Jan. 24, 2022

free

MONDAY

jan. 24, 2022 high 23°, low 18°

t h e i n de p e n de n t s t u de n t n e w s pa p e r of s y r a c u s e , n e w yor k |

dailyorange.com

N • Orange warmup

C • Sweet spot

S • Ring chasing

The university community donated winter clothing at SU’s basketball game against Florida State University and at Hendricks Chapel.

Page 3

Cake Bar at Salt City Market offers sweet treats including its Lotus Biscoff Cake, and it now allows students to use their SU meal plan cards to purchase food Page 7

31 players from the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Stanley Cup-winning teams were once regulars with the Syracuse Crunch, fostering a unique culture for the AHL team.

Page 12

Cog in the wheel

Story by Kyle Chouinard asst. news editor

Photo Illustration by Meghan Hendricks photo editor

“

It was excruciating,” said Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge who now teaches at Harvard Law School, about enforcing sentences she did not agree with.

In one case the former judge presided over, a 19-year-old had previously been charged with stealing drugs as a 14- or 15-year-old. Gertner said he was stealing the drugs to buy school supplies for his younger siblings.

As the man stood in front of Gertner, she charged him for an additional drug distribution offense which she described as minor. But because the man was previ-

Communities Not Cages is pushing to reform New York state’s sentencing laws

ously convicted, the minimum sentence she could prescribe was 10 years.

Gertner said she had no choice but to give him the sentence.

“I was essentially a cog in the wheel of mass incarceration,” she said.

On Wednesday, Gertner spoke at a press conference run by Communities Not Cages, a grassroots campaign advocating for New York state legislation relating to prison reform and ending mass incarceration. The group is looking to “decarcerate prisons and overhaul New York’s racist and draconian sentencing laws,” according to its website.

Over 120 organizations have expressed their support for the campaign, including the New York Civil Liberties Union, The Legal Aid Society and the Center for Community Alternatives, among others. see incarceration page 4

city

City, county redistricting pushes forward amid debate

By Nick Robertson senior staff writer

Dustin Czarny has worked in local politics since 2002. In that time, he said, he’s never seen a meeting as poorly run as Republicans’ attempts to redistrict the Onondaga County Legislature in their favor.

As a commissioner of the county Board of Elections, Czarny, a Democrat, was one of six people assigned

with creating proposals to redraw County Legislature districts after the 2020 U.S. Census.

The county commission consisted of Czarny, his Republican counterpart Michele Sardo, then-Legislature Majority Leader David Knapp and three other members, two of whom were appointed by Republicans and one appointed by Democrats. Knapp and another Republican member of the commission did not respond to a

request for comment.

Meanwhile, in the city of Syracuse, redistricting has gone on nearly without a hitch, according to Czarny.

Syracuse Common Council created a citizen-led independent redistricting commission last summer to redraw its council districts. The 15-member commission was randomly selected from a pool of qualified applicants starting in July, none of whom were affiliated with local politics.

Syracuse University math professor Graham Leuschke is one of the committee’s randomly selected members.

“I had no idea what I was getting myself into,” he said. “When I was chosen as one of the first eight members ... City Auditor Nader Maroun explained the problems with the county system and how the desire is for the city to be different, to be citizen-led and without politics.”

The city took inspiration from Austin, Texas, which used a similar citizen-led commission to finish its new city council maps in October. City officials wanted to avoid the inherent conflict of interest which comes with politicians drawing the borders of their own districts, Common Councilor Michael Greene said.

“We wanted it to be driven by regular citizens that were engaged in the

see redistricting page 4

2 jan. 24, 2022

about

INSIDE The best quotes from sources in today’s paper.

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“This is not an accident. ... This is a pattern of racism and discrimination that can be traced back to its roots in slavery.” - Marvin Mayfield, director of organizing at the Center for Community Alternatives Page 3

OPINION “SU students can make more attainable resolutions by taking their original, grand resolution and simplifying it, displaying a more realistic approach to resolutions.” - Hannah Karlin, columnist Page 5

CULTURE “It felt like every few days I would open Outlook to see another close contact email. It was overwhelming.” - Alex Vicinanza, freshman Page 6

SPORTS “I can guarantee you not every NHL team is treating their AHL affiliate like that. ... I have two Stanley Cup rings because of them. That’s not (a) given.” - Jim Sarosy, Syracuse Crunch’s chief operating officer Page 12

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COMING UP

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Noteworthy events this week.

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WHAT: Intercultural Collective Open House WHEN: Monday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

WHERE: Schine Student Center 132

letter to the editor policy The D.O. prides itself as an outlet for community discussion. To learn more about our submission guidelines, please email opinion@dailyorange. com with your full name and affiliation within the Syracuse community. Please note letters should not include any personal information pertaining to other people unless it is relevant to the topic at hand. All letters will be edited for style and grammar.

WHAT: Winter Involvement Fair WHEN: Wednesday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

The D.O. is published weekdays during the Syracuse University academic year by The Daily Orange Corp., 230 Euclid Ave., Syracuse, NY 13210. All contents Copyright 2021 by The Daily Orange Corp. and may not be reprinted without the expressed written permission of the editor-in-chief. The Daily Orange is in no way a subsidy or associated with Syracuse University. All contents © 2021 The Daily Orange Corporation

WHERE: Goldstein Auditorium WHAT: Quattro: A Musical Journey WHEN: Wednesday, 1-2:15 p.m.

WHERE: Virtual

The Sackler School of Medicine-New York State/ American Program offers an outstanding four year medical school curriculum, taught in English, leading to the M.D. degree. The Program is chartered by the Regents of the University of the State of New York and is accredited by the State of Israel.

Students do their clerkships and electives in the hospitals in Israel, the U.S. and Canada. One of these hospitals, Sheba Medical Center, was selected by Newsweek magazine as one of the top 10 hospitals around the world.

Graduates participate in the National Resident Matching Program and return to the United States for their residency training. Since its commencement in 1976, over 2,000 alumni have completed their residency training at the most distinguished hospitals in the United States and Canada.

Applications for the class of 2026 are available on our website. www.sacklerschool.org provides extensive information about Sackler SOM

NEWS

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PAG E 3

jan. 24, 2022

on campus

coronavirus

Clothing drive brings community together University outlines COVID-19 protocols

By Jana Seal

asst. digital editor

Items of winter clothing were collected at Hendricks Chapel. Members of the community received stickers and thank you letters when they dropped off donations. courtesy of rebecca reed kantrowitz

By Danny Amron asst. news editor

Organizations across central New York requested over 3,000 articles of winter clothing as part of Syracuse University’s first-ever Operation Orange Warmup.

The clothing drive began gathering coats, gloves, mittens, hats, boots and scarves from fans at the SU men’s basketball game against Florida State University on Saturday, Jan. 15. SU continued to receive donations via a bin outside Hendricks Chapel from Monday, Jan. 17 through Friday, Jan. 21.

“We tried to make it as easy as possible so people could just simply drive up with their coats, drop things off in the bin and then turn around and leave,” said Rebecca Reed Kantrowitz, the associate dean of Hendricks Chapel. “It’s not as hospitable as we normally are, but it’s a little safer for people to just drop things off.”

Anyone who dropped off items at the bin, which was placed outside the door of Hendricks Chapel facing Eggers Hall, received a sticker and a thank you letter from Ruth Chen, a professor of practice at the College of Engineering and Computer Science; Cydney Johnson, SU’s vice president of community engagement and government relations; and Beth Broadway,

the President and CEO of InterFaith Works, an organization that assists refugees in central New York.

Requests for donations were received from InterFaith Works, Rescue Mission, Salvation Army, YWCA, North Side Learning Center, Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, Catholic Charities, Blessing Box, NAACP, Mercy Works, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, La Liga and the Labor Council.

Each organization filled out a form indicating how much of each article of clothing it required, including sizes and whether they were for men, women or children.

A total of 717 coats, 682 gloves and mittens, 643 hats, 556 boots and 423 scarves were requested by 13 organizations, Chen said in an email to The Daily Orange. She said in a separate email that the collected totals would not be known until the morning of Monday, Jan. 24, when clothing is distributed to the organizations.

Chen and Kantrowitz both noted that some students requested clothing as well. If students need winter clothing and did not submit a request for this clothing drive, Hendricks Chapel is still available to assist them, Kantrowitz said.

Inspiration for Operation Orange Warmup came from a clothing drive

by Stalwart Battalion, SU’s Army ROTC training corps, for Afghan refugees at Fort Dix and a pop-up clothing closet organized by this year’s Remembrance Scholar cohort for 20 refugee families during the fall 2021 semester, according to Madi Messare, who led the effort for both groups as a Remembrance Scholar and chair of the battalion’s opportunity board.

Messare said Chen approached her after both of these efforts with the idea of a larger clothing drive with donations from the entire community, and the idea of Operation Orange Warmup was born.

The original plan was to have the clothing drive at the final home football game, but the game was too close to organize the clothing drive in time, Chen said. The drive’s organizers then chose the basketball game against FSU because of its afternoon tipoff to maximize the number of fans and, hopefully, donations.

Members from the athletics department helped collect and launder the clothing to ensure its integrity before it was distributed, and the communications staff worked to spread the word about the event.

Broadway said Chen’s position on the Board of Directors of InterFaith Works led her to reach out to the organization about the initiative. From there, Chen and Johnson ran the

university side of the operation, while Broadway and InterFaith Works took charge of the community side.

Once all the items were collected and laundered, they were taken to a warehouse at 1600 Jamesville Ave., where ROTC cadets and Remembrance Scholars sorted them.

“It’s honestly surprising to me that this is the first time Syracuse University has come together with the surrounding community members and organizing nonprofits to do something like this because we have such great tools to do a large donation drive,” Messare said.

Although bumps in the road came up along the way, such as the start of the spring 2022 semester being delayed leading to fewer students being on campus to participate, Messare hopes Operation Orange Warmup can become an annual event, especially earlier in the winter to provide the clothing before the temperature drops.

Chen shared the same sentiments as Messare about moving the event to earlier in the fall. Many of the fans at the basketball game and public safety officers that collected clothing this year were already excited and preparing for the initiative next year, she said. ddamron@syr.edu @dannyamron_

state

Gov. Hochul proposes $216.3 billion state budget

By Francis Tang asst. news editor

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced New York state’s $216.3 billion budget proposal for the 2023 fiscal year on Tuesday, a record-high amount.

The budget covered $32.8 billion over five years for transportation infrastructure, including $1.1 billion for the replacement of Syracuse’s Interstate 81 viaduct.

The Daily Orange summarizes what you should know in the budget,

including measures that will directly affect the city of Syracuse and central New York.

Housing and infrastructure

The proposal outlined the Department of Transportation’s capital plan, which will leverage federal funding commitments to support the final phases of major infrastructure projects including the replacement of I-81.

In 2019, the DOT announced it would recommend a plan to remove the I-81 viaduct and replace it with

a community grid alternative of city streets in the area.

Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud announced the university’s endorsement of the plan in 2019. Syracuse community members have advocated for more local hiring opportunities in the project to reconnect the communities that had been displaced by the construction of the viaduct decades ago.

New York state will also benefit from President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that went into

effect last year. About $13.4 billion in federal funding will flow into New York state over the next five years, according to the budget.

The budget advances a new fiveyear housing plan, which will invest $25 billion to create and preserve 100,000 affordable homes, including 10,000 homes with support services for vulnerable populations.

Hochul also proposed $100 million for the state’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative, a program that aims see state

budget page 4

To prevent the spread of the omicron variant, Syracuse University is taking countermeasures, including masking, testing and vaccination enforcement policies on campus.

SU required all eligible students to receive a booster shot in addition to the previously enforced COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Those who are not yet eligible for a booster shot must receive it within one week after they become eligible. SU also required students to receive a f lu shot by the start of the semester. Only students with approved religious or medical exemptions are able to access campus without proof of vaccination for both the booster and f lu shots.

A ll on-campus residents were required to present a pre-arriva l COVID-19 test result and take another test while checking in. Students without a negative COVID19 test taken within 72 hours before arriving to Syracuse and those who did not fulfill all vaccine requirements are not permitted to access their residence hall.

Students who tested positive in the previous 90 days are exempt from the pre-arrival test requirement but must upload the positive result to their patient portal.

SU remains at the “RED” COVID-19 alert level, citing COVID-19 transmission within Onondaga county as a contributing factor. At this level, all vaccinated and unvaccinated people are required to wear masks indoors at all times and outdoors when other people are present.

Given the omicron variant’s high rate of infection, the university “strongly recommends” that students wear an KN95 mask or double-mask, according to a Jan. 12 press release.

Between Jan. 4-14, SU made free COVID-19 testing available to the central New York area in an effort to mitigate further spread of the omicron variant within Onondaga county. According to a Jan. 12 press release, nearly 1,700 central New York community members have tested at the Carrier Dome.

The university will resume random surveillance testing, which officials an nounced in No vember would expand to cover a larger proportion of the campus population.

The surveillance positivity rate is currently 0.6%.

SU will also continue to conduct wastewater testing to see protocols page 4

4 jan. 24, 2022

from page 1

incarceration Groups in Syracuse, such as the National Action Network’s local chapter and the Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse, have also joined Communities Not Cages.

The organization is specifically pushing for three pieces of legislation within the state: the Eliminate Mandatory Minimums Act, the Second Look Act and the Earned Time Act.

Mandatory Minimums

Madeleine Hamlin, a Ph.D. candidate at Syracuse University, said that mandatory minimums were initially designed to reduce discretion and bias in the criminal-legal system. But in practice, she said, they have had a number of adverse effects.

“By limiting judicial discretion, judges can no longer set sentences based on any individual circumstances that might otherwise lessen the sentence,” Hamlin wrote in an email statement to The Daily Orange. “And rather than reducing bias, they tend to disproportionately impact people of color.”

According to the Correctional Association of New York, 73.6% of New York’s prison popufrom page 1

redistricting political process,” Greene said. “They’re independent people that are not directly involved in the political process. And that’s balanced from a political ideological perspective and from a demographic perspective. It’s a true cross section of the city as it exists today.”

The county commission, though, has rushed the redistricting process, Czarny said.

“They took things that could have taken a year and put it together within 28 days,” Czarny said. “By doing so, they ignored all input from community members, myself and others about what the map should look like.”

Republicans, who led the commission, ignored the maps proposed by Czarny and other Democrats and made no attempts to include their feedback, Czarny said. Even public feedback, most of which focuses on the commission’s very fast timeline, was ignored, he said.

“There’s not one alteration that (Republicans) can point to on their map that is based on public input. It’s not just Democrats, the people who came to these meetings have been ignored too,” Czarny said.

The pandemic has only lengthened what is already a long process when compared to Onondaga County. While the county created maps in just over three weeks, the city process is from page 3

state budget to transform the state’s downtown neighborhoods into vibrant communities. Communities are nominated by the state and will be awarded funding to develop a strategic plan that advances the community’s vision for revitalization.

Pandemic recovery, response

New York is investing $10 billion into the health care system, including more than $4 billion to support wages and bonuses for health care workers, and $2.4 billion for health care capital infrastructure and improved laboratory capacity. The budget did not specify how these investments will be distributed.

Hochul announced that the state will rebuild and grow the health care workforce by 20% over the next five years through a program designed to strengthen home care, expand access to health care education and recruit professionals for people in underserved areas.

The state will expand Medicaid eligibilfrom page 3

protocols detect the early stages of a spike in cases in a given residence hall. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced

dailyorange.com news@dailyorange.com

lation is Black or Hispanic as of 2019. Marvin Mayfield, the director of organizing at the Center for Community Alternatives, called New York’s sentencing laws racist and draconian during the press conference on Wednesday.

“This is not an accident,” Mayfield said.

“This is a pattern of racism and discrimination that can be traced back to its roots in slavery.”

Communities Not Cages is pushing to pass legislation S7871, which “eliminates mandatory minimum sentences,” according to the New York State Senate’s website. The bill is sponsored by State Senator Zellnor Myrie, who spoke at the press conference.

Darnell Epps, a current student at Yale Law school, also spoke at the press conference. Epps was previously incarcerated for 17 years, originally starting with an indeterminate life sentence. His judge, Epps said, wanted him to have a reduced sentence but was unable to because of mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

He said that mandatory minimums remove individualized sentencing, which Epps called a human right.

“No one should be punished based on a predetermined number,” he said.

Communities Not Cages also supports New York State Senate Bill S7872, which “provides incarcerated individuals who have been sentenced to lengthy prison sentences of a decade or longer the chance for a second look at their sentence,” according to the bill.

The bill is sponsored by State Senator Julia Salazar, who represents a collection of neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

Second look bills have passed in Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland and Oregon according to Communities Not Cages.

Second Look

The Earned Time Act would guarantee that if someone incarcerated met criteria for “good time” they would earn it, said New York Assembly Member Anna Kelles, the bill’s sponsor, in the press conference.

After a period of time, the good time would become permanent.

Hamlin wrote that earned time refers to “a reduction in someone’s maximum sentence length that is earned in exchange for good behavior and, usually, participation in some kind of positive programming while incarcerated, like work or education.”

State Senator Jeremy Cooney said that the

expected to take an entire year, with maps ready around next summer, according to Leushke.

The public will get about 12 opportunities to have a say on district maps. There will be meetings in each of the five Common Council districts both before and after draft maps are made, and then two more public meetings before maps are finalized. That public input is key to the city’s model, Czarny said, and is what the county’s redistricting process is missing. “(In the city of Syracuse) you are not seeing this vitriol, this rushed process. They are taking their time over the next year to get this done,” he said. “The county executive and the County Legislature GOP put in place a process that has now come to an outcome that we all said it would — partisan vitriol and partisan maps.”

It’s a success story that can pave the way for rolling out similar commissions statewide, said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause NY, who was consulted as the city legislation was being drafted.

“We view the city of Syracuse as a model for the rest of the state,” Lerner said, “It proves that there are really civic-minded and qualified citizens who want to do this and that there’s a genuine public interest in the idea. ... Syracuse is way ahead of the curve.”

County Republicans’ efforts are part of a national trend of gerrymandering for partisan gain where possible, Greene said.

“It’s a party in control using its power to gerrymander maps that are favorable to them.

This whole process has been very rushed and it’s just not best practice,” Greene said. “It’s a process that’s intended to end up with a partisan advantage for the Republicans in the County Legislature, and I think that’s what we’re seeing” The commission’s map was eventually passed by the County Legislature along party lines on Nov. 12. Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon, a Republican, vetoed that map on Nov. 23, saying that it could open the county to legal challenges.

If the map was signed by the executive, county Democrats and activist organizations like the New York Civil Liberties Union would have likely filed suit against the county, Czarny said.

The map violated state law by creating districts which have too great a difference between their populations and by turning District 16 — the only district with a majority-Black population in the county — into a majority-white district.

McMahon’s veto sent county Republicans back to the drawing board to create maps which are not likely to break state laws. A revised map was passed by the legislature on Dec. 21 that splits District 16 into multiple majority-minority districts, but none that are majority-Black.

Advocates, including the New York Civil Liberties Union, are now considering legal action against that map, according to District 16 Legis-

lator Charles Garland.

With his background in math, Leuschke has attempted to bring statistical models into the conversation as the committee begins to consider redistricting, he said. However, progress has been slow. The pandemic has delayed meetings substantially, with the committee only beginning to schedule public hearings in December.

Even just replacing committee members with average citizens instead of politicians makes the process much more effective, Leuschke said.

“It’s been interesting to me, just as a city resident, to meet the 14 other people on the commission and to get a much better picture of who lives in Syracuse,” he said. “As an ivory tower professor who spends most of his time (on campus), I don’t have a lot of opportunities to just meet folks from all across the city, in all walks of life, and learn about what they think is important in this area.”

The city’s commission can serve as the direct inspiration for what Onondaga County should do next, Czarny said.

“One good thing we are getting out of this with the county is that we are getting a close look at what we should be doing, which is the Syracuse process, and exactly what we shouldn’t be doing, which is the county process now.”

ity to low-income New Yorkers aged 65 and up and those with disabilities so that they can maintain Medicaid eligibility after they become eligible for Medicare.

The budget also includes $12.4 million for the Department of Labor’s enforcement of worker protections. Legislation submitted alongside the budget prohibited non-compete agreements for workers making below minimum wage, limits for worker mobility and “no-poach” agreements under New York state antitrust law.

Additionally, the budget proposed $250 million in tax credits to small businesses that took on pandemic-related capital expenses, in addition to a $200 million flexible grant program for early-stage businesses that opened amid the pandemic.

Higher education

Hochul’s budget proposed state investments to strengthen gun violence prevention in law enforcement agencies and community organizations and in education and job skills training for incarcerated individuals.

A total of $215,000 will be provided to triple the state’s gun violence intelligence

resources. The state will provide $13.1 million to expand law enforcement partnerships between State Troopers and local law enforcement agencies.

The budget also includes $527,000 in funding to enhance the Social Media Analysis Unit at New York State Intelligence Center. The team will perform daily analysis of public social media activity related to school violence threats, gang activity and illegal firearms, according to the budget.

Incarcerated people will be eligible for state financial aid through the Tuition Assistance Program as the budget repeals a 1995 state law that prohibits it. The budget also abolishes parole supervision fees.

The budget also initiated a pilot program that secures suitable residence for parolees who otherwise would have been released into the shelter system. The program will set up a residential treatment facility to provide parolees with stable housing for 90 days as they look for a job and permanent home. The parolees will also be eligible for a temporary stipend to reduce household spending for 12 weeks.

in December that the New York State Health Department will partner with SU to expand the university’s methodology for wastewater testing in order to better trace the virus throughout the state.

These protocols come following the university’s decision in late December to push the start of the semester from Jan. 18 to Jan. 24. Spring break will take place as scheduled — from March 13-30 — and commencement

has been rescheduled from May 8 to May 15.

As of Jan. 19, there are 91 total active cases on campus with six students in quarantine.

Public safety

Earned Time

prison system has seen a decrease in the amount of good time or merit time awarded in previous decades. For those who disagree with the piece of legislation, Cooney argued that the bill would also protect corrections personnel.

The legislation, he said, “protects corrections personnel by creating a more healthy, productive, positive environment that recognizes the individual’s need to be rehabilitated, not punished.”

Kerry Gant, a restorative justice advocate, said that the passing of the Second Look Act would set a precedent not just for New York state, but the entire country.

“The Earned Time Act would go a long way in … changing the culture here on the outside and also changing the culture inside from one of punishment to one of restoration and rehabilitation and ultimately hope,” Gant said.

The three bills would “work towards reducing sentence times and allowing more flexibility to account for individual circumstances, which at least in theory should work towards decreasing our reliance on long-term incarceration,” Hamlin wrote. kschouin@syr.edu @Kyle_Chouinard

njrobert@syr.edu @NickRobertsonSU

About 1.2 million students enrolled into New York’s higher education institutions as of fall 2020, according to the budget.

The budget proposed to expand the Tuition Assistance Program for part-time students in degree programs, as well as part-time community college students in highdemand workforce credential programs.

The budget proposed an additional $24 million in funding for educationally disadvantaged students through programs and training centers administered by CUNY, SUNY and private colleges, a 10% increase.

The budget revealed that funding for these programs has doubled since 2012 and currently totals $271 million.

In addition, the budget provides SUNY and CUNY with $53 million each to hire approximately 880 new full-time faculty at both fouryear colleges and community colleges — 340 at SUNY and 540 at CUNY. The budget will also increase operating support for the two university systems through reimbursement by $127 million. btang05@syr.edu @francis_towne

jlseal@syr.edu @JanaLoSeal

OPINION

dailyorange.com opinion@dailyorange.com

PAG E 5

jan. 24, 2022

column

Smaller goals can make New Year’s resolutions more attainable

By Hannah Karlin columnist

N

ew year, new me! With 2022 just starting, many people have set resolutions with a driven mentality. The new year provides Syracuse University students with the initiative to accomplish their goals, but despite the beneficial outcomes of achieving a healthier lifestyle — which many people hope for in their resolutions — the new year doesn’t have to entail large, abrupt changes.

Significant New Year’s resolutions are rarely maintained. Although millions of Americans set New Year’s resolutions, less than 8% of people stick to them, according to UAB Medicine. The annual cycle of creating then abandoning a goal results in minimal value. If the maintenance of a goal appears unreachable, why create such a demanding one in the first place? SU students can make more attainable resolutions by taking their original, grand resolution and simplifying it, displaying a more realistic approach to resolutions.

Significant change is also unnecessary, given that uncertainty in the upcoming year prevails. Even if someone composes thoughtful and organized resolutions, external forces often create challenges to sticking with them. Over the past few

years, the pandemic created barriers to people’s desired accomplishments and made once simple goals complicated or even impossible.

As a more effective means of resolution, SU students can direct their focus on small achievements, without a time restriction. Although some people become ready to make life changes on Jan. 1, this doesn’t apply to everyone, according to Insider.

Personal goals have different time spans, and it becomes unrealistic to believe that the start of the new year will unveil a gateway to the end goal.

With this in mind, it can be more beneficial for students to wait until they are prepared for the challenge.

SU students must learn to embrace uncertainty. The world is outside of anyone’s control, and it is time to start living in the present. Being present and mindful makes people happier, and also has benefits such as helping deal with pain more effectively, reducing stress and improving coping mechanisms for negative emotions, according to Positive Psychology.

Focusing too much on large future goals and deadlines can negatively impact students’ mental health, but creating smaller and more attainable goals allows for students to focus their attention to the present.

With all of this in mind, the value of significant goals remains prominent. Creating a resolution on Jan.

Smaller, more attainable New Year’s resolutions will benefit Syracuse University students the most during this upcoming year. meghan hendricks photo editor

1 does show initiative and determination, however, altering goals to create a simpler change and less restrictive parameters can make the goal more attainable.

With the new year and the new semester, SU students should

ensure that their resolutions can be realistically achieved, accounting for life’s unpredictability and the feasibility of their ultimate goal. By creating smaller resolutions, people can be more confident that they will stick to their goals, and by the end of

the year, they will be proud of their accomplishments rather than upset they abandoned their goal.

Hannah Karlin is a freshman English major. Her column appears biweekly. She can be reached at hekarlin@syr.edu.

column

SU professors should provide online options this semester

By Karla Perez columnist

A

fter an extended winter break, students and faculty are returning to campus with the well-known uncertainty of what the semester will look like. For what seems like one too many times, COVID-19 has once again hovered over like a cloud of ambiguity to disrupt life as we knew it.

With the emergence of the highly transmissible omicron variant, Syracuse University reviewed and updated its health and safety measures once more. In an email sent to all community members over the break, the university discussed the required booster shot to return and announced new procedures for quarantining and isolation.

While all community members are expected to comply with the new requirements, the concern of increased academic absences arises with the infectious nature of the variant. A spike in cases is

News Editor Richard Perrins Editorial Editor Micaela Warren Culture Editor Nathan Fenningdorf Sports Editor Connor Smith Presentation Director Shannon Kirkpatrick Photo Editor Meghan Hendricks Video Editor Maya Pow Video Editor Maddy Kramer Podcast Editor Marnie Muñoz Illustration Editor Yiwei He Enterprise Editor Christopher Cicchiello Asst. News Editor Kyle Chouinard

expected with the return to campus, likely leading to an increase of students in quarantine. While the school has done its job at providing resources for students in isolation, a Student Association request for hybrid options for classes made in September was met with hesitance and ultimately rejection.

SU should require professors to provide hybrid alternatives this semester because of the presence of COVID-19 cases due to the omicron variant. A student petition demanding for this action emerged recently, demonstrating the pressing need students have for hybrid classes.

During the fall semester, some professors only posted their class presentations for students in quarantine without a recording of their instruction. While quarantined in Skyhall, freshman Ellie Lozow had to miss five days of regular lectures and said she was expected to keep up with the content without any further guidance provided.

“I was not learning as in-depth

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as I would be if I were attending the regular lectures, which was more noticeable a few weeks (later),” Lozow said. Professors should record or livestream their lectures for students who cannot attend in person. The lack of instruction from only posting a presentation to read creates a disadvantage in students’ knowledge when learning in quarantine, affecting their assignments and exams later on.

When SA proposed a hybrid option to Allen Groves, the senior vice president for the student experience, Groves expressed concern about hybrid options creating a shortcut for more students not to attend classes. There are solutions to this concern, though, such as creating a password for the online lectures and only providing it to students in quarantine.

A hybrid alternative would also give students flexibility around how to attend class in other situations where it is difficult or dangerous to come to class. SU rarely

cancels classes for extreme weather conditions, as the university’s policy states that all schedules are observed during inclement weather unless indicated by the provost and chief financial officer.

Even though extreme weather conditions occur regularly in the Syracuse area, it is important to consider both student and faculty safety on the days when conditions are too intense. Most students usually walk to class under severe weather conditions, which can become dangerous with low temperatures, high wind chills and icy surfaces.

There needs to be a degree of flexibility on attendance regarding severe winter weather days. SU professors should use their discretion to determine whether in-person lectures should happen or provide online alternatives.

If hybrid options were available, students could have the liberty to decide if they feel safe attending in-person classes. With a diverse pool of students from different back-

grounds and origins, not everyone handles the winter weather the same. Those differences should be acknowledged and accepted.

We are at a time where technology has evolved and adapted to become inclusive to any situation that prevents in-person attendance. SU faculty should use their resources to provide the safest learning options for students in accordance with the virus and the winter weather.

A safety concern should not be the reason why students miss out on the entirety of the content they could have learned if they had attended their classes physically.

While we have to be grateful for the chance to even attend in-person classes, we also must recognize the need for alternative options for those who need them this semester.

Emily Steinberger

Mandy Kraynak

Anthony Alandt

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CULTURE

6 jan. 24, 2022

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C

Enjoy Salt City Market’s Cake Bar with your SU meal plan

To shorten the distance that SU students have to travel to Cake Bar from campus, the eatery plans on opening a location on Marshall Street that will also accept SU meal plan cards. meghan hendricks photo editor

Cake Bar, located at Salt City Market, will allow Syracuse University students to purchase items with their SU meal plan cards

By Ilana Epstein

contributing writer

T

hanh Nguyen, a worker at Cake Bar who helps the owner, Duyen Nguyen, decorate cakes, said deciding to accept the Syracuse University meal plan cards was fairly simple. The decision came after a meeting with cafeteria services at SU, which sought to increase the number of SU students who visit the bakery.

“We want to benefit SU students when they come here,” Thanh said.

The Cake Bar is one vendor in a diverse array of food selections like Jamaican, Vietnamese, Thai and soul food at Salt City Market on South Salina Street. The open space is constantly bustling with people from all over central New York who visit the market’s restaurants, which include Erma’s Island, Miss Prissy’s and Mamma Hai. Known for its delicious pastries and complex decorated cakes, Cake Bar recently announced that SU students can use their meal plan cards at the bakery. see cake

bar page 7

from the stage

First Year Players to hold auditions for musical ‘Grease’

By Katie Hopsicker staff writer

Syracuse University senior Sydni Tougas can still recall the night of her freshman activities fair. As she wandered through the booths advertising SU’s many campus organizations, she heard music from “Heathers: The Musical” playing.

Naturally, she gravitated toward the First Year Players table, she said, and the rest was history.

After last year’s show, when COVID-19 forced FYP to debut their musical through a video recording, the theater organization on campus is ready to get back to their usual show business.

On Jan. 26, FYP will begin auditions for this year’s musical, “Grease.” Cast auditions, pit auditions and crew interviews will take place throughout the weekend for freshmen on campus. The sign up

sheet is located on FYP’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

FYP is a unique organization because it helps ingrain freshmen into SU’s community, said Tougas, one of FYP’s co-producers. Usually about 50 freshmen make up the cast, crew and pit members, and then upperclassmen work as the executive board and staff.

Tougas spoke about the growth she experienced within FYP. “No matter what you do in your first year, the trajectory of you in the organization can go anywhere you want,” she said. “Even if you make one person’s year better, that’s all that matters.”

Cate Hudson, an SU sophomore, joined FYP last year on the crew.

Her role consisted of building and painting sets, moving sets and props during the show and helping out backstage. She said she participated in theater growing up, so

when she came to Syracuse, joining FYP was a great way to keep her love for theater alive.

“I had never been in the crew before,” she said. “I wanted to get a new perspective on theater.”

Hudson not only had a great time experiencing theater through the lens of the crew, but also enjoyed meeting and getting to know so many people who shared her same interests. She said she especially enjoyed FYP’s mentorship from older students. Starting college amidst a pandemic was hard and depressing, Hudson said, but joining FYP gave her a support system and chance to meet her role models.

This year, Hudson will sit on FYP’s executive board as an assistant producer, and she said she is looking forward to running the mentorship program. Each freshman who joins FYP will get a mentor and join a family within the organization, which is like a bonding expe-

rience, she said.

“I knew I was a priority and felt so loved,” she said. “That’s such a great thing to feel, especially from older people who have been through it as well and are able to pass it down. It shows how special (FYP) is and how much people care about this organization.”

Caroline Whinney, an SU senior and FYP’s director, said she joined FYP after seeing a preview performance on a campus tour. She immediately joined the cast of “Newsies” and served as assistant director for the past two years. As a director, she said she helps make the vision of the show come to life through the cast’s performance.

Like Whinney, seniors and coproducers Vivi Collymore and Tougas joined FYP after doing theater in high school and yearning to get more involved on campus. Collymore joined the crew, and Tougas played percussion in the pit. Now, as

co-producers, they will oversee the executive board and the members within the organization.

FYP’s supporting environment gave her the opportunity to try out new things, Collymore said. Even with no prior experience in crew, she found a passion for stage management and was able to grow.

“It feels like a family,” said Whinney. She said that a lot of members do not major in theater, so FYP gives them a creative outlet.

Auditions and interviews will be held Jan. 26-29, and callbacks will be Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. The final cast and crew list will come out later next week.

“Grease” will be performed Apr. 7-9.

Hudson encourages every freshman to take part in FYP. “Audition!” said Hudson. “You have nothing to lose and so much to gain from it. It’s such an amazing organization.”

kshopsic@syr.edu

C

PAG E 7

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jan. 24, 2022

university union

Freddie Gibbs to headline UU spring Bandersnatch concert

By Nathan Fenningdorf culture editor

University Union has announced the details for the spring 2022 Bandersnatch concert. This will be UU’s second Bandersnatch concert of the 2021-22 school year — the fall 2021 Bandersnatch concert was the first to occur since 2019.

The concert will take place on Friday, Feb. 4 at 8:00 p.m. in Goldstein Auditorium, with doors opening at 7:45 p.m. Tickets are availfrom page 6

cake bar

Alena Sober, a freshman at SU, has been to Salt City Market multiple times in her first semester.

“It is an exciting atmosphere and a good place to be with friends,” Sober said. She is interested in heading back and is looking to try new pastries, including the Cake Bar’s Castella Caramel Flan.

Cake Bar offers plenty of other sweet treats, including two of its menu items that Thanh said draw repeat customers: the Lotus Biscoff Cake, made of chocolate cake with buttercream and caramel, and its original milk tea with boba. Cake Bar has been busier than usual during the past couple of weeks because of more people requesting custom cakes, Thanh said.

The Cake Bar owner hopes that SU students will be visiting regularly as they prepare for Valentine’s Day. The holiday is one of the bakery’s busiest days of the year, as it receives

able for SU and SUNY-ESF students, faculty and staff, and they cost $5 for students and $10 for staff and faculty.

The concert will be headlined by hiphop artist Freddie Gibbs. The Indianaraised artist’s discography features over 20 mixtapes, eight EPs and four albums.

His 2020 album “Alfredo” was nominated for the Best Rap Album Grammy and reached No. 4 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart. a multitude of design requests. Duyen also plans to create some new confections at the bakery in upcoming months.

Thanh’s goal of building a community through cake became a reality as she serves locals every day, she said. She has become friendly with many customers who work in local businesses nearby and said that it’s one of her favorite aspects of working there.

“There are always new customers, however, many shop there regularly,” she said.

SU freshman Katrina Dela Rosa has been wanting to go to the Cake Bar at Salt City Market for a while. “(Salt City Market is) a great hangout for friends when in downtown Syracuse,” Dela Rosa said. She believes that the location is a little too far to attend on a regular basis, though.

Duyen has more in store for SU students.

She’s planning to open another Cake Bar location on Marshall Street, which will continue to accept SU meal plan cards. This came after

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Opening for Freddie Gibbs is Pink Siifu, a 29-year-old artist from Birmingham, Alabama. Pink Siifu has been developing his sound since 2012. He fuses the genres of soul, punk, jazz, rap and experimental to create music that reflects on ideas, life and struggles experienced through Blackness, which brings attention to family, culture and faith, UU said in a press release.

Concert attendees must provide an SU or SUNY-ESF ID for entry. UU also requires

that all concertgoers adhere to the Stay Safe Pledge, New York State and Syracuse University COVID-19 guidelines, mandates and campus masking requirements.

Contact UU Vice President Molly Gross at uuvicepresident@gmail.com for accommodations and UU Director of Public Relations Samantha Goldstein at uupublicrelations@gmail.com for more information. nlfennin@syr.edu @natefennn

The owner of Cake Bar at Salt City Market had SU students in mind when choosing to allow SU meal cards as payment. meghan hendricks photo editor

Duyen realized Salt City Market isn’t very close to campus and may be inconvenient for students.

Thanh said the plan is exciting for Cake

Bar, as this would be the business’s own independent location. “This is all for the students,” she said. ieepstei@syr.edu

8 jan. 24, 2022

from page 12

crunch But she was surprised when future Crunch captain Mike Angelidis made an appearance at the Fairgrounds — prior players hadn’t made public appearances like that, Ackerman said. Angelidis had yet to play a game for the Crunch after winning the Calder Cup trophy with the Norfolk Admirals. Ackerman introduced herself and got her photo taken with the face of the transformed Crunch team.

Five months later, Ackerman and Angelidis met again at the season ticket holder Christmas party. Angelidis immediately remembered her name. To Ackerman, it meant much more than being on a first-name basis with the Crunch’s captain. It showed her that in such a short span, the Crunch players had embraced their new city and parent organization.

“I was immediately impressed by the level of professionalism and just general conduct that was expected by the Lightning players,” Ackerman said. “That’s something that overall has continued pretty consistently throughout the entire affiliation.

Since the Lightning took over in 2012, the Crunch have brought in several skills coaches as well as a number of off-ice personnel like nutritionists and sports psychiatrists. But the from page 12

duke

two of his five shots to finish with four points.

He played a season-high 25 minutes, too. His shooting has still been a work in progress, and Boeheim said that “he’s struggling” from every spot — 3s, the free-throw line and the field in general.

“We’d like to see him help us, but we’ve been limited to our starters because they’ve been getting the job done and the guys on the bench haven’t played very well,” Boeheim said.

Saturday reflected another step in that direction, the direction leading to consistent bench minutes and production, for Torrence.

In the first half, he checked in for Girard at the under-12 timeout to handle the basketball, and on the Orange’s first possession, he drove right on Baker, paused just above the block and banked in a floater. He ended SU’s sequence two possessions later with a shot too, but this one — from the left block — bounced off the front rim.

While Buddy and Girard sometimes turned to backing their Blue Devils’ defender into the paint instead of facing them, Torrence showed an instinct to drive instead of reversing himself into situations that inevitably ended with forced turnaround jumpers. He commanded SU’s transition offense by pointing where screeners like Frank Anselem needed to perch in order to free up shots for Buddy and others.

“He’s great,” Buddy said. “He’s really smart, been watching a lot of film. He breaks down his guy and tries to make a play, or he’s telling me, ‘Go in the lane, make a play, beat your guy and see what you can get.’”

But then the injury happened, and Torrence’s role which had become more certain and more defined over the last few games suddenly became uncertain. Even if Torrence doesn’t miss time because of the injury — he insisted postgame that he won’t — it’s the latest reminder of how thin Syracuse’s depth at the guard position is. Of how it’d struggle to face pressure defenses without him. Of how necessary Torrence will be if the Orange are to salvage their season to any capacity.

The game was won when…

After Edwards slammed a dunk through the net, pulling Syracuse within 16-15 after the Orange had initially fallen behind by nine points, the Blue Devils ripped off a 15-4 run over the next six minutes to rebuild their lead heading into halftime.

Paolo Banchero started by converting a layup. Then, heading into the under-8 timeout, Roach threaded a pass to Mark Williams — bypassing the pair of SU guards at the top of the zone and Edwards at the bottom, pulled away from Williams with a glance from Roach — and the center converted the layup and drew a foul.

But the two shots that truly put the game

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upgraded facilities in Syracuse have been the biggest investment, Sarosy said.

The Lightning have been essential in transforming the Crunch’s offices and facilities at the Upstate Medical University Arena at the Oncenter, Sarosy noted. Tampa Bay’s general manager, Julien BriseBois, helped develop a blueprint for their weight room and even had a say about how players entered the arena, what they would see and where they would go each day.

“It’s always been a holistic approach, family type of thing,” Sarosy said. “It’s never ‘us and you,’ it’s always ‘we.’ And that’s the stuff I’ll always remember and that was instituted from day one.”

It’s that transparency and proactivity that Syracuse’s general manager Stacy Roest wishes he had when he was an AHL player. Roest played three full seasons for the Adirondack Red Wings in the mid-90s, earning his first NHL call-up with the Detroit Red Wings in 1998. But Roest had to do a lot of his development on his own.

Roest, now in his ninth year with the Lightning organization, has been a part of the development of nearly every Lightning player that has suited up since then. The year before he joined the Lightning, the Crunch advanced all the way to the Calder Cup finals but lost in six games. The following season (2013-14), they

missed the playoffs, recording 75 points and finishing below .500.

But as underwhelming as that season was, it became the stepping stone for some of the Lightning’s NHL stars, such as Yanni Gourde and Nikita Kucherov, who led Tampa through its recent cup runs.

Now, for a Lightning team that hasn’t had a first round pick in four of the last seven drafts, patience with developing prospects is what will maintain that success, Crunch head coach Ben Groulx said.

With fewer high-profile draft picks under their belt, the Crunch have sought to add veteran players to aid in the long-term development of their younger prospects. Labrie, who was on the 2013-14 Crunch team before bouncing around numerous minor league teams, is among that group.

So it was only fitting that Labrie dropped the gloves on Friday night as the Crunch were 20 minutes away from their first shutout loss of the season. The Crunch were outshooting the Comets by nine at that point, but they were trailing 3-0.

Three weeks earlier, Crunch defenseman Darren Raddysh recently made his NHL debut for the Lightning. He had moved around the AHL starting in 2017 after going undrafted. His younger brother, Taylor, was a second-round pick by the Lightning in

2016 and accumulated over 100 points in three seasons with the Crunch.

“To come in here and to be a part of this, it just feels like a family,” Raddysh said.

His favorite Lightning-Crunch moment was seeing Taylor hoist the 2021 Stanley Cup trophy. It makes Raddysh even more optimistic to continue on with the Lightning organization.

Taylor’s name is one of 31 on the team’s Stanley Cup championship wall on the lower level of the Oncenter. After each of their backto-back titles, the Crunch highlighted players that had played in Syracuse and had their name embroidered on the Stanley Cup — 16 were honored in 2020 and 15 in 2021.

BriseBois invited Sarosy to Tampa for Game 5 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals. He sat in a suite with their entire front office staff. Once the title was clinched, Sarosy felt a tap on his shoulder. It was BriseBois, stopping to thank him and the Crunch organization for their developmental role as he was on his way to the locker room to celebrate with the rest of the Lightning.

“I can guarantee you not every NHL team is treating their AHL affiliate like that,” Sarosy said. “I have two Stanley Cup rings because of them. That’s not (a) given,” Sarosy said. cirinoalex19@gmail.com @alexcirino19

away were made by the same person who opened Duke’s scoring: AJ Griffin. He hit an open 3-pointer from the left corner, rising toward the basket before Anselem could collapse from his position inside the paint, and on the next Duke possession, he stayed in that same spot. Jimmy Boeheim stayed on Williams on the left block and Anselem got caught up near the foul line.

And that left Griffin for another open 3, one of five that he’d make against the Orange.

When SU pulled within 16-15, Duke’s win percentage dropped to 89.8%, according to KenPom, but that’s the lowest it reached, and it never dropped beneath 97% in the second half.

Quote of the night: Jim Boeheim

“The first seven league games we haven’t had a game like this. We’ve played pretty well, particularly offensively. We just couldn’t get the ball in the basket today. We’re not winning those games.”

Number to know: 17.2%

Syracuse’s 3-point percentage against Duke, the result of making just 5-of-29 shots from deep, was its worst this year and lowest against an ACC opponent since the Orange hit just 3-of-23 shots against Pittsburgh on Jan. 16, 2021. It’s the third game this season where SU has made five 3s, with the other two coming against VCU and Villanova, and in each game, Buddy has shot a combined 3-for-25, or 12%.

In his other 16 games this season, Buddy has connected on 38% of his 3s — a number comparable to the 38% he hit last year and the 37% from the 2019-20 campaign.

Game ball: Jesse Edwards

It’s difficult to find anybody on Syracuse to give a game ball to after a loss like that, but Edwards stabilized SU’s offense once again while also flashing some improvements defensively. He continued to alter corner shots, whether it came via a block or contested hand in the face, and helped deter Duke drivers from entering the painted area. Offensively, he finished 6-for-8 from the field, the most shots he’s made in a game since SU’s loss to Miami, with 22 points while grabbing eight rebounds.

Three final points:

Turnovers — not as bad as the first two minutes suggested Three of Syracuse’s first five possessions ended with turnovers against Duke’s defense in the game’s first two minutes, but from then on, the Orange only committed seven compared to 15 by the Blue Devils. Edwards led SU with four turnovers — the second time this season where he’s had more than three, with the other coming against Miami on Jan. 5 when he had six. He also committed his first on the second possession of the game, when Duke

SYMIR TORRENCE played a season-high 25 minutes in Syracuse’s 79-59 loss at Duke but suffered a leg injury in the second half. elizabeth billman senior staff photographer

doubled off his screen and he lost his handle when Girard — who added three turnovers — flipped it to him on the roll. Syracuse now holds the fifth-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the ACC, and it sits seventh in the conference in overall turnover margin.

AJ Griffin — the latest to capitalize on SU’s 3-point defense woes Boeheim said postgame that Griffin “was the guy,” yet the Orange still allowed him to convert five 3s, with many of them coming on open looks — especially the pair from the corner that helped flip the game in Duke’s favor for good. Griffin, the younger brother of former SU forward Alan Griffin, has now converted multiple 3s in four of his last five games to lift his percentage from beyond the arc this season to 46.6%.

“That’s just inexcusable,” Boeheim said.

“They’re going to get some stuff inside — we can live with that. We can’t give them 14 3s.”

Short leash for the reserve centers Syracuse used all three of its centers off the bench yesterday, with Anselem logging eight minutes and Bourama Sidibe appearing for one. But both of its reserves at the position operated with extremely short leashes while spelling Edwards, even after Edwards picked up his second foul with seven minutes remaining in the first half.

Anselem was the first to check in, but he was called for a travel to end his first offensive possession. Girard drove in from the corner and attracted help from Williams, leaving Anselem on the left block, but he bobbed up and down with possession — shuffling his

feet in the process — after SU’s point guard tossed him the ball. Boeheim then motioned for Sidibe to enter the game, though Anselem rebounded with an offensive rebound, dunk and defensive rebound before the whistle and horn signaled Sidibe in.

Sidibe, who has only entered into games for eight minutes while he continues to recover from a preseason knee injury, played his lone minute and committed a foul while trying to recover after Banchero burst by him underneath the basket and Boeheim then sent Anselem back in to bridge the gap before Edwards could return.

Next up:

The Orange travel to the Petersen Events Center and face Pittsburgh on Tuesday for their second and final meeting against the Panthers this season. Pitt enters the meeting off its worst loss of the Jeff Capel era margin-wise, dropping its game on Saturday against Clemson 75-48 while hitting only nine shots in the first half and seven in the second.

In its first meeting with Pittsburgh this season, Syracuse outscored the Panthers by 15 in the second half en route to a 77-61 victory, snapping a three-game losing streak behind 24 points from Buddy and 18 from Jimmy. The 2-3 zone showed improvements, Buddy rediscovered a shooting stroke from behind the arc, but the victory serves as just one of two for the Orange in their last seven games. arcrane@syr.edu @CraneAndrew

jan. 24, 2022 9

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ice hockey

Dominant penalty kill leads powerful Syracuse defense

By Henry O’Brien asst. digital editor

Syracuse hadn’t registered a shot before it drew its first penalty against Boston University in the “Battle at the Burgh” tournament. The Terriers’ Lacey Martin skated into the neutral zone with the puck, but as she slid a pass to defenseman Nadia Mattivi, SU forward Marielle McHale was called for tripping after poking her stick at Martin’s skates, knocking her down to the ice.

On BU’s power play, Julia Nearis held the puck in the left circle of SU’s zone while she looked for someone to pass to. But two Orange defensemen already created enough pressure to force Nearis to play the puck behind the boards and reset Boston’s attack.

Emma Wuthrich retrieved the puck sending a pass to Alex Allan, who sent it back to Nearis in the left circle. Nearis sent a cross-ice pass to an open Wuthrich in the right circle and sent a pass to her. The senior forward then slung a powerful shot on net at Syracuse goalie Arielle DeSmet, who easily swallowed the puck up.

This would be BU’s only shot of the power play, as SU (9-9-5, 7-3-0-1 College Hockey America) continued to pressure the Terriers. While Boston had three other power-play opportunities, the Orange stopped the Terriers from scoring for all eight penalty minutes. Forward Lauren Bellefontaine said it is one of the Orange’s strongest aspects of play for multiple seasons. In the 2020-21 season, SU led the CHA with a penalty kill percentage of .926, conceding six goals in 22 games.

Syracuse’s win over Boston was the 17th game this season where it did not allow a power-play goal. SU averages the lowest penalties per game in the CHA, with a mark of 3.3, but when Syracuse does go down a player, it has also been the most efficient at stopping power-play goals.

The Orange have only conceded a conference-best seven goals while shorthanded, a penalty kill percentage of .892 — the highest in the CHA and 10th-highest in the country. This has created a significant impact for the Orange, especially as they fight for the CHA’s top spot.

Syracuse head coach Paul Flanagan said the penalty-killing duties on the coaching staff belong to associate head coach Brendon Knight. Flanagan finds Knight to be good at analyzing the opponent and their attack, specifically during power plays.

“He’s a very good tactician,” Flanagan said. “And he understands our opponent’s strengths and weaknesses … But it’s all inherent on the kids just working on blocking shots and deflecting.”

When she isn’t penalized, defenseman Jessica DiGirolamo is an important part of the penalty kill. DiGirolamo said that

Syracuse recorded its first loss of the season, losing 4-2 in singles matches in the 5-2 defeat against Penn State. The Orange previously beat Brown and Army to start the season. meghan hendricks photo editor

blocking shots on the penalty kill has been crucial so that the puck doesn’t go anywhere near the net. Fellow defenseman Terryn Mozes said that the penalty killers on the team — including DiGirolamo and Bellefontaine — are a key aspect toward their success.

“We have our penalty killers, and they’ve been doing it for a while,” Mozes said. “They’ve gotten really good at following what the coaches have planned for us. So that has an impact on us not getting a lot of goals against.”

For DiGirolamo, another important point of emphasis is making sure that she and her teammates were in passing lanes. Flanagan also said that it was important to correctly assess the passing lanes and blocking.

“There are some subtleties in the defensive zone,” Flanagan said. “But for the most part, regardless of how you tactically set up, it’s predicated on making good reads and goaltending.”

But on Dec. 4 against Mercyhurst, who boasts the highest-scoring offense in the CHA, those points of emphasis were greatly tested. While the Orange halted the Lak-

ers’ first power play, both Bellefontaine and DiGirolamo were called for slashing and boarding penalties, respectively. This put Mercyhurst on the two-man advantage in the second period with the score tied at one goal apiece. But during the 5-on-3, SU had more shots than Mercyhurst did.

The importance of blocking the passing lanes became crucial on the penalty kill. Lakers forward Jordan Mortlock took the only shot on the two-man advantage, which went wide of the net. But pressure on a pass almost caused a short-handed goal for the Orange.

Mercyhurst defender Mary Sweetapple stood at the blue line with the puck with the intention to quickly pass to a teammate. She sent a sliding pass down the left side of SU’s zone to Sarah Nelles, but as Nelles got the puck, Orange defenseman Mae Batherson aggressively pressured Nelles, forcing her to pass back to Sweetapple.

But on the pass back, forward Abby Moloughney was there to pick it off.

Moloughney quickly got past Sweetapple to retrieve the puck and fly down the ice before firing a wrist shot that Mercyhurst

goalie Ena Nystrøm saved with her glove.

“Abby was doing it while she was worn out there,” Flanagan said. “But I noticed neither team scored power-play goals this weekend, so special teams were pretty important.”

Blocking shots on the penalty kill has still been crucial for the Orange. Against RIT on Jan. 21, Syracuse efficiently killed all of the Tigers’ power plays through its blocked shots. With Syracuse killing a Sarah Marchand hooking penalty, RIT’s Mia Tsilemos skated at the blue line with the puck and teed up a slap shot.

But Bellefontaine stood in front and blocked the shot to prevent RIT from scoring on the man-advantage. Batherson said that the Orange’s willingness to block shots is crucial and part of the effective penalty killing system they use.

“Our team sticks to our systems, and it works,” Batherson said. “We pressure hard, and we get pucks out …We know what to do, and we execute pretty well.” hwobrien@syr.edu @realhenryobrien

tennis

Kanapatskaya struggles in Syracuse’s loss to Penn State

By Tyler Schiff

contributing writer

In her freshman season last year, Viktoriya Kanapatskaya surpassed expectations. The Belarus native arrived at Syracuse as a practically unknown prospect before finishing the year off with multiple ranked wins, All-Atlantic Coast Conference First Team honors and an All-American team selection, even earning SU’s number one singles spot.

But after just three matches in that position, Kanapatskaya’s sophomore campaign has gotten off to a rocky start. Her record now stands at 1-2 after consecutive defeats to Brown’s Britany Lau and Penn State’s Sofiya Chekhlystova, and she has yet to win a singles match since Syracuse’s season-

opener against Army.

“The good news is that she played better than yesterday,” head coach Younes Limam said after Syracuse’s 5-2 loss to Penn State.

Falling to Chekhlystova in straight sets 6-2, 6-2, Kanapatskaya again struggled in singles play, but when matched up with a teammate, she dominated in doubles play.

Kanapatskaya was successful in doubles alongside then-graduate student Natalie Novotna during her freshman year. The duo ranked as high as No. 23 nationally in doubles during the 2020-21 season. But now, even with Novotna gone and fellow sophomore Ines Fonte jumping into the mix, Kanapatskaya remains part of Syracuse’s only undefeated doubles tandem.

With Syracuse’s winning streak snapped at two games in the loss to Penn State, the pair-

ings’ comfortable 6-0 win over Olivia Ryan and Yvonna Zuffova was one of the few bright spots throughout the afternoon. During the match’s only set, Kanapatskaya delivered a variety of strong and fast shots from the backend of the court.

“Viktoriya and Ines did a tremendous job with their doubles by putting us on the scoreboard,” Limam said. “It was a great performance.”

Kanapatskaya won both her doubles and singles matchups in her first six ACC outings last season. She picked up notable victories against top-35 schools Miami and Virginia, proving that she’s capable of winning against top-level talent. Limam believes that his young star has been unlucky as of late, facing off against two near-flawless performances from her opponents, he said.

The sophomore has shown visible frustration during her losses, too. When committing an unforced error, she tends to let her limbs hang, annoyed that her errant playstyle had cost her a point she probably should’ve won.

From there, she’ll take her time walking back to her post, picking at her racket anxiously before settling back down in her receiving stance.

Moving forward, Kanapatskaya’s success will be key for SU, and Limam is hopeful that she can bounce back in future matches. He recognized — and is excited — that Syracuse has time to regroup and refocus before a home game against Cornell on Sunday.

“She knows that she’s not where she needs to be, but the good news is that we have a great week of practice ahead of us before we get ready to play,” Limam said. trschiff@syr.edu

10 jan. 24, 2022

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women’s lacrosse

Emma Ward to miss 2022 season with lower-leg injury

By Adam McCaffery staff writer

Roughly two weeks before Syracuse’s season begins, Emma Ward announced via Twitter that she suffered a lower-leg injury in the preseason and will miss the entire 2022 season.

Ward, an attack who stepped up toward the end of last season as a freshman while Emily Hawryschuk and Megan Carney were

both out with a torn ACL, scored 43 goals and recorded 30 assists for the Orange and was instrumental in helping Syracuse finish as national runners-up.

Against Florida in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals, Ward helped Syracuse prevail in a 17-11 win with a career-high six goals along with an assist. Ward also had three goals and three assists in the semifinal win over Northwestern, helping

Syracuse get to the championship game against Boston College.

At the end of the 2021 season, Ward ranked second on the team with 73 points and 30 assists, and third on the team with 43 goals.

Going into the season, Ward was named an Inside Lacrosse Preseason All-America honorable mention, along with six other Syracuse players.

Before her most recent injury, Ward suffered

torn ACLs in both of her knees in high school.

“This is just a small bump in the long road I am navigating,” Ward wrote on Twitter. “I cannot wait for the day when I can wear the block S once again and play the sport I love.”

Syracuse’s first game of the season is on Feb. 11 against Stanford, and the Orange will likely rely on the trio of Meaghan Tyrrell, Hawryschuk and Carney in Ward’s absence. adamj40302@gmail.com

women’s basketball

Alaina Rice’s tough play provides spark for Syracuse

By Anthony Alandt

digital managing editor

Alaina Rice feels like she can do “a little bit of everything” for Syracuse. Wherever she’s needed, Rice says that’s her role on the team.

Coming off the bench, especially on a team that lacks depth outside of its established starting five, she’s created a “spark,” her high school coach said.

Against Boston College, marred by a stop-and-go stretch of the season due to COVID-19 postponements and positive cases amongst the team, Rice did what she’s used to: “liven the whole place up.”

During a stretch in the first quarter when the Orange still had a grasp on BC, Rice heaved an off-balance shot from inside the paint, burying it from the right edge of the paint. On the opposite end of the court, Rice crouched and waited for Cameron Swartz to break inside.

Instead of swatting at the ball and further hindering an SU lineup already with foul trouble, she stood tall, leaned back and drew an offensive charge. To finish off the sequence, she swished through a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer. Rice then spun around at half court, looking to break up another Eagle’s possession, and intercepted a long pass to return the ball to the Orange.

SU lost to Boston College, but Rice finished with a career-high 17 points and six rebounds. Former coaches described Rice as a “quiet” kid who keeps to herself on the

back of the bus with a custom PlayStation 5. But Rice — now at her third school in as many years — plays tough as an addition for Syracuse, continuing to spark the team’s defense and offense when it strays away from its fast-paced, aggressive formula.

Alaina was the glue, if nothing else.

That was probably her best attribute.

She always came in with this high, positive spirit.

Kevin Lynum former florida a&m head coach

“Alaina was the glue, if nothing else.

That was probably her best attribute,” former Florida A&M head coach Kevin Lynum said. “She always came in with this high, positive spirit.”

Lynum first noticed the IMG Academy product in Atlanta at the annual Peach Jam event put on by Brandon Clay. Weary from a drive to Greensboro, North Carolina, Lynum questioned why he should even go down to

Georgia. But he called the decision to go the “best decision I ever made.”

Lynum said Rice’s smooth play reminded him of former NBA star Dwyane Wade. She took the right shots and knew how to get other teammates — whom she’d never played with before — involved.

At FAMU, Rice established herself as a point guard, even though coaches had to consistently work on her shooting throughout high school and her first year in college.

She couldn’t make shots from outside the arc, according to Reuben Williams, Rice’s coach at Rockledge (Florida) High School, and at both IMG and Florida A&M. But once Williams worked with Rice enough and showed her that she had the ability to score, the next challenge that she brought into college was the inability to stay under control at times.

“One of the things we had to do ... was build that confidence that you can take shots,” Lynum said. “However, being a freshman, that’s when she kind of got on the loose end and started forcing shots.”

Lynum and the rest of the Rattlers coaching staff had to “stay on her case,” mentoring her throughout the season to ensure she allowed her high-energy style of play and terrific ballhandling skills to become an asset for the team.

Rice said she’s still working on not forcing bad shots, like in Thursday’s game against Georgia Tech. The junior brought the ball up the court during the second quarter after a miss from Najé Murray, but instead of look-

ing to her right for Chrislyn Carr or left for Alaysia Styles, Rice pulled up and clanked an off-balance mid-range shot off the rim, stifling an SU possession.

Rice was a sixth man in high school before she briefly found a spot in FAMU’s starting lineup as a freshman, and then returned to her role off the bench when she transferred to Auburn. She has since been unable to break through despite numerous hustle plays that her Syracuse teammates frequently point out. Rice has always been able to snuff out errant passes and force turnovers in transition, Williams said.

In the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, teams frequently press, Lynum said. While Rice needed to adjust to that strategy, Lynum had to demonstrate to Rice that she could still put one move on a person and blow by them, a skill she’s brought to a Syracuse team that almost exclusively utilizes a full-court press. Midway through the first quarter against Boston College, Rice buried a 3-pointer. She didn’t drift too far back into Syracuse’s half of the court, however, and knocked away a pass at half court to give possession back to the Orange.

“Alaina is playing a lot of minutes for us and she can play multiple positions for us,” acting head coach Vonn Read said. “She’s tough enough to play inside and she’s skilled enough to play out on the perimeter.” aalandt@syr.edu @anthonyalandt

tennis

Syracuse snaps 2-match win streak after 5-2 loss to PSU

By Wyatt Miller staff writer

After battling back from a 3-0 deficit, freshman duo Shiori Ito and Miyuka Kimoto trailed 3-2 in the No. 2 doubles spot before the momentum shifted back to Penn State. A long rally ended with Ito hitting the ball into the net and smacking her hand against her forehead in frustration as she shuffled back into position.

The pair proceeded to drop their doubles match 6-4, losing the doubles point for SU. Penn State ultimately won the game in decisive fashion with a score of 5-2. The Orange’s No. 1 doubles pair, featuring junior Polina Kozyreva and senior Sofya Treshcheva, fell 6-2 to Penn State’s Karly Friedland and Alexandra Nielsen, while No. 3 doubles, with sophomores Viktoriya Kanapatskaya and Ines Fonte, dominated Olivia Ryan and Yvonna Zuffova 6-0. After losing the doubles point, SU was only able to win two of its six singles matches, featuring a complete overpowering of Penn State’s Deanna Lasorda by Kozyreva in the No. 5 singles spot.

“She (Kozyreva) did a fantastic job this weekend,” Syracuse head coach Younes Limam said. “She controlled what she could control, and now she needs to keep building her confidence and momentum.”

Kozyreva used her superior power and agility to pummel Lasorda 6-0, 6-1, winning the match before many had even begun their second set.

Ito was the other SU player to win her singles match, battling back from a 6-2 loss in her first set to win the last two 6-3 and 6-4.

Her opponent, Alina Lebedeva, was one of few players who regularly sliced on their forehand, which took Ito some time to adjust towards, according to Limam.

“Once she got going, her plan was to start coming in on the opponent’s forehand and expecting an overhead because she (Lebedeva) was lobbing a lot,” Limam said. “Confidence comes from winning, so this will be big for her.”

Fonte was battling alongside Ito after all the other matches had ended, and even though she didn’t come out victorious, she managed to keep it close.

Every set in her match against Nielsen went into a tiebreaker, but Fonte ultimately lost.

Fonte dropped the first tiebreaker 7-3, won the second 7-0, and then ran out of steam, losing the last tiebreaker 10-3.

“I was very proud of their fight and resilience,” Limam said. “When things don’t go your way, it’s easy to let go, but I couldn’t be prouder of the two (Ito and Fonte) that were still battling.”

While Syracuse had a lot of positives come from these matches, there may be cause for concern with their No.1 doubles player, Kanapatskaya. The Orange’s only nationally ranked singles player, Kanapatskaya lost her second straight match on Sunday against Penn State’s Sofiya Chekhlystova. She dropped both sets 6-2 after losing two straight sets yesterday as well.

Syracuse recorded its first loss of the season, losing 4-2 in singles matches in the 5-2 defeat against Penn State. anshul roy staff photographer

Kanapatskaya was consistently missing long during rallies and was visibly frustrated during the match. She began doing dry swings in between sets to get her mechanics down.

Unranked Chekhlystova showed tremendous ball placement and power while keeping rallies alive with consistency. Kanapatskaya will look to bounce back next weekend when the Orange take on Cornell at home.

Sophomore Treshcheva lost 6-0, 6-1 to Gabrielle O’Gorman, showing little resilience.

And finally, Kimoto fell to Zuffova 6-2, 6-1.

Zuffova kept Kimoto on the move throughout the whole match, often hitting balls to the spot Kimoto had just left. Kimoto was frustrated by the pristine ball placement but continued to run the court with immense effort.

“We saw a lot of good things today,” Limam said. “These situations that they were in today, they are going to have those down the road, so this was good practice.” wbmiller@syr.edu

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SPORTS

PAG E 12

jan. 24, 2022

crunch cup to the

Torrence’s injury hurts thin SU lineup

By Andrew Crane

senior staff writer

Since becoming affiliates of the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Syracuse Crunch have appeared in two Calder Cup Finals with five playoff appearances. meghan hendricks photo editor

The Syracuse Crunch and Tampa Bay Lightning have bolstered a winning hockey culture on and off the ice

By Alex Cirino

asst. sports editor

A

s the second period buzzer sounded, Pierre-Cédric Labrie and Kevin Bahl dropped their gloves in the far corner, muscling each other down to the ice.

It provoked the home crowd’s loudest roar of the night as the Syracuse Crunch trailed its conference rivals, the Utica Comets, 3-0.

It was the first of two fights in a quintessential hard-hitting American Hockey League game, generating much needed momentum for Syracuse early in the third period and leading to the first arena-wide “Let’s go Crunch” chant of the night.

The Crunch ultimately fell 4-1 in its fifth game within the past week, a stretch where three players had been called up to their parent club’s taxi squad. But the loss still showed the bigger picture of that affiliation with the Tampa Bay Lightning, showcasing the trust the Lightning have in their developmental strategies, which has helped win them two consecutive Stanley Cup trophies.

Friday’s loss was reminiscent of the hardnosed hockey Crunch fans remember from their past affiliations with the Anaheim Ducks and the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Crunch were struggling, only making the playoffs six times between 2000-12.

“Sometimes I think of the Columbus affiliation and the Anaheim affiliation, and how much the fans really cherished the fighters from those years,” said season ticket holder Alex Ackerman.

“They cherished the fighters because the hockey was not good.”

But the Crunch have since evolved into one

of the AHL’s most consistent teams over its nine seasons since becoming affiliated with the Lightning. Thirty-one Crunch regulars were a part of the Lightning’s Stanley Cup runs in 2020 and 2021, with multiple other hCrunch alumni on the coaching staff. It’s a partnership consisting of two identical hockey perspectives, with each team prioritizing patience in development, adequate resources and a strong community to furnish a near victorious decade, the Crunch’s chief operating officer Jim Sarosy said.

The partnership with Tampa Bay was the turning point for the Crunch both on and off the ice. They had just finished their brief two-year affiliation with the Ducks, missing the playoffs the first season and barely qualifying the next year on the last day of the season. But to Sarosy, the contrasting hockey and player development philosophies were what ended that relationship.

The Ducks were a very self-centric organization and brought that mentality right to Syracuse, Sarosy said. Crunch players had to wear Ducks gear off the ice, meaning the players weren’t as invested in the Crunch organization or Syracuse community. The Ducks viewed Syracuse as a “holding pen” for future players, Ackerman said.

“The problem with that attitude is that a minor league team is built on the players that are there, and if they don’t feel that connection to the fanbase and the connection to that city, they’re not going to forge those connections with the fans that create (the) environment,” Ackerman said.

Ackerman was at the 2012 New York State Fair the summer when the Lightning became the team’s fifth-ever NHL parent club. see crunch page 8

sponsored by syracuse.com

DURHAM, N.C. — Symir Torrence and Jaylen Blakes both tracked the rebound after Joey Baker’s 3-pointer as it descended near the left wing.

Duke’s lead over Syracuse had reached 26 points with less than three minutes remaining, and the Blue Devils already started subbing in backups and walk-ons. But as Torrence snared possession and his leg interlocked with Blakes’, those next few moments became extremely important to the Orange’s remaining games and their chance at saving their season.

A referee blew his whistle, Torrence dropped the ball on the ground and took one step toward the painted area before reaching down and grabbing toward right knee. John Bol Ajak placed his hand on Torrence’s back. SU’s reserve guard walked gingerly around, remained in the game and quarterbacked the Orange’s offense for the next possession, but he was eventually subbed out.

Postgame, Torrence told reporters outside the SU locker room that he sprained a ligament in his right knee on that sequence, but that he should be fine going forward. But if he’s limited in any capacity — minutes, or availability for games in general — it’ll thin an SU bench that doesn’t have any other guards who’ve played regular minutes behind Buddy Boeheim and Joe Girard III. Boosted by his recent role in the Orange’s small lineup, Torrence has averaged 12.5 minutes per game and dished 56 assists, the third-most on the Orange, and has become Syracuse’s go-to ball-handler when opposing defenses pressure them.

“He brings a lot of energy, a lot of quickness,” Jesse Edwards said on Saturday, after Jeremy Roach’s man-defense suffocated Girard’s movement on the perimeter and prevented him from conducting SU’s offense with strong positioning.

Torrence’s tasks have unfolded similarly to Kadary Richmond’s from last year, in a way — a guard that subs in for ball-handling and sparks the Orange’s offense and defense. Girard said after SU’s win over Clemson on Tuesday that SU allows more ball-handlers to be on the court, since defenses can’t double the primary person bringing the ball up the court. Jim Boeheim said the day before that he turned to Torrence against Florida State because Girard struggled bringing the ball up the court with the Seminoles’ pressure and because SU had trouble settling into its offense.

“When all three of us are out there, we kind of just click,” Girard said.

The latest example for Torrence: Against the Blue Devils, he held Syracuse’s highest individual offensive rating with a 126, according to KenPom. He dished out six assists, one short of his season-high, and hit see duke page 8