poll found that 81 percent of students ages 18-24 valued “getting rich” as their most important or second most important life goal.

According to Scheibe, it’s within that complex that celebrity modeling finds it greatest potential for harm. She added that modeling relationships predicated on materialism “tend to set up an unrealistic expectation about the possibility that you could become

like them — and that’s so very rare.”

If college students want to live like Kim Kardashian — and the statistics say they do — it makes sense that they’d want to act like her as well.

Child psychologist Fred Eisner is a clear supporter of this “strong effects theory,” which he explained means that celebrities have a huge effect on college students and influence everything from fashion to choice of music to way students think.

“College students are vulnerable because they’re forming their identities, and they’re not always enlightened enough to see the effects culture can have on them,” Eisner said. Understandably, the less aware students are of unconscious role modeling, the less likely they are to look for it, and the less likely they are to control for it.

But what about celebrities whose strongest relationships aren’t with parole officers and bartenders?

Celebrities like Kristen Bell, Anne Hathaway and even Justin Bieber are young and successful, but use their success as platforms for promoting social justice and change.

Last year, Bell raised $69,000 with mycharity: water. According to Eisner, the effect is fundamentally the same for celebrities with positive influence.

“Students are always copycatting, and you get both ends,” he said, explaining that students are just as likely to become involved with a charity as they are to pick up fashion tips from celebrities. It just depends of what they’re looking for.

Yet, some media scholars — such as Brenda McDaniel — argue that it really doesn’t matter what a celebrity is doing, as their influence is minimal.

“College students do nominate celebrities as role model but in terms of the impact on personality and behavior, personally known role models are more influential,” she said.

Despite what we’d like to think, we don’t actually know anything

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behavior as “modeling” and affirmed that it is “one of the most powerful forms of teaching.” Understandably, the more time we spend with actual people, the more influence they can have on us, and despite wishes otherwise, reading a two-page spread in People covering the intricacies of Kardashian’s wedding dress isn’t actually a substitute for an honest personal connection.

And it’s not as though students on college campuses today are lacking in accomplishments. As admissions requirements become more intense, even incoming freshmen are walking onto campus with impressive resumes.

By junior and senior year, students are in high positions — as editors, presidents, student government body members— and these are people that actually are accessible. They’re other students that live and learn on campuses. According to McDaniel, if the students are actually spending time with these peer role model, the “positive pro-social behavior will ‘rub off’ on the individual.”

Idolizing Kim Kardashian — regardless of her power or prestige or media presence — simply can’t have that effect because reading People doesn’t equate to actually having a relationship with a person.

But Eisner isn’t so quick to discount the power of celebrity role modeling, arguing that one relationship isn’t necessarily stronger, just different.

On a day-to-day basis, he conceded that “people you’re closest to have a greater effect than those who are far away because you’re more likely to adapt to them.”

He added that the type of modeling that’s most powerful is heavily dependent on the student. Students with lower self-esteem are more likely to gravitate towards peers with lower standards, whereas an incredibly confident student “is going to be more likely to copy individuals who do successful things — celebrities included.”

So, go ahead stalk Lindsay Lohan on Twitter — just remember to twitter stalk the class president too. ____________________________________ Kait Hulbert is a freshman IMC major who wants to be Peter Pan when she grows up. Email her at khulber2@ ithaca.edu.

Do It Anyway 20-Something author Courtney Martin wrote the book Do it Anyway, which explores the lives and motivations of eight ordinary people changing the world in extraordinary ways. Kristin Leffler interviewed her to find out what inspires our generation.

Q

: What makes the “20-something” generation different from those in the past?

A

: Like every generation, we were raised with our own cultural, economic and political influences.

Q A

: What stereotypes have you found attached to this generation?

: Many mainstream media pundits and academic researchers say that we’re apathetic, but I think we’re actually overwhelmed. The problems of the world are so complex, so interconnected, and it’s not easy to figure out how to “use your life.” We’re also pegged as narcissistic, amoral and a host of other not-so-flattering stereotypes — all of which I see as misperceptions in one way or another. Of course there are narcissists in every generation, and ours is no different, but just because we have Facebook profiles doesn’t mean that we’re only focused on ourselves.

Many of us use Facebook, for example, to spread the word about issues or causes we care about.

Q

: In your book Do It Anyway, you told the stories of young individuals making changes in a world plagued with problems.What did you learn from doing these interviews?

A

: That we need to aim to succeed wildly — changing huge, broken systems — and root our self-esteem in daily acts of kindness and justice. We need to aim for good failure.

Ministry of Cool

more about Kim Kardashian than we can learn from E! and People. As obvious as that may seem, that’s not a concept consciously understood by all students, and that comprehension gap can lead to what Scheibe refers to as parasocial relationships.

“We tend to think that we have an actual relationship with celebrities and other people we only ‘know’ through the media,” Scheibe said.

“And we don’t — and they certainly don’t know us.”

These types of relationships not only lead to warped life views, but they’re also inherently one-sided, and a relationship not sanctioned by half the people in it can only be so powerful.

Celebrity influence then is often shallow, penetrating only deep enough to influence fashion decisions and hairstyles and products. At that point, is it even truly the celebrity’s influence, or are 20-somethings instead modeling themselves after human advertisments? Kim Kardashian officially endorses more than twenty products, including a questionable weight loss supplement, Sketchers, an in-home laser hair removal system and Charmin toilet paper.

Vendors are well aware of her reach and of the bizarrely strong attachments her fans have to her. According to Bryan Roberts, associate dean of the Park School and media effects scholar, as long as that attachment remains strong, the relationship between a celebrity and a brand will remain strong and someone like Kardashian is going to continue to be used as a tool to sell products. But when college students model themselves after these choices, they’re not actually modeling themselves after anyone; they’re simply consumers.

McDaniel said true role models for college students are more often found in true peers, and that “these individuals are likely to have one of the greatest influences on personality and behavior since the student spends a large amount of time with them.” They’re actual, tangible people with the potential to develop two-way relationships.

“It’s an actual relationship, which implies a two-way street and actual interactions,” Scheibe said, and added there’s an inherent strength in that type of relationship.

Eisner agreed, and defined the

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Every Day I’m Jugglin’

A technology toss that’s hurting deeper thought

By Lindsey Ahern

A

s I went to start this article, I opened a Word Document, typed the topic I planned to write about and immediately went to my Twitter, all while I Facebook stalked classmates and spoke on the phone to my boyfriend. This multitasking is my normal routine while trying to get anything of importance done.

Multitasking is a societal norm for college students today. With constant advancements in technology, it’s hard not to get sucked in while trying to complete tasks. While we prepare for tests or do our homework, we can’t help but log onto Facebook or Twitter, check our email, play games, text, listen to music and watch TV. We even do it when going out with our friends by checking our phone every few minutes awaiting a new text message as we take a bite of our favorite meals. We are all guilty of it, but why are young people especially susceptible?

According to psychologist Gloria Cantor, there is a belief that employers are looking for employees who can multitask because that is posted in many job listings. However, Cantor believes this to be untrue.

“If what you want from your employees is productivity or creativity, you won’t get it if you’re constantly interrupting them or asking them to focus on two things at a time,” Cantor said. “Multitasking allows only lower levels of brain power to be focused on each task.”

All the additions made to technology is another reason society has become obsessed multitasking. Years ago,

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

we didn’t have iPods, smart phones and tablets right in our pocket. We didn’t have the ability to see what our friends are doing, what the weather will be like, what sales are going on at our favorite stores and how our favorite sports team did, with just a few quick clicks. Technology has made multitasking convenient and easier to only pay partial attention to the tasks at hand.

Seton Hall University junior Evangelia Loizos said that upgrading to a smart phone this past year has made her productivity level decrease.

“It’s opened up a whole new world for me,” she said. “There are so many apps and I play Angry Birds every chance I get. I feel like I’m addicted and I can’t stop.”

With the addition of handheld technology, 20-somethings have become hungrier for instant gratification. When it comes to writing research papers, students are more likely to search online for information instead of taking time out of our days to go to the library and take out books for the topic because we lack the patience to complete such a time consuming task.

Ithaca College senior Katelyn Wright Image by Georgie Morley

explained the Internet is her primary resource when researching.

“I always look up sources for papers through Google,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever looked up books in the library without being required to.”

The final reason Cantor gave for multitasking is boredom. My own boredom led me to multitask and find the definition of multitasking as, “the art of distracting yourself from two things you’d rather not be doing by doing them simultaneously.”

In response to this definition, Cantor explained that while we may think we are making our work easier by adding another task, it is ultimately be detrimental.

“We don’t feel like doing work, so we watch television at the same it make it seem less tedious,” she said. “The problem is, it takes us longer to do the work, and we do it poorly. Plus, we don’t really enjoy the TV show because we keep missing the best parts.”

This raises the question: If we know multitasking hurts us more than it helps us, then why do we continue to participate in it as a society? According to Loizos, it’s because it’s a habit that’s hard to break.

“We’ve already been introduced to it,” Loizos said. “It’s hard to go back when we’ve become so accustomed to living our lives this way.” _____________________________________ Lindsey Ahern is a junior journalism major who could use an extra pair of hands. Email her at lahern1@ithaca. edu.

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No Strings Attached

By Sydney Fusto

I

can still remember the day I discovered what sex was. I was sitting on my living room floor, cradling my new Cabbage Patch Kid (remember those?), when suddenly I looked up at my mother and asked, “Mommy, where do babies come from?”

Boom. Killshot.

My mother was obviously shellshocked from the bomb I suddenly dropped in her lap, but she handled the moment with integrity and grace.

“Sweetheart … when a mommy and daddy love each other very much, the man puts his penis in the mommy’s vagina.”

She then ceremoniously patted me on the head and returned to Days of Our Lives.

The genius behind this explanation was that I was not yet familiar with the clinical terms for the male and female genitalia, being only 4 years old at the time. My mother had successfully perplexed me into submission with her fancy vocabulary footwork, and she knew further questions on the subject were not to be expected since I lost interest in subjects quite quickly once

we rose above words like “cat.”

However, the one thing I did take away from this conversation was that a mommy and a daddy were in love.

The actual act of sex I figured out for myself one day after school with the help of the Internet.

My first encounter with the “babymaking machine” (another one of my mother’s gems) was very soon after moving into college. I met this guy who I quickly developed a serious crush on. He was charming and very cute. We participated in some serious flirting that ensued for the next month, followed by some serious heavy petting — but no penetration … at the moment.

At the time, I was a virgin.

I remember him telling me on multiple occasions that he wasn’t looking for a relationship. I told him I wasn’t either.

It’s college, man. It’s casual.

Anyway, the moment of truth finally came. We were in his room on his bed, one by one my clothes came off until I was lying there, totally vulnerable to the elements and exposed. Suddenly I felt myself seize up. He didn’t know I was a virgin, and I made the executive decision right then and there not to let

him know he’d be popping my cherry.

Why? I felt that it would put too much pressure on the situation. And I was already naked. It’d be a waste if I dropped the V-Bomb now and freak him out.

He had no idea. At one point I thought the jig was up when he whispered in my ear, “God you’re so tight.”

“Uh … yeah,” I said. “Thanks?”

We’ve since gone our separate sexual paths, but I kept thinking, “Why did I feel the need to keep my virginity a secret?” It was because I didn’t want him feeling that I was going to get attached. And I didn’t. Not really.

But is this emphasis our generation has on emotional detachment regarding sex a good thing? Yes, it prevents things from getting ugly if something doesn’t work out, but it can also desensitize us to healthy sexual relationships. Casual flings can only satisfy up to a point.

The human condition needs emotional connections to survive, and this everpresent “no strings attached” idea could be causing more damage than prevention. Maybe it’s those “strings” that keep us from emotionally freefalling.

Ministry of Cool

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12/5/11 1:30:40 AM

RAW SAW

Stronger

FROM THE

Artist:

Kelly Clarkson

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

Released October 2011

When I tell people that one of my favorite singers is Kelly Clarkson, I usually get one of three responses: a) “Oh … Why?” b) “Wait, the girl from American Idol?” or c) “My preteen sister loves her!”

Today, a few weeks after the release of Stronger, Clarkson’s fifth studio album, I’d like to propose a different response to my affection for Kelly: “That bitch is awesome.”

Stronger isn’t Clarkson’s best, and the lead single, “Mr. Know-It-All,” is one of the weakest songs on the disc, but the tracks here continue to showcase what’s great about her. Her powerhouse voice is unmatched, and her massive range allows her to belt ridiculous notes that require you to rewind over and over again. The singer insisted that her producer use minimal, if any, autotune on her voice, a decision that the album definitely benefits from. It’s wonderful to hear her belt her heart out and know that she had little technological assistance, after all, she did get famous for singing live. Her vocals are particularly impressive on “What Doesn’t Kill You” and “Honestly,” where she laments the death of a relationship but looks toward better times.

Kelly’s optimistic perspective on break-ups — that they can be empowering, that she’s so moving on (yeah, yeah) — is what sets Stronger apart from other, more depressing break-up albums. That is, while Adele sings on 21 that she’ll do “everything different, be better for you,” Kelly is encouraging herself

to get over it, move on, and learn from the negative experience.

In fairness, you’d think that Clarkson would tire of making this sort of break-up album — and that her fan base would tire of listening to it. But no matter how many sad “let’s part ways” or angry “you broke my heart” songs she records — and they’re in no short supply here — they don’t get old. She communicates sorrow and grief, all while looking toward the future, so well that I just want more of it.

There’s a good mix of club synth beats and free-flowing ballads on Stronger, and as an album, it’s got a cohesive sound, message and energy that’s unapologetically pop.

But lyrically, Stronger really struggles. The disc’s lyrics are simply far too inconsistent.

While “You Can’t Win” features some really clever contradictions (“If you’re thin, call it a walking disease. If you’re not, they’re all screaming obese. If you’re straight, why aren’t you married yet? If you’re gay, why aren’t you waving a flag?”), many of the other songs feature lines that prompt more than a few eye rolls. We get it, Kelly, you’re angry and sad, but do you really think telling the bastard that “dumb plus dumb equals you” is going to sting?

In spite of some bad lyrics, Clarkson wowed me again. Let’s hope that this new album hits it big, gains some recognition, and allows me to stop having my musical preferences compared to those of a 14-year-old girl.

- Adam Polaski

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12/5/11 1:30:41 AM

Ceremonials Crazy Clown Time

Artist:

Florence + the Machine Released October 2011

Artist:

David Lynch Released November 2011

This can be heard specifically in the song “Never Let Me Go.” However disconcerting the beginning of the album may have been, at least those songs were cohesive. Halfway through, the album takes a turn for the creepy and the strange. “Seven Devils” features piano sequences that sound like background for a horror movie, whereas “Heartlines” sounds more like tribal music. Maybe they thought that since both feature Welch’s screeching, they must work together.

The album finishes with “Leave My Body,” a song that, like all the others, begins promising with beautiful acoustic guitar, but then explodes into a sound too big to comprehend. However, I must say, one thing that the group did not miss the mark on is lyrics. With lines such as “It’s hard to dance with a devil on your back, so shake him off” it’s a shame that Welch focuses more on vocal volume, than diction.

- Carolyn Hartley

The title alone should really give the discriminating listener an indication of the kind of warped, surreal sensibility one can expect from the director of Mulholland Drive in his first full-length album. Of course, David Lynch’s body of work is characterized by its evocative musical soundscapes, much of it provided by composer extraordinaire, Angelo Badalamenti, that work to heighten the pervasive mood of confusion and underlying darkness that Lynch is best known for. It makes sense that the American auteur would extend his interests to music, for much of Crazy Clown Time evokes the same visceral fragmentation of the (post)modern world that permeate his visual output.

The most prominent feature of Crazy Clown Time is Lynch’s own voice, a highpitched and often wheezy instrument that is frequently filtered through a vocoder and various other electronic devices.

While “Good Day Today” occupies a kind of pseudo-Mobyish intelligent dance music sphere, the majority of this album is immersed with stilted, uneasy blues rhythms, bare-bones guitars soaked in tremolo and echo and textural keyboards, all of which suggest melodies more so than delivering them.

Lynch’s lyrics are exercises in deliberate

simplicity — banality even — whose unnerving character emerges through Lynch’s delivery. (Would “I know you fucked Al/He’s supposed to be my pal” hold the same disturbing weight to it if Lynch didn’t sound like a resident of the Black Lodge?) Elsewhere, Karen O.’s exhilarating performance on “Pinky’s Dream” gives the song an evocative edge that is lacking from much of the album.

While there is much to appreciate and fascinate over in Crazy Clown Time, whether Lynch is ruminating over a football game with his mouth stuffed or elaborating on positive thinking and oral hygiene through the voice of a robot, one gets the sense that there is something lacking in Lynch’s music.

Though Lynch is frequently masterful, his unconventional and often fragmented handling of plot in his films, his preoccupation with atmosphere over form proves a slight handicap for him concerning his music as well. The main issue with Crazy Clown Time is that the music itself is often more interesting than it is memorable. With a more capable singer throughout, such as Karen O., his blues-from-the-darkest-corner-of-yourmind would prove more gripping, and perhaps accessible.

- Zachary Anderson

Ministry of Cool

Florence + the Machine’s music is known for knockout vocals and powerful drumbeats that transcends to any audience. Their latest album Ceremonials, released on Nov. 1, 2011, although catchy, lacks cohesiveness and at times sounds like a overwhelming mess of ambiguous instruments, underneath Florence Welch’s overpowering howl.

“Only If For Night” begins the album with promising harp cascades and bright piano chords that sparkle and hum in the listener’s ear. This lasts only for a second until Welch’s voice and heavy drums bombard the sound and ad, a harsh quality to what could have been innovative and pleasant.

Harps, bells, keyboards and organs are sprinkled in throughout the album — no doubt attempting to give a church-like sound — but the album only succeeds in hiding this theme. The overpowering drums, monotonous guitar riffs, the less than ethereal choir, and Welch herself, muddle the musical themes so much that they begin to sound more like trippy Lily Allen songs or imitations of ’80s ballads.

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12/5/11 1:30:43 AM

PROSE&CONS. How I Didn’t Fuck Up My Life

by Carlene Doyle

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

When I was 12 I walked into my living room at the exact moment my sister stepped off a chair. The rope snapped up around her chin like headgear. She broke three of her teeth when her jaw hit the edge of my mother’s antique trunk.

“Are you alright?”

My lips were blue and sticky around a splintered popsicle stick. Pieces of my hair were stuck to my neck. My thighs touched in humid moisture under my pajama shorts.

She looked silly down there on the rug, curled around the end of the trunk like a rag doll. The curtain blew over the chair, still upright in the middle of the room. It didn’t belong there. It did not match. Mother would say something if she were here.

My sister spat blood at me in response.

“Abby?”

I looked up from my lap. I couldn’t see who was speaking.

It could be my mother. It could be anyone. The light clicked on.

“Abigail, why on earth are you sitting in the dark?”

My mother always said things like this. Why on earth.

Like everything that everyone did was excessively absurd. I blinked at her like a chameleon.

“Reading.”

She was still stooped over the lampshade, her hand a spidery shadow through the fabric. Her face became pinched and uncomfortable. She spoke softly, even though I was the only person there. Or maybe I wasn’t.

“Abby. Abby, it’s dark in here.”

I looked about, the yellow bulb making everything look like scotch tape and glue.

“No it isn’t.”

My mother straightened her spine. I could hear every notch click into place, like a puppet. My eyes were dry from

not allowing myself to blink.

“Your father said he had to bring you home from school today.”

“He picked me up. He didn’t bring me home.”

“Abigail, stop it.”

“I was cold.”

She left me sitting on the couch and disappeared into the kitchen, sighing. I heard her heavy winter coat on a chair. It made a fabric noise. Zip. “You were cold.”

She appeared again in the living room, with fewer layers on, running her knobby hands through her hair. I didn’t understand why she was telling me what I had just told her.

I didn’t say anything.

“Abiga-Abby. You can’t leave school sick because you are cold.”

She sat down in the chair across the carpet from me. I stared at her black loafers.

“I didn’t leave sick. I left because I was cold.”

My mother put her face in her hands for a moment. She did it so fast I wasn’t really sure it happened at all. She went upstairs and shut a door. I heard her talking to my father.

I knew it was him because her voice wasn’t nice anymore.

I looked down at my lap to finish my literature assignment.

It was upside down. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t read it earlier.

The next week I was allowed to see my sister in the hospital. It had been four years since I had to sit in the dentist’s office, waiting for her to have teeth again. She hadn’t become any more pleasant over years in treatment and cookie-cutter wings of hospital wards.

“Sup kid?”

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Evelyn leaned over the table on her forearms and looked up at me through straight, black bangs.

“Hi, Eve.” I twisted my hands in my lap.

“Mom let you come alone?”

“Dad, too.”

She laughed a smoker’s bark. Tipping back in her chair, she threw her head back to look at the ceiling. I could see the bandages on her pale wrists.

“Like dad has a say in shit.”

She ground her teeth for a moment while I stared at her.

She made the tension disappear because she didn’t exist to make it in the first place. She wavered somewhere out of reality for me. Between life and death was too cliche.

“Don’t fuck up your life, Abby.”

“Oh-Okay.”

I leaned back a little. Her words were sharp. She let the legs of her chair slam down on the tile and stared into my face like she was trying to find something.

“Don’t be this.”

She drank a bottle of bleach the next day.

“I’m so sorry Marilyn.”

“Such a beautiful girl.”

“If there is anything I can do-” I pressed my stocking feet into the plush maroon carpet of the funeral home. The building’s first floor was broken into two rooms, and a central hallway divided everything in half.

One room had my sister’s casket. The other had me. It was dark, the only light coming from the gap in the doorway.

The mourners were talking to my mother in the hallway.

She was crying. I could hear her sniffling. Tearless. I picked up a red and white mint off the tray next to me.

“Oh. Hello.”

I turned, my hair whipping around my neck. A boy stood in the doorway, looking uncomfortable in a suit and tie. I didn’t recognize him.

“Hi.” He turned on a table lamp and pulled a pea coat off the wall hook. He looked over his shoulder at me. I looked back at my feet.

“I’m Mark. I live here.”

“In a funeral home?”

He laughed at my incredulous tone. He explained the mortician-family living arrangement. I shivered at the thought of sleeping above cadavers.

“Do you smoke?”

Mark was holding out a cigarette to me. My sister used to smoke. I never did.

“Yes.” I followed him to the back door in my stockings and without a coat. It was dark outside and there was a thin layer of snow on the black driveway. I lit a match with the small book Mark handed to me and took a drag of my first cigarette. The menthol went down my throat like a foil ball.

I wiggled my toes when my head felt lighter than the frigid air blowing through my thin dress.

“Merry Christmas.”

Mark stood on the porch of the funeral home, watching me walk toward him.

“Hi.” I hugged him, breathing in the formaldehyde off his coat.

“How was your first semester?”

“Shitty. How are your dead people?”

“Still dead.”

I sat on the sagging top step and lit a cigarette. I stared across the street into the tinsel-framed deli window.

Someone was scooping tuna onto a roll.

“Have you been home yet?”

“No, I came right here. My dad called earlier. I told him I would be home in an hour. A half hour ago.”

Mark was looking at me out of the corner of his eye. I became self-conscious of my appearance. The skin under my nose burned. I folded my arms across my stomach. My hipbones dug into my skinny forearms. I made a cognitive effort to blink normally.

“Your eyes are glassy.”

“Are they?”

“Abby...”

“I should get going. I still have to get Christmas presents.”

“Christmas is a few days away still.”

“I know. Bye.” I stood up, hugged him again, feeling his palms on my shoulder blades, and got back into my warm sedan. I drove home without paying attention, letting my muscle memory drive the car. My palms were slippery on the plastic.

“Abby, can you help me with this?”

I wandered into the kitchen. My mother was standing in front of the oven, a Christmas turkey steaming on the stovetop. The smell nauseated me. I stirred the pasta at her direction. She was talking to me but I couldn’t figure out the words. I wondered absently if she was speaking English.

“Abigail.”

“What?”

I snapped out of my blank stare. My mother was staring at me. Her face had defined wrinkles. She looked aged. When did that happen?

“I asked you how your classes were this semester.”

“Oh. They’re fine.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes.” “Well I would appreciate some more information. We are paying for it you know.”

“Do you not want to?”

“Oh, Abigail.”

My mother sighed and turned away from me, her lumpy Christmas sweater taking up too much space. I narrowed my eyes at it.

“Come on, Abby, throw us a bone.”

My father spoke from the living room. I could hear the ruffling of tissue paper. Throw us a bone? I detested idioms.

“My classes are fine. They are requirements, so they aren’t very exciting.”

Prose & Cons

I packed my cigarettes against the steering wheel of my shitty Elantra. Snow streaked across my windshield, fragmented chunks sliding between the gaps in the rubber wipers. Dry heat from the vents made my throat burn. My cell phone vibrated a bright blue in the cup holder, quarters jingling.

“Hello?”

“Abby, it’s dad. Just making sure you’re okay. It started snowing here.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, what?”

“It’s snowing. And I’m fine.”

I ripped off the cellophane from the box and lit a cigarette.

I listened to my father for a few minutes before losing concentration in the yellow lights on the blurring pavement in front of me.

“I’ll be home in an hour.”

“Call if there’s traffic.”

I hung up and dropped my phone into the adjacent bucket seat.

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12/4/11 10:44:12 PM

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

I strained the pasta, the steam beading moisture on my neck and cheeks. I shook the colander and dumped the noodles back into the pot. I left the humid kitchen and went back upstairs. It was darker and cooler on the second level of my house. I passed my sister’s closed bedroom door.

Don’t be this.

I stopped and turned. The door was painted white, the tape marks still visible from Eve’s warning signs. I reached out for the handle. Her room was empty, save for a box spring in the corner. The carpet was still indented from furniture.

I breathed in the stale air, trying to catch any scent of her that still lingered in the fabric. There was nothing.

Don’t fuck up your life, Abby.

I jumped and spun in a full circle, goosebumps racing from my scalp down to my ankles. I darted out the door and closed it behind me. I shivered against the cool wall in the hallway. I entered my room, bags still packed and in the middle of the floor. I hadn’t unpacked. I didn’t want to.

I liked pretending that my house was a bed and breakfast, that I was a returning customer that had grown to be a part of the family over the years. I sat on my bed and stared out the window until the sun set, a bright orange against the pale bedroom walls.

“I’m not, Eve. I’m not.”

I spoke to my frosted window.

“I heard Eve yesterday.”

Mark was bent over his stereo, sliding CDs into the multiple-disc dock. He pressed play before coming to sit next to me on the floor. His hair had gotten too long. It hung in his face like some kind of moody model.

“What do you mean?”

“I heard her say ‘don’t be this’ and ‘don’t fuck up your life.’”

“Like, in your head or out loud?”

“I don’t know.”

Mark sat next to me in silence. “Dear Prudence” started its slow guitar introduction. He reached behind me and held up a blunt. I smiled at it. An hour later the room was filled with smoke and the vanilla stench of cigar. We leaned against a pillow barricade that blocked the bottom of his bookshelf and let The White Album play all the way through.

Mark put his hand on top of mine.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

I pulled into the cemetery a few hours later, making tire tracks in the dusting of snow on the narrow path. I parked at the dead end and tromped through the inches of snow to my sister’s tombstone. I sat on top of it, letting my feet dangle above the frozen blanket of whiteness that expanded over the acres of death.

“Why did you do it, Eve?” I tilted my head back to the expansive grey that was the sky. I thought about the last few things my sister had said to me. Don’t be this. Don’t be what? In a hospital? Alive?

The last option was morbidly appealing. I never considered killing myself before. Sitting on Eve’s remains seemed an appropriate place to start. Don’t be alive.

Christmas morning dawned with a mildly clear sky and hardened blocks of road salt lining every street. I sat in the living room with my parents, trying to appear interested in presents and holiday cheer. I wandered around my house in a daze until relatives filtered through the front door, bringing melting patches of snow into the house that I stepped in every time I changed my socks. I was showered with praise for school and my appearance, thinner than last time I had been with family.

“Grab me a beer, will you, Abby?”

My grandfather barked from the couch, his voice full of phlegm and destroyed esophagus skin. I handed him a bottle, frosted from the depths of the refrigerator. He motioned for me to sit next to him. We watched the antics of my family like a soap opera.

“You’re a good kid, Abby.”

“Thanks, grandpa.”

“And I’m not just saying it. I know a lot of these assholes just bullshit you around, but I mean it. You’re a good kid.

Don’t fuck up your life.”

The couch fell away and the living room spiraled into a black hole. It swallowed the Christmas tree and the presents and my family. It was just me and grandpa. Don’t fuck up your life. Don’t fuck up your life. Don’t fuck up your life.

“What do you mean, grandpa? Please tell me.”

I had a burning somewhere in my chest. It spread like fire down to my fingers, which trembled on my knee caps. I needed this answer. It was more important than school and drugs and Mark. I stared into his face, the wrinkles around his eyes, the hard wall across his irises. He turned to face me.

“I mean don’t listen to these jackasses when they tell you how to live your life.”

He jerked his thumb toward the huddle of aunts, uncles and cousins filtering in and out of the kitchen.

“If you’re happy, you’re happy. If you’re not, do something about it. But nothing you don’t want to, you hear me? They tell you to stay in school, but if you hate it, do something else. No one’ll look down on you for it. I won’t, anyway.”

He took a long swig of beer, the top foaming as he put it down on the coffee table next to the coaster. I habitually moved the glass bottle onto the fabric circle. I sat back against the tan plush of my couch. Do something about it.

Do what? What would make me happy? Sleep. I like sleep.

My mind wandered back to death, eternal rest.

“Thanks, grandpa.”

I hugged him sideways, his thick, calloused hand clapping down on the pointy tip of my shoulder.

“Grab me another beer, will you?”

I looked down onto my nightstand. The glass of water rippled slightly. A normal glass of water. I upended the bottle of sleeping pills into the cup. A glass of death. I picked it up, the glass steaming instantly from contact with my skin. I stepped over to my window, knowing I only had minutes until the pills started to dissolve. I set it on the windowsill. The sun was setting, a bloody crescent over the hills surrounding my town. I looked back into my room. My bags were pushed into a corner, still full. My bed was made, pillows arranged in height order, and my alarm clock set on the exact minute from my cell phone. I looked back at the cup. The pills on the bottom of the small pile were beginning to disintegrate.

Don’t be this. Don’t fuck up your life, Abby.

Can’t fuck it up if I’m dead, can I? I picked up the cup.

If you’re not happy, do something about it.

I’m not happy. This will do something about it. I set my lips on the edge of the glass.

You’re a good kid, Abby.

Fuck. I poured the glass on the carpet, cold water splashing over my bare feet. The pills landed in the spaces between my toes, lined up like tiny circle soldiers. I stepped on them, mashing their semi-solidness into the fibers of the rug. I picked up the last whole one and set it on my tongue, swallowing it dry.

Across from the window, I set my alarm for the next morning and crawled under my sheets, still in jeans and a T-shirt. I watched the neon red numbers on my clock change until I fell asleep.

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12/4/11 10:44:15 PM

Macy’s Display Window

by Rachel Lowy CHARACTERS: White Female Mannequin, White Male Mannequin, Onehanded Blonde Mannequin, Black Female Mannequin, Black Male Mannequin Very pale white male and female standing on text books (serving as platforms) in middle of stage with all of the lights on. Male dressed in jeans, grey Polo, brown leather jacket, red scarf, brown loafers and hair slicked back with a lot of hair gel. Female dressed in skinny jeans, yellow Polo with gray argyle sweater over it, yellow high heels, brown leather purse and a lot of bold face make up. Male and female very still-straight posture, one arm in front of them, plain faces. The lights start to turn off (not at the same time), leaving a spotlight on the two mannequins.

Movements are very stiff and rigid.

White Female Mannequin: [puts her arm down and steps off of platform and holds purse up, looks upset] Ugh, this purse is so last year. I mean, since when did fall become “brown leather” season?

White Male Mannequin: [steps off platform and looks at fingernails facing him] Hey, at least the plastic isn’t coming off your fingers. [looking at body] I seriously need a new paint job. I’m actually thinking of going a little darker. These stupid fluorescents make me look completely washed out. Hmm, maybe a nice golden tone and some…

White Female Mannequin: [cuts him off and looks down at her stomach] Oh my god, I’m so bloated! I gotta switch to light paint.

White Male Mannequin: Does it really matter? You’ll probably just shave it off anyway.

White Female Mannequin: [yelling] Of course it matters!

What if I can no longer fit into a double zero? [flustered] What if…[distressed] oh my god!

White Male Mannequin: [concerned] What?

White Female Mannequin: What if I’m a zero now?

White Male Mannequin: [rolling his eyes] Oh, lord.

White Female Mannequin: Seriously! I mean, they had a hard time zipping my new pants up yesterday. [nearly crying] Next thing you know, I’ll be in one of those plussized stores, wearing sweats and — and plaid!

White Male Mannequin: [to himself ] At least I won’t have to deal with you then.

[One-handed Blonde Mannequin comes running in] One-handed Blonde Mannequin: [crying and looking around] Has anyone seen my left hand? [other mannequins shake their heads]

White Female Mannequin: [puts her arm around one-

One-handed Blonde Mannequin: [shaking her head] Remember that story of the mannequin whose head fell off? They totally didn’t replace it. They just stripped her of her clothes and threw her in some closet … with, like, wire hangers and, and plastic clothes racks! [sobs harder] White Male Mannequin: Come on, you don’t actually believe that, do you?

One-handed Blonde Mannequin: Uh, yeah!

White Male Mannequin: [slowly circling around her] They didn’t put her in some closet. No, no, no. They disassembled her limbs [One-handed Blonde Mannequin gasps], poured gasoline on her body, and burned her in the parking lot — for everyone to see!

One-handed Blonde Mannequin: [screams and runs to White Female Mannequin] I don’t want to be burned!

I can’t! I won’t! I have more clothes to try on in my life!

More trends to pass on! I need to find my hand!

[White Male Mannequin begins to laugh] White Female Mannequin: Don’t listen to him. He’s just been in a bad mood since some teenager wrote “Insert Here” on his ass.

One-handed Blonde Mannequin: [scoffs] Seriously?

White Female Mannequin: [nods] In permanent marker.

White Male Mannequin: [hits White Female Mannequin on the arm] Hey! You promised you wouldn’t say anything! Whatever, it’s not even that funny.

White Female Mannequin: Oh, I really beg to differ.

White Male Mannequin: You know what your problem is? You only care about yourself. You never once think of others.

White Female Mannequin: Oh, so now you’re accusing me of having a problem? You’re such a stuck-up, pertren-tren-ticious…

White Male Mannequin: It’s “pretentious,” moron.

White Female Mannequin: Oh, well you would know!

White Male Mannequin: [to White Female Mannequin, concerned] Oh, my god! Did your pants just unbutton?

White Female Mannequin: [looks down at her pants, distressed] What?! [hits White Male Mannequin on the back of his head] You little prick!

White Male Mannequin: [to One-handed Blonde Mannequin, yelling angrily] Uh! You know what? Why don’t you just take my hand and stick it up your ass!

One-handed Blonde Mannequin: [talking while the other two are fighting, talking softer and faster while turning head side to side] Where the hell is my hand? I need my hand. [fall to knees] Why would a kid take my hand? He doesn’t even wear bracelets! Missing limbs is so not fashionable!

My hand! [others have stopped talking] I need my hand!

Prose & Cons

One-handed Blonde Mannequin: [crumples to the ground, resting on her knees and holding her handless arm] Oh my god, it’s hopeless! Some stupid little kid pulled it off and, like, hid it somewhere! [stuttering] And — and now, my bracelets don’t stay on! [starts sobbing]

handed mannequin] Aw, sweetie. Don’t worry, they’ll replace it tomorrow.

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One-handed Blonde Mannequin: [completely oblivious and innocent] Can it even screw in there?

going on — totally hip and in-style. [speaking normally again, very agitated] It’s called “shutting-the-fuck-upbefore-you-lose-another-body-part.”

White Female Mannequin: [to White Male Mannequin] Why can’t you just leave her alone?

One-handed Blonde Mannequin: Is that, like, a Hollywood fad?

White Male Mannequin: Why don’t you and your disfigured friend mosey on down to the women’s department, cause this whole integrated display thing is not working out!

White Female Mannequin: [to One-handed Blonde Mannequin] Here, why don’t you keep on looking for your hand? I’ll come join you later.

[Black Female Mannequin and Black Male Mannequin come onto stage] Black Male Mannequin: [yelling] Yo! [everybody goes silent] Could you guys just chill?

Black Female Mannequin: For real, we could hear you three yappin’ all the way from down the hall.

White Male Mannequin: I’m sorry, but are you part of this conversation?

White Female Mannequin: [to Black Male Mannequin] If you haven’t noticed, this is a department store. So why don’t you and “Little Miss Baby Phat” go back to your socalled store and come back when you’re wearing clothes that are actually worth something?

White Male Mannequin: [mockingly] Aight, bro?

Black Male Mannequin: That supposed to be funny, Snow White?

Black Female Mannequin: Nah, humor has to have some intelligence behind it — a quality neither of ‘em have.

White Female Mannequin: Hey, our heads are just as hollow as yours are!

Black Male Mannequin: Actually, we’re filled with plastic.

White Female Mannequin: What?

Black Female Mannequin: Yeah, and none of our parts have to be screwed in. We’re completely solid.

White Male Mannequin: [confused] Where were you made?

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

Black Male Mannequin: China.

One-handed Blonde Mannequin: OK! [leaves the stage] Black Male Mannequin: Wow, and I thought the ones over in Coach were dumb.

White Female Mannequin: Could you please explain to me why you guys are still here?

White Male Mannequin: Yeah, shouldn’t you be heading over to your hood now? You really don’t belong in this store.

Black Male Mannequin: Over to our hood? Let me tell you somethin’, pretty boy, you wouldn’t last a second down in our section of the mall. You and that ho of yours would be ripped apart and— Black Female Mannequin: [cutting him off] Let’s just go, aight? I don’t want to sell the same ignorance that these two are advertising.

White Female Mannequin: It’s not ignorance— Black Male Mannequin: [cuts him off] You’re right, it’s arrogance.

White Female Mannequin: [continues her statement with agitated tone] It’s not ignorance, it’s just reality. You guys aren’t what the shoppers want. It’s the blonde Barbies with skinny frames that sell in stores, the rest are just pushed to the back. Don’t take it personally, that’s just how the mall works.

Black Female Mannequin: Well, things change.

White Male Mannequin: Not in here they don’t.

Black Male Mannequin: Then maybe you’re right. We really don’t belong in this store.

[Black Male Mannequin and Black Female Mannequin exit stage. Few seconds of silence interrupted by loud beeping sound from alarm clock on White Male’s wrist]

White Male Mannequin: But — but we were made here, I mean, all things with the best quality are made in the U.S.

White Male Mannequin: [looks at watch and turns alarm off] Shit, it’s five to 8.

Black Female Mannequin: [pointing to One-handed Blonde Mannequin who has now put a wire clothes hanger in place of her hand] Is that why Captain Hooker over there is so well intact?

White Male Mannequin: [inhales loudly] Okay. Let’s get into our positions.

One-handed Blonde Mannequin: [oblivious to the comment, talking to herself and looking at her hanger] I wonder if they’ll notice…

White Male Mannequin: [rolling his eyes and muttering under his breath] Oh, man.

One-handed Blonde Mannequin: I mean, I’m totally instyle and look amazing — minus the missing hand — so I doubt anyone would even care. I could totally —

White Female Mannequin: [sighs] Almost opening time.

[both step back on the textbooks] White Male Mannequin: Body check [both look down at bodies and smooth the clothes over with their hands].

Shoulders back [both put their shoulders back]. Neck straight. (both straighten their necks). Big smile [both smile] [pauses] How do I look?

White Female Mannequin: Perfect. Me? White Male Mannequin: Perfect.

Black Female Mannequin: [cuts her off, speaking like a valley girl] Oh my god, so I heard about this new fad

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Sawdust

SAWDUST. SAWDUST. SAWDUS

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12/5/11 12:21:27 AM

Twenty-Something Attempts Self-Labotomy

Patient certified in having extensive knowledge of Grey’s Anatomy

By Liz Kloczkowski

Image by Zachary Anderson

S

EATTLE, WA – Joe Walton, 27, was rushed to the emergency room on Thursday the 27th with complaints of head pain. He was taken in for a CT scan and later diagnosed with chronic optical migraines, most likely from watching too much TV. When his doctor came in for a final check-up however, Walton claimed he’s seen enough Grey’s Anatomy to perform the lobotomy himself.

“I’ve seen Patrick Dempsey slice into a brain over six thousand times. I think it’s about time to do it solo, Doc,” Walton told Dr. Seth Sliceman.

Walton was informed that it would, in fact, be impossible to conduct brain surgery on himself—that is, if he even needed brain surgery.

More than six months ago, Walton was

semi-successfully able to butterfly-suture a laceration he sustained while using a table saw. Walton claims he learned it all from Grey’s.

Nurses reported that Walton was found unattended in a scrub room, washing his hands and mumbling to surrounding doctors about how he couldn’t believe Cristina wouldn’t have Owen’s baby, and it’s not fair that Meredith wasn’t allowed to work on neurosurgery because she ruined the Alzheimer’s trial for Derek.

While being wheeled back to his room, Walton reportedly leapt off the chair and sped off. Interns later found him on the Trauma floor, in fear that they were going to botch him like Denny and O’Malley.

“Don’t you cut my LVAD wires, now,” he threatened. He was reassured by many surrounding doctors and nurses that his migraine condition did not require any heart-support technology whatsoever.

“Personally, I’d suggest a lobotomy,” a nurse stated. “It’ll quiet him right down.”

Later that day Walton was also caught trying to deliver a baby in an elevator. It appears a patient’s water broke between the lobby and third floor while sharing

the elevator with Walton, and he got right to work.

“One more push!” he was cheering when the doctors got to him. “I’ve seen this done so many times, it’s like I’m practically licensed myself. Here, let me clamp that umbilical cord for you.”

Dr. Sliceman stated in a later interview that he mastered most of his techniques, not from his residency at the Seattle Medical Center, but from season three of Grey’s.

“I hadn’t actually seen someone incubate a patient until George O’Malley had to learn how to do it on Grey’s over and over. Then I felt confident to do it myself,” Sliceman said.

Nurses have extended Walton’s stay for further examination. So far, patients in the rooms near him have filed several noise complaints after hearing him sing “Chasing Cars” at the top of his lungs on repeat. ____________________________________ Liz Kloczkowski is a junior cinema & photography major who self-diagnosed herself with nosocomephobia after watching Grey’s. Email her at lkloczk1@ithaca.edu.

Soon-To-Be Grad Suffers Quarter-Life Crisis

By Brianna Pennella

J

erry Barrett, a 21-year-old Ithaca College senior, is undergoing

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

what many have begun calling a

“quarter-life crisis.” The young adult has been seen walking around campus with his eyes glued to a Gameboy.

“Not even a DS,” said classmate Mark Geller. “It’s like, a Gameboy color.”

This is apparently only the beginning. Sources say that Barrett has been relentlessly hyping “new” episodes of Saved By the Bell, Boy Meets World and Are You Afraid of the Dark?. Further investigation reports his regression is a direct result of his impending graduation. The catalyst for his breakdown was an email confirming his height measurements for his cap and gown fitting. The tangible symbol of his transition into adulthood was too much for him.

Claire Messings, a close friend, claims Barrett’s breakdown started small but has only spiraled from there.

“At first he was making a lot of jokes about dropping out of school and

becoming an astronaut or a cowboy and everyone thought it was funny.

But when he signed up for a NASA summer camp, we got a little worried,” said Messings. “The camp is for kids ages eight and 14.”

The Ithaca College psychology department has taken an interest in Barrett, hoping they can better understand his fragile mental state.

A faculty member, Professor Jane R. Reptar, explained a recent experiment.

“It was simple, we showed him two pairs of shoes, one with Velcro straps and lights, the other a brand new pair of Nikes. We monitored his response, and I’m sure you can assume the results,” she said, holding up a Buzz Lightyear light-up sneaker.

An interview with Barrett revealed some more startling information.

According to the interview, he said, “I’m not becoming an adult. I’m a Toys ‘R’ Us kid.”

For the rest of the interview, Barrett asked researchers if they knew how to beat the third gym leader in Pokemon

yellow.

The psychology department is currently working with those closest to Barrett in an effort to treat his condition. His friends and family have all agreed to make the necessary adjustments.

“They asked us to leave the news on a lot and talk excitedly about coffee and taxes,” said Joe Bergen, Barrett’s housemate. Administrators are closely monitoring Barrett and his responses to these changes. Though it appears that further treatment will be necessary, his family is hopeful for a full recovery before graduation day arrives.

Until then, his parents are discussing how best to tell Jerry his “playroom” is being occupied by his 27-yearold sister, who has just moved back home. ____________________________________ Brianna Pennella is a sophomore TV-R major who can be seen riding around campus on her Razor scooter. Email her at bpennel1@ithaca. edu.

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Sawdust

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12/5/11 12:21:32 AM

?

Buzzsaw Asks Why...

Ithaca Hates the Holidays

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

a.k.a. why am I still here?

Nobody likes finals week; it’s five days of cramming in all those PowerPoints you pretended to take notes on throughout the semester, only to forget everything the second you hand in your exam. The only good thing about finals is that when they’re over, winter break begins and students are free to spend five weeks achieving self-actualization (a.k.a catching up on Breaking Bad).

This year however, student’s reward for surviving the semester is travelling during peak holiday traffic (and rates).

Thanks IC. So not only is our tuition consistently going up (as our parking spaces deplete), but now I have to sell my first-born child in order to get a seat on the next flight out of here. Or I can enter the New Year sitting in bumperto-bumper traffic with nothing but the same six Christmas songs played on repeat to keep me sane. After funding your new fitness center, why repay us by making finals go until the 22nd?

Do you think keeping students later will grant better exam scores or give us more time to ease back into things after Thanksgiving Break? Because all it’s done for me is provide more time to procrastinate studying and figure out an excuse to head out early instead (top choice right now is that my Dad ate a mutant fish from the Hudson).

I can’t complain too much though, IC does give us all of January off. So if you felt rushed during the cluster of festivities in December, at least you have ample time to prepare for the highly anticipated Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Until then, see you in the library — I’ll

be the kid researching mutated fish in the Hudson.

-Catherine Fisher

A Relationship Status in Question Ex still listed as “in a relationship” on Facebook

By Taryn Pire

A

ndrea Kramer, 22, is severely distraught after being dumped last week by her then-boyfriend of six months, Tom. It’s not her broken heart that’s getting to her though, Tom has yet to change his Facebook relationship status from “In A Relationship” back to “Single.”

“In today’s digital world where technology reigns supreme, there are new rules of etiquette when it comes to displaying one’s relationship on a social networking site,” Psychiatrist Dr. Maura Goldman explained.

“Tom seems to have forgotten many of these common courtesies, or perhaps he has chosen to ignore them.”

“He still has a picture from our first date at Olive Garden as his default,” Kramer said. “I just, like, can’t accept that he doesn’t want to be with me if he hasn’t changed it yet.

It’s honestly just cruel — I thought I was, like, special or something.”

Dr. Goldman explained the critical error to which Andrea is referring, saying, “Tom should know that a breakup displayed online demands that all evidence that the relationship ever existed is removed. That means a total cleansing of your Facebook history, from profile pictures to whole albums, from wall posts to the romantic quote in your About Me section.”

Goldman continued by saying, “It’s a rather negative reflection on one’s character if he or she neglects to abide by this simple rule of thumb.

In fact, it’s practically sadistic.”

Holding back tears, Kramer explained how Tom really used to be quite romantic. The couple started hooking up a few weeks before making their union Facebookofficial, occasionally writing on each other’s walls or liking a couple statuses here and there. They were happy, but when the day came that Andrea received a surprise relationship request, she was ecstatic.

“I was, like, totally crazy about us being together, obvi” Kramer said.

“I put the date and a little heart as my status right away, and I even put Tom’s last name as my last name on my profile. He was totes happy about it. I thought he took us seriously.”

Kramer’s girlfriends have assured her Tom is probably just busy on Twitter, but reports indicate that is not the case.

“Actually, he’s just being a huge douche,” said Kramer’s BFF Jessica Brown. “I always see him listening to Lil’ Wayne and Taylor Swift on Spotify, like every day actually, and he’s been playing Bejeweled for hours at a time.”

An anonymous source has stated that he’s even harvested his crops on Farmville, an act that takes significantly more effort than simply changing a relationship status.

While Tom was coincidentally difficult to track down for an interview, one of his bros, Joe Campesino, was ready to jump on his defense.

“Tom can be a real busy dude sometimes, so he can’t always be changin’ statuses or whatever. Cept’ my boy does really like MySpace” Campesino stated. “But no bro should slow down fo a ho, you know?”

Unfortunately for Kramer, she must simply wait and see what Tom will do. She states that she will continue to post statuses with lyrics from songs such as “Grenade” by Bruno Mars and “7 Things” by Miley Cyrus, hoping to spark a reaction from her ex-boyfriend.

“If he keeps ignoring me and putting this off, I’ll be forced to change my relationship status to ‘It’s Complicated,’” Kramer said with remorse. “And like, I know that’s super drastic, but he left me no choice. My heart’s broken, I’ve gotta save some dignity somehow, ya know?” ____________________________________ Taryn Pire is a freshman English major who is still listed as ‘in an open relationship’ with her ex-best friend from high school. Email her at tpire1@ithaca.edu.

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Sawdust

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12/5/11 12:21:33 AM

BUZZSAW: The 20-Somethings Issue

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12/5/11 12:21:40 AM