2022-2023 Year in Review

Year in Review

Leila Marcillo-gómez/the Ithacan

abby brady/the Ithacan

Jasmine scriven/the Ithacan

xinyi qin/the Ithacan

Brendan Iannucci/the Ithacan

aidan charde/the Ithacan

xinyi qin/the Ithacan

rayahna tryka/the Ithacan

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Caitlin Holtzman

MANAGING EDITOR

Eleanor Kay

Zhannz Gomez

OPINION EDITORS

Sean Fiske

Liberty Lee

Nane Hakobyan

NEWS EDITORS

Syd Pierre

Lorien Tyne

editor

eva salzman

Design editor

zack lemberg

proofreader

emily fischer

photo editor

ana maniaci mcgough

assistant photo editor

brendan iannucci

Year in Review 2022–23 The Ithacan

PHOTO EDITOR

Nolan Saunders

COMMUNITY OUTREACH MANAGER

ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITORS

Kalysta Donaghy-Robinson

Leila Marcillo-Gómez

VIDEO EDITORS

Maggie Bryan

Morgana Zendejas Peterson

ASSISTANT VIDEO EDITOR

Ray Milburn

PODCAST EDITOR

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITORS

Prakriti Panwar

Noa Ran-Ressler

Clare Shanahan

Lorien Tyne

CO-LIFE & CULTURE EDITORS

Elizabeth Kharabadze

Matt Minton

SPORTS EDITOR

Aidan Charde

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITORS

Tess Ferguson

Daniel King

Lyle Caban

CHIEF COPY EDITORS

Maggie Haefner

Leah McLean

PROOFREADERS

Emily Fischer

Lucretius Rutkowski

ASSISTANT PROOFREADERS

Gracie Gallagher

Lucretius Rutkowski

WEB DIRECTOR

Keegan Palmo

DESIGN EDITOR

Malik Clement

ASSISTANT DESIGN EDITOR

Ariana Gonzalez Villarreal

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGERS

Sarah Marbaix

Eliana Patterson

AD SALES MANAGER

Spencer Park

NEWSLETTER EDITOR

Eva Salzman

STUDENT MEDIA ADVISER

Casey Musarra

cover photo by eleanor kay

PRINTED BY YGS GROUP IN YORK, PENNSYLVANIA

Leila Marcillo-Gómez/the ithacan

FROM THE EDITORS

eva salzman Editor, Year in Review

If you ask them, most people on The Ithacan’s editorial board will tell you the reason they came to Ithaca College was because of the paper. If you ask me, my answer couldn’t be more different.

When I came to college, I was a health sciences major with the intent of studying nutrition and eventually becoming a registered dietitian — which had been my plan for years. I’ve been vegan for six years and before that, I had been vegetarian for a good portion of my life. That being said, understanding nutrition has played a huge role in my lifestyle choices, and by the time I graduated high school, this interest had become inextricable from my identity. Though having a passion that ties into your identity isn’t a bad thing, I’ve realized that my passion had lost its meaning before I even had a chance to pursue it. I’d come to identify with it so much that I was blind to realizing I’d lost genuine interest in it. Studying nutrition had become nothing more than a convenient, safe answer to the question of who I wanted to be. But when I came to college, I quickly realized that I didn’t like what I’d spent several years dreaming about. I tried to suppress my doubt, but ignoring it grew more difficult everyday. When I eventually accepted the fact that I didn’t want what I thought I did, I no longer knew who I was.

On a random January night, in the throes of my identity crisis, I waited for the East Tower elevator after hours of studying for an anatomy exam. When it reached the ground floor, the doors opened to reveal a poster for The Ithacan’s spring recruitment. As an avid reader of Rolling Stone, part of me had always wanted to try writing album reviews myself. I saw “Life & Culture” on the poster and found myself at recruitment night a week or so later. I spent the semester writing album reviews and from there, my involvement at The Ithacan only grew. I was hired as the Assistant Life & Culture Editor for Spring 2021 and I decided to finally change my major to journalism. I have since worked as the Life & Culture Editor, Managing Editor and The Ithacan’s first Newsletter Editor — but working as the Year in Review Editor has been a goal of mine since I was first hired onto the editorial board.

I am extremely grateful for my time at The Ithacan. For better or worse, it has completely consumed the past two and a half years of my life. While it’s given me a caffeine addiction and an affinity for punny headlines, it’s also helped me find a community of smart, talented people — some of whom have had a huge impact on my life. I often say that The Ithacan has been both the best and worst parts of my college experience, but even at its worst, I wouldn’t change any of it.

caitlin holtzman Editor-in-Chief, The Ithacan

When I came to Ithaca College in August 2019, I truly knew nothing about journalism except that it felt like the major I had to be in. Within my first week of classes, I had excitedly signed up for The Ithacan to write for news and copy edit. Here I am four years later as editor in chief. First-year me would not have believed you if you said I would be where I am now.

I became an editor during May 2020 and spent my first few months on the board learning how to edit and the ins and outs of The Ithacan from my childhood bedroom. While we were all home for Fall 2020, the only constant for me was The Ithacan

I was anxious and classes did not feel fulfilling enough, but I knew I could look forward to board meetings and writing and editing stories. Despite the distance between all the board members, we still made it work and transitioned our weekly paper to an online-only news organization. Since then, I’ve watched The Ithacan move back to print but with a stronger commitment to the digital world.

I have been able to work with incredible editors who have given me invaluable knowledge about journalism. The Ithacan became a much bigger part of my life than I thought it would, but I am so grateful it did. I have made many friends through The Ithacan, including my right-hand woman (though she sits to the left of me) Managing Editor Eleanor Kay, who keeps me sane every day. Beyond the friends I will carry with me, I have become a better journalist and person because of The Ithacan. I used to be the quietest person in any room who sat at the back and could barely hold small talk. While I still may not be the loudest person in a room, I have gained more confidence to be my authentic self.

It has been an honor leading The Ithacan and it is truly a year I will never forget. Our team has covered the Form 990, swastikas found on campus, Cayuga Health Systems’ integration with Hammond Health Center, IC Rise Up, the upcoming turf field at Butterfield Stadium and more. I am incredibly proud of the work produced by the editors and staff members this year and the dedication they all have toward responsible student journalism and holding truth to power. As my time here comes to an end, I look forward to seeing what The Ithacan continues to produce.

Headline goes here and in most cases there should be two lines of text for each title in the book.

Emily Fischer Proofreader, Year in Review

Headline goes here and in most cases there should be two lines of text for each title in the book.

At the top of each of The Ithacan’s print newspapers (as well as the website), you will find the slogan “Accuracy, Independence, Integrity.” I can’t speak on my contributions to the “independence” or “integrity” of our journalism necessarily, but I can comment on “accuracy.”

Over the past two years, I’ve contributed to The Ithacan as a copy editor and proofreader, which essentially means I have a knack for memorizing obscure grammatical rules and Googling things that I’ve already Googled a thousand times. Which might seem a bit neurotic. That’s fair. I am neurotic, but I also value that first word of our slogan. And, considering it takes up a third of the space in our header, I think it ought to be worth something.

Before working at The Ithacan, I’ve never considered the importance of accuracy in writing. In fact, as a fiction writer and poet, I opposed it. But I took up working at The Ithacan because, as a fledgling proofreader and copy editor, I wanted to improve my skills and gain experience, something that I wasn’t able to find at such a large scale at other publications. But with each paper, and now with the publication of this glossy magazine, I gained much more respect for my work and for the importance of independent journalism (OK, maybe I can speak on the behalf of “independence” just a touch). It made me realize that my obsessive attention to detail could actually play an important role in society, no matter how small it may seem. There is a reason why “accuracy” comes first in our slogan, after all.

Ana maniaci mcgough Photo Editor, Year in Review

Looking back to when my first semester of college started, there were so many possibilities of what I could be a part of. What first caught my eye was The Ithacan. Not only because of all the outstanding awards it has won and the content that it has produced, but for the sense of involvement and collaboration.

Within my time at The Ithacan, I’ve had the honor to work with three editor in chiefs and three managing editors and I became an editor myself (Photo Editor). I have learned so much — from how to advance my skills and Adobe and AP Style. Through these experiences, I’ve realized that being an editor is something that I want to do for a future career.

Yes, there may have been some ups and downs with some of the production process, but it was always enlightening to find ways to solve problems and celebrate when things worked out. There are so many friends that I have made and memories that I will cherish for a very long time.

Year In Review was definitely a new experience — going from working on a 15-page paper every week to a 150-page magazine was a huge step. Having to brainstorm new ideas, scrolling through all the photos from the stories and making new photography edits — it’s been a great experience as well with working with a new group and learning a new dynamic to work on a new project.

zack lemberg Design Editor, Year in Review

If my time at Ithaca College has taught me anything, it’s to say yes. If your friend wants to take you somewhere new, say yes. If a professor wants to help you, say yes. If an opportunity to challenge yourself comes up, say yes. When The Ithacan reached out to me to work on this project, I had my concerns. The task was like no other I had ever done. That scared me. But I knew one thing: if I pass this up, I’ll regret it forever. Taking on this project has been an incredible learning experience. From our initial planning meetings to the late nights spent in The Ithacan office, it has been a truly rewarding task.

When I look back at the last couple of months, I’m blown away — blown away by what we have accomplished, blown away by how much work we put into this and, most of all, blown away by how much I’ve learned.

Coming into this project, I had never done any work with The Ithacan. I always heard about all the fantastic accolades that this organization has, but to actually be a part of the powerhouse that is The Ithacan is truly an experience like no other.

I have never seen a group of more hardworking and driven individuals. It was inspiring to work alongside these journalists. I cannot thank them enough, not only for the opportunity to work on this project but for all of the help and wisdom along the way.

I learned more in that office than I could have ever imagined. The Year in Review team gave everything to this project and could not be more proud to have been a part of it.

GLOBAL NEWS

Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images/TNS

Isabel Infantes/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

The Ithacan

August & September 2022

Aug. 4, 2022

Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered to pay $4.1 million in compensatory damages to parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook massacre after claiming it was a hoax.

Aug. 24, 2022

President Biden announced his student loan forgiveness plan for more than 40 million Americans who took out federal student loans. The original plan would have forgiven up to $20,000 of student loan debt for eligible borrowers.

Sept. 24, 2022

The FDA approved the first live, non-replicating vaccine to prevent smallpox and mpox in adults 18 years of age and older who are determined to be at high risk.

Aug. 8, 2022

About 30 federal agents found four dozen empty document folders marked “classified” after a search of Mar-a-Lago, the Florida home of former President Donald Trump.

Sept. 8, 2022

Queen Elizabeth II, the UK’s longest-serving monarch, died at age 96 in Balmoral Castle, Scotland, after reigning for 70 years.

Sept. 16, 2022

Iranian activist Mahsa Amini, 22, died in police custody three days after her arrest in Tehan for allegedly breaking the Islamic republic’s dress code.

Joseph Cooke/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/TNS

Stephanie Keith/Getty Images/TNS

Bonnie Cash/Pool/Abaca Press/TNS

Joe Raedle/Getty Images/TNS

Sergio Flores/Getty Images/TNS

Leon Neal/Getty Images/TNS

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Oct. 1, 2022

A stampede broke out after a soccer match in Malang, Indonesia, leaving 125 people dead. The chaos ensued after Malang’s loss and was met with police brutality and tear gas. Most of whom were killed were trampled or suffocated and the match was one of the deadliest sporting events in history.

Oct. 3, 2022

Elon Musk closed a $44 billion deal to own Twitter after several months of legal complications. Upon assumption of the platform, Musk promptly fired at least four top Twitter executives.

Oct. 2, 2022

Big Hit music announced that the members of K-pop boy band BTS will enter their mandatory military service. The first member to enlist was the eldest member of the group, Jin, who began his service Dec. 13. The band’s management said the group would reconvene around 2025.

AFP/Getty Images/TNS

David Odisho/Getty Images/TNS

Patrick Pleul/Pool/AFP/Getty Images/TNS

Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune/TNS

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Nov. 1, 2022 Nov. 20, 2022

Kirsnick Khari Ball, the American rapper known professionally as Takeoff, was shot and killed in Houston, Texas, at age 28. The shooting took place after an alleged altercation at a bowling alley. Takeoff was the youngest member of the rap group Migos.

Disney CEO Bob Chapek was fired and former CEO Bob Iger ’73 was reinstated. Chapek was named chief executive of the company in February 2020 and came under fire for poor management. A release from Disney said Iger will help the company’s board find the next CEO.

Nov. 8, 2022

Historic wins were made during the 2022 midterm elections. Maura Healy, elected governor of Massachusetts, became the country’s first openly lesbian governor-elect; Wes Moore was elected as Maryland’s first Black governor; Maxwell Frost became the first member of Generation Z to be elected to the House of Representatives after winning his race in Florida’s 10th District; and several states elected female lawmakers and governors for the first time.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images/TNS

Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Kenneth K. Lam/The Baltimore Sun/TNS

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DECEMBER 2022

Dec. 13, 2022

Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX, was arrested by Bahamian authorities and charged with wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering and campaign finance laws violations.

Dec. 23, 2022

Rapper and singer Tory Lanez was found guilty of three felony firearm counts related to the July 2020 shooting of rapper Megan Thee Stallion. He was convicted on one felony count each of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, negligent discharge of a firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle.

Dec. 30, 2022

American broadcast journalist and television personality Barbara Walters died at age 93. A statement from Walter’s spokesperson said she died at home with her family.

Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images/TNS

Cindy Ord/Getty Images/TNS

Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images/TNS

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Jan. 5, 2023

Pope Francis honored former Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died Dec. 31, making it a rare requiem mass for a dead pontiff by a living one.

JANUARY 2023

Jan.

13, 2023

The Trump Organization was fined $1.6 million after an alleged decade-long tax fraud scheme. Former President Donald Trump and his family were not charged.

Jan. 6, 2023

A 6-year-old boy was taken into police custody after shooting Abby Zwerner, his first-grade teacher, at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia. Zwerner sustained life-threatening injuries. According to a parent of a child who was reportedly in the class, the child shot when Zwerner tried to confiscate the gun. Zwerner has since filed a lawsuit against the school district, claiming that school administrators neglected multiple warnings that the child had a gun.

Doug Mills/Pool/Getty Images/TNS

Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images/TNS

Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images

Jay Paul/Getty Images/TNS

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Feb. 3, 2023

An Ohio train carrying chemical and combustible materials derailed in a village about 50 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, erupting in a fire. Norfolk Southern, the company that operated the train, proceeded with a controlled release of vinyl chloride to try to prevent a more catastrophic explosion. Some residents reported health problems and about 3,500 fish died in the Ohio waterways within days of the blast.

Feb. 15, 2023

Payton Gendron, the white supremacist who killed 10 people in the May 2022 racially-motivated attack at a Buffalo Tops supermarket, was sentenced to life in prison. Gendron also faces separate federal charges that could carry a death sentence.

Feb. 4, 2023

A U.S. fighter jet shot down what was suspected to be a surveillance balloon from China off the coast of South Carolina.

Dustin Franz/AFP

John Normile/Getty Images/TNS

Joe Granita/Zuma Press/TNS

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March 10, 2023

Silicon Valley Bank abruptly collapsed, triggering the second largest bank failure in U.S. history since 2008. On March 8, SVB announced that it suffered a $1.8 billion after-tax loss and urgently needed to raise more capital to address depositor concerns, according to USA Today. Following the announcement, SVB lost over $160 billion in value in 24 hours and as the stock fell, depositors were quick to withdraw money from the bank.

March 2023

March 27, 2023

Three children and three adults were killed in a shooting at Covenant School in Green Hills, Nashville. The shooter, Audrey Hale, was a 28 year-old former student of the school from the Nashville area and was shot dead by two police officers. Investigations as of April 3 suggest that Hale had planned the attack for months.

March 23, 2023

Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, was interrogated in court about the app’s relationship to its parent company, ByteDance, and China’s alleged influence over the platform. The nearly five-hour hearing comes in response to lawmakers’ efforts to restrict access to TikTok in the United States, Europe and Canada.

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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/TNS

Seth Herald/Getty Images/TNS

Seth Herald/Getty Images/TNS

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IC BY THE NUMBERS

THIS YEAR IN POP CULTURE

Top three global artists Streamed on Spotify

By HArry Styles

rihanna's performance became the most watched superbowl halftime show since 2015 with nearly 119 million viewers across television and streaming.

Bad bunny

Taylor swift Drake

Most streamed Show in the u.s.

Most Popular streaming Platform in the u.s.

Most Streamed Song globally in 2022 on spotify

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation

KevinWinter/GettyImag

TerryWyatt/GettyImag

AmySussman/GettyImages

courtesy of columbia records courtesy of netflix courtesy of netflix

PROFILES

School of Business

School of Health Sciences and human performance

school of humanities and sciences

School of Music, theatre, and dance

Roy H. Park School of Communications

The Ithacan

Brendan Iannucci/The Ithacan

Brendan Iannucci/The Ithacan

Brendan Iannucci/The Ithacan

Brendan Iannucci/The Ithacan

Brendan Iannucci/The Ithacan

eleanor kay/The Ithacan

demonstrating talent both on and off the air

By Noa Ran-Ressler

Senior Julia Davis, television & digital media production major, came to Ithaca College with a goal. Davis said she came to the college specifically for the hands-on learning experiences in the communications field, and she wasted no time getting involved in.

During her first week at the college, Davis joined Ithaca College Television. After three years of working her way up, Davis now serves as the station manager.

Davis has worked on shows in every depart ment: sports, news, entertainment and scripted. She said having all of those experiences helped her connect with all the different shows as station manager.

Davis was a producer for the news show “ICTV Reports” when it won Best All-Around News Magazine in March 2022 at the Society of Professional Journalists’ Mark of Excellence Awards competition for Region One.

First-year student Ally Mahoney, a producer on the ICTV news show “Newswatch Tuesday,” said she knew she wanted to get involved in ICTV but was especially drawn to it because of how Davis and the rest of the executive staff made the incoming first-year students feel welcome at Recruitment Night in Fall 2022.

“Everybody that got up and spoke, including [Davis], talked about how much of a family each show is and how close you get while you’re producing content with these people every week,” Mahoney said. “I definitely liked that aspect of it.”

Mahoney said she works closely with Davis as both a producer and a crew member on “NewsWatch Thursday,” which Davis directs.

“[Davis] really cares about all of us on the whole and the whole station, which is really nice to have someone that I feel like really cares about all the students involved,” Mahoney said. “[She] wants us all to succeed, and anything that we need help with, she’s there to answer questions.”

Jeremy Menard, television and radio operations manager, said it is not only Davis’ skills that make her a successful station manager but her personality as well.

“She’s very qualified,” Menard said. “She has all that experience, but she’s really a kind individual. I think that really comes down to her leadership style, with the way that she deals with people, speaks with people, the way that she’s put very thoughtful efforts in getting people involved.”

Menard said Davis works to make sure everyone is included on the station. He said she worked with the rest of the executive staff after recruitment night to match people from the Newcomer Form — a form that allows anybody not placed on their first-choice shows to find a spot elsewhere — to match people to new positions.

“It’s more or less to make sure that no one falls through and that there’s a net for everyone to make sure that if someone applied for a position didn’t get it, we can then find them a position on another show or another department,” Menard said. “[It] takes a lot of coordination … and through those efforts in both the fall and the spring, there are over 100 students who … we make sure to get an opportunity.”

Menard said Davis also helped new shows join the production lineup to provide new voices and opportunities to the station and to diversify the shows offered. She

implemented the new initiative of midterm reviews to meet directly with producers and review the first half of the semester.

Davis also facilitated the distribution of anonymous forms for the crewmembers of shows to fill out and provide feedback and critiques for their producers.

“We were able to share some of that feedback with the producers during those meetings,” Menard said. “It helped us make the second half of productions that much better.”

Although ICTV takes up most of her time, Davis said she also has a job through Cornell Athletics working as a production assistant for ESPN+, operating replay and the video board. She said her work for ESPN+ is similar to ICTV because she gets to use her production skills to cover basketball, ice hockey and more.

“It’s a cool experience to get to see a different side of television that’s professional,” Davis said.

Davis’ academics at the college have also taught her about being a strong leader as well as a personable one. She said she wants to shine light on contemporary issues in the world through media, and her professors have helped introduce her to those issues and learn how to deliver stories objectively.

“The media is very important because we’re the ones showing the people what’s going on in the world, so we have to do that in the right way,” Davis said.

By aidan charde

For many students at Ithaca College, being a student-athlete is enough of a time-consuming task. But for senior accounting major Adrian Rosario-Beato, it is just one small part of his life.

Rosario-Beato is a member of the college’s wrestling team in addition to serving as the president of both the college’s chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants and PODER: Latinx Student Association. The three put together — on top of his full courseload — make for a busy schedule, but Rosario-Beato said he was raised to be a hard worker.

“Since [I was] a young kid, I’ve always wanted to do more and more and more and more,” Rosario-Beato said. “I believe the habits I created in high school, having a positive mindset and telling myself that I can do this [helped me get where I am].”

He said part of his motivation came from his upbringing: his parents moved to New York City from the Dominican Republic when he was 10 years old. He said he thinks fondly of his childhood and said that while the transition to life in the United States was hard, he understood that his parents wanted to move to provide him with better opportunities.

“I realized my parents’ hard work; how hard they worked to just get me here,” Rosario-Beato said. “I just realized, I have to make myself proud because I know I’m here for a purpose. They worked super hard and they sacrificed everything just to give me this opportunity that they could not have in the Dominican Republic.”

leading others in athletics, advocacy and academics School

Adrian Rosario o

As president of PODER, Rosario-Beato said his goal goes beyond providing a space for Latinx and Hispanic students at the college but also introducing other students who are not a part of those communities to their culture.

“As a Latino student, sometimes the only Latino student in class, I try to represent my culture as much as I can,” Rosario-Beato said. “The main point of college is to learn about other people, different cultures, experiences, adversity; we can learn from them and become more aware about other peoples’ lives and their perspective of thinking.”

As he advanced through his time at the college, Rosario-Beato realized that what he really wanted to do was become a partner for PricewaterhouseCoopers, an accounting firm, in part to help kids in his situation get to where they want to be.

“[I want] students who were in my position to be able to have an opportunity to go to college or have some extra money to pay for something,” Rosario-Beato said. “That was an opportunity that I [had] when I was in high school and I want to be able to give back that favor, give back to my community.”

Along with all his other commitments, Rosario-Beato also manages his time with the wrestling team. Assistant coach Ricardo Gomez ’13 said even though Rosario-Beato did not have a starting spot this year because of a strong incoming class, he still comes into every practice with the same positive attitude.

“[Rosario-Beato] is, on our team, a driving force in the aspect of his leadership,” Gomez said. “He’s one of those individuals that you want in the room because he just makes everybody around him better.”

Margaret Shackell, associate professor in the Department of Accounting and Business Law, is Rosario-Beato’s adviser as well as the faculty advisor for NABA. Through that club, Shackell has seen Rosario-Beato work hard to revive its presence on campus after it died down during the pandemic.

“I asked [Rosario-Beato] if he would help me resurrect it, and so he’s been the president for two years,” Shackell said. “The motto of NABA is ‘Lifting as we climb.’ So the idea is you want to make yourself better … but you don’t want to do it by pushing other people down. You want to bring them up and make everyone’s world better. And it seems to be very fitting for [Rosario-Beato].”

Shackell said Rosario-Beato leads workshops on resume building, how to create a LinkedIn profile, motivation and study techniques, and more as part of his role as president.

Rosario-Beato exemplifies the motto of NABA in both the club and his daily life. He said he is a natural leader, so his goal is to help as many people as he can at whatever it is they need.

“I like to bring a smile to a lot of people and work really hard,” Rosario-Beato said. “Everyday, you don’t know what any student is going through, especially with college students, sometimes we go through personal things. Just being nice to them and just always having a smile can bring their day up and make their college experience way better.”

By Tess Ferguson

emm a robin serving the community while leaving a legacy

When she is not in the classroom or doing fieldwork, Ithaca College graduate student Emma Robinson can be found leading groups of prospective students around the Center for Health Sciences, moderating speaker panels or organizing community outreach events.

An occupational therapy graduate student, Robinson is never one to stray from lending a helping hand. Robinson said that ever since she was in high school, she knew she wanted to work in the healthcare field.

“When I was in high school, I worked a lot with our special education department,” Robinson said. “I got really interested in working with the disabled population and when I found out about [occupational therapy], I just went all in on it.”

Even outside of her studies, Robinson has always been involved in service projects and has made it a priority to stay civically engaged despite her already busy schedule. During her undergraduate years, Robinson found valuable involvement in Human Expression Through the Arts: A Reciprocal Development Program, which is centered around creative arts outreach to incarcerated residents at MacCormick Secure Center, a nearby juvenile detention center.

“Prison abolition and just overall reform of our justice systems are topics that I’m really passionate about,” Robinson said.

Robinson said that she has also found a home with IC Mixed, the college’s student-led organization focused on providing a sense of community for students of color who identify as multiracial, multiethnic or transracial adoptees.

Schoolofhealthsciences andhumanperformance

“I just found the most amazing and supportive community of people who just get it,” Robinson said. “I’ve been able to do some really amazing work with different organizations for students of color on campus to really strengthen our community.”

Melinda Cozzolino, associate professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy, said that even in the classroom, Robinson’s character shines.

“The first time I taught [Robinson] was in a virtual clinical [psychology] class,” Cozzolino said. “In an 8 a.m. Zoom meeting of about 50 people, she was one of maybe six students who kept their cameras on. It’s small, but that’s something that I really appreciated from her.”

During the fall semester, Robinson was selected by the American Occupational Therapy Association to attend the Institute for Future Scientists in Occupational Therapy, a highly selective networking program that allowed a small group of potential student scientists to connect with doctorate and post-doctoral mentors. Her selection marked the first time in program history that a student at the college has ever been awarded the opportunity.

Robinson said that Cozzolino was the first to put the prestigious program on her radar and that she likely would have never considered it otherwise.

“I’m so honored to be the first IC student to attend the program,” Robinson said. “It’s definitely a really amazing opportunity for mentorship.”

Earlier in her time at the college, Robinson spearheaded what was soon to become a vital part of her legacy. Jenna Heffron, associate chair of the Department

of Occupational Therapy, said that Robinson — alongside graduate student Julia Ganbarg — approached her in Fall 2020 with an idea. Together, they were able to establish an alumni speaker series within the occupational therapy program that allowed current students an opportunity to speak with alumni working in the field.

Heffron said Robinson’s impact on the college’s occupational therapy program will extend far beyond her graduation.

“[Robinson] is always thinking beyond herself,” Heffron said. “Her work putting together the alumni speaker series really speaks to [the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance’s] values of sustainability and all that she has done will truly leave a legacy.”

Cozzolino said that, as Robinson’s thesis adviser, it has been a pleasure watching her develop as a young professional.

“She’s not one to talk over anybody; she’s one to wait her turn, but she is so insightful and observant,” Cozzolino said. “What she has to say is so eloquent and well thought out. … She just has the utmost respect of all the faculty.”

Heffron said that beyond her accomplishments, Robinson’s passion for service is what makes her professional work so special.

“[Robinson] isn’t doing it for the end game of being the best in her field,” Heffron said. “She truly wants to make the world a better place and that’s what’s so beautiful.”

By Elizabeth Kharabadze

applying artistic ability across diverse disciplines deni se kolodja

While her foundation in acting began by reenacting scenes from plays with her friends in high school, Ithaca College senior Denise Kolod ja has made the theater her own — performing in shows, films and voice acting, as well as working behind the scenes with theater management.

Kolodja said she got her start in acting while she was in high school. Despite not being able to afford private acting lessons, Kolodja said she was still able to learn by watching YouTube videos of actors, listening to podcasts and practicing scenes on her own.

“When I was learning how to act … I would print out scripts that I could find online PDFs of,” Kolodja said. “And then during my lunch periods in high school, I would just have my friends run through the scripts with me as my other person.”

It was a mentor in high school that Kolodja said inspired her to chase her passions and apply to colleges for acting. As the daughter of immigrant parents, Kolodja said she knew she wanted to attend college because her parents never got to attend college while growing up in Togo, a country in Africa.

“I also wanted to go further with that education be cause they gave a lot to bring [me and my brothers] to this country,” Kolodja said. “So I was thinking about that and thinking about if I want to do acting, I have to be really good at it. And I have to be really passionate about it. And it was something that I was really passionate about.”

Michael Samuel Kaplan, assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance Performance, first worked with Kolodja during the Dillingham Center’s production of “The Other Shore” in Fall 2021, where she played several key roles during the play.

SchoolofMusic, Theatre,andDanceAnaManiaciMcGough/theithacan

“You could tell from the very beginning how hard [Kolodja] works, in a good way, and how consistent and diligent she is in her approach to a role, how talented she is and how she’s constantly working on various aspects of her craft,” Kaplan said.

Throughout Kolodja’s four years at the college, Cynthia Henderson, professor and chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance Performance, said she came to know Kolodja as an artist and as a person during that time.

During Dillingham’s Fall 2022 production of “Sweat,” Henderson said she was proud to see Kolodja take what she learned during her time at the college and apply it to her role.

“She did the thing that I’m always working with my actors on where she takes that research and she allows it to become a part of the humanity of her character,” Henderson said. “For a director and for a teacher, it is one of the most satisfying things to see a student that you taught but also an actor that you are directing take everything you have given to them and crafting a human being — not a character — but a human being out of it.”

Aside from acting in Dillingham’s main stage productions, Kolodja said she also practices her craft on and off camera; Kolodja has acted in numerous student films, a radio drama and an animation.

When not acting, Kolodja said she also interned with in the Department of Theatre Arts in Theatre Arts Management as a box office assistant and as head house manager.

“I really like branching out,” Kolodja said. “I’ve been very intrigued by all of the different stuff that you can act in. So I’ve just been trying to diversify the stuff that I do over these past four years.”

Henderson, who served as one of Kolodja’s mentors, said she was proud to see Kolodja become a role model for her fellow cast members during her time at the college.

“Denise’s manner is thoughtful and diligent with an eye always focused on the integrity of the playwright’s intention,” Henderson said. “I have always enjoyed our work together. … She’s a rarity that I would love to see become the norm.”

As Kolodja wraps up her time at the college, she said she is planning to obtain her master’s degree in acting at New York University and continue to build up her career in both film and theater — one audition at a time.

“I came to the school not knowing what to expect,” Kolodja said. “And I’m coming out of the school a person that I want to be and a person that I’m very proud of because, through all the people that I’ve met here and all the experiences good and bad that I’ve had here, I’ve been able to grow tremendously.”

making significant strides with physics simulations

By eleanor kay

TedMburu, a senior applied physics major, has spent a majority of his college tenure balancing a variety of leadership roles on top of a heavy course load. Mburu demonstrates his passion for phys ics both in and outside of the classroom by conducting research, tutoring other students and developing his own physics projects.

After graduating high school, Mburu took a gap year and taught himself coding and game develop ment. When he came to Ithaca College in 2019, he used the skills he taught himself to work on a student-led research team that was developing a game and simulation for intro-level physics classes. Mburu’s current adviser Colleen Countryman, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, started working on the project the year before Mburu’s first tear on campus.

Using his findings from his research, Mburu helped to develop an electric field simulation that shows the interaction of electricity and magnetism. The simulation has been implemented and used in physics classes at the college to help students understand the concept of electric fields.

“The goal for the project was to build up students’ intuition because they already have intuition with the previous semester’s worth of physics, but with this, it’s all kind of new,” Mburu said. “So for the simulation, it’s pretty much just like a sandbox where you’re free to do whatever you want and you can see how everything changes because of that.”

ted mbu

Schoolofhumanitiesandscienceseleanorkay/theithacan

Countryman said she met Mburu in his first year at the college when he was in her introductory electricity and magnetism class.

She said Mburu got started on the E-field simulation project early, leveraging the amount of knowledge he had about computer programming that he came into college with.

“His project just moved so quickly that he could really start communicating about it,” Countryman said. “We could start publishing, we could start going to conferences and things like that.”

Mburu, Countryman and Liana Rodelli ’20 were published in the March edition of The Physics Teacher, a peer-reviewed academic journal, for their work with the E-field simulation.

Within the first month of the article being published, the simulation website received about 2,500 visits with the United States, Thailand and the Philippines being the top three countries traffic came from.

Junior physics major Mikolaj Konieczny said Mburu inspired him to start developing his own simulation with classical mechanics modeling. Konieczny used tutorials that Mburu shared with him to help him work with his simulation design.

“It’s important to have this legacy where you can allow the next students after you to carry on the work that you started,” Konieczny said.

Mburu was Konieczny’s learning assistant for his first physics class at the college and was one of the first students in the physics department that he met.

Konieczny said he would go to Mburu’s office hours and talk with him about Mburu’s research. In one of Konieczny’s later physics classes, he got to use Mburu’s E-field simulation as part of the coursework.

“We were looking at [Mburu’s] simulations. They were actually very beneficial as well, showing the electric field, how charge affects it, how it warps the space around it; it’s really interesting and intriguing,” Konieczny said.

For his senior project, Mburu worked to create a simulation with non-inertial reference frames for upper-level courses. He was one of 12 students at the annual American Physical Society March Meeting who were awarded the best undergraduate research award for their project.

The conference highlights over 10,000 scholars and gives students the opportunity to have their research and poster presentations reviewed by professional physicists. Mburu won the same award at the 2022 meeting for his E-field simulation research.

“Ted is not only super active in the research lab, but he’s just super active in the department; he’s doing so much beyond just research,” Countryman said. “He has really taken it upon himself to be a lead tutor in our tutoring center and he’s heavily sought after to be a learning assistant in our classes, so he’s just really proven himself over and over again in so many different ways.”

Remembering the lives of campus Community members Richard Carmean

OnJune 3, an Intercom post announced to the campus community that Richard “Dick” N. Carmean ’60, Co-Founder of the Cortaca Jug, died May 23 at the age of 89. While Carmean was a student at the college, he played football and track and field.

Dedicated to the college’s athletic program, Carmean — alongside Tom Decker, a captain of the SUNY Cortland football program who passed in 2015 — founded the Cortaca Jug in 1959. The jug was purchased from a farmer at a yard sale for $2 and became the first of three jugs awarded to the winner of the annual Cortaca Jug Game. The post praised Carmean for his athletic performance while at Ithaca College, explaining that he was inducted into the Ithaca Athletic Hall of Fame in 1973. Carmean’s athletic accolades include becoming captain of the football team and being named a football All-American during his senior year in addition to earning 25 first place finishes throughout four seasons of pole vaulting for the college’s track and field team. He was also named the track and field team’s Most Valuable Performer twice.

David Turkon

Professor of Anthropology David Turkon died July 17 at age 69. The announcement was shared through an Intercom post July 19.

Turkon began his career at Ithaca College as an assistant professor in 2005 and received tenure in 2009. Turkon served as the chair of the Department of Anthropology and was a member of both the Faculty Council and Humanities and Sciences Faculty Senate. Turkon taught classes that touched on a wide range of topics at the college — like African ethnology, religion, racial relations and environmental science.

Turkon spent much of his career completing extensive research on Lesotho, a country in South Africa, on topics like political factionalism and inequality, HIV/AIDS prevention, food insecurity and community development. Turkon received nine Certificates of Honor for his work in Anthropology and African Studies from the Association of Africanist Anthropology.

“Professor Turkon will be remembered as an impassioned and outspoken advocate for both faculty and students, and he will be greatly missed by all who knew him,” the post stated.

Shea Colbert

The college community gathered for the memorial service that was held for sophomore Shea Colbert on Sept. 13 in Muller Chapel. Colbert died unexpectedly in a car accident Sept. 10 and the campus community was notified later in an email later that day.

Colbert’s memorial was attended by about 75 people. Colbert’s roommate and friend, sophomore Liam Whelan, said Colbert loved helping others and brought positivity to any situation

“There was one thing he was good at without realizing, and it was helping others,” Whelan said. “When I needed him to help me move out of my dorm with less than an hour’s notice, and the fact that I hadn’t packed anything, he was there.”

Sophomore Paige Turcotte, one of Colbert’s friends, described Colbert as outgoing and unique.

“[Colbert] was ready and willing for any kind of adventure,” Turcotte said. “Any time we went on a hike, he would insist that we stray from the path and find something new that people haven’t seen before. He had this ability to make every moment and every person feel special.”

Courtesy of Bangs Funeral Home

Courtesy of Ness-Sibley Funeral Home

Courtesy of Branchburg Funeral Home

Roger Hinderliter

Claire Gleitman, dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, announced through a Jan. 4 Intercom post that Roger Hinderliter, professor emeritus in the Department of Economics, died after a brief illness.

Hinderliter started at Ithaca College in 1986 and retired in 2015. Before his career at the college, Hinderliter earned his Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis where he studied under Hyman Minsky, a highly praised and renowned scholar on financial crises. Hinderliter also taught at Rutgers University and took a research position at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, where he also taught part time at Case Western Reserve University.

Though Hinderliter was eventually promoted to Vice President of Research at the Fed, his passion was teaching. The post shared that on his last day of work before retiring in 2015, Hinderliter defended one of his senior students as she earned honors in economics by defending her thesis before a faculty panel.

Gloria Richards

In an Intercom post sent out March 23, it was announced that Gloria Richards, former assistant dean of Communications at Ithaca College, died March 11. Richards served as Assistant Dean of the Roy H. Park School of Communications over a 15-year period from around 1977 until she retired in 1991, ser ving as the Acting Dean from 1979–80.

The post said that she was a beloved colleague and friend while her obituary praised Richards’ many accomplishments — including serving in the U.S. Navy for WWII and earning two college degrees. The post also stressed Richards’ dedication to the duties of her job as well as students and faculty. Even when she was busy, she made time for others.

“Gloria lived a life of service — to her friends, her family, her colleagues and to the students and faculty in Park,” the post said. “She is remembered by so many alumni as the heart and soul of the School. … She was a trusted colleague and a good friend. … She was a remarkable person who led a life that truly mattered.”

Jim MacNeil

OnJan. 25, an Intercom post announced that Jim MacNeil, instrument specialist in the Department of Chemistry at Ithaca College, died Jan. 19 at age 80.

MacNeil earned an honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy in 1963 and worked at the college for 38 years from 1970–2008. The post described MacNeil as a highly valued and respected colleague, teacher and friend.

“Jim will be remembered first and foremost for his genuine kindness and comradery with students and faculty at Ithaca College, as well as for his exceptional technical work and problem-solving skills in science,” the post said. “His friendliness and positivity was contagious to both students and faculty and he will be sorely missed.”

MacNeil’s obituary described him as a positive role model and a man of kindness and compassion.

“Jim was known as a man of great integrity and never had an unkind word for anyone,” the obituary said.“He was an exceptional role model for his family and a compassionate friend to all who were lucky enough to know him.”

Lois Butterfield

In an Intercom post with the campus community April 8, the college shared the news that Lois Butterfield, widow of football coach Jim Butterfield, died April 1 at age 91.

The Ithaca College Athletics website wrote about Lois’ legacy and connection to the athletics program at the college.

“She made it her duty to get to know all the players on the team, no easy task,” the website said. “After every home game, she greeted each player as they left the locker room facilities. At the end of Jim’s career, the stadium was renamed for him and a seat in the bleachers was painted for Lois with the inscription, ‘The Big L Sits Here.’”

Lois also helped to start Interim Families, a program that helped children find temporary living arrangements with volunteer families. Lois also worked for Family and Children’s Services of Tompkins County in her later years.

The athletics website wrote that Lois will be remembered for her loyalty to her family and passion for life.

Courtesy of Bangs Funeral Home

Courtesy of Bangs Funeral Home

Courtesy of Bangs Funeral Home

Courtesy of Ithaca College Athletics

Health & Safety

Brendan Iannucci/the Ithacan

malik clement/the Ithacan

The Ithacan

Students request clarification of the college's medical amnesty policy after having frustrating experiences

By Aubren VillaseÑor

Confusion about Ithaca College’s Medical Amnesty Policy has caused some students to call for clarity.

According to the college, the MAP allows students who suffer a medical emergency as a result of drugs or alcohol to not face drug or alcohol related sanctions; the student that calls for help is also protected under the policy.

According to Students for Sensible Drug Policy, MAP at Ithaca College is similar to policies at other colleges and universities in the United States. The MAP was created in Fall 2010 and the policy is advertised through floor meetings between students and their Resident Assistant, student orientation and magnets posted on doors of the residence hall rooms.

Some students are confused about the specifics of the policy. First-year student Anita Preuss, who said she was recently involved in a situation with the MAP because a friend needed help, said she wished there was more clarity in the college’s messaging about the details of the MAP.

Preuss said responders gave conflicting accounts of whether or not she and her friend would qualify for medical amnesty and said she was not aware that the responding RA did not request medical amnesty when they called the Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management.

“The [resident assistant] told [my friends and I] that, because we ourselves called the [Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management], we could not request medical amnesty,” Preuss said. “That was misleading because [the RA] offered to call public safety [after we called the RA].”

Katie Newcomb, assistant director for the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, said incidents are evaluated after they happen by SCC to determine if they qualify for the MAP and this is the only way students can be granted medical amnesty. When a medical emergency occurs, responders collect information regarding the situation that is then turned over to SCC to be evaluated for qualification for the MAP after the incident.

Magnets posted on the doors of the college’s dorm rooms do not clarify that students must be approved for medical amnesty following an incident. Instead, these resources only inform students that the MAP can help them avoid consequences for drug or alcohol use in a medical emergency.

Junior Apartment Assistant Emma Commisso said that the intense workload of RAs and AAs can lead to confusion, like in Preuss’ situation, and can be part of why resident assistants are sometimes unclear about

who grants the MAP.

“RAs [and AAs] definitely become confused because there is just so much information that you receive during training, and it can be hard to remember it all,” Commisso said.

Junior Violet Van Buren, RA and Student Auxiliary Safety Patrol employee, said she frequently deals with frustration from students regarding the MAP and this can make it difficult to encourage residents to call for help.

“I’ve got no power, really,” Van Buren said. “I’m trying to help these people who might not want that help because if they go through the process, they might be written up and I can’t just tell them safely, ‘Hey, go get medical help — it doesn’t matter.’ That’s always what I say in the end … but it’s tough.”

Van Buren said most cases under the MAP are approved by the SCC if students do not have other violations of the student conduct code on their record. Every case that involves the MAP is reviewed independently, but previous incidents will be taken into consideration.

“If you apply for medical amnesty every single week, there’s a difference between if you’re calling once for your friend and this is the first time it’s happened,” Van Buren said. “It’s always judged by student conduct and stuff like that, so it’s not necessarily true that you’re gonna get it every single time.”

Newcomb said the policy only protects students from alcohol or drug related violations, even if other SCC violations happened as a result of alcohol and drug use.

“If a student, [for example], physically harms a

student while intoxicated, [while] that student may qualify for medical amnesty for alcohol-related violations, they will still be charged for the physical altercation,” Newcomb said.

Newcomb said SCC advertises the policy through social media posts and messaging from the Office of Residential Life to avoid confusion.

Newcomb said another goal for MAP is to make sure students have access to resources for alcohol and drug safety.

Students granted medical amnesty will have to complete a Balancing Alcohol and Substance Usage to Improve College Success course or other educational training in a timely manner. BASICS is a course run by the Center for Health Promotion and students enrolled meet with a health promotion specialist to discuss drug and alcohol usage.

“If [students] are having an incident where they’ve consumed enough [substances] to the point that they need medical assistance, to us, that speaks of a larger issue,” Newcomb said. “We want to make sure that students get the help they need.”

Some students still have frustration about the execution of the policy. Preuss said that while she is grateful for the policy, she feels misled on the way the MAP works and said the college could better educate students on the policy.

“[The college] was like, ‘Our priority is the safety of your friends, so we want you to call, no matter what, and the medical amnesty will cover everything,’” Preuss said. “So we had the impression that it covered everyone [and] I think they need to be more specific, even if it makes themselves look bad.”

The Medical Amnesty Policy was created in Fall 2010 and the policy is advertised through magnets posted on the doors of residence hall rooms, floor meetings between students and their Resident Assistant and orientation. Grace Vanderveer/The Ithacan

Patterns of sexual violence and hazing persist in fraternities while attempts to hold them accountable continue to fail

By lorien tyne

Fraternities at Cornell University have made it into headlines in many publications for reports of drink-spiking and a sexual assault at fraternity parties. And yet, reports of sexual violence, hazing and deaths resulting from fraternity culture are not uncommon.

In response, the governing body of Cornell fraternities — the Interfraternity Council — suspended fraternity parties and social events Nov. 7 for the remainder of Fall 2022. The IFC did not respond to multiple requests for comment. CUPD reports state that the druggings happened on the 800 block of University Avenue, which houses Chi Psi and Theta Delta Chi. The sexual assault allegedly happened on the 100 block of Thurston Avenue, which only houses one recognized fraternity: Alpha Epsilon Pi.

This is not the first assault by a fraternity member at Cornell. The most recent that received media attention was in 2016, when the president of the Cornell fraternity Psi Upsilon was charged with first-degree attempted rape, first-degree criminal sex act with a helpless victim and sexual misconduct. While very few

studies exist on the relationship between fraternities and perpetrators of sexual violence, one study from 2005 found that fraternity men were three times more likely to be perpetrators of sexual violence than their male peers not in fraternities.

Tracey Vitchers is the executive director of It’s On Us — a national nonprofit that combats campus sexual violence by focusing on prevention education programs and grassroots student organizing — and said that holding Greek life accountable can be challenging for colleges because fraternities operate as semi-independent organizations. Most fraternities report to national Greek life organizations, some fraternity chapters owning their house’s property.

“What ends up happening is that when an incident happens, the university often doesn’t have support from the national [Greek life] organization,” Vitchers said. “[National Greek life] either supports the chapter or they just don’t do anything at all and put this weird responsibility back on the school to hold the members accountable.”

Vitchers said that if fraternity members believe their university goes too far in trying to hold them ac-

countable, the effort can backfire and fraternities can disaffiliate themselves with the college. This occurred at the University of Southern California in August 2022 when fraternities severed their affiliation with the university after new policies were put in place, including having security guards at parties, mandated ID scanners and a ban on large containers of alcohol like kegs. These heightened regulations were in response to reports of sexual assaults and druggings.

“[Fraternities] don’t actually need access to the university to operate,” Vitchers said. “And so they can still be enrolled students, right, unless the university suspends or expels all of them, which we know they don’t do … and then they go underground … and you end up in a situation where the school really has no mechanism for holding them accountable.”

Vitchers said USC’s policy changes were a positive move, but that the university is walking a fine line because it runs the risk of accidentally creating these underground fraternities. Underground fraternities legally do not have the oversight that other college-sanctioned groups have. Under current Title IX rules, colleges are not responsible for sexual assault

The governing body of Cornell fraternities — the Interfraternity Council — suspended fraternity parties and social events Nov. 7 for the remainder of Fall 2022.

The ban came in response to reports of drink-spiking and a sexual assault at fraternity parties. The IFC did not respond to multiple requests for comment. design by malik clement, illustration by cody acquista/the ithacan

IX rules, colleges are not responsible for sexual assault incidents that take place outside sanctioned programs.

At Ithaca College, the only Greek life recognized by the college is academic-related fraternities like the professional music fraternities. According to Dave Maley, director of public relations, over the course of the 1980s, the college’s social fraternities were regularly sanctioned for violating college policies primarily related to hazing and alcohol. He said the college revoked recognition of the last remaining social fraternity in 1989. In 1993, the college made the decision to no longer recognize social fraternities or sororities, which remains the policy today. The final decision came years after a student died as a result of a fraternity initiation in 1980.

Bonnie Prunty, vice president of Student Affairs and Campus Life, said that in 2015, a committee convened to reexamine the Greek life policy on campus.

“Periodically, we will receive information that leads us to believe that there’s an off-campus organization that students have formed,” Prunty said. “But it’s … not affiliated with a college in any way.”

Despite not having recognized fraternities at Ithaca College, students frequent Cornell fraternity parties. Prunty said this is one reason why the Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management issued a notice following the shut-down of Cornell fraternity parties that included information and resources.

In 2016, two Ithaca College students were stabbed after leaving a party sponsored by Cornell fraternity Omega Psi Phi. One student, Anthony Nazaire, died and the other student, Rahiem Williams, survived his injuries.

A Cornell student reached out to The Ithacan to tell his story about being in the Zeta Psi fraternity and experiencing homophobia. The Ithacan has chosen to keep this student anonymous to protect his identity and personal wellbeing. This student said he joined Zeta Psi in Spring 2021 at the same time as his partner but left in September 2022.

“I come home from class one day [in September] and [a homophobic slur was] written on my door, and then when I asked the president [of Zeta Psi] about this, he says that he doesn’t know anything that’s going on, but he suggested that I leave the fraternity,” the student said. “In my

opinion, he seemed kind of indifferent.”

The student said that after leaving the brotherhood, an altercation occurred in October.

“I go to my partner’s place [at Zeta Psi] and then the president threatens to call the police if I don’t leave,” the student said. “I haven’t been back.”

According to messages acquired by The Ithacan, after that altercation, the president of Zeta Psi texted that the student was not allowed in the fraternity house for any reason going forward.

At the end of November, the student’s partner also left the Zeta Psi brotherhood.

The student said he began experiencing issues with his fraternity brothers last academic year. In text messages from Spring 2022 provided to The Ithacan by the student, a fraternity brother responded to the student’s Instagram story that said, “some piping hot tea about my experience with Greek life and my experience with my fraternity…… stay tuned.”

“Don’t call the house homophobic,” the fraternity brother wrote in response. “Pay us our money. You owe the house money and hide behind your sexuality as a reason to not pay. Cancel me I don’t give a f–k.”

Tyler Boisvert, executive director of Zeta Psi, responded to the allegations of homophobia.

“Homophobia is antithetical to the values and mission of Zeta Psi Fraternity,” Boisvert said via email.

Cornell has been transparent about hazing within fraternities and provides a list of the organizations

from Fall 2004 up to the present year with detailed reports of hazing incidents.

Cornell student George Desdunes died in a 2011 fraternity hazing incident. Desdunes’ fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, reopened in 2022 after having been shut down following Desdunes’ death. In 2019, first-year Cornell student Antonio Tsialas was found dead at the bottom of a gorge after participating in an unregistered recruiting event at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house, which was found to have violated several Cornell policies. The university banned Phi Kappa Psi indefinitely.

Vitchers said many of the punishments colleges implement do nothing to prevent future instances of violence.

She said schools need to be investing in comprehensive prevention education that empowers men to see themselves as part of the solution.

A 2022 study by It’s On Us discussed issues with current modes of sexual violence prevention and explored ways in which prevention education can be more effective.

Elyse Nepa, assistant director of Clery Act and Prevention Education at Ithaca College, said that measuring the effectiveness of prevention education is a difficult task, but that in Fall 2023 there will be two internship positions available for students who have shown interest in tracking the effectiveness of college bystander and violence prevention programs.

CUPD reports state that the recent druggings happened on the 800 block of University Avenue, which houses Chi Psi and Theta Delta Chi.

Photo Illustration by malik clement/The Ithacan

Ithaca College's food pantry works to find volunteers while serving more patrons in 2022 than previous years

By Funmi Omotosho

Forthree years of operation, data collected shows that Ithaca College’s Prunty’s Pantry continues to pull in patrons in need of food, but a lack of volunteers reduces its ability to serve the community.

Puntry’s Pantry, created in 2019 with the assistance of the Lissy Family Foundation and named after Dave Prunty, former executive director of auxiliary services, provides food for campus members in need as well as some non-food items like toiletries and health and beauty supplies.

The food pantry’s partnership with the Food Bank of the Southern Tier requires it to collect data about the use of the campus pantry and patrons for FBST’s annual report. Each time a patron utilizes the pantry, they are asked to fill out a form that is then collected and compiled to review the impact of the pantry. This data, given to The Ithacan by Karen Walls, executive assistant in the Office of Student Affairs and Campus Life and primary coordinator of the pantry, shows that food insecurity — a lack of consistent access to food for a healthy and active life — remains a prominent issue on campus.

Doreen Hettich-Atkins, executive director of the Office of Student Affairs and Campus Life, said she has seen positive changes in the lives of students because of the pantry.

“One student said to me this summer, ‘I haven’t eaten a real meal in three days,’” Hettich-Atkins said. “I think that without this, many of our students would be struggling much more than they are.”

While the pantry is now open to the public, no Ithaca community members use the pantry outside of the college. Walls said there are over 30 off-campus locations for residents of Tompkins County to have access to free food, which might be why the pantry is not being used by non-campus members.

According to the Food Bank of the Southern Tier, in 2019, Tompkins County reported 13,980 food insecure residents. By the beginning of 2021, that number lowered to 11,920 residents, according to a report from the Tompkins Food Future organization.

Between 2019 and 2022, there was an increase of over 800 people using the pantry. From January to September 2022, the pantry has served 1,372 students and 816 staff and faculty members — signifying the highest use of the pantry since its opening in 2019. For the first five months of the pantry’s run — August 2019 to December 2019 — the pantry served 1,015 students and 321 staff and faculty.

Senior Abigail McGuire started volunteering in Fall 2022 and said she is surprised by the patron turnout.

“It’s kind of tucked away, so I wondered if it would be inaccessible … but it seems like we have a lot of foot traffic coming in,” McGuire said.

Despite a significant decrease in number of students still living on or near campus during the COVID-19 lockdown — which first began in March 2020 — the pantry remained open two times a week until December 2020.

Use of the pantry dropped to a total of 880 patrons served throughout the 2020 calendar year. Students continued to be the main demographic using the pantry and the ratio of students to staff and faculty patrons was two students for every one staff or faculty member.

In 2021, the pantry served 627 total campus members. Although classes were still being held virtually, by Spring 2021 many students were on campus.

Walls said that even with the decrease in patrons, she can still recognize the positive impacts the pantry has had on the student body.

“COVID aside, I’ve seen a gradual increase in the utilization of the food pantry,” Walls said. “I would think there’s been more student retention because of the pantry.”

Hettich-Atkins said more data has been collected through the forms patrons fill out before shopping at the pantry, but it has been challenging to process because of reduced staffing in the Office of Analytics and Institutional Research. Hettich-Atkins said she does not know when the data will be processed because there is still uncompiled data going back to 2019.

Junior Abigail Hoffert, who has been volunteering at the pantry since Spring 2022, said she has realized how many students struggle with food insecurity through her time as a volunteer.

“A lot of the people we get don’t have meal plans because they don’t have the money to pay for it … and might not have access to the grocery store,” Hoffert said.

Despite a clear need among the student body for the food pantry, there was a struggle to keep it open

because of the lack of student volunteers. The pantry can only open when there are volunteers to help with patrons and inventory.

Hettich-Atkins said that occasionally the staff in the Office of Student Affairs and Campus Life fill in, but when staff or students cannot volunteer, the service is unavailable to the public. As of March 1, there are 98 volunteers for the pantry.

The pantry’s operating hours are currently 12:15 to 2 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays.

Hoffert said these hours may also be a factor limiting the number of students that are available to volunteer and said she believes that promotion that targets possible volunteers could help. The pantry has information on their Instagram @icfoodpantry and on the college’s website under Student Affairs and Campus Life.

“I feel like the advertising needs to be for student volunteers to sign up, not necessarily just the people that come to the food pantry,” Hoffert said. “I would love to have a staff of volunteers that you know when they’re going to be there. … You can start to build relationships.”

Walls said she thinks that having more honest conversations surrounding food insecurity will increase support for the pantry and the fight against hunger within the college’s community.

“People think that it’s only poor people that use the pantry and that’s not necessarily true,” Walls said. “It’s just an aid: everybody needs aid sometimes, and students need to work on decreasing the stigma of using the food pantry.”

Source: Karen Walls, executive assistant in the Office of Student Affairs and Campus Life Illustration by malik clement/The Ithacan

Headline goes here and in most cases there should be two lines of text for each title in the book.

Campus health center partners with Cayuga Health System to provide improved student health services

By Olivia Stanzl

IthacaCollege became a part of the Cayuga Health System’s network Aug. 15, with the hopes to create a more sustainable student health center. This enhancement comes with a price: students now need to provide an insurance card and may need to pay a copay in order to use the services within the health center.

The college announced the merge to the campus community July 14 through an email. Bonnie Prunty, vice president of Student Affairs and Campus Life, said the college has been discussing partnerships with off-campus entities since creating the strategic plan.

The Ithaca Forever five-year strategic plan was released in June 2019. The college outlined its goals to provide an education experience that is accessible, affordable and responsive. The 36-page document highlighted the desire to build off-campus relationships.

Prior to the merge, students were not charged a fee to visit the Hammond Health Center or for any labs that were done at the center and did not have to present their insurance card while at the center. Students were only charged through their insurance if they were referred off-campus for care or filled prescriptions off-campus. The college requires each student to be insured, whether it is through the college or an alternate insurance. The cost of one year of insurance through University Health Plans, the college’s plan, is $2,713. Students had until Sept. 15 to waive the student health insurance that was otherwise automatically billed to them by the college.

Junior Zola Campbell said she has used the Hammond Health Center a number of times.

“It’s nice that they’re trying to make it better and have a lot more resources, but I use it a lot for little things, like if I have a bad cold,” Campbell said. “[Right now] it’s easy to call and I don’t think it’s something I want to be a big thing, like, ‘Oh, I’m going to the doctors and I have to do a copay.’”

CHS has collaborated with the college prior to this merger, working with the college’s health sciences, including the physical therapy program, to enhance students’ learning. CHS also helped the college reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the email announcing the merge. CHS runs the Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca and Schuyler Hospital in Montour Falls. CHS also runs a multispecialty group, Cayuga Medical Associates. CMA has around 24 specialties and their competency is in outpatient medical practices.

Timothy Downs, chief financial officer and the vice president for Finance Administration, helped manage

the merger between the college and CHS. Downs says his work with the merger is not over and the two organizations continue to communicate with each other to create a smooth transition. Jeffrey Penoyer ’08, chief operating officer of CMA, said CMA is focused on the quality of care in the health center.

“The idea was to kind of bring that skill set to the school to help run the Student Health Center,” Penoyer said. “We’re focused on … bringing and shoring up their behavioral health programs in the health center and helping restore the normal hours of the health center.”

Prunty said that three behavioral health specialists who are employed through Cayuga Health are now working in the health center. She said these specialists will work with students who are struggling with things like stress and anxiety and will teach them strategies to deal with their mental health.

“Maybe a student has insomnia, as an example,” Prunty said. “They can’t sleep, and in working with a physician they can’t find a physical reason why the student can’t sleep. They can do a warm handoff to these behavioral health folks who are now working in the health center.”

Penoyer said that they have created a category called “sensitive visits,” like STI testing and behavioral health visits, where students will not be billed.

“The parents wouldn’t be notified via normal means through insurance for those types of visits because we recognize that those are personal and sensitive visits to the student population,” Penoyer said. “We wanted to ensure that students still felt comfortable coming to the health center

for those things.”

Prunty said one of the main reasons the college decided to partner with CHS is because the college’s leadership wants to be able to sustain a high quality health care system for the college’s students.

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, national health spending is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 5.4% from 2019–28. It is projected that in 2028, national health spending will reach $6.2 trillion. Through this collaboration, the Hammond Health Center has extended hours compared to previous semesters and a larger range of services, including mental health. Last year, Hammond’s hours were reduced to business days. Now, the health center is open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Mondays-Thursdays; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays; and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays. Long wait times at the Hammond Health Center had also become a common issue throughout the years.

Junior Alexa Tamis said that in the past, she has used the local urgent care, where she paid a copay, rather than going to the Hammond Health Center because she believed they could give her a more accurate diagnosis. Tamis said she believes the price of a potential copay is worth a comprehensive healthcare system on campus that is accessible to the college’s students. According to debt.org, a copay for a routine doctor’s visit typically costs $15–25; $30–50 for a specialist; and $75–100 for treatment in an emergency room.

“COVID is still an active thing … and college kids get sick all the time,” Tamis said. “To have [an extensive health center] on campus is really important.”

Ithaca College became a part of the Cayuga Health System’s network Aug. 15, with the hopes to create a more sustainable student health center. The college announced the merge to the campus community July 14. ella tunis, kalysta Donaghy-Robinson, nolan saunders/The Ithacan

CAPS is back in person for the first time since Fall 2019 in addition to offering virtual counseling appointments

By Syd Pierre

TheIthaca College Center for Counseling and Psychological Services has returned to offering in-person appointments for the first time since Fall 2019.

In an Aug. 12 Intercom post, Brian Petersen, director of the Center for Counseling, Health and Wellness, said that the center would begin offering in-person and virtual sessions for students for the 2022–23 academic year. “Let’s Talk,” an informal drop-in service that offers confidential consultations with a CAPS counselor will continue to be offered virtually over the phone or through Zoom, while individual sessions and group sessions will be offered both in person and virtually.

Petersen said that he is glad the center is able to continue providing Zoom sessions as an option for students because of the flexibility that it offers but said that many students have enjoyed returning to in-person sessions.

“So we can offer a variety of things, but I think students are voting with their feet because we’re seeing them come in and I think that says that they want that personal connection again,” Petersen said.

A 2021 study from the Association of University and College Counseling Center Directors found that 15.5% of college counseling centers offered in-person services in 2020–21, while 99.3% offered teletherapy.

Amy Whitney, a mental health counselor for CAPS, said she has been enjoying seeing students again in person because of the connection it can provide the students and how being together in a space can help people work through what they want to talk about.

“Some students find a lot of comfort in knowing there’s a particular space they can go to that over time becomes kind of a refuge,” Whitney said. “Their therapist’s office feels like a safe space and that in itself can be really nice.”

Stephanie Nevels, a mental health counselor for CAPS, said that while returning to in-person sessions has been an adjustment from only offering teletherapy, it has been a positive experience so far.

Nevels said that observing clients in person is very different from virtually because gauging subtle nonverbal cues, like body language that might be harder

to observe online.

“While we all, I think, got really, really adept at kind of judging safety risks online, there are certain things that are more alarming or more reassuring with those sorts of nonverbal things that, as therapists, traditionally we’ve relied on,” Nevels said.

“There are nonverbal cues that can sort of guide the conversation of just observing, like, ‘I’m wondering how you’re feeling right now, because I noticed this.’”

Petersen said the center, on average, sees between 17–20% of the college’s student body in an academic year, with the busiest time being the beginning of classes through mid-October.

According to the AUCCCD, the average percentage of the campus community served by counseling services decreased from 13% in 2019–20 to 10.7% in 2020–21.

Petersen said that while students often think that there is a waitlist at the center, the center has not had a waitlist since 2019.

He said that there can occasionally be a few-day waiting period for an intake appointment but that there is never a waiting period for a emergency or crisis counseling.

“I want every student at IC to know that if you’re having your absolutely worst day ever, you can literally

walk into the counseling center on the same day and be seen by somebody, so there’s no waitlist at all for a crisis or emergency [session],” Petersen said. “And I think sometimes those two things get a little mixed up, and I would hate for a student who’s really in need to think that there’s no point calling the counseling center because they won’t be able to see me until next week or whatever. And that’s not true.”

Senior Victoria Keenan, public relations manager for the Musicians for Mental Health Club, said MMH encourages its members to utilize resources on campus, like CAPS.

Keenan said the flexibility of different options for CAPS sessions is appreciated, especially for music majors or other students who may have a difficult schedule.

“You can just talk to [your therapist] on Zoom; it’s a little more convenient,” Keenan said. “But having the option to be able to go see your therapist in person, a lot of people that I’ve talked to have said that they’re really grateful for that because for some people that works a lot better for their schedules, and also just for the type of help that they need in person can sometimes be better.”

Petersen said that while the center dealt with staffing issues in Fall 2021 and Spring 2022, they have since hired four more counselors with the most recent hire in January 2023.

“We’ve been able to hire more diverse counselors, so we’re increasing the diversity of our counseling staff, which is great,” Petersen said. “So we’ll continue to try to meet the needs of students.”

In an Aug. 12 Intercom post, Brian Petersen, director of the Center for Counseling, Health and Wellness, said that the center would begin offering in-person and virtual sessions for students for the 2022–23 academic year. Ray Milburn/The Ithacan

“If you’re having your absolutely worst day ever, you can literally walk into the counseling center.”

-Brian Petersen

Commentary: The mental health of college students deserves more attention than it currently receives

By Alliey Magistro

Mental health. Two words that strike deep for all. What is it? “Mental health includes our emotional, psychological and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others and make choices,” according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Specifically, this is something college students struggle with throughout the year. According to The Mayo Clinic Health System, 44% of college students struggle with symptoms of depression and anxiety, of that 44%, 75% are reluctant to seek help.

When transitioning from high school to college, students have to learn how to navigate their own physical and mental health for the first time, without parents or friends they have known their entire life. They are completely surrounded by new people and a new environment. Moving to college means much more than going to class, studying and finding friends. It involves taking care of ourselves, doing our laundry, making sure we eat three meals a day and sometimes having to buy our own necessities. It is important to not put too much pressure on ourselves

and remember that it is OK to not feel our best mentally sometimes.

“College is a key developmental time; the age of onset for lifetime mental health problems also directly coincides with traditional college years — 75% of lifetime mental health problems will onset by age 24,” Sarah K. Lipson, assistant professor in the Department of Health Law, Policy & Management at Boston University, said.

This reveals how college is one of the most imperative developmental stages of our life. Pushing through the hard times by ourselves, not in our usual bedroom we’ve known since we were born, not in the house we grew up in, surrounded by people we’ve been with every day of our life until that point — having to struggle through these moments can be vigorous and stressful. I cannot express enough how necessary it is for college students to have time to ourselves once in a while to check up on our mental health.

College students are sleep deprived because of all the strict deadlines they have to meet, the work that builds up and the extracurriculars they need to be a part of to further their chances for a job/internship in the future. With that said, it is very crucial for students

to take a “mental health” day once in a while, meaning to take the day off from classes to just relax and not be too stressed. I feel as though this is a topic that is important for college students to educate themselves about, if they have not already, because our mental health plays a significant role in our lives.

It does not matter if we are at the happiest point of our life; our mental health still matters. One thing I truly believe everyone needs to do is to check in on our friends, even the happy ones. We never truly know what someone could be going through, so checking in on them whenever we have the chance can truly impact that person. Being a good friend goes a long way, more than we could ever know. There have been numerous times when a couple of my friends, the ones who are the life of the party, always happy and are never complaining, are the ones that need someone there for them and just want to be checked up on.

I have offered a helping hand to my friend, even when they did not seem upset, because as friends, we should be checking in on them. Mental health matters. Ours, our family, our friends, our teammates, even the people we do not like — everyone’s mental health matters.

First-year student Alliey Magistro discusses the relationship with being a student and maintaining good mental health. She says mental health days for students are crucial. Daisy Bolger/The Ithacan

Ithaca college makes progress to improve mental health among campus community members with JED initiative

By olivia stanzl

IthacaCollege is halfway through the JED campus initiative, the four-year mental health program the college joined in January 2020. The college’s JED committee released a progress report this September, which includes an overview of the program and progress made so far.

The JED Foundation is a nonprofit organization that creates programs to promote and encourage the strengthening of emotional and mental health within young adults. When an institution becomes a JED Campus, it is evaluated by a campus adviser. The campus advisers also help the schools that they work with release a Healthy Minds Survey — a student-focused survey that collects information on student attitudes around mental health — to the student body.

The college held its HMS from March 2–23, 2021, and it was completed by 1,226 students — about 21% of the full-time equivalent students.

The survey results included the information that: 20% of students reported having severe anxiety, 21% of students reported having mode ate anxiety, 25% re ported having severe depression and 22% reported having moderate depression.

The Healthy Minds Network has distribut ed the HMS for 15 years to 350,000 students at over 300 campuses nationally. From 2013 to 2021, the network found that college students’ mental health has been declining. The network’s national study showed that there was a 135% increase in depression and a 110% in crease in anxiety throughout those years.

Michelle Goode, program director for the Center for Counseling, Health and Well ness, said that culturally, the U.S. has begun stigmatizing mental health less by creat ing programs encouraging people to talk about their mental health struggles, like the Make It OK campaign.

“Sometimes I wonder if maybe the numbers have not changed as much as we

think,” Goode said. “There was so much stigma before. … There’s now new awareness and in some cases that allows for people to really come forward and share that with others in a way that is different than it was before.”

Ryan Bunts, senior JED campus adviser, works with the college and has worked with the JED Foundation since 2020. He said the reason for rising national numbers is something he has actively been discussing at work.

“I feel like we’ve been successful in kind of creating that narrative of it’s OK not to be OK,” Bunts said. “Which is great. But, so, I think numbers have gone up because of that. … But now, what are we going to do about it?”

Mental health stigma

Junior Kiara Valera said she believes that, because of social media, people are more comfortable

discussing mental health. She said that while this is a good step to rid society of the stigma around mental health, some people are making mental health issues like depression seem more like a trend than an illness.

“People [are] trying to make [having a mental illness] a really cool thing,” Valera said. “But that’s not what we should be discussing. We should be discussing about how to make it better, not talking about how to make depression trendy and eating disorders trendy.”

Sophomore Alex Neuhedel said neither he nor his friends have used mental health resources provided by the college, like the Center for Counseling and Psychological Services. He said he feels a reason for this is that often students learn early on that they have to solve their issues on their own. The National Alliance of Mental Illness found that while one in six youth have a mental condition, only half receive treatment.

“A lot of people who are coming into college have been in the same position where [they had] drama or someone being bullied, and their school never took any actions toward that or helped them cope with it,” Neuhedel said. “So, I think that some people might be … a little hesitant to reach out to CAPS.”

Brian Petersen, director for CAPS, is starting his fourth academic year at the college after working at Pace University, another JED campus.

“I was familiar with what they brought to a college campus and what they were focusing on,” Petersen said. “So I was already thinking that would be a good thing to bring to the college. Unbeknownst to me, [former Ithaca College] President Shirley Collado was thinking the same thing.”

Goode is also a co-chair, alongside Petersen, for the JED campus initiative committee. The committee consists

of around 40 campus community members from all different departments.

“Mental health isn’t the responsibility of one office or one profession,” Goode said. “Really, to take care of mental well-being, like, we all need to work together. And we all have different roles that we can play. So I think that’s the exciting part too.”

Bunts said he meets with the college’s co-leads every few months to help them with implementing programs for student mental health and suicide prevention.

“I’ve worked with probably about 40 different campuses over my tenure at JED and, you know, your leads and your leadership team, they’re very engaged in this,” Bunts said. “There is a desire to be better.”

Future initiatives

Since becoming a JED Campus, the college has enacted multiple initiatives, like partnering with the mindfulness app Sanvello and implementing two Stop and Breathe Weeks, a week-long initiative that promotes de-stress during finals weeks on campus.

The college has also created a postvention team, which consists of representatives from the Dean of Students, Provost’s Office, Counsel ing and Psychological Services, Residential Life, and Student Conduct and Case Management. Postvention refers to activities that promote healing after someone takes their own life. The creation of the college’s postven tion team was formed because of a recommen dation from JED. The team formalized a proce dure for how the college will respond to a death in the campus community and developed a resource guide to distribute to the community if a death were to occur.

The college now of fers a tuition insurance program, GradGuard, that allows for a reim bursement to be made when a student takes medical leave for any

health reason. Covered expenses can include room and board, tuition and other fees.

Goode said whenever any student gets health care services at the Hammond Health Center, they will be screened for anxiety, depression and substance use, which was another recommendation made by JED. According to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, on Sept. 20 it was recommended that all adults under 65 years old be screened for anxiety. The guidance was made following reported increased levels of stress in adults as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and other issues like increased natural disasters. In April 2022, the task force also recommended all children between 8 and 18 years old be screened for anxiety.

The college became part of the Cayuga Health System in the 2022–23 academic year as a way to create a more sustainable student health center. The more comprehensive healthcare system includes behavioral health specialists who will help students deal with things like stress and anxiety.

“We’re excited to see these different pieces kind

of coming together,” Goode said. “And sometimes it’s things that aren’t so visible, but we’re really excited that [things] are happening in the background that can make a big difference, too.”

Valera said that while the college advertises itself as a diverse campus, it is a predominately white institution. She said the understaffing of not only CAPS counselors, but CAPS counselors of color, leaves students of color feeling even more underrepresented.

“I just feel like, because this is a community [where] they’re trying to cater to everybody, there should at least be more employees who are able to work with a wide range of students who come from different backgrounds and different cultural dynamics and all those things.”

In a Sept. 6 article by The Ithacan, Petersen said CAPS has hired three new counselors in the past year. A fourth counselor was hired in January 2023.

“We’ve been able to hire more diverse counselors, so we’re increasing the diversity of our counseling staff, which is great,” Petersen said. “So we’ll continue to try to meet the needs of students.”

Emmy LoBrutto, a case manager in the Office of Case Management at the college, said she has noticed different trends in mental health issues that have changed since the pandemic began.

“I think that maybe we’re seeing more of a social anxiety due to students not being able to connect in person with one another for the past couple years as often as maybe we would hope they would,” LoBrutto said. “So I think there’s different challenges.”

In order to help the faculty handle the rising amount of anxiety, the committee is currently planning gatekeeper training. The gatekeeper training program helps up to 40 faculty and staff receive information and resources to notice and respond to students in distress.

“We really are focusing this year on helping faculty and staff to be more comfortable with that, and hopefully, we’ll see that result in students feeling more cared for, and for faculty and staff to feel empowered, and as part of a community wide effort,” Goode said.

illustration by malik clement/the ithacan

multiple reports of swastikas found on campus in 2022 call for increased security measures for student safety

by clare shanahan

Author’s note: This article was published Oct. 26. As of Oct. 26, there were five reported swastikas found on campus. There were three more found in 2022, making the total number of reported swastikas in 2022 eight.

At Ithaca College, there were five reported instances of swastikas being drawn on or carved into surfaces on the college campus since January 2022 — a number that is significant when compared to the number of incidents in 2021 of antisemitism reported on college campuses in New York and nationwide.

Hillel International operates a portal for students to report antisemitic incidents on college campuses. In 2021, the organization reported a total of 244 antisemitic incidents on college campuses. Jewish on Campus is another organization that advocates for Jewish students and tracks antisemitic incidents on college campuses. In 2021, JOC received 544 submissions reporting antisemitism on college campuses.

The most recent incident of an image that appeared to be a swastika at the college was reported Oct. 11 after the symbol was scratched into the door of the Baker elevator in the James J. Whalen Center for Music. This was the third swastika to be found in the vicinity of the Whalen Center and the attached Baker Walkway in 2022.

On Oct. 20 Dan DeCaria said in an Ithaca College Intercom post that the elevator was unavailable because of required maintenance. In an email, DeCaria said the elevator closure was because of failure of a part and unrelated to the incident with the swastika.

The student who reported the symbol to the Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management on Oct. 11 said they believed it was carved after they took the elevator around 5 p.m. and before they took the elevator once again at 9 p.m., when they saw and reported the symbol. The Ithacan has chosen to keep this student anonymous because, as they are a Jewish student, they fear retaliation for reporting the swastika to the OPS.

“There was a swastika and then there was an S on either side of that, and it just, my stomach just dropped and my hands were kind of shaking,” the student said. According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the letters SS written together are historically antisemitic, as they are shorthand for Schutzstaffel, the Nazi police force responsible for carrying out the Holocaust through the murder of millions of Jewish people.

The student said they found the swastika in the same week that rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, posted a series of antisemitic tweets, further increasing their feeling of extremely frequent antisemitism. Ye showed a pattern of antisemitic behavior throughout October and referenced to white supremacist ideologies through multiple platforms, including in footage from an unaired interview on a podcast.

The Anti-Defamation League tracks antisemitic incidents in the United States and according to a report, there were 2,717 incidents of antisemitism in 2021, the greatest number of antisemitic incidents on record since the ADL began collecting data in 1979. As of Oct. 26, the ADL tracked 1,426 incidents of antisemitism nationwide; this list includes the five swastikas reported at the college.

Tyler Wagenet, physical security systems engineer in the Office of Information Security and Access Management, said via email that not only are there no surveillance cameras in the Baker elevator, but there are no cameras in any of the locations on campus where swastikas have been found. Wagenet said there are 190 surveillance cameras on campus. The college campus is 669 acres and includes over 85 buildings — based on these numbers, there are only enough surveillance cameras on campus to have 0.2 cameras per acre, or just over two cameras per campus building.

Tom Dunn, associate director and deputy chief in the Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management, said via email even when there are surveillance cameras available, they are not always the most useful tools because they may get a low-quality image. Dunn said that in the five cases of swastikas on campus in 2022, a suspect has not been identified in any case.

Dunn said in an interview that in cases of antisemitism and other bias-related incidents on campus, the Office of Public Safety will work with outside parties like the state police, Hillel International, the FBI and

Safety and Security International, and campus officials.

“[Contacting other parties is] not something we do because this has been an unprecedented number of times; we do that routinely,” Dunn said. “These types of cases are difficult to solve because you either need an eyewitness or you need a pattern of behavior or you need a suspect.”

The student said they would like to see more surveillance on campus to increase student safety and clear guidance from the administration about consequences for drawing swastikas on campus.

According to the Student Conduct Code, students at the college have the right to freedom from discrimination. Any instance of bias-based harassment or intimidation by a student “is cause for disciplinary action.” In the SCC, there is a wide range of disciplinary action describe, including expulsion.

Katie Newcomb, assistant director in the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, said via email that bias-related incidents are evaluated similar to any other violation of the SCC.

“When determining sanctions, we consider the severity of the offense, conduct precedents for similar offenses, a student’s prior conduct history, as well as other mitigating factors,” Newcomb said via email.

Following the instances of swastikas being drawn in February 2022, the college administration hosted a series of “Day of Learning” events to support the community and educate on bias and discrimination.

The student said that while the events and response from administration following these incidents has been reasonable, they do not feel that it will create real change. The student said they would like to see more of a response from the administration because they think the recurrence of these instances without consequences could open the door for further escalation in bias-related incidents. They said the current response from administration may not be enough.

In total, there were eight swastikas reported on the Ithaca College campus in 2022. Five out of the eight symbols were found in the James J. Whalen Center for Music and the attached Baker Walkway. Kalysta Donaghy-Robinson, Spencer park/the ithacan

Headline goes here and in most cases there should be two lines of text for each title in the book.

increase in ithaca college crime statistics from 2021 points toward a greater need for violence prevention

By Lorien Tyne

At Ithaca College in 2021, there were increased reports of domestic violence, stalking, aggravated assault and fondling, as well as a decrease in reports of rape and dating violence, according to the 2022 Annual Security & Fire Safety Report.

The ASFSR is published annually to display campus crime statistics from the past three years. Additionally, the report includes resources, crime definitions and policies. The 2022 ASFSR was released Sept. 27 and the campus community was notified with an email from Elyse Nepa, assistant director of the Clery Act and Prevention Education in the Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management.

There were five reports of stalking in 2019, four in 2020 and 12 in 2021. Stalking is defined in the ASFSR as “engaging in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to (a) fear for their safety or the safety of others or (b) suffer substantial emotional distress.”

Title IX Coordinator Linda Koenig said that after seeing an increase in reports of stalking, she and Nepa both attended a training session that gave them more information about identifying stalking behavior and helping the community identify that behavior.

A service provided by the Office of Public Safety to prevent criminal offenses on campus is the Safe Escort Program, which allows a member of the campus community to be accompanied by an officer to and from any campus location. According to data collected by Crystal Young, administrative operations coordinator in the Office of Public Safety, the requests for escort services by a campus officer have significantly decreased since 2019. There were 215 escorts provided in the 2019–20 academic year, 35 in 2020–21 and 48 in 2021–22.

First-year student Simon Stainbrook said he was a little surprised that there are cases of stalking on campus at all.

“I personally feel [safe on campus],” Stainbrook said. “I obviously have some privilege in that regard. [Stalking] is definitely not talked about enough considering how often it happens.”

Reports of rape were the lowest in 2021 than they have been since 2017 after peaking in 2019. There were 11 cases of rape in 2017, 13 in 2018, 14 in 2019, 10 in 2020 and eight in 2021.

Koenig said less reports of sexual violence are more concerning because that would show not a decrease in the behavior but decreased understanding or ability for victims to report.

“If we don’t have any reports, like of sexual assault,

as an example, I am going to be incredibly concerned, because we know there’s a high prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses,” Koenig said. “If something goes to zero [cases], that would be really odd. It would make me question, like, ‘Do we need to refocus some of our prevention efforts toward this particular topic?’ Because maybe people just don’t understand what it is and so they don’t think that it’s reportable.”

Domestic violence was reported five times in 2019, never in 2020 and four times in 2021. In 2019, there were no cases of dating violence, two reports in 2020 and in 2021, it dropped back to zero. Nepa said she understands why the data for domestic and dating violence may be confusing because of the nuance of how they are classified. The state definitions of domestic violence and dating violence are not differentiated from each other. However, there are separate definitions within the federal Violence Against Women Act — which are both included in the ASFSR.

“New York state doesn’t have dating violence laws, [so] most dating violence will fall under domestic violence,” Nepa said. “However, when I notice that [the case] doesn’t necessarily rise to the level of domestic violence but we know that there’s violence in the relationship and that it rises to the level of the VAWA definition of dating violence, that is included [in the ASFSR as dating violence]. What I don’t want to see happen is the numbers to be underreported because of these definitions that are hard to fit things into.”

Koenig said that when reports are made by members of the campus community about Title IX violations, if the victim does not want to participate in an investigation, the case is classified as whatever the report stated. However, if Title IX or other criminal

offenses are reported and there is an investigation where further information about the details of the offense are discovered, Nepa said the case is classified per the New York state law or by federal law if the state does not have a definition, like for dating violence.

Before one case in 2021, there had been no reports of aggravated assault as far back as at least 2017. There were six cases of fondling in 2019, one case in 2020 and four cases in 2021.

Liquor and drug law violations were both high in 2019, dropped in 2020 and began to rise again in 2021, but not above the 2019 violations. The ASFSR recorded 232 liquor law violations in 2019, 90 in 2020 and 216 in 2021. There were 203 drug law violations in 2019, 29 in 2020 and 58 in 2021.

Nepa attributed the decrease in 2021 drug violations from prior years like 2019 to marijuana being legalized in New York state March 31. So, any student over the age of 21 who was reported using marijuana in 2021 was referred to the Office of Student Conduct per the campus regulations that follow federal standards rather than being referred for unlawful possession of marijuana. Nepa also mentioned the inconsistency of data points because of the COVID-19 pandemic and students not being on campus for most of 2020.

Tom Dunn, associate director and deputy chief in the Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management, said via email that the ASFSR is a good resource to compare crime statistics at the college to other campuses in the United States.

“When you see something wrong know how to report it, by identifying and reporting, you can help us keep our community safe,” Dunn said.

Ithaca college has started to offer the mpox vaccine at the hammond health center to interested students

By syd pierre

IthacaCollege began offering mpox, previously known as monkeypox, vaccines in the Hammond Health Center for all interested students beginning Oct. 31, according to an email sent to the campus community Oct. 25.

According to the email, sent by Bonnie Prunty, vice president for Student Affairs and Campus Life; Jennifer Metzgar, medical director for Student Health Services; and Luca Maurer, executive director for Student Equity and Belonging and director of LGBTQ Education, Outreach & Services; the vaccine itself is free of charge. However, students will be billed for an administration fee through their health insurance provider; most insurance plans cover the administration cost.

“This cost will be listed as an ‘immunization administration’ on your health insurance account, but will not specify the type of immunization you received,” the email stated.

Although there is no requirement to get the vaccine and any students can schedule an appointment, students at high risk for contracting the virus are strongly encouraged to receive the vaccine. Students who are interested in receiving the vaccine must call the Health Center at 607-274-3177 to schedule an appointment.

The Health Center will be offering the Jynneos vaccine, which is the primary vaccine being used in the U.S. and is U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved for the prevention of smallpox and mpox. The vaccine is a two-dose series, with the doses given over a 28- to 35-day period of time.

Individuals who get the vaccine are not considered fully protected until 14 days after receiving their second dose.

Individuals who have recently received or are planning to get the COVID-19 vaccine should wait at least 30 days between getting the COVID-19 vaccine and the

As of Feb. 22, there have been four reported cases of mpox in Tompkins County.

LEGEND

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2022 map and u.s. case count as of march source: center for disease control and prevention

mpox vaccine.

The Hammond Health Center began offering the Jynneos vaccine Oct. 31, according to an Oct. 25 email. Jynneos is the primary vaccine being used in the U.S. and is U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved for the prevention of smallpox and mpox. The vaccine is a two-dose series given over a 28- to 35-day period of time. file photo/the ithacan

Headline goes here

Tompkins County warns community about a new drug causing an increase in overdoses across the country

By Olivia Stanzl

The Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office released a public safety alert Oct. 5 regarding an increase of overdoses within the county because of a new drug, xylazine, also known as tranq dope.

Xylazine, a non-opioid central nervous system depressant, is a sedative used in veterinary medicine that is not approved for humans but has been found in cocaine and heroin supplies. Other central nervous system depressants include alcohol and benzodiazepines. Naloxone, commonly known by the brand name naloxone, is a prescription medicine that is used to treat an overdose, but tranq dope requires a higher dose of naloxone. People who overdose on opioids initially receive one spray of naloxone into one nostril as the starting dose. Another dose is given after a few minutes if breathing has not returned to normalcy, according to Medical News Today.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the full scope on how xylazine is impacting the entire nation is unknown, but through research found by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, it is clear the drug has spread westward across the U.S. Another study from BMJ Journals found that from 2010–19, there was a 29% increase in fatal overdoses where xylazine has been detected.

Michelle Goode, program director of the Ithaca College Department of Health Promotion and chair of the Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Team, said the college coordinates opioid overdose prevention sessions each semester by partnering with community agencies like the Southern Tier AIDS Program.

Christopher Teitelbaum, regional director for St. John’s Community Services in New York state, said his team began to witness overdoses where the patient was not responding to the usual amount of naloxone needed to reverse an overdose.

Teitelbaum said that while naloxone is still working to prevent fatal overdoses, it takes a much higher dosage of the medicine to prevent a xylazine-related fatal overdose.

Teitelbaum oversees operations at the homeless shelter within the City of Ithaca and has a team of people that are trained to use naloxone to prevent overdoses from leading to death.

“I really remember it was this summer that I started hearing that there was something else going on in the heroin-using population and that people were not responding to the normal protocols as easily as before,” Teitelbaum said.

Srikrishna Malayala, chief clinical officer at Inhospital Physicians, said he conducts research on

xylazine because of his interest in addiction, an interest he said was formed because of the opioid crisis in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“Don’t use more Narcan than the usual [amount] because if you keep on using more Narcan, [the people who are receiving the Narcan] are only going to withdrawal from the opioids,” Malayala said. “That is going to increase the craving for opioids. … That is one thing that we have learned over time — it is pretty much Narcan resistance.”

In New York, opioid overdose deaths increased by about 68% between 2019 and 2021. In 2021, for every 100,000 New Yorkers, 30 died from overdoses; 25 per 100,000 New Yorkers died from opioid overdoses. In both 2020 and 2021, New York’s opioid overdose rates surpassed the national rate. The CDC found that around 75% of overdose deaths included an opioid in both 2020 and 2021.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that gets added to drugs sold illegally because it makes costs cheaper and makes drugs more powerful and addictive. Because xylazine is not an opioid but is mixed with opioids like fentanyl, it makes using naloxone to reverse the overdose that much more difficult.

Teitelbaum said that when his staff first started experiencing people overdosing with tranq dope in their system, they expressed to Teitelbaum that people were not responding to the naloxone.

Teitelbaum said that since the drug first started appearing in Tompkins County this summer, it has become common within the population of people who face homelessness and use drugs in the City of Ithaca. Teitelbaum said his staff has become more knowledgeable on how to treat xylazine-related overdoses. The Human Service Coalition found that there are 152 people in Tompkins County that are experiencing

homelessness in the 2022 calendar year.

“I think [xylazine-related overdoses] has just become the kind of norm,” Teitelbaum said. “There was a little bit of concern; there is sort of a physiological response like lesions that can happen with people using heroin that has this mixture in it. So we saw a slight uptake folks with that skin condition, but overall I think our experience is that it has kind of leveled off. It’s just part of the background noise now.”

Tranq dope has caused an increase in overdoses in areas like Puerto Rico, where a study found that over 90% of speedball preparations — a mixture of cocaine and heroin — had tranq dope in it. According to the article, xylazine has been found in 78% of fentanyl within these areas. A study published in October 2022 in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence found that in 10 places across the country, xylazine was involved in just 0.36% of overdose deaths in 2015. But by 2020, the drug was linked to 6.7% of overdose deaths, with the highest percentages in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Maryland; and Connecticut. In 98% of all xylazine-related deaths in the study, fentanyl was also used. Throughout the past year, tranq dope has spread to other states throughout the United States, like Massachusetts and New York. Tapestry, a Western Massachusetts healthcare service that provides services to around 20,000 residents each year, found that in half the drug samples that they were testing, tranq dope was showing up.

Malayala said there is no antidote for xylazine and tranq dope does not show up on urine toxicology evaluations because the drug is so new.

“It is more of a moderate issue than mortality, unless someone is using a lot of tranq,” Malayala said. “It might kill somebody, but as of now, there is no data to say there are xylazine-induced deaths.”

and in most cases there should be two lines of text for each title in the book.

Student Affairs

Leila Marcillo-GÓmez/The ithacan

malik clement/the ithacan

Ithaca College institutional data begins to include students' gender identity in addition to assigned sex

Headline goes here and in most cases there should be two lines of text for each title in the book.

By Kai Lincke

Ithaca College’s 2022–23 institutional data has become more inclusive after the Common Application and the college’s student information platform, Homer, started recording students’ gender identity in addition to sex assigned at birth.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, an individual’s sex is determined at birth based on their biological characteristics, including anatomy. An individual’s gender is their own perception of themself as male, female or a number of other gender identities, which can be different from their sex assigned at birth, according to the HRC.

Claire Borch, director of the Office of Analytics and Institutional Research, said via email that the Common App started to collect students’ affirmed gender in addition to their sex assigned at birth during the 2021–22 admissions cycle. With this change, Homer started to record incoming students’ affirmed gender. Borch said these changes allowed the Office of AIR to record that information, including nonbinary, in addition to their sex assigned at birth in the 2022–23 Facts in Brief Report. The report lists 64 first-year nonbinary students.

Borch said via email that before Fall 2022, the Common App allowed students to select only their sex assigned at birth — male or female — on their college applications. Homer gathers demographic information about the college’s incoming class from the Common App, so the college only received data about students’ sex assigned at birth and lacked the data about students’ affirmed gender.

Senior Meabh Cadigan, president of PRISM, a student-run organization that hosts community bonding activities for the LGBTQ+ community at the college, said inclusive gender data is critical to provide an accurate reflection of the college community.

Cadigan said inclusive gender data can help nonbinary and transgender students applying to the college to identify schools that have a community of queer students.

“I very clearly remember the college application process because I was just coming around to this time of realizing that … I was in some way trans, even if I hadn’t exactly figured it all out yet,” Cadigan said. “Being able to look into the way [colleges] talked about their student communities and the kinds of students that they represent on campus … made a huge difference. … Having access to those kinds of data and metrics … can really help younger trans high school students [find] places that feel safer.”

Borch said via email that the college reports

the information from Homer to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, a data collection platform for the National Center for Education Statistics. The college includes much of the same information in its annual institutional report, Facts in Brief. Facts in Brief follows IPEDS reporting guidelines, which only recognized students’ sex assigned at birth until Fall 2022.

Luca Maurer, interim executive director of Student Equity and Belonging and director of the Center for LGBT Education, Outreach & Services, said the college recognized that its gender data was incomplete several years ago. Maurer said he worked with Borch to try to make the Facts in Brief gender data more inclusive, but they struggled with the limitations from Homer and IPEDS.

Maurer said he and Borch added a note in the introduction of the 2017–18 Facts in Brief report to acknowledge that gender data was limited to male and female categories by IPEDS federal reporting guidelines and did not accurately reflect the student body. The note explained that some students preferred not to share their gender with the college — and as recommended by IPEDS — were sorted into the male and female categories based on the gender ratio of their primary major.

“I was not comfortable with what those outside reporting entities were asking us to do, and yet we were required to do it as an institution,” Maurer said. “For me, we at least needed to be crystal clear by labeling that so people know … what these numbers show does not accurately reflect our student body.”

IPEDS added two gender categories, “another

gender” and “gender unknown,” for the total number of students in 2022–23 reports.

Borch said the 2022–23 Common Data Set report, which compiles data for college guidance publications, has also added an “another gender” category.

Maurer said the college continues to use binary genders in reports that would show small numbers of nonbinary students or employees to protect their identities and their confidentiality.

Senior Taylor Volmrich said that as an exercise science student and a student-athlete, they frequently consider data and studies, which often are not gender inclusive. They said they believe improvements to gender data collection are necessary to ensure that all individuals are accurately represented.

“There is not a lot of data in any field about people who identify outside of the gender binary,” Volmrich said. “Having that information moving forward and being able to accommodate for everybody, regardless of how they identify, is really important. I think that it’s an ongoing process [but] it’s a really good start.”

Volmrich said that though current students’ gender identities may not be accurately reflected in college data reports, they are glad that the college is working to improve data reporting for future classes.

“If [data reporting changes are] mostly affecting first-year students now, it’s going to take four or five years for that to accurately represent the entire student population at the college,” Volmrich said. “I think that knowing that it’s starting is really good. … Upperclassmen nonbinary students may not be represented … but it’s not like we weren’t at the school and didn’t make a difference.”

Ithaca College 2022–23 data is now more inclusive after the Common Application and the college's student information platform, Homer, started including students' gender identity in addition to sex assigned at birth.

Illustration by Ariana Gonzalez Villareal/The Ithacan

Entrepreneurs of color make the most of their passions by balancing both business ownership and student life

By Olivia Stanzl

IthacaCollege senior Oluwadamilola Oyetunji said the first time she made a wig for someone else was in high school, and all she had to use was a dollar’s worth of black thread, a needle, a wig cap and hair provided by her client.

“One day I came to school with my hair up and a wig on that I made myself and this girl asked me, ‘Who did your hair’ and I said, ‘Oh, I did it’ and she said, ‘Well can you do mine?’” Oyetunji said. “She came to my house because she wanted to try [the wig] on. I put it on her and it fit just right and she just fell in love. Ever since she was a consistent customer and she inspired me to make an actual Instagram page to market myself.”

Oyetunji, founder of Wigs by Dams, was one of five student entrepreneurs featured in the college’s Center for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Social Change students of color business expo Oct. 7. The expo was held in the African Society Lounge in West Tower and also featured The Universal Experience, Mali Kutz, Dami Love and Mamaz Boy Apparel. At the event, which was part of the First Friday with IDEAS series, attendees were given the chance to meet the student entrepreneurs, learn about their businesses and build connections. Following the event, students had the opportunity to stay and spend time with each other in a more informal way by playing games.

“It was so cool that [the Center for IDEAS] did this because I was struggling to bring my business out for people to know that there was a business for them, for Black girls, on campus,” Oyetunji said. “When they had the expo, that was my opportunity to talk about my business and let people know that if you need your hair done, I’m that person to go to. It definitely helped with promoting my business and supporting it, too. For them to reach out to me was a huge thing for me.”

Junior Liguori Flanagan said the Center for IDEAS and Angélica Carrington, director of the Center for IDEAS, consistently supports his business, Mamaz Boy Apparel. Mamaz Boy Apparel is a clothing brand he has been developing since 2020.

“Every month they ask me if there’s anything they can support, just wanting to buy something from me,” Flanagan said. “[Carrington], she’s always just being so helpful.”

Flanagan said it can be difficult to balance running a business and being a student, but other students at the college heavily support him. Flanagan said any time he walks around campus with his products, students ask him about the brand and how they can help

him promote it.

“It’s definitely the good and positive energy that I get from other people that makes me want to continue to run this,” Flanagan said. “It just forces me to push through the school work and business and run both.”

Flanagan said he named his company Mamaz Boy Apparel because he wanted everyone to connect to it, whether they thought about their own mother or about being a mother themselves one day. Flanagan said his mom is a huge support system in his life and always reminds him that there is nothing in this world he cannot do.

“I just wanted us to all have a neutral point in connectivity,” Flanagan said. “I really wanted [the company] to be an inclusive thing where no matter the gender, no matter the race, we could all connect to each other in some form. Which is why I chose clothes, because we can all wear a t-shirt that says Mamaz Boy.”

Junior Anesha Sandiford — who runs The Universal Experience — said Carrington has helped her too to feel included and establish her business at the college.

“I just met her this semester, but she’s been very welcoming to me,” Sandiford said. “[She’s been] giving me ideas and providing a spotlight to amplify my business.”

The Universal Experience is a hair and beauty service for people of color to help Black students to properly take care of their hair while in college and away from home. Sandiford said she hopes one day to open multiple businesses around predominantly white institutions like Ithaca College to provide Black students with affordable hair care. A PWI is a higher education institution where 50% or more of the student population is white students. According to the college’s Office of Analytics and Institutional Re search, in Fall 2022, white students accounted for 72.4% of the college’s student population and Black, Indigenous and people of color accounted for 23.2% of students.

Oyetunji said that it is important that Black students have options for hair care.

“It’s hard to find ways to really manage hair, especially in a PWI. I provide an option where it’s like, ‘Hey, I’m lazy, I don’t want to twist my hair and be up until two o’clock in the morning trying to figure out what to do with my hair.’ I have a way more convenient option, like I’m waking up for my 9 a.m. class and I can just put on a wig from Dami. I want that to be an option for Black girls.”

senior Oluwadamilola Oyetunji

junior Liguori Flanagan

junior Anesha Sandiford

Jasmine Scriven & Ray Milburn/The Ithacan

Resident assistants at Ithaca College feel underpaid for their work through the Office of Residential Life

By Olivia Stanzl

Theresponsibilities expected of resident assistants at Ithaca College make some wonder if the benefits are enough. While the student employees are given compensation that goes toward room and board, other institutions are paying their RAs more.

Becoming an RA is a way many students lessen the burden of paying for college. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2016, nearly 11,000 students were employed as RAs at institutions across the United States at an average salary of $15.04 per hour or $31,290 for the calendar year.

Laura Davis, director of Residential Life and Judicial Affairs, said at the college, compensation for RAs and apartment assistants comes in the form of credit. The credit is first applied to room expenses and the remaining balance is applied to boarding expenses. If there is still leftover compensation — for example, if a student has financial aid that also covers these areas — it will go toward a student’s tuition and fees.

Students who are in their first or second semesters as an RA or AA get a credit that is equivalent to 80% of the cost for room and board, which is $12,747.20 for the 2022–23 academic year, and RAs who are in their third semester or higher within the position get 100% of their room and board covered by credit.

According to The National Center for Education Statistics, the average cost for college rooming in the U.S. for the 2020–21 academic year was $6,897 and $5,335 for meal plans. The cost for a standard double room for the 2022–23 academic year at Ithaca College is $9,066, a single room is $10,375 and the resident meal plan is $6,868.

Junior Molly Hankinson said she started working as an RA in Fall 2022 to strengthen her skills as a future educator and because of the compensation she would receive. Hankinson said she feels there are times when she and her coworkers do more than they are compensated for.

“I get 80% off of room and board, but they charge me for a single room and a single room’s already two grand more than a double,” Hankinson said. “They’re going to give you 80% off room and board, but they’re gonna make the room and board more expensive.”

RAs are typically responsible for the supervision of a residence hall floor of around 25–50 residents, while AAs are responsible for supervising apartment communities of 120–175 residents.

Sophomore Gabriel De Oliveira Shurmur, who was an RA during the 2021–22 academic year, said working as an RA at the college is worth the work because it

allows you to save thousands of dollars every academic school year.

“I think it’s difficult because when you compare it to what other schools do, it seems like it isn’t worth it,” Shurmur said. “But, when you break it down to an hourly rate, at the end of the day, you’re saving like $15,000 a year.”

The University at Albany, a State University of New York, compensates their RAs with a bed waiver for a single room. SUNY Fredonia compensates their students with a $4575/semester single room waiver, $200/semester meal plan allocation and $600/semester stipend, paid in four increments.

Shurmur has worked with both upperclassmen and first-year students and said the difference in maturity between the classes significantly impacted the amount of work he had to do.

“Obviously freshmen get locked out more; they’re new to the college experience and they’re more likely to make mistakes,” Shurmur said.

Hankinson said one night she helped six students who each locked themselves out of their rooms.

“Each building has a different key and you can only grab one key at the time,” Hankinson said. “So, like, I got a lockout and the key box is on the other side of campus. So [I would] walk to the other side of campus, grab the master key, walk back, let the students in, go back, grab another key.”

Junior Sadie Hofford is starting her third semester as an RA and said it is a very unique job because it is difficult to take a break from it.

“You can’t really turn off being an RA,” Hofford said. “It’s kind of like you’re always on. It’s not like I

Ray Milburn/The Ithacan

clock in to my job and I clock out.”

Hofford said RAs have staff meetings and must attend training two weeks prior to classes startings. Other responsibilities include community building through event planning and informal peer mentorship by holding one-on-ones with their residents.

“I think a lot of things go on behind the scenes that people don’t see,” Hofford said. “We do one-on-ones and we put up bulletin boards and we are around when everyone is here, but we also do a lot of stuff when people aren’t at school.”

Hofford said she and her coworkers have had to express their concerns to get fair compensation for their work.

“Last year we did a lot of feedback and we were really honest about when we felt like we were doing things for no reason,” Hofford said. “On the weekends, we used to go on three sets of rounds at 10 [p.m.], 12 [a.m.] and 2 [a.m.]. So whoever was on duty would automatically be up until 3 a.m. But, we were realizing that really nothing ever happened on those last sets of rounds.”

Hofford said that the professional staff in the Office of Residential Life — full-time staff members like residential directors — and management teams looked at reports and phone logs and confirmed that typically nothing happened during the 2 a.m. round and they ended the last set of rounds.

“They’re actually pretty good about listening to us when things come up,” Hofford said. “I think last year was a lot and a lot of people told them that. And when we got back this year, I think a lot of us were kind of hesitant, but they had a totally new engagement plan.”

Becoming an RA is a way many students lessen the burden of paying for college. While the student employees are given compensation that goes toward room and board, other institutions are paying their RAs more.

Eco-Reps work to increase community engagement both on and off Ic's campus after years of struggle

By Noa Ran-Ressler

Ithaca College Eco-Reps has been a campus program for decades, according to The Ithacan, but in recent years, the program was forced to scale back on projects and events, as reduced funding and staff cutbacks, noticed by students, left the program without staff to advocate for the students.

Eco-Reps is a team of students led by the Center for Civic Engagement — formerly led by the Office of Energy Management and Sustainability — to promote sustainability on campus through programs, events and campus-wide communication, including installments in campus restrooms. The team of paid Eco-Reps — a group of project coordinators led by a program manager — makes up only a small portion of a much larger group of volunteers.

Eco-Reps was run by Gregory Lischke, the former director for Energy Management and Sustainability, until he stepped down in November 2021. This followed the removal of Rebecca Evans’ role as campus sustainability coordinator, leaving significant gaps in administrative leadership for the organization, according to senior Katharine Downey, the former program manager from Fall 2021.

This forced many of the responsibilities onto student leadership, according to Downey. She said she had to take on Evans’ role while the club went through a transitional period. As a student athlete on the women’s track and field team, she said picking up the work of Evans’ full-time job was too much to put on one student.

Senior Kelly Warren, the current program manager, echoed many of the issues that Downey faced. As one of several project coordinators in Fall 2021 and Spring 2022, Warren said the change in leadership created some uncertainties for the club.

“We were kind of left in the dark for a little bit,” Warren said. “We were having issues with our budget, so we couldn’t really hold a lot of events like we would normally like to, to get students engaged.”

To address staffing changes and leadership instability, the Eco-Reps program was moved from being under the jurisdiction of OEMS to being managed by the Center for Civic Engagement in Spring 2022. The club is now under the direction of David Harker, the director of the Center for Civic Engagement. Harker said his goal is to support the club as it rebuilds in the coming semesters.

“As we’re stabilized quite a bit, as we’re able to be a lot more proactive than reactive … my goal as an adviser is to empower the students and to be an advocate for Eco-Reps,” Harker said.

Harker said he plans to reestablish the club as a campus partner, as its presence has diminished on campus in recent years. According to Warren, there have been fewer events and participants in the program. Once the campus has been strengthened as a partner, the program can extend into the Ithaca community, according to Harker.

Specifically, Harker said he plans on working with individual community organizations, adapting to the interests of the group’s members. The ReUse Center, for example, partnered with the college for a pre-orientation program in Fall 2022, according to Harker, and he said he hopes to extend that partnership to Eco-Reps. Harker said the City of Ithaca’s Green New Deal is another opportunity for club members to get involved with the community from a policy perspective.

Scott Doyle, the new director of OEMS, hopes to see more collaboration beyond the campus and with the Ithaca community. Similar to Harker’s goals for the program, Doyle said he sees potential for the club to broaden its influence beyond South Hill.

“There’s efforts that absolutely connect to the community,” Doyle said. “There’s a lot of meaningful pieces that students — while here just for a short time — have really meaningful impacts on those that come after them but also the community.”

Harker said facilitating partnerships would be his responsibility, in collaboration with other campus leadership like Doyle, but the students are responsible for spearheading these efforts and maintaining them.

With leadership restored, Warren said she plans on expanding current programs like composting and Take

It Or Leave It in the coming semesters to bring more attention to the Eco-Reps’ efforts on campus. This involves expanding the Circle Apartments composting program throughout campus and bringing more students into TIOLI, the on-campus thrift store in the Clarke Hall basement, according to Warren.

Warren said part of recruitment involves getting more students involved in Eco-Rep activities. Last year, Eco-Reps led a trash pick-up event. There are plans to increase awareness outside of events, even adding a social media coordinator role to create infographics and increase the club’s online presence, according to Warren. Installments in bathroom stalls around campus — highlighting everyday activities that harm and help our planet — have brought awareness to the club in the past, Warren said, but the project needs to be revived.

The biggest issue that Warren and Downey agreed on — after budget issues could be resolved — was a lack of volunteers. With new efforts planned on being made to recruit new members, Warren hopes involvement and commitment will increase.

“The more people the better,” Warren said. “Sustainability is a great thing and Eco-Reps is a great way to teach yourself.”

Doyle suggested that the club diversify its membership, expanding into disciplines that are less associated with sustainability than the environmental studies fields.

“The reality is, for something as significant as issues related to climate change, we really need a variety of different approaches and perspectives to help make meaningful change,” Doyle said.

From left, David Harker, director of the Center for Student Engagement, senior Kelly Warren and Scott Doyle, director for the Office of Energy Management and Sustainability, work to improve Eco-Reps on and off campus. Aidan Charde/The Ithacan

ithaca college students react with mixed feelings to president joe biden's initial student loan relief plan

By syd pierre

Editor’s note: This story was originally published Sept. 7, 2022, shortly after President Joe Biden’s initial plan for federal student loan debt forgiveness was announced. It does not reflect the policy changes that have occurred since its publication.

Some students at Ithaca College feel that President Joe Biden’s plan for federal student loan debt forgiveness is a first step in addressing the cost of higher education.

Biden announced Aug. 24 that the Department of Education will provide up to $20,000 in debt cancellation to Pell Grant recipients with federal loans and up to $10,000 in debt cancellation to non-Pell Grant recipients. To qualify for the debt cancellation, all borrowers must have an individual income that is less than $125,000. The pause on federal loan payments is also being extended a final time through Dec. 31, 2022. The pause on payments has been ongoing since March 2020 and has been renewed seven times.

According to the Education Data Initiative, as of July 2022, student loan debt in the U.S. totals $1.7 trillion spread out among 43 million borrowers, while the outstanding federal loan balance — loans only borrowed from the federal government, not from private loan companies — is $1.6 trillion and accounts for 92.7% of all student loan debt.

Shana Gore, executive director of Student Financial Services, said that she thought the plan was a step in the right direction for helping students and families with college debt and that the college is supportive of any measures that can improve access to education.

“I think some of the administrative aspects about the plan — how specifically it will be implemented by the government, the application process, how the data will be collected — those are things that we’re talking with our colleagues at other institutions, some higher education organizations, and just awaiting further information so that we can be well educated on all the details and see how we can best help students and alums take advantage of this program,” Gore said.

Gore said that in 2021, 99% of students at the college received some type of financial aid and in any given year, around 20% of undergraduate students at the college are eligible for a Pell Grant.

Pell Grants are awarded to 34% of undergraduate students in the U.S., according to the Education Data Initiative, and the average Pell Grant award for a student from a private, four-year university is $4,257. Federal Pell Grants are only available to low-income undergraduate students who display exceptional

financial need and unlike loans, do not need to be paid back.

“I just think that we’re just kind of at this point waiting for the details to be worked out by the government, so that we can find those opportunities, so that we can make sure that we help students best understand how to benefit from the plan,” Gore said. “I think that’s often an issue with some of these federal programs, is making sure that everyone eligible is able to benefit from them. So we will see what types of measures we can take, and how we can be proactive with that.”

Some critics of the proposed plan argue that it will disproportionately benefit high-earners and raise economic inflation.

Chee Ng, assistant professor in the Department of Finance and International Business, said via email those arguments depend on the effectiveness of the way the plan is implemented.

“I am sure President Biden’s proposal has its means-tested mechanism embedded in it in order to be ‘fair’ so that the higher-earners don’t take unneeded advantage of the system,” Ng said via email. “But, circumvention of any regulation is only a natural human response.”

Junior Lily Kimball Watras said the debt relief plan would help her cover around half of her student loan debt, and after learning about the plan, her father encouraged her to sign up as soon as possible.

According to the announcement, the Department of Education is working to set up an application process for borrowers to claim relief. The application will be available no later than when the federal loan repayment pause ends at the end of 2022.

Kimball Watras said she thinks that student loan

debt is a concern for most college students and that while $10,000 is a good amount, it is not nearly enough for many people to cover the full extent of their loan debt.

According to a Pew Research study, 36% of 25–39 year olds who have at least a bachelor’s degree and outstanding student loan debt said the financial costs of their degree outweigh the benefits, while 15% of young college graduates who did not have outstanding student loans say the costs outweigh the benefits.

“I would hope there’s more in the future,” Kimball Watras said. “I mean, there’s a whole lot going on and I don’t know if that’s going to be something that’s on the front of everyone’s mind, but I hope it is.”

Sophomore Aiden Harman said he thought the plan was a step in the right direction due to the financial inacessability of higher education in the United States but thought it was disadvantageous toward people who struggle to pay for college that can barely qualify for those loans or people who received loans through a private bank.

According to the Education Data Initiative, the average cost of college in the U.S for a first-time, full-time undergraduate student is $35,551 per student, per year. The average cost of college has an annual growth rate of 6.8%. Harman said he did quality for the Pell Grant, but does not have loans taken out through the federal government.

“I do fall under the notion of people who don’t make that much money in this country,” Harman said. “So I just wish that what would have been worked into it were all people who qualified for the Pell Grant would receive at least a little bit of money, whether that’s in form of a check or something like that, instead of just canceling out government loans.”

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Free speech activity organized by campus group stirs up controversy among campus community members

By Prakriti Panwar

Ithaca College students engaged in heated discussions Oct. 5 on the Academic Quad outside of Campus Center around a free speech ball set up by the college’s Young Americans for Liberty chapter.

Senior Caroline Peyron, president of ICYAL, said the activity was meant to remind students about their right to free speech and assembly and allowed students to write on a giant beach ball over five feet in height. Later in the day, the situation escalated when some students slashed the ball and argued with the organizers. Peyron said writing on the ball was conditional to two rules: No threats would be accepted because that is not freedom of speech and there would be no censorship of others’ speech.

Young Americans for Liberty is an organization that works with college students to advance a pro-liberty ideology. Peyron said the ICYAL is a constitution-based, pro-gun group that believes in free speech and small governments. The chapter held the same activity in 2016 as a part of Freedom Week.

“The goal is to expose people to the Constitution and to ideas surrounding the Constitution that might not be the norm around here,” Peyron said. “Ithaca College is a very liberal campus, obviously. And it’s good to poke a few holes in that and to expose people to other ideas so it’s not so much of an echo chamber.”

According to Niche.com, 92% of students at the college are either progressive/very liberal or liberal.

First-year student Rowan Keller said the people they saw were against the club, but they saw students express their opinions peacefully.

Keller said that from what they observed, they found it interesting that the libertarian organizers came prepared to deal with the consequences of setting up the beach ball in the middle of a college campus with a largely liberal student body.

They said the campus community may be affected by the event in the future in context of political activity on campus.

“I feel like we may have more demonstrations like this, maybe by opposing clubs,” Keller said. “I’m sure this will be infamous among [the college’s] students.”

The beach ball activity was set up around 10:15 a.m. and by 2 p.m., the beach ball was scribbled with messages from members of the campus community. Phrases like “COVID isn’t real” and “Roe is dead and it’s great” — in reference to the Supreme Court overturning the Roe v. Wade legislation that guaranteed the right to abortion in the U.S. — caused mixed reactions from the campus community as students debated and discussed what was on the ball.

Some students who did not agree with the message being conveyed on the ball and by the organizers protested by writing messages in support of more liberal views, like “Happy LGBTQ+ month” and “No person is illegal” on the beach ball.

Particularly, the phrase “hate speech is free speech” stirred up controversy among students.

First-year student Augie Brightman said while he is a proponent of free speech, he believes that hate speech is a real issue and there should be limitations to what people can say.

“I think all they wanted to do was just denounce hate speech and claim that it’s not real when it very much is,” Brightman said. “This may sound broad but really, you can’t say whatever you want. That’s just the fact of the reality and I think that’s honestly kind of a good thing.”

Peyron said while there could be social consequences for what is considered to be hate speech, the government should not interfere because anything can be considered offensive.

“My opinion on that is that the government should not be able to limit what you say regardless of whether it’s considered hate speech or not,” Peyron said. “I’m not endorsing anybody who insults or discriminates against people verbally, but I do believe that it is your right to say what you believe.”

Elianna Geertgens, field representative for The Leadership Institute for upstate New York, said that the free speech ball encouraged students to engage in discussion. Geertgens was at the college to help set up the event and talk to people, Peyron said.

The Leadership Institute is a nonprofit that trains

conservatives across all age groups to grow in politics through workshops, seminars and training schools.

“There’s a lot of different opinions and there’s a lot of dialogue; a lot of people were engaging in the dialogue respectfully,” Geertgens said. “There’s some kind of very far-left things or far-right things … but none of it is going to be erased.”

Many students questioned Geertgens credibility when they found out that she was not a student, faculty or staff member of the college.

Sophomore Zoe Blain said she found it strange that Geertgens was instigating animosity on campus when she was not a student of the college.

Blain said she felt disturbed by the pro-gun discussions that took place.

“I feel very unsafe when people are talking about gun rights on campus because this is where I live,” Blain said. “And I think I’d be a lot more comfortable knowing that we’re a gun-free campus and the campus doesn’t really believe so much and so strongly in the right to bear arms.”

Peyron said Geertgens had the right to be at the activity because according to the college’s club re-recognition guidelines, as long as 51% of the members are from the college, anybody is allowed to be a part of an on-campus organization. Peyron said the student organization, which stopped sometime around 2016, is being restarted with her as the president and senior Julian Lacono as the vice president.

First-year student Lee Moran said they found the free speech ball to be excessive. They said despite that, the incident could lead to important discussions in the future.

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Senior Caroline Peyron, president of ICYAL, said the activity was meant to remind students of their right to free speech and assembly. The situation escalated when some students slashed the ball and argued with organizers.

Kalysta Donaghy-Robinson/The Ithacan

Station managers of Ithaca College radio stations WICB and VIC celebrate College Radio Day at The White House

By Syd Pierre

“I was DJing — I was doing the Hobo’s Lullaby, which is our Tuesday morning folk show — and Jeremy Menard, [television and radio operations manager], just walked into the studio and said, ‘Are you doing anything tomorrow? You want to go to the White House?’” senior Connor Hibbard, station manager for WICB, said. “And then 18 hours later, we were in the White House.”

On Oct. 19, Hibbard, Menard and senior Andy Tell, station manager for VIC radio, attended a College Radio Day event at the White House that was hosted by the Biden-Harris Administration. The event was a continuation of the 12th anniversary of College Radio Day, which was held Oct. 7.

There were 10 colleges and universities invited to the event, including the College of New Jersey in Ewing, New Jersey; Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington; Landmark College in Putney, Vermont; Warwick Valley High School in Warwick, New York; Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York; William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey; Warner College in Lake Wales, Florida; the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, Georgia; and Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Menard said he received an email Oct. 18 from Rob Flaherty ’13, deputy assistant to the president and director of Digital Strategy at The White House, who reached out and asked if Menard would be interested in attending the event as a representative of Ithaca College.

Menard then reached out to Tell and Hibbard to

ask if they would be interested in attending.

“I’ve never been invited to the White House before,” Tell said. “And I don’t know too many people that have been, so when the opportunity came to go to the White House — whether or not it’s, like, to meet someone high up or just for some random press briefing — you gotta take that opportunity, no matter how short of how short notice it is. It’s one of those once in a lifetime events you just have to say yes to.”

At the event, the students and student media advisers toured the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and the White House’s Brady Press Briefing Room. They also heard from a variety of speakers, including Karine Jean-Pierre, assistant to the president and press secretary; Bharat Ramamurti, deputy director for the National Economic Council; Sheila Nix, chief of staff for the Department of Education; Jennifer Molina, senior director of Coalitions Media at the White House; and Nick Conger, senior adviser for the Climate Policy Office.

Hibbard said the speakers talked about topics including climate change and student loan debt relief. He said he appreciated the speakers’ their message about the importance of keeping people informed.

“That’s obviously a big goal for the administration, which I personally appreciate after, you know, the previous administration’s typically confrontational attitude with the media,” Hibbard said. “It was nice to hear from an administration that valued the importance of getting the message out, getting the message out well and getting the message out directly to the people so they can take advantage of

these great initiatives like student debt relief and some of the climate change stuff that the administration has been working on.”

The list of speakers also included a surprise special guest: Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Karine Jean-Pierre … was about to speak,” Tell said. “She was at the front of the room and she got like three words in and then suddenly, Kamala Harris just burst into the room, interrupting our meeting. And instead of Jean-Pierre speaking, Kamala spoke … she gave a really profound 15-minute speech about how important radio and college radio specifically is to students and for … communities.”

Tell said Harris also hosted a spontaneous Q&A session with the students who attended the event, where they were allowed to ask unvetted questions.

“She’s a gifted speaker, and she spoke to us with dignity and respect; never talked down to [us] because we’re students or anything,” Hibbard said. “Obviously, she’s a little higher up on the power hierarchy than we are. But she never talked down to [us] and she [was] never condescending. She never minces words. Her speech was really enlightening. And that was just a surreal moment I’ll never forget.”

Tell, Hibbard and Menard all said they were honored to be able to represent their respective radio stations and the college as a whole.

“Being the adviser for both [Hibbard] and [Tell], the highlight to me was just seeing how much joy they had throughout the whole event,” Menard said. “Seeing their reactions, [Hibbard] and [Tell], I think they had a smile on from when I met them at 6 a.m. to when we came back the next day.”

From left, senior Andy Tell station manager for VIC; Jeremy Menard, television and radio operations manager; and senior Connor Hibbard, station manager for WICB, attended a College Radio Day event Oct. 19 hosted by the Biden-Harris Administration at The White House. There were 10 colleges and universities invited to the event. Courtesy of WICB

Members of ithaca college campus community express frustration with the 2022–23 residential Wi-Fi system

By Jadyn Davis

Since moving back on campus, junior Sophia Testani said she has had trouble connecting to the new Wi-Fi system at Ithaca College, even after contacting Information Technology.

Wi-Fi coverage is provided to all residence halls, apartments, academic and administrative buildings. Students must set up an account with Apogee — a technology service that manages Wi-Fi on college campuses — to access MyResNet, the network in the residence halls and apartments.

Like Testani, some students at the college struggled to connect to the new Wi-Fi system and had frustrations with the delays in the network.

On Aug. 11, the Office of Residential Life sent out an email to students, faculty and staff to explain the upgrade. The previous legacy version of the network was a 2.4 GHz network, while the latest MyResNet is a 5 GHz network. According to the email, the upgrade was made after many students consistently complained about issues with the Wi-Fi.

Casey Kendall, executive director of Applications and Infrastructure, said the reason that the college decided to switch Wi-Fi systems is so that students can

access additional features and functionality. Kendall said some of the new features include 5G wireless for higher speeds. Additionally, Kendall said the upgrade has lower latency and supports more devices per student, from 10 devices to 15 devices. She also said students should download the Apogee app so that they can connect to the new Wi-Fi easier.

“So the app is, in the long run, to make it more straightforward for the students to be able to find their services,” Kendall said. “The new Apogee Portal has a lot of help, tidbits and documentation and even videos. So look for those pieces as you’re trying to get onto it.”

The Apogee ResNet Team, which works closely with IT and updates the college about any issues related to the Wi-Fi, sent out an email to students, faculty and staff Aug. 21 apologizing for the issues with the Wi-Fi system. In the email, Apogee said the issues were because of a combination of a new methodology as well as some technical issues.

Teresa de Onis, vice president of Marketing at Apogee, said via email that Apogee was working to isolate and eliminate issues with the new Wi-Fi. She said the reason many students had issues with the Wi-Fi is because of how the network was handling

loads of people on it during heavy traffic periods. Additionally, she said Apogee will continue to communicate with students and faculty until all issues have been resolved.

“Apogee acknowledges and accepts full responsibility for the current Wi-Fi issues that Ithaca College students are experiencing,” de Onis said via email. “It is unacceptable to the Ithaca College team and unacceptable to us.”

On Aug. 22, Apogee technicians met with Residential Assistants, Senior Residential Assistants, Apartment Assistants and Human Resources Staff to share their feedback on the new Wi-Fi system.

Senior David Teska said he transferred to Ithaca College from Clark University in Spring 2022. When Teska transferred, he said he had trouble connecting to the new network at first, but was able to connect to the network after following the instructions on ResNet Start Here along with speaking to someone from IT. Teska said that while the process of connecting to the Wi-Fi is not difficult, he thinks that IT and Apogee can do a better job at explaining the process.

“I think if they put out an email that had a flowchart … that visually shows you everything, that would be way more helpful,” Teska said.

On Aug. 11, the Office of Residential Life sent out an email to the campus community explaining the MyResNet Wi-Fi update. Some students at the college struggled to connect to the new Wi-Fi system and had frustrations with the delays in the network. The Apogee ResNet Team apologized to members of the campus community via email.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY Jadyn Davis/The Ithacan

several students and faculty express disappointment with decision to phase out college's honors program

By Leila Marcillo-Gómez

“Myhonors classes have framed my time here,” Ithaca College senior Lyndsey Honor said. “But I wish that more people had the opportunity to see inside the honors program before they really just made the decision to close it down entirely.”

In Fall 2019, then Provost and now President La Jerne Cornish announced the decision to phase out the honors program to the Honors Steering Committee. The conclusion of the program is one of many changes administration at the college has implemented in the past few years, including the Academic Program Prioritization in 2020. The proposed replacement for the honors program was the H&S Innovation Scholars, offered only to students in the School of Humanities & Sciences, where they participate in enrichment activities throughout their college experience, but the program is not a minor for students to add, unlike the honors program.

Patricia Zimmerman, Charles A. Dana professor of Screen Studies in the Department of Media Arts, Sciences and Studies and member of the Steering Committee for 10 years, said there is little room for her to innovate in her department.

“This honors program served the whole college and now there’s a program that only serves H&S,” Zimmerman said. “Faculty, like me and in other schools, we’re not allowed to be part of it.”

The decision to phase out the program has led to confusion and disappointment for some of the students and faculty that have been involved in it, like Honor.

Jonathan Ablard, professor in the Department of History and member of the Honors Steering Committee for eight years, said Cornish cited four reasons for the program’s termination during a meeting with the Steering Committee in Fall 2019.

“One was that it was expensive,” Ablard said. “One was that it was elitist. … That [the program’s] student body … did not represent the diversity of the college overall and that the courses we were offering did not reflect a kind of inclusion, diversity, equity-themed or -informed content.”

A Program Review completed in the 2018–19 academic year showed the yield rate for students offered Honors was 39% and students waitlisted from Honors was 47%; 120 students were accepted per year. The retention rates for the Fall 2016 cohort were 86%, which was higher than the 82% retention rate of students not invited to honors.

Cory Young, associate professor in the Department of Strategic Communication and honors director, said

Fall 2021 was the last semester the program admitted new applicants.

According to previous reporting by The Ithacan, in November 2019, Jeane Copenhaver-Johnson, then associate provost for academic programs and current associate professor in the Department of Education, alerted students of the change via email.

Young said the decision to announce the dissolvement of the program needed to be timed in order to make sure it was not confusing for new students entering the program.

Some honors students and faculty said they received little information on what would happen with the program and why the changes were being made.

Alicia Swords, associate professor in the Department of Sociology, was the honors program director from December 2016 to June 2020.

Swords said that ending a program that faculty had put years of work into without a conversation felt disrespectful.

“It leaves people with a bad taste in their mouths,” Swords said. “And it leaves people hesitant to participate in innovative programs because it’s not clear what’s going to be valued long-term and what’s going to be just a short-term, you know, kind of the latest round of branding for the college.”

In a request for comment from The Ithacan, Dave Maley, director of public relations, did not elaborate on why the decision was made or about the communication that occurred between the college and honors students and faculty.

Gabrielle Grady ’22 said she learned by accident just weeks before graduating, when she looked at the

honors website and found applications were not being accepted for the Class of 2026. She said she felt sad and confused by the secrecy.

“It’s like no one is listening to … whether [the problems are] big or small,” Grady said. “It should be a conversation and not [the administration] just laying down this is what it is.”

Senior Kayla Barry said she was a part of the honors program until the end of Spring 2022. She said that while she enjoyed the professors that taught her honors courses, she did not like the program as a whole and decided to stop taking the minor. She said she thought the requirements were hard to reach and the courses were offered at inaccessible times.

“I remember I was looking for some courses just to see [what to take], but a lot of the classes were at normal times where, I mean, if you’re choosing between an honors one-credit class and a major class, you’re obviously choosing the major class,” Barry said.

The honors program is the only all-college program at the college where all students can participate and all faculty can be involved. Any staff member could apply to teach a course and courses were based on topics the applicant created, integrated with other themes and subjects.

Swords said this aspect allowed incredible creativity and will be missed.

“I wish that our administration and faculty could read the files and files of very tremendously creative syllabi that people have created for the honors program and evaluate those based on their contributions to students’ intellectual and civic development,” Swords said.

In Fall 2019, then Provost and now President La Jerne Cornish announced the decision to phase out the honors program to the Honors Steering Committee. Many students expressed disappointment with the decision.

Leila Marcillo-Gómez/The Ithacan

Off-Campus Community Service Program with full staff starts up again after three years of limited operations

By Prakriti Panwar

Afterthree years of limited operations, Ithaca College’s paid Off-Campus Community Service Program, which provides paid community service opportunities to students who receive federal work study, is back for Fall 2022 with a full staff.

For the program, the college partners with organizations and nonprofits in the Ithaca area to find placements for students. As of October 2022, 12 local organizations, including Foodnet Meals on Wheels, Quarter Acre for the People and Durland Alternatives Library, have partnered with the college for the program.

For the 2022–23 academic year, The Durland Alternatives Library in Ithaca hired two students for their Prisoner Express Program, a distance learning program for inmates that aims at providing them with a public platform to creatively express themselves. The program, which is one of the many initiatives that the library has, sends inmates book packages and feedback on their writing.

Gary Fine, director of Durland Alternatives Library,

said students work both with the Prisoner Express Program and the library in general by cataloging books, developing the collection and other activities, like reading inmates’ letters and writing back to them.

“My perspective on [the college] has been generally created by the student workers who want to work for me,” Fine said. “The majority of [student employees] reflect IC in those positive ways that create incredible programming for prisoners … and I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I have a large base of students to refer to when I say this.”

Senior Adison Nadler was hired at the end of September 2022 to collaborate with other student employees from the college and Cornell University to build a social media presence for the Durland Alternatives Library. Nadler said she has found the program to be a unique way to engage with a wider community.

“I definitely think it’s helping me just kind of learn how to acclimate myself into a new work environment without it being facilitated by a professor,” Nadler said.

Foodnet Meals on Wheels, a partnering organization of the program, provides and delivers meals to senior citizens in Tompkins County.

Aly Evans, executive director of Foodnet Meals on Wheels, said working at the program could be beneficial for the students because it provides them with an opportunity to learn beneficial skills for the future by contributing to the community they are a part of.

“To be able to get those experiences and to have long-term impact for a nonprofit organization such as ours does a really great job to serve the community in need,” Evans said. “And that’s a resume builder. That’s going to help define where you want to go in your life.”

Quarter Acre for the People, another partner agency, is a program within the Khuba International nonprofit group. It aims to provide support to farmers of color through the development of farming cooperatives and access to other farming activities. Christa Núñez, executive director of Khuba International and owner of The Learning Farm, said she believes that students can grow by participating in the program.

“Students potentially could grow in building their networks across other campuses and creating connections between students at Cornell and [Ithaca College],” Núñez said.

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Senior Adison Nadler works at the Durland Alternatives Library and she said she has found the program a unique way to engage with the greater Ithaca community. Rory Cassidy/The Ithacan

By Prakriti Panwar

Ithaca college students revive the college's tedx club and organize conference for the first time since 2017 Ithaca

College’s TEDx Club independently organized its first conference since 2017 on Oct. 22, featuring 10 speakers in the Emerson Suites, alongside a livestream screening in Park Hall.

TED is a nonprofit that aims to disseminate ideas about technology, entertainment and design through talks that last less than 18 minutes to sustain the audiences’ attention effectively. TED conferences are usually held on the West Coast two or more times a year, with more than 50 speakers over three days. The last TED conference took place in April 2022. TEDx events can be organized by any interested individual or organization and follow the same format and structure as TED conferences but are independently and locally organized, compared with TED conferences which are organized on a larger scale.

Junior Camille Brock, president of TEDx Ithaca College, said she applied for a license in December 2021 to use the TEDx brand and organize the conference, while the funding is provided through the Appropriations Committee of the Student Governance Council.

The theme of this year’s conference was “Empowerment.” Brock said this broad theme allowed speakers to share their perspectives on empowerment.

“We figured there was a lot of turmoil and there were a lot of things happening, not only at the college but in the country and in the world,” Brock said. “We just wanted to give people a platform to share their version of empowerment … and what that looks like for them as an individual.”

Out of the 10 speakers, eight were affiliated with the college as alumni, professors or students. Speakers include Alyssa Davis, model and marketer; Dominic Cottone ’99; Eden Strachan ’21; Elizabeth Bleicher, dean for Student Success and Retention at the college; Jen Rafferty ’06; John Guastaferro, a magician and executive director of Hyundai Hope on Wheels Foundation and Genesis Inspiration Foundation; Luke Keller, professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy; Maureen Devine-Ahl ’03; senior Nijha Young; and Yvette Sterbenk, associate professor in the Department of Strategic Communication.

Brock said the club was revived after the executive board members took a class together in Spring 2021 with Mark Addona, assistant professor in the Department of Strategic Communication, and asked him to be the club’s adviser.

The conference was originally scheduled, by previous e-board and club members, to take place in March 2020, before the e-board began attending the college, but was canceled because of COVID-19. In Spring

2021, Brock revived the club and began planning the conference again.

“The e-board has been extremely enthusiastic about the TEDx conference and has been working together on this for about a year and a half,” Addona said via email. “The e-board has done a great job with getting everything prepared for the 2022 TEDx and it would be great to continue to have this event in the future.”

Junior Sofia Nolfo, marketing chair of the club, said she was excited about the upcoming conference and to host an event she has been working on since her first year at the college.

“We’ve been working on this for a very long time,” Nolfo said. “It’s really nice to see it coming back because I think it’s a really good opportunity for the campus community to learn and connect with one another.”

Ticket reservations for the event began Oct. 12 and will close at 6 p.m. Oct. 21. The conference is free for students and anyone affiliated with the college. Nolfo said the conference will last for about five hours, with a break after the first five speakers’ presentations.

According to TED rules meant to ensure quality of conferences, only 100 people were allowed to attend the conference in person. Nolfo said students who did not get tickets to the live conference were put on a waitlist and could attend the YouTube live stream of the event, which was held in Park Hall.

The club used several communication channels of the college, like Intercom, Park News and Alumni Family Engagement through alumni newsletters to reach out to speakers interested in presenting their ideas at the conference. Speaker Spotlight, a social media

campaign run by the club’s marketing team, promoted the event to students through Instagram.

Keller said he thought that TEDx conferences at the college might take place every three years in the future, considering how much effort the e-board takes to organize a conference.

“When you look at the TED website, you don’t see TEDx at the same [location] every single year,” Keller said. “I think it’s an awful lot of work. It’s very obvious to me that [the organizers] have done just a tremendous amount of work, which I appreciate a lot.”

Speaker applications for the conference opened in February 2022 and were due at the end of March 2022, Brock said. Brock said the club received over 80 applications, out of which 20 finalists were shortlisted. Out of the 20 finalists, 10 speakers were chosen.

Keller said applicants had to go through a rigorous selection process that involved writing and submitting abstracts of their talk and uploading a short video of their presentation.

Speakers were constantly in touch with the e-board for the structure and format of their talks. The e-board required the final speakers to submit the first five minutes of their presentation for review, followed by the 10th and 15th minutes over the course of three months. Keller said this cycle of extensively reviewing content helped him treat his presentation as a priority.

“I certainly would not have spent three months preparing for a talk,” Keller said. “At this point in my career, I can give a talk next week if you want me to. So [preparing for the talk] really did two things for me: it told me how seriously they were taking it, which is important, and it made me take it more seriously.”

From left, juniors Sofia Nolfo, Inbaayini Anbarasan, Camille Brock, Ananya Gambhiraopet, Claire McGinnity and Brady Spaulding are a part of the Ithaca College TEDx Club. It held its first conference since 2017 on Oct. 22. Elijah Cedeño/ The Ithacan

african student association creates and preserves identity-based community on campus for students

By lorien tyne

For the 2022–23 academic year, 260 out of 5,054 students at Ithaca College identify as Black or African American. Junior Manuella Asare, director of programming for the Af rican Student Association, said is often in spaces on campus where she is the only African woman.

“It can start to feel a bit lonely at times and excluding in a way,” Asare said. “I think it’s important for me personally … to have that space where I can be myself and I can connect to people who come from similar backgrounds.”

One of these spaces is ASA which hosts bi-weekly Thursday meetings and organizes larger on-campus events like the African Gala and the Black Love discussion series, which were held in Fall 2022.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in Fall 2020 there were 15.9 million undergraduate students enrolled in a postsecondary institution of which about 8.1 million were white and 2 million were Black. Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, is one institution that Ithaca College compares itself to when assessing institutional data, as shown during the All College Gathering on Jan. 26. Emerson College is also a predominantly white institution and recorded 5,900 total students in Fall 2021 of which 3,304 were white and 236 were Black.

Members of the ASA executive board collaborated with the Center for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Social Change to host an IC Voices panel where Asare and three other e-board members of ASA shared their experiences and impact at the college. The event was just one of many during the MLK Campus-Wide Celebration Week from Feb. 12–18.

Senior ASA President Oluwadamilola Oyetunji said she was looking forward to sharing how she found connections and community at the college through spaces like ASA and the work she and other members have done to make that possible for others.

“We definitely really worked hard as a team to bring back the … organization [after COVID-19 restric tions lifted] because I don’t think anybody really knew about the African Student Association,” Oyetunji said. “I can proudly say that we were able to bring it back out to the light.”

While groups like ASA work hard to hold space, Asare said there needs to be more community engagement. This desire was also expressed by the Black Student Union during a mutual aid campaign in Fall 2022 when the group primarily received donations from other Black student organizations. Asare said the organizing, activism and overall support must be a joint effort from everyone in the campus community.

“It can’t just be 20 people or it can’t just be people of color who want change or it can’t just be people who are in oppressed spaces who want change in order for us to truly get to where we need to get,” Asare said.

Umu Barry, the sophomore treasurer for ASA, said a large concern she has is if there is a lull in group activity in the future, African students would not have a space of their own.

“I feel like if we don’t put a lot of energy into like these small spaces that are provided for us … at some time it is going to be gone,” Barry said. “I don’t want incoming freshmen or even people who are in the college to struggle to find a space that they know that they belong in.”

Barry also said she goes to the Center for IDEAS to have another space where she can feel comfortable and speak with out having to code-switch, a term that references the experience of changing how one speaks or acts to fit the dominant cultural norms. As a Muslim, she said there are also few places on campus like the Center for IDEAS and Muller Chapel that accommo date prayer space.

“It’s just like an ongoing battle that we still have to fight to ensure that people of color have the space that they deserve and need … and our voice is heard about things that are actually going on,” Barry said.

Junior Sarake Dembele is a first-generation African Muslim student. She said since declaring her architectural studies major, she realized

there was no one else in the program with the same background as her.

“I was really homesick for the whole year and a half that I’d been on campus, which I thought I would have gotten over, but because of a lack of spaces where I felt comfortable, I just wanted to go home,” Dembele said.

Now, Dembele is the director of advertising and public relations for ASA, vice president for the Muslim Student Association and a BOLD scholar. Yet, similar to her peers in ASA, Dembele said when it comes to other areas of campus life, the support is not as strong.

“I just wish collectively, as an institution that [support] was widespread because at least from peers, I’ve heard in other departments, they are not as supportive or they’re condescending or they try to use somebody’s race as to why their writing or reading or their performance isn’t to where their professor expects it to be,” Dembele said. “I’ve heard a lot of crazy stories. … Like a handful of situations where somebody would say something really questionable, and the professor wouldn’t really take initiative to address it or they asked me for my perspective or opinion. … It’s not my job to educate my peers, you know? So that just becomes a little frustrating.”

The diversity of faculty has generally increased, according to the Office of Analytics and Institutional Research. However, data from Fall 2020 records that faculty who identify as Black, indigenous, people of color make up 76 of 532 total faculty members and there are just 13 Black faculty members. A general sentiment from the e-board of ASA is that they want students to be more aware of organizations like theirs. Oyetunji said as long as students are respectful, ASA meetings and events are open to everyone. She also said collaboration with other clubs and making an effort to be a community is essential to cultivate belonging.

“[We want to] let people know, especially those who identify as African, there’s a space where you can come and be yourself and share your own experiences … whether it is meaningful conversations or just a hangout spot where you can talk and chill and kind of get a breather from everything because college is tough and you just want to be surrounded with people who share the same ideas, beliefs and who looks like you,” Oyetunji said.

Courtesy of Umu Barry

OYETUNJI OLUWADAMILOLA '23

Courtesy of Manuella Asare

Ana Maniaci McGough/ The Ithacan

MANUELLA ASARE '24

SARAKE DEMBELE '24

umu barry '25

Ray Milburn/ The Ithacan

Stress study's use of Twitter questioned by students after the City of Ithaca is ranked as highly stressed

By Jadyn Davis

Astudy from Preply, a foreign language tutoring platform, ranked the City of Ithaca as the 10th most stressed-out college town after analyzing tweets from students in different college towns in the United States. However, some students and staff at Ithaca College wonder if it is accurate in detecting students’ stress levels.

North Star Inbound, a content marketing agency, worked with Preply on this study and gathered tweets from 150 geolocations across the country from Aug. 1 to Oct. 31, 2022. North Star Inbound used a tool called TensiStrength, which is a system that analyzes words and phrases to detect the amount of stress in a small message. Once a message is typed into the system, a score is generated from a scale of -1, which indicates no stress, to -5, which means a high level of stress. A positive analysis of a tweet begins on the lower end at 1 to a scale of 5 for tweets indicating a high level of positivity.

Matt Zajechowski, director of Media Relations at North Star Inbound, said he and his team wanted to analyze language through social media. Additionally, Zajechowski said he wanted to examine student stress in a medium where college students are most active. However, according to Hootsuite, Twitter is listed as the 15th most used social media platform, just above Reddit and Quora. Also, according to the Pew Research Center, among people aged 18–29, 70% use Facebook, 71% use Instagram and 42% use Twitter.

“We liked the medium that Twitter was restricted to, which is 160 characters,” Zajechowski said. “So, it kind of gave us a short log into what someone’s feeling, as

opposed to some of these other platforms.”

The rankings were based on the percentage of tweets indicating stress coming from the selected college towns. According to the data from the study, 29.1% of tweets indicating stress came from the Town and City of Ithaca.

Zajechowski said 60% of the tweets from students in college towns across the country were about finance, housing and academic stress.

“We talked about finances and housing, but think about all these other factors that go into being a college student,” Zajechowski said. “You’re meeting new people and a lot of people are away from their homes for the first time.”

Furthermore, Zajechowki said that while the use of TensiStrength made it easier to analyze tweets, he said he is aware of some of the flaws in the system.

“I think [TensiStrength] gave us a nice baseline because we could put in these large amounts of text in there, and it would then plop out a percentage,” Zajechowki said. “Do I think it’s a perfect system? No, I mean, it’s machine learning. … But by and large, I think it was definitely helpful and as trustworthy as machine learning can be.”

After reading the study, Michelle Goode, program director of the Ithaca College Center for Health Promotion, said she disliked how the study framed stress as just a negative aspect of life.

“Everyone experiences stress,” Goode said. “So, I think it’s important for us to make sure that’s normalized. Like, we don’t want to say experiencing stress is abnormal because it’s part of the human experience.

For me, when I think about stress, I think it’s not necessarily if you have stress because we all do.”

Brian Petersen, director of the Counseling and Psychological Services, said Zajechowski and his team could have gone deeper into some of the study’s findings in order to help college students with stress.

“I don’t think social media is evil, but it is how you use it,” Petersen said. “One of the problems with this study is that there is no depth to it. It’s basically surface level and methodology.”

Junior Heaven Cuevas said the study could have focused on stress during finals week for more effective results.

“Generally during finals week or midterm week that topic will be a trending conversation at the time,” Cuevas said. “Which is why I think this study in addition to another one [that has more specificity] would be a greater proof of actual stress levels in college towns.”

Senior Justin Foster said he avidly uses Twitter to scroll through memes and tweets. Foster said some tweets can be sarcastic even though there may be language that can allude to stress.

“With Twitter, we’re able to voice opinions that we don’t say in real life,” Foster said. “There are definitely a lot of things that should probably be worked out as far as really figuring out who is stressed and are they genuinely stressed.”

Petersen said studies using social media to assess students’ stress can be done, but in a way that is more effective.

“If they frame it correctly, OK, no problem, but the issue with stuff like this is what people do with it, ” Petersen said. “So right now the story is these are the 10 most stressed-out colleges in America and there’s no pushback against that. It’s just the headline assumes much more than the data proves.”

A study from Preplay ranked the City of Ithaca as the 10th most stressed-out town after analyzing tweets from students in diferent college towns in the United States. Jasmine Scriven/The Ithacan

Students collaborate in the classroom to rewrite the diversity curriculum for IC students and faculty

By Prakriti Panwar

In Fall 2022, 16 Ithaca College students created a proposal to restructure the current diversity credit requirement of the Integrated Core Curriculum to provide a more effective diversity education for students and training for faculty.

The proposed curriculum, called the Civil Liberation Curriculum, was created by the students in their Education, Liberation and Oppression class. The proposal also suggested changes to diversity training for faculty members to make them feel more comfortable and involved, thus promoting open conversations about anti-racism and diversity among faculty.

The proposal, including the curriculum and changes to faculty diversity training, was presented to Michael Johnson-Cramer, dean of the School of Business; Melanie Stein, provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs; and Claire Gleitman, dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, on Dec. 14. While the students had extended their invitation to President La Jerne Cornish and the deans of all five schools, only Stein, Johnson-Cramer and Gleitman attended it.

The ICC is the college’s liberal arts and general education curriculum, which was introduced in 2013. The diversity requirement is an aspect of the ICC that requires students to take at least three credits in a diversity-designated class.

Senior Morgan Kingsley, one of the authors of the proposal, said the suggested changes to faculty diversity training, like interactive diversity workshops, would be a medium for faculty to be able to execute the goals of the curriculum.

Kingsley said the aim of the curriculum is to create safe spaces for students inside the classroom and deepen the understanding of diversity, equity and inclusion among students of the college, which is a predominantly white institution.

According to the proposal document Kingsley provided to The Ithacan, if implemented, students will be required to take nine credits as a part of the curriculum, which would be embedded in their majors but will be independent of the required courses in a student’s major. Three of the nine credits would have to be at a 300 or 400 level and another three credits must be obtained in an interactive, discussion-based class.

Kingsley said the class divided itself into four groups to construct the curriculum proposal: the Professor Group, the Student Group, the Logistics Group and the Curriculum Group.

Senior Ro Scanlon-Black, another author of the proposal, said that as a sociology major, they had taken many ICC-designated diversity classes and felt that the

classes were not enough to increase awareness about diversity education.

“[The class] kind of started looking at the classes that are currently diversity credits, and I just got immediately so incredibly frustrated,” Scanlon-Black said. “Half of them shouldn’t be diversity credits. … Even when there are good diversity classes, there is a level of non-engagement from those who don’t really care.”

Kingsley said the Professor Group sent out a formal survey to 500 professors in the college, out of which about 25% responded. Kingsley said some of the professors who did not participate in the survey pointed out that conducting a formal survey would require prior approval by the college’s Institutional Review Board.

The IRB is a governmental body that assesses, evaluates and approves surveys that involve the research of human beings in order to protect their rights. Most institutions that are research-based have their own IRBs but are not required to have one and have the option of having an external IRB.

Scanlon-Black said the Student Group particularly took efforts to reach out to MLK Scholars as well as clubs and organizations on campus that were meant for students of color.

“We kind of decided in the end that it’s important to talk about queer issues, and it’s important to talk about gender, but we kind of hide and put all of our time and energy into legibly white minority communities,” Scanlon-Black said. “So we wanted it to be race-based because we don’t think that the diversity credits themselves do that well enough.”

Susan Adams Delaney, outgoing director of the

ICC and associate professor in the Department of Writing, said that while it is possible to make the curriculum a reality sometime in the future, the logistics of it will require a significant amount of effort because of the preexisting challenges of funding and scheduling conflicts.

While Adams Delaney said she had not read the proposal and was not invited to the presentation of the proposal Dec. 14, she was interviewed by students of the class as a part of their survey process to understand the diversity requirement of the ICC in depth.

“A huge challenge [for the college] was and has been that we have five separate schools, and we have a mix of liberal arts programs and professional schools [and] some of those programs already struggle to be able to satisfy all of the ICC requirements,” Adams Delaney said. “Another piece of it then is something we’ve continued to struggle with for all of our initiatives across campus. … That is enough investment and faculty training and development so that faculty have a clear understanding of what they’re doing and how they’re doing it.”

Kingsley said she speculates that the college will choose which parts of the proposal they might want to implement. However, she said she is positive about the change it will bring to the academics of the college in the future and said she hopes to have some part of the proposal executed in the next five years.

“With us outlining this, we knew things weren’t going to change immediately,” Kingsley said. “We outlined goals and outcomes and objectives to make it as simple as possible for professors to implement into their curriculums [in the future].”

Headline goes here and in most cases there should be two lines of text for each title in the book.

From left, sophomore Noah Richardson and seniors Morgan Kingsley and Ro Scanlon-Black are three of authors of the diversity curriculum. They hope to have a part of the curriculum implemented in the next five years. Kalysta Donaghy-Robinson/The Ithacan

Ithaca College students organize a sleepout to raise money for the local nonprofit, Second Wind Cottages

By Kai Lincke

Ithaca College students organized a sleepout to raise money for Second Wind, a Tompkins County nonprofit that provides housing and services for homeless individuals.

The sleepout event was held from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. Dec. 2 on the Academic Quad. Seniors Olivia McKeon, Danielle Chassy and Wren Perchlik said they planned the fundraiser as part of the final project for their Civic Engagement Seminar course. The course requires students to choose a social issue to research for the semester and get involved with a local group that works to address the issue. McKeon, Chassy and Perchlik said they chose to spend the semester researching homelessness in the county because they saw that it was prevalent in the Ithaca area and wanted to explore the problem more closely.

“I’ve seen homeless people in Ithaca and seen places and parks where there was evidence of people living there, so I knew it was a problem locally,” Perchlik said. “I thought maybe we could help something or spread awareness.”

The students sold snacks and drinks and collected donations to benefit Second Wind. About 10 students attended the sleep out, and more students stopped briefly to purchase food or make a donation. McKeon said via email that the students raised over $500 in donations from their family and friends and sales during the event.

Second Wind provides housing and services for homeless individuals to help them transition out of homelessness. The nonprofit has 18 cottages for men in Newfield and is currently constructing four units for women, with space for two children in each unit, in Dryden. Second Wind works with their residents to become independent and allows them to stay in their cottages for as long as they need to feel comfortable.

According to Covenant House, a nonprofit that provides shelter and services to homeless youth, during a typical sleepout, participants sleep outside for one night to raise money and awareness for homelessness. The college’s Habitat for Humanity chapter held sleepouts in the past, but McKeon said the Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management told the students that the event could not be held past midnight. Though the students could not actually sleep outside through the night, they said they hoped to draw attention to local homelessness and encourage students to be part of the solution.

McKeon said via email that the group chose to support Second Wind because it is an organization specific to the Ithaca area that works to build

relationships with the homeless population.

“Second Wind’s mission to provide the homeless community with not only homes but hope is also really inspiring,” McKeon said via email. “It was great to hear about the personal connections that those at Second Wind make with the homeless population. This level of compassion is something that drew us to the organization.”

The group invited Mike Foster, community manager of Second Wind, to speak at the sleepout. Foster said his experience with being homeless motivated him to help others in similar situations.

“I was homeless for a decade — an alcohol and drug addict — before I got sober and started helping people experiencing that,” Foster said. “These are my people. [Second Wind residents] are not clients in my case, they’re my friends.”

Foster said homelessness is a problem in Ithaca partly because the state and local government solutions are not effective. Foster cited a report from the Horn Research Group, which was commissioned by the Tompkins County Human Services Coalition in Fall 2021 to assess the state of housing and homelessness in the county. The report found that the county’s rate of homelessness per 10,000 people is 12.6 people. This is the third highest rate among neighboring and comparable Continuum of Cares, the local organizations that organize housing, funding and support services for homeless individuals.

According to the report, the county does not have enough space in emergency shelters and public housing to accommodate all of the county’s unhoused people. The waitlist for public housing in the county

is over two years long. When the data was collected in 2021, there were 29 beds available and 103 individuals seeking emergency shelter.

The majority of people who need emergency shelter are temporarily placed in motel rooms without support services. Many of the people who are temporarily housed in shelters and motels are likely to return to homelessness.

Perchlik said he hoped the event would encourage students to learn more about the Ithaca community.

“I feel like a lot of students probably come here and leave without really knowing too much about local issues,” Perchilik said. “There’s a lot I didn’t know too, so … it’s good to get to spread awareness about the issues and ways that students can be involved.”

Chassy said she hoped the event would help students see that they can make an impact on local homelessness.

“It’s a lot easier [to help] than you might think,” Chassy said. “It doesn’t have to be [something] elaborate like, oh, I have to donate $3,000 to the homeless. You can do something as simple as go to the [Second Wind] website and find a time when they’re building a house and sign up to help with that.”

Foster said he was grateful that the students chose to support Second Wind and educate the college community about local homelessness. He said that although the group was small, they could have a large impact on reducing the stigma around homelessness and encouraging other students to give back to the local community.

“All it takes is a handful of people to raise awareness and let others know,” Foster said.

From left, sophomore Sarena Geadah listens as Mike Foster, community manager for Second Wind Cottages, discusses the organization’s efforts at the Sleepout for Second Wind on Dec. 2 on the Academic Quad. Nolan Saunders/The Ithacan

Greater Ithaca Community

Eleanor kay/the Ithacan

kalysta donaghy-robinson/the Ithacan

first bike-share program to be implemented in ithaca since 2020 when previous program removed its services

By Ryan Johnson

TheCenter For Community Transportation in Ithaca reached an agreement with the Common Council on Nov. 2 to implement Ithaca Bikeshare, a program that scattered electric bikes around Ithaca. The organization is attempting to make a deal with Ithaca College to allow the bikes to be ridden on campus, but no agreement has been reached.

The CCT launched the service November 11. Jeff Goodmark, director of micromobility at the CCT, said the program would be similar to the bike-share programs in bigger cities, like Citibike. Users need to make an account on the Ithaca Bikeshare app prior to using the bikes, which are dockless and can be found anywhere. Unlocking a bike costs $1 and the user will be charged 15 cents for every minute ridden. The user can end the trip by automatically relocking the bike between sidewalks and curbs and next to bike racks.

Goodmark said he would like to see the bike-share program on campus, but the agreement between the organization and the college has been stalled despite the college suggesting it may support the program.

“I think that the success of Ithaca Bikeshare is pending a number of things, and a lot of it is getting an agreement in place with Ithaca College and with Cornell University,” Goodmark said.

Goodmark said the company wants to provide different modes of transportation around campus besides just motor vehicles for people who live far from their classes.

In April 2018, Lime, an electric bike and scooter rental service, introduced e-bikes in Ithaca, but in June 2020, Lime decided to permanently remove the service from Ithaca because the bikes were not making enough money.

Goodmark, who was the operations manager for Lime during the time the program was in Ithaca, said the new bikes are an improvement from the previous Lime bikes. The bikes are class one pedal-assist electric bikes, meaning they have a motor and only assist the user when they are pedaling. The bikes can reach a speed of 20 mph.

“The bike itself is a better bike,” Goodmark said. “It is lighter, its center of gravity is way more balanced, it is a little bit more efficient and smoother operation, so it would be a better user experience overall.”

Scott Doyle, director of Energy Management and Sustainability at the college, said a collaboration between the college and the CCT is a positive start for more sustainable modes of transportation in Ithaca and that having a bike-share program will influence people to reduce car trips.

“I think this initial rollout … may spark some actions for people to get out of a car,” Doyle said. “When [the CCT] fully builds this out, we will see more of an impact. It’s just one more piece — if we are promoting [the bike-share program] in addition to walking, buses and carpooling, I think that can only help in reducing vehicle miles traveled.”

Bike-share companies have seen much success in bigger cities. In the nine years Citibike has been in service in New York City, there have been over 100 million trips completed and a membership spanning over 143,000. Anytime a bike is chosen over a car, carbon dioxide emissions caused by that car are not released. B-cycle, Denver’s Bike-share service, saw that 41% percent of the trips users took on the bikes replaced car trips. The service has saved Denver more than an estimated 1 million pounds of CO2 emissions.

Doyle said Lime bikes were not allowed on both the Ithaca College and Cornell University campuses, but since the bikes are now locally owned, the agreement could change.

“The previous Lime bike was very popular around town,” Doyle said. “Both at Ithaca College and Cornell, Lime bikes were not formally allowed because of liability issues. So hopefully this new locally controlled effort from the CCT will be structured in a way people will become comfortable with the liability and other concerns.”

Doyle said that helmets were not provided for users who rode the Lime bikes and the bikes would be placed in unsafe locations. Goodmark said there were many reasons the Lime bike deal did not go through

with the colleges but declined to comment on the specific liability issues.

Sophomore Ally Alfred said she does not like walking down and up hills because of her asthma and having the bikes on campus would allow for easy transportation.

“I was actually looking into getting a bike of my own and this would be a perfect opportunity for me to have access to [bikes] whenever I need without actually purchasing a bike,” Alfred said.

Alfred said she is worried that if there are too many bikes situated around campus, there may be a rise in injuries if people are not careful with the bikes.

“[I am worried about] maybe just injuries, but overall [for] getting around, I feel like it would be beneficial because there are not a lot of accessible places [for walking] here on campus, especially for people who cannot walk too much,” Alfred said.

Sophomore Isabelle Magre said the bikes are good for the environment, but using them on campus or in the snow would provide logistical issues.

“I feel like on campus not many people [would] accept it because our campus is located on a hill, so getting anywhere you would have to go up and down stairs,” Magre said.

Magre also said that college students would not be the most trustworthy demographic for rented bikes.

“A lot of college kids do stupid stuff, so I feel like the bikes would get broken very fast,” Magre said.

First-year student Andrew Levin said he would use the bikes to get around downtown because of how easy getting around on a bike would be.

Headline goes here and in most cases there should be two lines of text for each title in the book.

The Center For Community Transportation in Ithaca reached an agreement with the Common Council to implement Ithaca Bikeshare. This will be Ithaca’s first bike rental program since 2020, which is when Lime removed its services.

Rory Cassidy/The Ithacan

the city of ithaca becomes a sanctuary city to protect access to abortion

By Lorien Tyne

ForIthaca College students like senior Li de Jong, who lives in Texas when she is not in Ithaca, access to reproductive health care is always changing. Now that the City of Ithaca has declared itself a sanctuary for abortion in addition to abortion being legal in New York, de Jong said she feels more secure.

“Going from a state where my female autonomy isn’t really valued to a city that is so accepting and forward and will advocate for it is just very nice,” de Jong said. “I’m gonna be honest, I have very little faith in the justice system right now. … I don’t even know what could happen next. I sort of don’t even want to think about it.”

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24 — a ruling that had protected abortion rights since 1973 — making laws on abortion access a state affair. Ithaca became a sanctuary city for abortions July 6 after the city’s Common Council voted unanimously to make the ordinance brought forth by Alderperson Robert Cantelmo into city law. The law prohibits city resources to aid out-of-state investigations seeking to bring criminal charges against people performing or

receiving an abortion and individuals are encouraged to sue Ithaca if the law is not upheld.

“I view this as an important first step, but a first step, in identifying ways that local and state level governments can respond to the failures of the federal government,” Cantelmo said. “I see it both as an extension of these protections, but also an invitation to the community for continued dialogue on how we can work together to shore up these rights.”

When the initial majority opinion draft leaked to Politico on May 2 showed that the Supreme Court planned to overturn Roe v. Wade, Cantelmo said he began to work on the sanctuary city ordinance. Cantelmo was not alone in his desire to fight anti-abortion legislation, as the Ithaca community filled the streets in protest May 3 and again after the final verdict June 24.

States like Tennessee, Idaho and Texas had trigger bans in place, meaning once Roe v. Wade overturned, laws went into effect that now enforce severe restrictions on abortion.

De Jong said when she first found out about the Roe v. Wade ruling, she was in shock.

Cantelmo said he has been in contact with the mayors and council members of other cities in central and

upstate New York and the Hudson Valley about how the ordinance can be adapted for their communities.

Cities that have passed similar laws include Seattle, New York, and Washington, D.C. Even some cities in states where abortion is now illegal are finding ways to fight anti-abortion legislation, like New Orleans; Boise, Idaho; Dayton, Ohio; Atlanta and Athens, Georgia; Nashville, Tennessee; and Austin, Texas. Those cities have policies to deprioritize enforcing abortion-related crimes in violation of state abortion bans and to prohibit the use of city funds from enforcing anti-abortion laws.

Mary Bentley, associate professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Physical Education and a member of the Women and Gender Studies Steering Committee, said she anticipates that abortion procedures will always be administered.

“Women will find ways to take care of other women and healthcare professionals will find ways to take care of their patients,” Bentley said. “This is something that women have done either with or without the government as a way to have agency in their own lives.”

Cantelmo also said he is currently working with Tompkins County to launch an educational campaign

for both in and out-of-state people

warning people about crisis pregnancy centers, including current legislation being drafted to regulate and provide oversight on CPCs. CPCs are organizations that seek to deter people considering an abortion, according to Planned Parenthood. These centers often look like a real health center but provide inaccurate information about sexual health and pregnancy options. CPC maps from organizations like ReproAction and ProTruth report two CPCs in Ithaca: the Cortland and Ithaca Pregnancy Center and Birthright of Ithaca.

Aura Lopez Zarate, manager of community organizing for the Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, said Planned Parenthood has been thinking about how it can organize more around CPC awareness.

“We spread awareness that they do exist … and they’re not truly offering sexual reproductive health,” Lopez Zarate said. “As long as you go to providers that have the license to provide abortion care … abortion is legal and safe and we want to make sure that we spread that message.”

Lopez Zarate said that while statistics of the past few months are not available, she has personally observed an influx of patients to in-state Planned Parenthood centers since Roe v. Wade was overturned as well as increased community support.

Sophomore Therese Kinirons, vice president of the Ithaca College chapter of Planned Parenthood Generation Action, said that because of the large student population in Ithaca — many of whom are from out-of-state or -country — the sanctuary law is important. Fall 2022 enrollment statistics from the Office of Analytics and Institutional Research recorded 2,060 in-state students and 2,666 out-of-state students. Fall 2022 enrollment recorded 98 students from states where abortion is currently banned, 80 students from states where abortion is legal but restrictions make abortions extremely difficult to access and 21 students from states where abortion laws make abortion difficult to access.

However, Kinirons said they hope people do not become complacent just because they themselves can access comprehensive health care.

“There’s a lot of Northeast elitism here,” Kinirons said. “People are just kind of like, ‘It doesn’t matter what happens in the South.’”

Kinirons said there is more pressure on PPGA this academic year. They said that when clubs started up again, PPGA began planning for the fall semester.

Senior Nora Marcus-Hecht, an Ithaca local, said she has been volunteering at Ithaca’s Planned Parenthood since high school and now does for PPGA. She said she has let her out-of-state friends know they can stay with her if they ever need abortion access and is

researching transportation options for people seeking abortions in the city.

“I think what we’re trying to do now, at the very least, is make sure we are still an … accessible spot for people to come to get proper health care and safe abortions,” Marcus-Hecht said. “Just ways to make Ithaca more accessible to people from out of state.”

According to a worldwide report from the National Library of Medicine, every year, 42 million women choose abortion and almost 20 million of those procedures are unsafe. About 68,000 women die annually from unsafe abortions. The study defines an

unsafe abortion as one carried out by someone without professional skills or in an environment that is not up to minimal medical standards.

Bentley said she thinks there will be consequences when there is not access to safe abortions, particularly in communities of color and lower-income communities that already have less access to quality health care.

“Limiting any version of health care, because of some moral compass, that’s been dictated by a Supreme Court, is not only unjust, but it’s really going to have a ripple effect in many ways that I think we’re just beginning to understand,” Bentley said.

source: the national library of medicine

The abortion sanctuary law prohibits city resources to aid out-of-state investigations seeking to bring criminal charges against people performing or receiving an abortion. Individuals are encouraged to sue Ithaca if the law is not upheld. nolan saunders/the ithacan

Ithaca residents get on board with campaign that would make tcat transportation services free with funding from cornell

said Route 11 — a route that connects the college to The Commons — would be reduced due to budget and staff limitations.

Patty Poist, TCAT’s communications and marketing manager, said the costs of necessary services like insurance, fuel and drivers’ pay continue to increase each year.

Vanderpool said wages cost TCAT $11.2 million per year, and fuel, parts, maintenance and insurance cost a combined $4 million per year. He said there have been cost increases in each of those areas, and those costs will continue to rise with inflation. Fare-free public transportation has been implemented in around 100 cities across the globe, according to The New York Times. In Olympia, Washington, Intercity Transit went completely fare-free Jan. 1, 2020.

According to Ann Freeman-Manzanares, the ex-general manager of Intercity Transit, there have been social, financial and environmental benefits to going fare-free. But, Ithaca community members were concerned with the cost of going fare-free, and unlike FreeCAT, Olympia’s fare-free program relies on taxes.

By noa ran-ressler

Members of the Ithaca community have shown they are ready for free public transit. A petition was launched March 3, 2022, to make Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit free, which would increase accessibility and efficiency but reduce TCAT’s revenue.

The petition was part of a larger campaign by the Ithaca branch of Democratic Socialists of America called FreeCAT, which advocates for fare-free and expanded TCAT services, according to Sabrina Leddy, the chair of the FreeCAT campaign. Leddy said the petition was a tool for the campaign but was not the sole focus.

George DeFendini, interim chair of Ithaca DSA and Fourth Ward alderperson on Ithaca’s Common Council, said the goal of the campaign is to bring attention to a public need and public demand.

“The issue we’re trying to address with free mass transit … drives through the issues of systemic marginalization and racism, systemic classism, the climate catastrophe,” DeFendini said.

The campaign calls for Cornell University to foot the bill for fare-free public transportation. According to DeFendini, Cornell’s tax exemption is an opportunity for them to contribute to the community financially. In 2021, Cornell contributed over $1.4 million for fire and other municipal costs, according to the City of Ithaca’s budget narrative.

According to Leddy, it would be up to TCAT to decide what costs — like maintenance, wages, insurance

and more — would need to be paid by Cornell.

Each TCAT single-ride pass costs $1.50, according to the TCAT website. Scot Vanderpool, TCAT’s general manager, said each ride costs TCAT $4, while TCAT makes an average of $1.18 per ride, including the discounted tickets.

Cornell passes — including students, faculty and staff — make up 75% of all TCAT rides, according to Erik Amos, TCAT’s service development manager. Students at Cornell University have unlimited bus pass access with their college ID cards. Students new to Cornell receive unlimited rides on both weekdays and weekends. Other students who have attended Cornell for more than one academic year can only use their unlimited rides after 6 p.m. on weekdays and anytime on the weekends.

TCAT, like many other public transportation systems in the nation, is struggling with a driver shortage, according to Vanderpool. According to the American Public Transportation Association, 71% of transit agencies surveyed have had service affected by driver shortages and 92% have struggled to hire new drivers.

Vanderpool said if the TCAT becomes fare-free, ridership will increase, which will create a need for more drivers. He said he hired a recruiter to address the issue of a driver shortage. Additionally, TCAT has a data analyst that is looking into the cost of fare-free transit.

On Sept. 6, the Ithaca College Office of Student Affairs and Campus Life announced that TCAT’s service would be limited to and from Ithaca College. TCAT

“This is a tax-payer supported benefit to the community, just like libraries, public schools, public parks,” Freeman-Manzanares said. “You don’t pay to use our community parks … you already do through your taxes, and the same is true for public transportation.”

Freeman-Manzanares said sales tax funds public transportation in Washington state, and the tax did increase to expand service prior to implementation of the fare-free program, but not as a result of it. A 2019 study into the city’s revenue spurred the zero-fare conversation. The revenue from fare collection — after subtracting the cost of collecting, advertising and processing fares — was 2% of the city’s revenue, she said.

“Our authorities said we can afford to provide this service because it’s so inexpensive, and … the benefits to your community are compounded,” Freeman-Manzanares said.

Vanderpool said he agrees with FreeCAT’s goal of making public transportation more accessible and efficient. He said there are internal considerations, like budget and driver recruitment, that need to be prioritized before FreeCAT can be realized.

“If we feel at some point in time we can go fare-free, we’ll do that,” Vanderpool said. “We’re just not quite ready.”

Leddy said Ithaca DSA wanted to focus on communicating with the public as members continued speaking to the local government and TCAT.

“Signing the petition is always the first step to getting involved,” Leddy said. “We’re trying to connect more. We are trying to be as present as possible.”

A petition was launched March 3 to make Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit free. The petition is part of a larger campaign by the Ithaca branch of Democratic Socialists of America called FreeCAT. file photo/THE ITHACAN

Headline goes here and in most cases there should be two lines of text for each title in the book.

TCAT staffing shortage impacts service for students

By syd pierre

TheTompkins Consolidated Area Transit, Inc. released its Fall 2022 route schedule, which had notably fewer routes for Ithaca College students because of staffing reductions.

In a Sept. 6 email to the campus community, Bonnie Prunty, vice president for Student Affairs and Campus Life, said there were several reductions to Route 11, which impacts the service between the college and the Downtown Ithaca Commons. The reductions were in effect from Aug. 21, 2022, through Jan. 21, 2023.

Other notable reductions included: the TCAT bus stopped on campus once per hour instead of every 30 minutes, final outbound service from the Commons to campus departed at 9:05 p.m. on weekdays, and final inbound service from campus to the Commons departed at 9:29 p.m. from the Roy H. Park School of Communications bus stop on weekdays.

On weekends, final outbound service from the Commons to campus departed at 11:45 p.m. On Saturdays, final inbound service from campus to the Commons departed from the Towers bus stop at 12:05 a.m. On Saturday and Sunday mornings, service began at 10:08 a.m. with outbound service departing from the Green Street station. On Saturdays and Sundays, routes that started at 12:08 to 3:38 p.m. on Route 11 continued to become Route 15.

“We want to stress that while the circumstances surrounding TCAT’s service reductions were out of IC’s control … the college continues to work proactively and productively with TCAT leadership to restore the traditional academic year service to our campus as quickly as possible,” Prunty said in the email.

TheTompkins Consolidated Area Transit system has served the Ithaca community since 1996 and has consistently found ways to adapt and upgrade to better serve its people. TCAT was one of the first bus systems in New York to adopt the front-mounted bike rack, and the bus system is on track to power all or near all of its fleet with electricity, but it is falling behind other transit systems with free, open and accessible ridership.

Other comparable cities have found success in free transport. In Olympia, Washington, the city government offers their Intercity Transit bus system with zero fare to residents and visitors. Intercity Transit placed high priority on their public transportation, providing it with ample resources, time and infrastructure to enable a zero fare system, creating a thriving downtown environment. Zero fare is feasible.

Scot Vanderpool, general manager of TCAT, seems to be in agreement, but the issue of staffing must be solved first. Staffing the TCAT has been an issue for some time now, and we will never see a free TCAT without adequate staffing. To achieve a satisfactory amount of staff members, TCAT will have to improve working conditions by reducing shift hours and increasing pay, all while maintaining their paid commercial driver’s license training program for new drivers. This training program greatly reduces the barriers to entry for new driver’s to join the team. Now all TCAT needs is to entice those new drivers to apply.

The current three-way even split model between the City of Ithaca, Cornell University and Tompkins County does not accurately take into account TCAT usage and organization budget. Since, according to Vanderpool, Cornell students, faculty, and staff make up approximately 75% of the TCAT ridership, it is only fair the university fronts a majority of the cost for the service. Even if we fail to reach zero fares, we must reinstate the normal hours of operation for all routes by improving bus operator working conditions. This will be a costly endeavor, but it will protect Ithaca students and residents from walking home past 9 p.m. in the frigid cold of our winters.

The TCAT released its Fall 2022 route schedule, which had fewer routes for Ithaca College students. XINYI QIN/THE ITHACAN

and greater community

free public transport is a necessity for the city of ithaca

illustration by madolyn Donaghy-Robinson/THE ITHACAN

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Park School

Ithaca Commons Hudson Grandview

Hudson @ Pearsall

Starbucks unions across new york state are continuing the fight against anti-unionization efforts in court

By Aubren VillaseÑor

Starbucks workers across New York State are complaining of continued retaliation and coercion by management in an attempt to stop unionization efforts, resulting in lawsuits against the company.

Across the country, Starbucks employees echo those same allegations and the National Labor Relations Board announced a lawsuit in June 2022, requesting a nationwide cease and desist order against Starbucks to stop anti-union efforts by the company. In an email to The Ithacan, the NLRB declined to comment on allegations of misconduct within Ithaca Starbucks locations but directed The Ithacan to a list of over 100 active lawsuits at the time within the upstate New York region, 18 of which were in the City of Ithaca.

As previously reported by The Ithacan, in December 2021, a Starbucks in Buffalo became the first store in the country to unionize, causing others to follow suit. The workers in Buffalo created the union “Starbucks Workers United” after they grew tired of what they called “hostile working conditions.”

Dominico Farrell, former shift supervisor at a Starbucks location in Farmingville, New York, said that during his tenure, his manager created a hostile work environment. Farrell said he, along with several other coworkers, went to Starbucks’ Human Resources with complaints of sexual harassment and verbal abuse, among other allegations.

“[There were] allegations from people before I even worked there, about just him being either creepy physically, touching people and abusing people verbally,” Farrell said. “So, overall, it just wasn’t a good situation.”

Since winning the union election, employees at the Buffalo store and others have complained the company retaliated against workers, from cutting hours to firing employees and worsening working conditions.

Will Westlake worked at the Buffalo Starbucks location and said he thinks he was fired because of union activity. Prior to being fired, he said employees experienced poor working conditions and hostile management that followed successful unionization.

“There’s a lot of understaffing, a lack of respect; different stores have different issues with their management,” Westlake said. “For [example, in] my store we had a manager that was outwardly homophobic. I know there are issues with stores over hours being cut drastically, it becomes a job that you can’t survive off, over the hours being sliced.”

Donald Beachler, associate professor in the Department of Politics at Ithaca College, said that even

if the union were to win the lawsuits against the company, the penalties for violating labor laws are not substantial enough to have a significant impact on Starbucks’ actions.

“Most of the labor laws you [have], when you violate the law, the penalties are small enough that employers are happy to take the risk of the penalty,” Beachler said. “Even [so much] they knowingly violate [the] labor law.”

Westlake said via text that Starbucks has resorted to coercion in its attempt to stop the unionization drive, by threatening to suspend benefits for employees should they unionize, something illegal under the National Labor Relations Act. Some of those benefits included free food for employees during their shifts to more substantial ones like healthcare for transgender employees, as also reported by Business Insider.

The Starbucks Corporation did not respond to The Ithacan’s multiple requests for comment.

The NLRA, which provides federal protections for unions, was last updated in 1935, despite efforts by democratic lawmakers in Congress. Since then, the penalties have remained the same, and dozens of states have passed Right to Work Laws which allow workers to opt-out of workplace unions, something that unions complain weaken collective bargaining agreements. New York does not have the Right to Work Law.

In addition, the high turnover rates of the service industry make service worker unions weaker compared to others, like automotive industry unions. Beachler said Starbucks is likely using this to its advantage, with hopes the movement will “fizzle out,”

something Farrell also acknowledged.

The Starbucks Corporation closed its Ithaca Collegetown location two months after all three Starbucks locations in the City of Ithaca voted to unionize. According to the Ithaca Voice, in June 2022, the union filed charges with the NLRB against the company claiming coercion and retaliation tactics against employees within Ithaca, which the NLRB found merit in, in November 2022. A finding resulted in the NLRB seeking an order to have the company reopen the Collegetown location.

The NYS Department of Labor said via email that it supports organized labor efforts and advises Starbucks workers to file a complaint to the DOL if they believe there are violations of law, but otherwise declined to comment on the situation.

Farrell said that upon hearing unionization talks, management worked aggressively to dissuade conversations regarding unionization, from posting “anti-union” flyers to erasing “Unionize Now” whenever it was written on the backroom chalkboard. Similar tactics were used at other locations.

“The company puts out a bunch of flyers, saying if you talk about unionization, these are the facts you should know about your organization: ‘They’re not there to represent you, they’re not there to be in your best interest, the company is with your best interest at heart,’” Farrell said. “It was like … the second that they heard about it they started it. They got a bunch of propaganda instantly. I was like, ‘Bro, that’s how scared they are.’”

Beachler said the odds of the union succeeding in the end are slim.

The National Labor Relations Board announced a lawsuit in June that requested a nationwide cease and desist order against Starbucks to stop anti-union efforts. At the time, there were over 100 active lawsuits in upstate New York.

Photo illustration by malik clement, van hoang, nolan saunders

By Dylan Albert

Gas prices in the City of Ithaca have been consistently decreasing since June 14, according to AAA, but students and staff at Ithaca College had mixed reactions as prices had the chance of rising again.

According to AAA, on Sept. 14, the average price per gallon of gas in Tompkins County, $4.018, exceeded both the national average, $3.703, and the New York average, $3.858.

According to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authorities, all of these averages exceeded the New York average price of gas per gallon at the end of 2021, which was $3.441. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, gas prices rose throughout 2022 as a result of minimal development of oil resources, sanctions imposed because of the war in Ukraine and high oil demand.

According to AAA, gas prices remained below the record high national average of $5.02 per gallon June 14.

Senior Ethan Tuomala, who has had a car at the college since his sophomore year, said high gas prices have added stress to his college experience, especially when combined with other expenses, such as books and personal purchases.

“It’s already a struggle,” Tuomala said. “I work two jobs just to be able to be not insanely broke up here.”

According to the Ithaca College academic catalog, the estimated cost of books and personal expenses for the 2022–23 school year totaled to $2,025. Tuomala said he had to take these costs into consideration and said that during the peak of COVID-19, he faced major monetary setbacks.

Tuomala said he had eventually given up keeping track of his spending.

“Eventually I reached a point where I just stopped paying attention to the price,” Tuomala said.

Tuomala is not the only student to express concerns. Sophomore Luke Kubeck said he has had his car on campus since the beginning of Fall 2022 and has already started to plan ahead on his spending.

“This affects everyone,” Kubeck said. “I have even started to cut back on certain items when shopping [that] some even could consider necessities.”

Kubeck said the consistently decreasing gas prices have made him stop wondering about how he will pay for gas while driving in Ithaca.

“With prices lowering by the day, as of right now, it is a moment of peace that hopefully stays that way,” Kubeck said. “Things are finally starting to look up here at Ithaca.”

Although students at the college expressed concerns about their money management, Ari Kissiloff, assistant professor in the Department of Strategic Communication, said the Ithaca community should be grateful that gas prices are not as high as they are in other locations, like in London, England, and Oslo, Norway, where gas prices were at $5.79 and $6.27 per gallon Sept. 14, respectively.

Kissiloff said there are possible solutions the college can implement to assist students and faculty with adjusting to these constantly fluctuating prices.

“Ithaca College could be more proactive by allowing hybrid courses where a few times a week they meet in person and some days online,” Kissiloff said. “This is common at other schools and would allow faculty to reduce their commuting and students would not have to drive the .5 mile from the Circle [Apartments] to the red lots [on campus] to get to class.”

Kissiloff said he was only paying an extra dollar per gallon, which is $75 a semester and $150 dollars a year.

Kissiloff said he does not think it is that big of a deal and that the community should not overreact.

“Hopefully our economy will be moving away from being dependent on fossil fuels, as this is the only long-term solution to this problem,” Kissiloff said.

tompkins county residents have mixed feelings about decreasing gas prices and fear the cost will rise again

Gas prices in the City of Ithaca have been consistently decreasing since June 14, according to AAA, but students and staff at Ithaca College had mixed reactions. Elijah Cedeño/ The Ithacan

new owner of popular convenience store on danby road rebrands to attract more college student customers

By Liam McDermott

Withnew owners and a new menu, Smiley’s Mini Mart on Rogan’s Corner hopes to appeal more to Ithaca College students.

Smiley’s Mini Mart is located right off the college’s campus at 825 Danby Road, next door to the Sunset Grill. Before Smiley’s Mini Mart opened in August 2022, the store was a local convenience store chain called Dandy’s and until 2018, the store was a privately owned convenience store named Rogan’s Corner. Rogan’s Corner has been known for years as a staple spot for Ithaca College students to purchase everyday things such as snacks and drinks.

Raj Singh, who also owns a store in Newfield, bought Rogan’s Corner from Dandy’s in June 2022 because he wanted to cater to college students, something he said he thought that Dandy’s had failed to do.

However, opening Smiley’s was more of a challenge for Singh than he had anticipated, as Dandy’s had taken a lot of the equipment, like an oven, that was supposed to be left in the kitchen.

Singh said that he had to order a new oven and that it delayed the store from selling some food items.

Some students at the college are excited about the changes on Rogan’s Corner and said that they would much rather support local businesses like Smiley’s Mini Mart than a chain like Dandy’s.

Sophomore Maria Baker said she did not notice much of a difference between Smiley’s and Dandy’s, but thought that the atmosphere was more relaxed.

“Employees here seem more happy now than those who were here when it was Dandy’s,” Baker said. “Workers are better now, but the inventory was better when Dandy’s was here.”

Baker said she thought that the employees actually seemed to have wanted to be there compared to employees in the past, who she said she thought were clearly only there for a paycheck.

Sophomore Alex Daniel said that when his car broke down a couple of weeks ago, Smiley’s had jumper cables available for him to purchase, saving him a bus trip down to an auto store in town.

“The employees here just bring a lot of enthusiasm into their job,” Daniel said. “They’re open until 11 almost every night, so it really shows how much they cater to students.”

Junior Shea Caudell said he felt that the store

seemed more empty now than it was when Dandy’s owned it. However, Caudell said he also felt that the store had a selection that made it stand out from other convenience stores in the area.

“Some of the products here have really raised an eyebrow to how different this store is from other convenience stores,” Caudell said.

Jim Reynolds, the chef at Smiley’s, who also was the head chef at the location when it was Rogan’s Corner, said that in the past, Dandy’s primarily sold frozen foods and he wanted to prioritize bringing fresh food back to the Rogan’s Corner area.

Reynolds also said that they offer some more unique dishes than other convenience stores offer, including their chicken on rice. Reynolds said that the corner has always been a go-to spot for students, and that he felt that students deserved better than what Dandy’s was offering them.

“I’m excited to be part of this new chapter at Rogan’s Corner and am excited to get to know both the students and the alumni,” Reynolds said. “With new apartment buildings being built, we hope to provide a quick stop-and-go experience for students who may live off campus.”

Smiley’s Mini Mart is located right off the college’s campus at 825 Danby Road. Before Smiley’s Mini Mart opened in August 2022, the store was a local convenience store chain called Dandy’s. Raj Singh, who also owns a store in Newfield, bought Rogan’s Corner from Dandy ’s in June 2022 because he wanted to cater to college students. Malik Clement/The Ithacan

governor kathy hochul makes new york state the 10th state to ban the sale of cosmetics that test on animals

By Vivian Rose

As of Dec. 15, Governor Kathy Hochul made New York the 10th state to ban the sale of cosmetics that test products on animals by signing the New York Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act into law, with a few exceptions.

According to the New York City Bar website, these exceptions regard animal testing within the capacity of a commonly used ingredient that could not be replaced in cosmetic products. An exception would also be made if the product needs to be tested to determine if it causes a health issue. A final exception on the website said that testing would be required if no alternative to animal testing is accepted by the state or federal agency.

The website also states that further exceptions include cosmetics tested on animals required by a foreign jurisdiction or cosmetics tested on animals before Jan. 1. Any manufacturer that violates the law can face at least a $5,000 fine unless exceptions apply.

Talitha McMillion, assistant correspondent with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said via email that the loopholes in the New York State legislation are ethically unacceptable and not necessary, yet are still happening with similar loopholes in places like China and the European Union.

McMillion also said that PETA has educated some officials and scientists in China, making animal testing requirements more flexible.

“China requires tests on animals for many imported cosmetics products,” McMillion said. “Most of the companies exporting to China do not themselves test on animals and they don’t rely on the data that is gathered in China; they’re simply allowing this testing in order to sell their products.”

McMillion said that in the EU, some cosmetic ingredients are still being tested on animals despite the ban. However, she said PETA’s U.K. affiliate is trying to challenge the use of animal testing.

Although the ban is being enforced statewide, products and brands that do not use cruelty-free testing methods can still be sold, as long as the product was not tested on an animal after Jan. 1.

However, the act could be in danger because of a $1.7 trillion federal spending bill, according to a local New York news source, WXXI News.

According to the WXXI article, the spending bill contains a clause that will not allow states to regulate the method that cosmetic companies choose to prove their product is safe. This means that if a company needs to prove a product is safe to use, the state may make an exception for the company to use animal

testing, therefore possibly limiting the power of the act. However, Cruelty Free International believes this was an oversight and is working to get rid of the clause.

Emma Dessureau, a first-year Ithaca College student from Massachusetts, said that when she buys makeup while she is at school, she will now take the information of the New York act into high consideration and pay attention to labels. Massachusetts, like a majority of U.S. states, does not have a law like the New York State Cruelty-Free Act.

“I genuinely don’t know what brands are cruelty free and which ones aren’t, and it’s never my intention to buy anything that’s not cruelty free,” Dessureau said. “Now that I know about this act, I will … go out of my way to buy a product that is cruelty free.”

First-year Ithaca College student Elena Lindeman is from New York. She said she heard about the act on social media. She said that since she has been buying makeup for several years, she knows the quality of makeup that is cruelty-free or vegan and the ones that are not can differ slightly.

“Although the quality is similar, some cruelty-free or vegan brands actually turn out to have better products than the ones that aren’t,” Lindeman said.

According to PETA, makeup and cosmetics companies that tested on animals in 2022 include Clinique, Maybelline, NARS, OPI and Victoria’s Secret, among several others listed on their website.

According to a 2019 study conducted by GlobalData, 35% of surveyed cosmetic consumers looked specifically for cruelty-free brands, while 73% supported cruelty-free brands.

The history of the law began when the act was

introduced to the New York State Assembly in 2021 by Democratic Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal and former Democratic State Senator Alessandra Biaggi.

Rosenthal, representing Manhattan, is the chair of the Committee on Social Services in the NYS Assembly and is known for writing dozens of animal rights bills. Biaggi served from Jan. 1, 2019, to Dec. 31, 2022, and helped pass legislation to strengthen animal protections during National Pet Week in 2021.

After the act was introduced to the state’s assembly, the act successfully passed the floor of the New York State Assembly in May 2022. It then passed by a vote of 143–1 in the New York State Senate.

Very little is known about what influenced Rosenthal and Biaggi to introduce the act, but Steve Gruber, the director of communications of the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals, said that even though he does not know why the act came about now, he feels it was an important piece of legislature that needed to be signed into New York State’s law.

“It’s like the law that was passed in New York that banned the sale of dogs and cats and rabbits in pet stores,” Gruber said. “It’s the right thing to do. I mean, that’s my feeling. It’s the right thing to do. So do it.”

Gruber also said that money and education are necessary to properly enforce and support animal welfare laws and that the protection of animals must be made more affordable, like spaying and neutering stray animals.

“The way [animal protection] happens is to put money behind it so that it’s … more affordable and available to people,” Gruber said. “Finances help to make things happen.”

According to PETA, companies that tested on animals in 2022 include Clinique, Maybelline, NARS, OPI and Victoria’s Secret. According to a 2019 study, 35% of surveyed consumers look specifically for cruelty-free brands. Spencer Park/The Ithacan

College Affairs

Nolan Saunders/the Ithacan

Nolan Saunders/the Ithacan

IC COMMUNITY HAS DOUBT ABOUT COLLEGE RANKING SYSTEM

Common Data Set.

Claire Borch, director of the college’s Office of Analytics and Institutional Research, said via email she is confident in the accuracy of the data reported by the college and declined to comment further.

By Elijah de Castro

In2018, senior Himadri Seth was a typical 17-year-old high school student navigating the college application and decision process. Like many other prospective students, Seth referred to the U.S. News & World Report’s annual college ranking list for guidance while college hunting. Four years later, Seth feels that the list had an unfair influence over her.

“Where a college stands in official rankings … was definitely a big thing for me,” Seth said. “When you’re coming out of high school, going to college, [the rankings] play an important role.”

Every September, U.S. News releases its college ranking lists. Ithaca College has consistently ranked highly on the “Regional Universities North” list. The college’s administration has used its ranking to market the college through social media, the front page of its website and email blasts.

In a Sept. 13 Intercom post to the college community, President La Jerne Cornish embraced the college’s No. 12 ranking on the “Regional Universities North” list. The college’s number 12 ranking is a slip from previous years — since 2016, Ithaca had consistently been in the top 10 of the “Regional Universities North” list. However, in other categories, U.S. News ranked Ithaca College highly.

However, a recent report authored by Michael Thaddeus, a math professor at Columbia University, has found a deep lack of credibility in U.S. News’ rankings. The report — titled “An Investigation of the Facts Behind Columbia’s U.S. News Ranking” — found widespread manipulation of data reported by Columbia to U.S. News. Data from Columbia used by U.S. News had been inflated and taken out of context.

Additionally, the report uncovered vulnerabilities in U.S. News’ ranking system that colleges can exploit by self-reporting inaccurate information to U.S. News to move higher in U.S. News’ rankings. Sophomore Morrison Powell was shocked that there is little scrutiny of the information reported by colleges to U.S. News.

“It’s unbelievable,” Powell said. “If you’re gonna try and push that this is the pinnacle reference [on colleges] that all students should be looking at, you need some kind of checks and balances on that procedure.”

Following Thaddeus’ report, Columbia released more accurate information that caused its position on the 2022–23 U.S. News “Best National Universities” to fall from No. 2 to No. 18, ranking the year prior.

Almost all American colleges — including Ithaca College — self-report data to U.S. News through an annual Common Data Set document. The Common Data Set creates a standard for colleges to report yearly information on faculty-to-student ratio, graduation rates and financial aid quality, among other criteria.

The college’s Common Data Set for the 2022–23 academic year was released publicly in late 2022. Dave Maley, director of Public Relations, said the Common Data Set for 2021–22 contains data that the college does not include in its marketing. For example, in 2021–22, students at the college took out over $16.5 million in need-based student loans and $7.7 non-need-based. The college instead references the percent of students who receive financial assistance.

The Common Data Set also shows there were 114 international students in 2021–22, while the college’s website claims that there are “about 200” international students. The college could be referring to the 2022–23 international student enrollment numbers, which will be released with the 2022–23

Jed Macosko is the president and research director of Academic Influence, a college ranking website run by academics and digital scientists that uses data technology to create objective, non-gameable college rankings. Macosko said the influence that U.S. News’ rankings have on prospective students and their families creates a financial temptation for colleges to skew reported data in order to achieve a higher ranking.

“If you move up in the rankings, it means new dollars come into your university,” Macosko said. “Students are more willing to go to your university and … you don’t have to entice them with financial aid.”

Macosko also said that U.S. News rankings are not a fully accurate depiction of a college’s quality.

“If U.S. News’ rankings stayed the same every year with maybe one or two switches, it would get boring,” Macosko said. “Universities don’t change very fast and certainly a one-year time frame is not enough for things to get shuffled around.”

Despite the foundational problems in U.S. News’ ranking system, a study by the American Educational Research Association found that colleges and universities that receive high rankings in the U.S. News rankings see a 6–10% increase in enrollment. Correspondingly, colleges and universities that receive low rankings see a decline in enrollment.

Tom Pfaff, professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics, said that when the 2022–23 U.S. News lists were released, the college publicly embraced its No. 2 ranking on the “Best Undergraduate Teaching” list but did not privately thank faculty.

Now, in her final year at Ithaca College, Seth said the influence that the U.S. News rankings had over her and continues to have over students and families results in prioritizing the ranking of a college over the quality of education a student receives.

“It’s messed up because I feel like it creates this false perception of what’s important when it comes to education,” Seth said. “For a school like IC, I feel like what needs to be emphasized more is the connections that students make here or the departments and how good the teaching is.”

By elijah de castro

In2020 — the same year that former Ithaca College President Shirley M. Collado and her administration began the process of eliminating 116 full-time equivalent faculty positions — Collado’s reportable compensation jumped from $583,872 in 2019 to $723,985.

This jump was because of a deferred compensation plan worth $172,796 that matured in 2020 and brought her reportable compensation to the highest amount disclosed from her four-year tenure from 2017 to 2021. Throughout 2020, the college’s leadership furloughed hundreds of employees and began pushing for faculty cuts. Concurrently, they told students, faculty, The Ithacan and alumni that they were cutting their own compensation. While these cuts appear to have occurred, the college’s leaders kept their six-figure incomes during the height of the pandemic.

This information comes from the college’s 2020–21 Form 990, which was released in July 2022. The Form 990 is a federal tax form that all nonprofits are required to file to the IRS each fiscal year. The most recent Form 990 reports the compensation of key employees and officers during the 2020 calendar year — Jan. 1, 2020, to Dec. 30, 2020.

Collado’s base compensation

The reportable compensation of $723,985 that Collado received during the 2020 calendar year comes from multiple places — Collado’s base compensation, which is decided by the college’s Board of Trustees,

and her other reportable compensation. Base compensation is the amount that an employee receives in their paycheck, not including most benefits or accounting for taxes, as defined by the IRS. For the 2020 calendar year, Collado’s reported base compensation was $487,303, a slight decrease from her $487,853 base compensation in the 2019 calendar year, as listed in the 2019–20 Form 990. Other reportable compensation is the amount given to employees from benefits like retirement compensation, vacation pay and deferred compensation plans.

Financial Services Controller Sean Kanazawich is one of the authors of the college’s Form 990. Kanazawich said the base compensation listed on Form 990 does not include pre-tax deductions like medical and dental benefits. As a result, Kanazawich said, contractual base compensation for the college’s executives cannot be found without access to the college’s contracts with employees, which are private.

The college has repeatedly denied The Ithacan’s requests to view any private compensation information. Additionally, in November 2022, Collado denied a request for The Ithacan to view her contract with the college. In January 2023, Collado did not respond to a request for comment.

David Maley, director of Public Relations, said via email that Collado’s cut occurred but does not appear on the Form 990 in full because compensation adjustments at the college occur July 1. The 2021–22 Form 990, which will be released in July 2023, will show Collado’s compensation through January 2021 to August 2021.

Collado’s deferred compensation plan Collado’s other reportable compensation in the 2020 calendar year was $236,682. This amount is $140,663 more than her other reportable compensation in the 2019 calendar year, which was $96,019.

The deferred compensation plan that Collado had was paid out in the form of a $172,796 lump sum payment, as listed on Schedule J, Part III of the 2020–21 Form 990. Lump sum payments are a sum of money that is paid in one single payment.

Deferred compensation plans are incentives that withhold pay from an executive until a certain date of maturity. Under this plan, money is set aside by the employer each year until the date of maturity agreed upon in the plan’s contract. On that date, the plan vests and is paid out to the employee in the form of a lump sum payment.

Saranna Thornton, Elliott Professor of Economics and Business at Hampden-Sydney College, is a specialist in labor economics. Thornton said via email that deferred compensation plans can be renegotiated, meaning that Collado and the Board of Trustees could have cut or reduced the size of Collado’s deferred compensation plan before it was paid out.

“Most elements of a college president’s compensation agreement can be renegotiated at any time,” Thornton said via email. “If both parties (the Board of Trustees and the President) are open to renegotiate, it would not be precluded.”

The type of deferred compensation plan that Collado received was a 457(f) plan account for retirement, according to the Form 990. These accounts are only

Former president Collado received $172,796 payment before laying off 116 full-time equivalent faculty positions

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according to the Form 990. These accounts are only offered for highly paid executives and have no pay cap.

James H. Finkelstein, professor emeritus of public policy at George Mason University, has spent two decades studying contracts that college presidents receive. Finkelstein said deferred compensation agreements were created in the private sector to retain highly paid executives.

“[Deferred compensation agreements] are a way of sort of hiding the compensation a president receives until some point in the future,” Finkelstein said. “That way staff, faculty and students don’t get upset every year that their presidents are making all this money. They get upset once when it’s paid out.”

Deferred compensation plans are common among higher education institutions. The two presidents who served prior to Collado — Tom Rochon and Peggy Ryan Williams — both had them, according to forms sent to the United States Department of Labor by the college.

A form submitted by the college’s Office of Finance and Administration to the United States Department of Labor shows that Collado entered into a deferred compensation agreement with the college Feb. 22, 2017, the same day that she was announced as the new president of Ithaca College.

The deferred compensation agreement vested in 2020, the year that the COVID-19 pandemic closed down the college’s campus until Spring 2021. Regardless of when in 2020 the lump sum payment vested, the college was already in financial crisis. In January 2020, Collado announced oncoming changes would be “uncomfortable.” By August 2020, the college announced an $8 million deficit. At the end of 2020, Collado’s administration announced that 130 full-time faculty members would be cut from the college.

Compensation of other college leadership

The college’s administration only stated that Senior Leadership Team members were taking salary cuts and refused to disclose the size of the cut that Collado and the SLT members were receiving.

Then-provost La Jerne Cornish, who became interim president after Collado left the college in July 2021 and was officially named president in March 2022, saw her base compensation fall from $243,743 to $237,498 between 2019–20 and 2020–21. When asked by The Ithacan in a December 2021 interview, Cornish declined to say her compensation as president and told The Ithacan to refer to the 2021–22 Form 990, which will be released in July 2023.

Fae Dremock, former assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Studies, had her job cut during the layoffs. Dremock said that when

she was hired in 2014, she made about $58,000 per year and at the time of the cuts, she was making about $62,000 a year.

“We worked hard to sustain the students [during the pandemic] and we were assuming that the administration was working equally hard to sustain us and to take care of the institution,” Dremock said. “To find out that in looking at salaries [that] there was no attempt at that? … It’s a betrayal of trust. It’s horrific.”

In March 2021, Thomas Pfaff, professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics, wrote a commentary for The Ithacan in which he stated that the decision to keep the size of the cuts quiet allowed for “speculation that the pay cut was little to nothing.” Pfaff said he believes that what he said in the March 2021 commentary holds true.

Between the 2019–20 and the 2020–21 Form 990, the compensation of other SLT members and top college executives either fell, rose or were not listed.

High presidential compensation is not new to the college or higher education in general. According to the 2015–16 Form 990, Rochon’s reportable compensation for the 2015 calendar year was $941,575. For the 2020–21 academic year, the median salary for a private college president was $387,446, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Other benefits

Aside from Collado’s deferred compensation plan, the other reportable compensation section of the Form 990 lists $32,601 that was used for housing, a

cleaning person and a leased vehicle. To cover taxes on this income, the college gave Collado a gross-up payment — extra money given to employees to offset taxes — of $31,285, according to the 2020 Form 990.

Prior to 2020, Collado also received these benefits.

Ithaca College now costs $64,060 to attend each year, and the college is financed almost entirely by student tuition revenue. Additionally, compensation data collected by the Chronicle of Higher Education shows that from 2003 to 2020, the average salary of professors at the college is $82,590, lower than the national average of $87,359. Some professors, like Dremock, get paid much lower. When adjusted for inflation, the average salary of professors at the college has remained stagnant for those 15 years.

Dremock said the college should implement regulation on the salaries of its presidents for the future. While uncommon, regulations over presidential salaries for colleges and universities do exist. In Virginia, there is a maximum amount of state funds that can be used for presidential salaries at Virginia state schools, according to Finkelstein. Some private colleges, such as Red Deer Polytechnic in Canada, have imposed caps on the amount that their presidents can make.

“In the future, let’s decide that the person who runs the college can only make X percent more than faculty,” Dremock said. “Let’s build a reasonable hierarchy for salaries but make it so that it’s a human version; so that the people who work here care about the school and the students [and that] they don’t care about making their career and moving on.”

Photo illustration: malik clement, file photo/the ithacan

members of the ic campus community come together for the inauguration of 10th President, la jerne cornish

President La Jerne Cornish officially became the 10th president of Ithaca College on Oct. 1 and was celebrated with an Inauguration Ceremony and a day full of events.

The day opened with an Inauguration Ceremony held at 10 a.m. at the Athletics and Events Center that

After the conclusion of the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance inaugural showcase, fireworks were released to celebrate the inauguration.

featured performaces from campus groups like Ithacapella and the college’s African Drumming and Dance Ensemble. Speakers from across the college, including students, staff and faculty, members of the Board of Trustees, Ithaca community members and alumni, were also invited. Notable guests included members of Cornish’s family, past presidents of the college like Peggy Ryan Williams and Tom Rochon, and presidents of local

colleges and universities, like Martha Pollack, president of Cornell University.

The celebrations concluded with a showcase featuring performances from ensembles within the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance at 8 p.m, followed by fireworks outside of the A&E Center. Family members, students and staff were invited to attend as part of the college’s Family Weekend.

Ithaca College alumni sit on the inaugural stage in the Athletics and Events Center and give a round of applause at the end of a short video. Xinyi Qin/The Ithacan

The IC Brass Choir walk through the aisle to the inauguration stage. Trumpets and drums marked the opening of the Installation Ceremony. Xinyi Qin/The Ithacan

Ithaca College’s African Drumming and Dance Ensemble lead President Cornish toward the inauguration stage with a traditional dance. Xinyi Qin/The Ithacan

From left, Ithacappella members sophomore Jake Campbell, sophomore Joey Albano, junior James Williams and sophomore Will Sheehan perform. Xinyi Qin/The Ithacan

Jasmine Scriven/The Ithacan

From left, sophomores Madelyn Salvante, Abbey Hall, Holly Geyer and Leah Mintz watch fireworks outside of the Athletics and Events Center. Leila Marcillo-Gómez/The Ithacan

Newly inaugurated President La Jerne Cornish was moved to tears at the end of her inauguration ceremony as confetti was released from in the Athletics and Events Center. xiaoyi zhang/the ithacan

Ithaca College students perform “Musical Interlude” from “House of Desires” as part of the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance’ s inaugural showcase. leila marcillo-gómez/the ithacan

yield rate for the college increases while leadership actively works to improve enrollment and retention

By Noa Ran-Ressler

Ithaca College’s enrollment exceeded its target in Fall 2022, but campus administration is still working on solutions to increase prospective student engagement and retention.

Enrollment, Yield and Retention

Since Fall 2018, enrollment has decreased from 6,517 students to 5,054 students in Fall 2022 — a 22% decline — according to the college’s Office of Analytics and Institutional Research.

Between Fall 2020 and Fall 2021, enrollment decreased by 2.1%, according to AIR. This decline is lower than the national average decrease in enrollment for private non-profit four-year colleges — which, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, is 6.2%.

Laurie Koehler, vice president for Marketing and Enrollment Strategy, said yield increased by three percentage points, from 11% in Fall 2021 to 14% in Fall 2022. Yield rate is the percentage of accepted students who decided to enroll at the college.

According to AIR, the 2021 third semester retention rate for full-time first-year students was 83%, a decrease from 2018’s 87%. In 2020, the retention rate was 84%, a jump from 77% in 2019.

Black, Indigenous and People of Color Enrollment

According to AIR, BIPOC enrollment has decreased at the college. In Fall 2018, there were 358 Black or African American students: 5.5% of total enrollment. In Fall 2022, that number decreased to 260 students, at 5.1% of total enrollment. Asian student enrollment has had less of a decrease since 2018, from 262 students, 4% of total student enrollment, to 197, 3.9% of total enrollment, in 2022. Hispanic student enrollment decreased in number of students, from 560 in 2018 to 498 in 2022, but has increased in percentage of total enrollment, from 8.6% to 9.9% over the same period.

Koehler said the college’s strategy to be more accessible for BIPOC communities involves eliminating the College Board’s CSS Profile as a requirement for financial aid because of the time and resources it requires to complete.

“We saw it over and over again as a barrier, particularly to students from middle- and low-income families,” Koehler said. “It’s confusing. The FAFSA itself is already confusing enough, but we have to require the FAFSA for federal aid dispersal.”

Engaging Prospective Students

Nicole Eversley Bradwell, the executive director of

admission at the college, said the college’s open house Sept. 24 registered 489 people — including prospective students and their guests — and over 850 people registered for the open house Oct. 10.

Sophomore Paige Morrissey, an admissions host and tour guide, said she noticed more families coming for tours as the Common Application deadline approached — which is as early Nov. 1 for early decision applicants. Morrissey said the increase in attendance in October was a combination of factors.

“We definitely notice more engagement as the dates get closer to the deadline of when to apply,” Morrissey said. “People have more questions on Ithaca-specific things as well as more interest in activities on campus.”

Financial Accessibility

Shana Gore, the executive director of Student Financial Services, said the college’s Four-Year Financial Forecast helped accepted students’ families estimate the cost of attendance over four years instead of just receiving a financial aid package for the first year.

Gore said the four-year plan will hopefully help with retention numbers, but the impact can not be evaluated at this point and it will take years before the impact on retention can be seen.

Koehler said a factor that contributed to an increase in prospective students attending campus and likely contributed to the increase in yield was a $500 start-up grant. The grant was given to students who were admitted, visited campus and then enrolled. Many students found out about the grant at the admissions event as an incentive to enroll.

First-year student Shannon Tonetta said she was disappointed to hear that the college was giving out the money to anyone who attended the admissions events.

“I begged for more [financial aid] and they said they had absolutely none to spare, then say they will give out money to anyone who came to an event,” Tonetta said.

Collaboration with Other Colleges

Koehler said the college collaborated on enrollment strategies with two other colleges: Cornell University and Colgate University in Hamilton. She said the three institutions focused their enrollment efforts on international students and that representatives from Ithaca College, Cornell University and Colgate University have traveled together to the U.K. in Fall 2022.

Tara Bubble, the dean of admission and financial aid at Colgate, said it is too early to measure the impact of international travel opportunities.

Bubble said Colgate joined Ithaca College and Cornell in touring rural schools in upstate New York. She said the three institutions have expanded their outreach to rural schools through virtual programming and in-person travel.

“It has really established stronger connections with counselors in upstate New York,” Bubble said. “From the Colgate perspective, we saw applications from more schools in upstate New York than we had in the past. When we travel with Cornell, when we travel with Ithaca College, we see the different types of students that we all attract and it benefits all of us.”

Because of a decrease in enrollment since Fall 2018, college is expanding on its strategies that increase yield while utilizing new marketing campaigns to increase enrollment and initiating student outreach to improve retention. photo illustration by nolan saunders/the ithacan

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College receives a Gold rating for its sustainability performance but shows it still has room to improve

By Clare Shanahan

Ithaca College received a Gold rating for its sustainability through the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System and although the score comes as a positive for the college, the report also showed areas for improvement.

STARS is facilitated by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. On the 2022 report, the college received a score of 67.16. This score is based on the percentage of total applicable points earned out of 100, plus up to 4 points in the category of innovation and leadership, for which the college earned full credit.

Julian Dautremont, director of programs and STARS team member at AASHE, said the sections of STARS are determined based on many things, including other frameworks like the United Nations Sustainable Development goals. According to AASHE, STARS reports are reviewed by the organization when they are submitted.

Dautremont said for most schools, only about one third of the report is reviewed with a focus on sections that have the most room for error. In order to make the reports trustworthy, there is also an established system for people who view the reports to complete a form if they notice any inaccurate information. The college’s report was completed by Scott Doyle, director of the Office of Energy Management and Sustainability. Doyle began working at the college in June 2022, giving him only about five months to complete the report before the 2019 report expired Nov. 24.

In Spring 2021, Rebecca Evans, former campus sustainability coordinator, left the college after her position was eliminated. In November 2021, Gregory Lischke, former director for the Office of Energy Management and Sustainability resigned and the position was unfilled until Doyle was hired in June 2022. Doyle said based on the impacts of the pandemic, turnover in the Office of Energy Management and Sustainability and turnover at the college in general, he expected a slip in the college’s ranking.

“There is still a lot happening across campus, but could there be more?” Doyle asked. “Yeah. So I think given the last three years, I was enthused that we’re in the same kind of camp.”

Positives

One category of the report is Points of Distinction. In the 2022 report, this section highlights the 5-year anniversary of 100% green power use at the college. According to a report of the college’s energy use

submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as of Oct. 6, 117.6% of the college’s electricity use in 2022 has been sourced from green power. This number exceeds 100% because, according to the data, while the college has produced 21,849,438 kWh of green energy in 2022, the college’s electric load was 18,587,904 kWh. About 17% of this electricity is generated from solar power with the remaining electricity being sourced from wind power.

According to the report, despite this distinction, the college only received a score of 1.43/4 in the field of clean and renewable energy. This is likely because 95% of energy used for heating buildings comes from natural gas. Two new sections the college received credit for in 2022 were incentives for developing courses related to sustainability and the community garden, which was not a section in the 2019 report. According to the report, the college offers awards and grants to faculty for changing course curriculum and supporting new themes, specifically the Instructional Development Fund.

Amy Rominger, clinical associate professor in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology and chair of the IDF committee, said the committee chooses courses that align with some of the goals of Ithaca Forever, including furthering sustainability at the college.

A section was also added to the report to assess community gardens on campus. The college was awarded full credit for the upper organic garden located near Farm Pond Road, the lower organic garden near the facilities building, a garden located on the rooftop of Terrace 2 and the permaculture garden

near Williams Hall.

Anne Stork, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences, is the faculty adviser for the campus gardens, specifically the largest garden located by Farm Pond Road. Stork said students in some classes use the garden, but she would like to see it used more broadly by the college community.

Negatives

Although the college received a gold ranking in STARS, there were also many sections where the college saw a decrease from its 2019 scores, received a zero or had notably low scores.

Between 2019 and 2022, the campus vehicle fleet score decreased from 0.02/1 to 0.01/1. According to the report, out of 158 vehicles in the college’s fleet, 141 are fueled by gasoline only, 16 are fueled by diesel only and one is 100% electric-powered.

Doyle said he has been working with an outside contractor, CLEAResult and other New York school districts and towns to electrify the fleet. Some changes to the report could be attributed to differences in how the assessment was done in 2019 versus 2022. For example, the building design and construction score has decreased since 2019. This decrease occurred despite the college reporting more building space that is certified in sustainable design and construction. Like Doyle, Stork said while the college’s ranking is great, there are always ways to improve.

“I would argue, let’s not stop at ‘sustainability,’ which is a little bit status quo,” Stork said. “If we put our mind to it ... we could have a bunch of practices in place that support a thriving community.”

The college has purchased solar power generated from a solar farm in Seneca to offset electricity use since 2016. courtesy of ithaca college

History of mutual aid thrives on Ithaca college campus through the current efforts of student organizations

By Lorien Tyne

“Theonly reason I’m here is because there are LGBTQ ancestors who I had never met who came way before me, who figured out how to do mutual aid so that we could literally exist,” Luca Maurer said.

Maurer is the interim executive director for the Ithaca College Office of Student Equity and Belonging and the director for the Center of LGBTQ Education, Outreach & Services. He said he is active in mutual aid on campus and off, particularly because of the history of mutual aid in LGBTQ+ communities.

Mutual aid can take many forms, but the general idea is to address the needs — material and emotional — that people have outside of existing structures controlled by the state through grassroots organizing or by simple acts of solidarity to a neighbor, according to Mutual Aid Tompkins. Maurer also said he was in college during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis and witnessed how the LGBTQ+ community practiced mutual aid to survive.

Maurer said people turn to mutual aid for many reasons, like lack of access to existing government and nonprofit structures, or when the structures are not providing what the community needs and when people are decentered within the structures by dominant identities like heterosexuality and whiteness.

“I’m thinking about the history of potlucks in LGBTQ communities,” Maurer said. “And there’s a reason for that. I mean, it’s because we’re wonderful and who wouldn’t want to have a potluck with us, but it’s also because I was in that position where I was like, ‘I only have this; this is what I have to eat.’ And if I invite folks I know they bring what they have to eat, and it’s

that act of taking care of each other, sharing food, sharing community [and] coming together.”

Student-led LGBTQ+ groups on campus like PRISM work to make campus a safe space for students through community building, discussions and educational programming. Senior Meabh Cadigan, president of PRISM, said she wants to make students more aware of resources available to them.

“The LGBT Center recently opened our trans student clothing swap which … might be really helpful,” Cadigan said. “I know I have benefited from things like that because being trans and having to replace an entire closet is a difficult and expensive thing to do. So, having been able to rely on each other to supplement those things is really helpful.”

Cadigan also said she wants to create a more structured framework of mutual aid for the campus LGBTQ+ community. However, she said that since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, community building and student engagement has been harder to organize.

Other student organizations are struggling to get the wider campus community to support their mutual aid efforts. Ujima: Black Student Union held a toiletry drive from Nov. 4 to 18 to collect products asked for by the Women’s Opportunity Center of Tompkins and Onondaga Counties.

Junior Angela Russell, social media and community engagement coordinator for the BSU, said she came up with the idea to host the drive because members of the BSU wanted to engage more in mutual aid. The group also led a discussion at its meeting Nov. 7 about the importance of Black femme mutual aid.

“We [BSU] actively try to engage in the [local] community and this level of mutual aid, donating

toiletries, is important because we want to bring the campus community to help us in doing that rather than us just doing it by ourselves,” Russell said.

Russell said that despite advertising the drive as a “campus-wide toiletry drive,” the only donations came from other Black student organizations.

“We haven’t had a lot of success,” Russell said. “We haven’t seen any engagement from the rest of the campus community at all. … I feel like it’s because people inherently think that if it has anything to do with a Black student org, it’s only for Black people to participate [in], but mutual aid is for everybody. It has to go to people who actually need it. … What we’re really asking is that people show up and give more donations.”

Phoebe Brown, a founder of Mutual Aid Tompkins, said she witnessed a large increase in community organizing during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but now donations to MAT have decreased significantly. She said she attributes the shift in engagement to a collective response to crisis, which diluted as people started being able to return to their typical routines.

“We were able to really help people … and now that the pandemic has slowed down, so has the donations,” Brown said. “What I noticed that happened with this is that at that peak [of the COVID-19 pandemic], people were willing to help and be there for others because they also felt what it felt like to lose privilege.”

When participating in mutual aid, Russell said a vital aspect is building relationships and communication. She said that when organizing the drive, the BSU asked the Women’s Opportunity Center what folks needed rather than making up a list of items they assumed would be helpful.

“You don’t just go about giving because you think it’s a necessary item to give someone; you communicate and ask them what they want before you even do it,” Russell said. “It can’t just be like, ‘I think because I have more money, I can tell you what I should give you.’ You have to ask, and I’m reiterating that over and over because it just doesn’t happen.”

Russell said that in Spring 2023, the BSU is planning to have a “town hall” where students of color can voice what they need from the campus community. She said student organizers want to hold that space so they can focus their efforts on fulfilling those specific needs.

Just like LGBTQ+ communities, Russell said mutual aid also grew roots within communities of color.

“Historically [mutual aid] has been a thing and communities of color, or just like, honestly, any minority community,” Russell said. “People just give what they can give, and it’s always been a thing.”

lorien tyne/the ithacan

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ithaca college community grapples with the debate around race-based opportunities in higher education

By prakriti Panwar

As the Supreme Court reevaluates affirmative action, Ithaca College grapples with the debate about race-based opportunities in its own community.

Questions around the issue of segregation at the college were raised when The Daily Mail published an article Oct. 15 about the college’s Antiracism Institute. The institute is a year-long initiative by the Center for Faculty Excellence that aims at building a learning community where participants can discuss difficult topics like race. The institute is currently in its third year and is open to staff and faculty of all racial identities based on voluntary participation.

“Did we voluntarily step back in time 80 years or what?” and “Segregation is in style again?” were just two of the many comments under the article.

Over the years, the college has received five Title VI and Title IX violation complaints from Mark J. Perry, professor emeritus at the University of Michigan, for excluding people who are not Black, Indigenous people of color and male students from the college’s BIPOC-only and female-geared opportunities. Title IX is a provision that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex and Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin. The most recent program that Perry filed a complaint against is the Antiracism Institute. Others include the college’s BOLD Women’s Leadership Network, the MLK Scholars Program and the Central New York Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation Alliance.

First-year student Kendal Burno, who is also an MLK Scholar, said he found it absurd that a white person filed a complaint against the MLK Scholar program, which aims to provide a non-judgmental space for students of color. Burno said that if white people are also included in the program, the environment that makes students of color feel comfortable sharing their experiences might no longer exist.

Shadayvia Wallace, program director of MLK Scholars and First-Generation programs, said via email she values the MLK Scholars program, which is specifically for students of color and first-generation students.

“I cannot speak for others as to why they might get upset by the opportunities that programs such as ours provide,” Wallace said. “I can only say that I am proud of the work that we do to introduce students to experiential learning opportunities while supporting their studies and their personal and leadership development.”

On Sept. 26, Perry filed a complaint, in violation of Title VI, against the college’s Physician Assistant program for hosting a Project Access workshop for

BIPOC students in grades six to 12 to learn about the PA profession. Project Access aims to encourage students from underrepresented minority groups to join the PA profession through outreach programs.

“Race-based discrimination is still unlawful even if it advantages the ‘right’ racial groups for the ‘right’ reasons,” Perry said in the courtesy copy of his complaint via email. “It is a clear violation of Title VI that non-BIPOC middle and high school students are illegally excluded from the IC PA Program on the basis of their race, skin color and national origin.”

Angélica Carrington, director for the Center for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Social Change, said the demographics of many higher education institutions do not reflect equal accessibility for all racial groups, which proves that equal representation of minority groups in these institutions is still a work in progress. According to Fall 2022 data from the Office of Analytics and Institutional Research, only 15.1% of the college’s students are Black or African American, Hispanic/Latino, or Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.

“If we have all had the same access, if we have all had the same journey and we have all had ‘equal’ opportunities, then … [any higher education] institution would also have representation of that, [but they do not],” Carrington said.

First-year student and MLK Scholar Alexis Troncone said she does not think it is possible to be racist toward white individuals. Troncone said race-based opportunities are still relevant in higher education to make education more accessible to minority and underrepresented communities.

The college’s Affirmative Action Program strives to expand the representation of minority groups and women through its hiring and recruitment processes.

Nicole Eversley Bradwell, executive director in the Office of Admissions at the college, said the Higher Education Opportunity Program, which is meant for New York State residents who are educationally and economically underprivileged, is an example of an affirmative action program the college engages in.

The Supreme Court is reevaluating policies like affirmative action programs, which were implemented in the 1960s, surrounding race-based admissions in higher education institutions. Affirmative action is an endeavor born out of the Civil Rights movement to improve and ensure equal opportunities to minority communities by providing them with opportunities to excel in the workplace and in higher education. The Supreme Court is leaning toward not factoring in the race of prospective students during the admission process. This places affirmative action programs meant to uplift students from minority communities at risk.

First-year student Mercy Botchway said that reevaluating affirmative action policies is like attacking students of color and a system that has been established to counteract a long history of discrimination.

“I think a better word [instead of ‘angry’] would just be ‘disappointed,’” Burno said. “I want to see more. I want to see them [the Supreme Court] use their energies put to something more that will help marginalized people … [and] poor people. But rather they think it’s better for them to place their focus on sort of attacking education.”

design by malik clement/the ithacan

dining services works to solve its understaffing issue while preparing for a new dining model for fall 2023

By Lorien Tyne

IthacaCollege’s Dining Services are working to solve its understaffing issue in preparation for a new dining model budgeted to launch in Fall 2023.

Dining Services is piloting the Referral Bonus Program and reevaluating the pay scales of dining employees in an effort to fill the vacant staff positions before the end of the 2022–23 academic year. Then, once the full number of needed employees are hired, the college plans to implement a new dining model to de-densify Campus Center Dining Hall and expand dining options for students.

This model will allow students to use their meal swipes at all retail locations on campus, similar to how the Express Cafe works on the second floor of Campus Center.

The most noticeable impact of understaffing was that Towers Marketplace, now rebranded as Towers Eatery, was closed until more staffing was secured in Spring 2023. During Fall 2022, though, all dining hall staff were moved to either Terrace Dining Hall or CCDH. However, there still continues to be staffing shortages in the kitchens, serving stations and the dish rooms.

Justin Fenner, executive sous chef in CCDH, said the lack of staff is reducing the quality of service for students. If there is not enough staff to work the different stations, stations have been closed temporarily, which Fenner said is one of the modifications made to adapt to the number of staff available. CCDH has also resorted to using disposable plates and utensils during shifts when the dish room cannot be filled.

“[More] student employment would help out because they serve the food a lot,” Fenner said. “There’s more stations that could be opened if we had more staff so that [students] would be able to go to more stations and the lines wouldn’t be as big.”

While some limited services impact students’ dining experience, Fenner said the current staff are not under too much strain.

“We all work very well as a team,” Fenner said. “If somebody’s not here, somebody else will step in and help out. … It just sucks for [students], not so much for the cooks back here, because we want to see [students] more happy and be able to serve you guys better.”

Reginald Briggs, associate director of Dining Services Administrative, said the limited hours and services because of understaffing is just as frustrating for Dining Services as it is for students, but there is only so much that he can do to bring in more staff.

“It’s unfortunate, like we didn’t want to [close

Towers Marketplace],” Briggs said. “We got a bunch of flak from everybody. … We were like, ‘We literally don’t have enough people in order to be able to pull this off.’”

The pilot version of the new Referral Bonus Program is an incentive for benefits-eligible employees to recruit dining staff. Benefits-eligible employees include employees that work at least 1,000 hours each fiscal year, faculty who teach at least 14 credit hours each academic year and salaried staff. In the current model of this program, students are not eligible to receive this bonus. If an employee makes a referral and that new staff member is hired, the employee who referred them will receive a $200 bonus after 30 days of the new employee working and $300 after 180 days of working.

As of Oct. 25, 15.6% of the annual dining budget allocated for paying student employees was used, which Tim Downs, vice president for Finance and Administration and chief financial officer, said is essentially half of what should have been spent at this point in the year.

Downs also said he needs to find the right amount of incentive that does not make dining benefits imbalanced with other campus jobs.

Downs said another area Dining Services focused on was reviewing the pay scales for employees. He said this review was an attempt to be proactive as the minimum wage in New York increased from $13.20 to $14.20 an hour starting Dec. 31, 2022, and will raise up to $15 an hour Dec. 30, 2023. As of Oct. 26, payment for student employees started at $13.20 an hour. Downs said Dining Services was assessing if there would be any compression issues to make sure student wages were not too close to the full-time staff pay levels.

“We need to make sure we find that right balance,” Downs said. “We’re doing a holistic review and in connection with the minimum wage, we’re looking at the pay scales to make sure they’re right. Our anticipation is by Jan. 1 — with the minimum wage increase — we will also then look to have a structure for all of our dining [pay] bands and what we need to do.”

Downs said that depending on how the new minimum wage impacts student labor, Dining Services will assess the need for a Bomber Bucks incentive. This would entail students receiving their hourly pay in addition to an undecided ratio of Bomber Bucks per hour worked.

The new dining model, which would spread out where meal swipes are used, is especially needed during the noon hour — the busiest time of the day, especially for CCDH.

According to meal swipe data collected by Dining Services, during the lunch period — 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. — 68% of meal swipes are used at CCDH, 25% are used at TDH and 7% are used at the Express Cafe. He also said finding a way to get more people up to TDH will help move pressure off CCDH.

Downs said in addition to staffing, the college also needs to wait to implement this model until they have the technology to operate with meal swipes and Bomber Bucks.

He said there would also need to be changes to the meal plan options to limit the number of swipes used each day, but he said those details were not worked out yet as of Oct. 26.

“We don’t want people worrying about food, but we don’t want to create a situation where people are swiping and they’re out of swipes by Wednesday,” Downs said. “We want to make sure we’re doing something that works for everybody.”

The college’s Dining Services is working to solve its understaffing issue in preparation for a new dining model budgeted to launch in Fall 2023. The model will allow students to use meal swipes at retail locations on campus. jadyn davis/the ithacan

Headline goes here and in most cases there should be two lines of text for each title in the book.

the ic pride fellowship selects its first fellow to work in the field of LGBTQ+ campus resource professionals

By Lorien Tyne

Known for its LGBTQ+ resources and community by students and organizations like Campus Pride, Ithaca College continues to invest in that reputation by launching the IC Pride Fellowship in Fall 2022. The first fellow, Grace Dosdall, joined the campus community July 5.

The fellowship is a two-year position for recent college graduates to learn and work in the fields of LGBTQ+ campus resource professionals, higher education and student affairs. Dosdall works alongside Luca Maurer, director of the Center for LGBT Education, Outreach & Services, to educate campus community members on LGBTQ+ issues, collaborate with other campus organizations and communicate with LGBTQ+ students, among other responsibilities.

Dosdall said one unique aspect of the fellowship is that the position will look different depending on the fellow and what they want it to be.

“Honestly, it’s weird to be at an institution where the answer to my question of ‘can we do this?’ is either ‘yes’ or ‘we already have it,’” Dosdall said. “So, not having to fight is a little weird for me, but trying to navigate a supportive institution has been really fun and exciting.”

In 2020, Dosdall graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, with a Bachelor of Arts in English writing. They then proceeded to Buffalo State College and graduated in May 2022 as a Master of Science in higher education and student affairs administration before applying to the IC Pride Fellowship.

Maurer said that selecting Dosdall as the fellow was the last piece in a year-long plan. He said that in September 2021, Rosanno Ferro, former vice president for student affairs and campus life, asked him to draft a vision for the fellowship — an idea that came from former President Shirley M. Collado during her tenure.

Later, in October 2021, then-interim President La Jerne Cornish and the President’s Cabinet reaffirmed Collado’s commitment to bringing the fellowship to fruition. Shortly after spring break in 2022, the search for applicants began.

“This is an opportunity for the person in this role to learn and grow and explore their existing academic and professional interests,” Maurer said. “And it’s a way that Ithaca College can distinguish itself and say, ‘You know, in the past, we’ve been recognized as one of the most LGBTQ-friendly colleges in the nation, and we want to raise the bar higher.’”

The college was named in the 2022 Best of the Best LGBTQ-Friendly Colleges and Universities List

by Campus Pride, a reliable resource for LGBTQ+ inclusion and safety on college campuses. The Campus Pride Index measures how LGBTQ-friendly each campus is within the United States.

The college received a five-out-of-five rating based on policies, practices and programs like the LGBT Center.

The IC Pride Fellowship is one of the first of its kind in the country according to the college’s website. Senior Connor Watson said he hopes the college can serve as a model for other institutions to follow. Watson is a student leader at the LGBT Center and said he was one of the students involved in interviewing Dosdall.

“When it’s something that is as student-facing as this fellowship role, I really believe that student input is most important,” Watson said. “Students, especially queer students, need … to feel heard and respected by those individuals. … I think [Dosdall] did a wonderful job at answering my questions and taking student input into consideration. I won’t get into too many details, but [Dosdall] was an obvious choice from my perspective.”

During the fellow hiring process, junior Ash Plummer also participated in interviewing the final candidates. They said they are excited to have a queer role model on campus that is close in age to the students but has already graduated college and has professional and real-world experience.

“I was very pleased when asking about programming and accessibility … that Grace had a lot of great answers,” Plummer said. “Specifically for the LGBTQ community, accessibility is a big topic of conversation and [Dosdall] had a lot of good examples of how they

included accessible features in past programming at their undergrad and grad school, which was great to hear.”

Plummer said if students have an idea about how queer life on campus can be safer or more accessible, Maurer will make it happen.

Plummer said they are helping to lead a new peer mentorship program for LGBTQ+ students starting this semester.

“Since Grace has been here, the center has been organized and everything’s looking great,” Plummer said. “I feel like I’ve been able to focus on [my own projects] during my work at the LGBT Center because of the extra help.”

While Plummer works on the peer mentorship program, Watson said he was excited to work with Maurer and Dosdall to get REQONCILE up and running again, which is an informal, interfaith discussion group started during the 2021–22 academic year for LGBTQ+ students to talk about their religious and sexual identities.

Both Dosdall and Maurer said that while identity-based centers and the identity-focused work they do are important, having queer people in all spaces of higher education and beyond are essential.

“Do I want more LGBTQ students to go into specifically LGBTQ-centered work in higher education?” Maurer said. “Yes. And I also want more gay accountants and more trans culinary artists. … For far too long, LGBTQ students haven’t been able to aspire untethered, because they have been fighting for their basic right to exist. … I want them to be able to aspire to be whoever they are and do whatever they want. And for me, that’s what this work is all about.”

From left, Grace Dosdall, IC Pride fellow, and Luca Maurer, director of the Center for LGBT Education, Outreach and Services, work to support LGBTQ+ students and educate the campus community on LGBTQ+ issues.

Kalysta Donaghy-robinson/the ithacan

day of learning organizers brought in guest speaker to present keynote on anti-racism and advocacy work

By lorien tyne

Ithaca College students and employees filled Emerson Suites on Aug. 21 to listen to Michael Benitez Jr., vice president for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at Metropolitan State University of Denver, speak about anti-racism and advocacy.

The Ithaca College Center for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Social Change and New Student and Transition Programs collaborated to bring Benitez to the college. Benitez presented “Embracing Diversity and Fostering Inclusion Through Critical Conversations and Actions” as part of Fall 2022 Orientation, but the event was open for the campus community to attend either in person or through a live stream. About 200 campus members were at the event in person.

For first-year students, the keynote was a part of their orientation and added to the conversations that orientation leaders had been facilitating in the week leading up to Benitez’s talk.

“Diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, all these words that can mean everything but absolutely nothing at all,” Benitez said. “It depends on the action behind it. It depends on how we’re willing to embrace the convergence of the conversations. You as first-year students have an opportunity to derive what this looks like. For the next four years, you have an opportunity to transform or help shape this community.”

Benitez began his presentation by creating a foundational understanding of advocacy work, racism and privilege. He said white supremacy does not only exist in extreme examples like neo-Nazis or the Ku Klux Klan, but can also present itself in subtle ways, like microaggressions that are more indirect discriminatory behaviors.

He said this is why it is so important to be self-aware and attentive toward one’s actions and one’s own identities and how they function in a society that places whiteness at the top.

Data from Fall 2021 recorded the race and ethnicity of all students, faculty, staff and administration at the college, which included 1,382 campus members of color, 143 international campus members, 317 people with an unrecorded race and ethnicity, and 4,830 white campus members.

He also explained that anti-racism is about uplifting everyone, not just brown or Black people, because by lifting up everyone at the bottom, all others benefit too.

The keynote was the first in a series of IC Day of Learning events that took place during the 2022–23 academic year. President La Jerne Cornish said there

needs to be more opportunities — like Benitez’s keynote — to have conversations about diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

“Too often we have one event, and that’s the signature event, and then we pat ourselves on the back because we did that one thing,” Cornish said. “This work never ends … so this is our way of continuing the conversation that began last spring.”

During Spring 2022, the first IC Day of Learning was held Feb. 28 by Hillel at Ithaca College and the Center for IDEAS in response to acts of antisemitism on campus. Two swastikas were found drawn on campus — one on a window Feb. 3, 2022, in Baker Walkway and another on a poster Feb. 8, 2022, in the James J. Whalen Center for Music. Cornish said that after the first IC Day of Learning, many members of the campus community expressed the desire for more educational opportunities outside of classes.

While the first IC Day of Learning was a direct response to hateful acts, Benitez’s keynote began to address more subtle issues that marginalized groups experience daily.

Mame Ndiaye, assistant director of NSTP, said during the question and answer portion of the keynote that she has grown used to code-switching while working in higher education, meaning she adjusts certain behaviors, like dialect, to fit into the most accepted way of being in a society. She asked Benitez how he maneuvers through the politics of higher education when, like her, he has identities that fit outside the norm of whiteness.

“Navigating my identities and battling which identity I want to use at that moment — coming from a

first-gen immigrant family, Senegalese Americans — and always having to navigate predominately white spaces — it’s not a challenge, but it’s something that I constantly have to deal with every day,” Ndiaye said.

Benitez said it is important to be one’s authentic self but it is also OK to present oneself differently depending on the environment. He also said that, for Ndiaye, there may be different reactions and repercussions of not code-switching that exist because she is also a woman.

“When I went into academia … I always took pride in carrying myself in a very particular aesthetic that was truly me unapologetically, but I was also willing to bear the consequences of that,” Benitez said. “It didn’t always work out all the time. … I don’t feel like most women can show up unapologetically without the consequential difference of power.”

Some students in the audience, like freshman Caleb Kaufman, brought up questions to Benitez about discussing anti-racism and privilege with others.

“I had a question about how to discuss topics like this with family members because, at least with my family … they have difficulty understanding how [racism] still impacts us today,” Kaufman said.

Strategic questioning is the tool Benitez suggested when speaking with others about topics like anti-racism and equity. He said when he has different viewpoints from someone else, he asks critical questions to encourage them to reflect through their own responses.

“At minimum, if your spirit is like, ‘At least I made an effort to just gently address it and put my love behind it,’ well, that’s really what matters,” Benitez said.

Michael Benitez Jr., vice president for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at Metropolitan State University of Denver, came to Ithaca College on Aug. 21 to give a keynote presentation about anti-racism and advocacy work. leila marcillo-gómez/the ithacan

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additional housing options offer trans and nonbinary students an alternative to gendered residence halls

By ryan johnson

At Ithaca College, there are many resources for transgender and queer students to receive housing that is accommodating to their needs, but some students and staff at the college agree that there are still improvements to be made.

In order to receive desired housing accommodations, students who identify as transgender and nonbinary must fill out the Trans and Non-Binary Housing Request or call the Office of Residential Life to request accommodations. The housing request asks students about which dorm they are most comfortable living in, allows students to choose single, double or triple dorms and asks if students would be more comfortable living on a male, female or co-ed floor. Open Pages is a Residential Learning Community that was founded in Fall 2022 and is located in West Tower. It provides housing accommodations and community to transgender and nonbinary students who are not first-year students. The RLC has garnered national media attention, with many news outlets, including Fox News and InsideHigherEd, highlighting their effort.

Junior Jay Barrett, co-founder of Open Pages, said the housing request met his needs as a transgender student, but his previous housing did not not give him the sense of community that he wanted before living in the RLC.

“Everyone was very chill, [they were] allies, but it still made me a little nervous,” Barrett said. “Even walking back and forth to the shower I was always on edge, and so with Open Pages, I was looking to help create a community where [people] didn’t have to worry about what their peers are thinking and that they can live in a space where they feel comfortable and understood.”

Luca Maurer, interim executive director of Student Equity and Belonging and director of LGBT Education, Outreach & Services, said that the housing accommodations at the college are a good start but that there is more to be done in terms of inclusivity.

“When I first started [at the college], none of the options that we have now existed,” Maurer said. “It was general housing for everybody, but it didn’t meet everybody’s needs.”

Maurer said he wants to see the college create a system that would help transgender and queer students find roommate matches that fit their needs.

“A few years ago, our orientation process used to be in the summer, so students would come in June or July for orientation to sign up for classes and that was a great way for queer and trans students to meet each other,” Maurer said. “I’d love for us to figure out

some additional ways for queer and trans students to meet additional roommate matches before they get [to the college].”

Junior Gwyneth Cole, co-founder of Open Pages, is a Residence Assistant for the RLC and said they feel much more comfortable being an RA to transgender and nonbinary residents.

“College dorms are super gendered regardless,” Cole said. “I used to live in [the] Quads and there was a boys’ side of the floor and a girls’ side of the floor. … In some of the Terraces, there are multi-stall bathrooms with a gender-neutral plaque on it and it’s not really accessible for trans students.”

First-year student August Culhane said they would be interested in joining the RLC, but most of their classes will be at the Roy H. Park School of Communications, and from West Tower it would be a far walk, especially in more extreme weather conditions.

“The idea of being a part of a community of like-minded individuals with a shared background and different experiences [is that] you can learn from each other and have that access right there all the time,” Culhane said.

Culhane said gendered dorms can be isolating to people who identify outside of the gender binary.

For many people who are transgender and nonbinary, public restrooms are a cause of anxiety and discomfort. According to a 2013 study by the Williams Institute that surveyed transgender and gender non-conforming people’s experience in public restrooms in Washington, D.C., 18% of participants reported that they were denied access to a gendered bathroom and 68% reported at least one instance of verbal harassment in bathrooms.

The college provides the locations of every gender-neutral bathroom on campus and in residence

halls on its website, providing resources for students to find the bathrooms they are most comfortable using. Most residence halls are equipped with at least one all-gender restroom, but some, including most of the Upper and Lower Quads, only have gendered communal restrooms.

First-year student Emily Ferencsik lives in Bogart Hall, a residence hall with no all-gender restrooms. Ferencsik said that she would like to see every residence hall equipped with an all-gender restroom because it would make everybody, regardless of how they identify, happier.

Maurer said he would love to see the college upgrade to single-occupancy restrooms in residence halls for all students so the bathrooms would be more like what students have in their homes.

Cole said that the first semester of Open Pages ran smoothly and that the RLC is so popular there is a waitlist. Cole also said via email that the RLC will be open to first-year students starting in Fall 2023. Because of the incoming first-year applicants and the people already on the waitlist, the RLC was approved for a second floor in West Tower starting in Fall 2023. Cole said the goal next year is to keep the first-year students together on the same floor to give them the experience of a first-year dorm.

Barrett said that during the events, he feels more comfortable being himself and that Open Pages allows him to not constantly think about gender.

“When I am hanging out with a bunch of queer or transgender people, it’s like I don’t constantly have to be on guard,” Barrett said. “I don’t have to constantly be thinking about gender and processing it and [be] thinking about how other people think about it. It’s just like, we’re all cool, we’re all queer, we can just hang out and have fun.”

each title in the book.

proposed schedule grid to be implemented in fall 2023 dropped after campus community expressed concerns

By Vivian Rose

OnNov. 3, Ithaca College faculty members were sent an email from the Offices of the Provost and the Registrar explaining that the proposed scheduling grid for Fall 2023 would not be used after faculty raised concerns.

The Offices of the Provost and Registrar have decided to completely do away with their proposed grid and have not set a date when a new grid will be implemented. In the email sent to faculty, the Offices of the Provost and Registrar wrote that about 45 faculty members of the college had filled out a survey they sent Oct. 17 in a separate email that had proposed the scheduling grid.

In the Nov. 3 email, the Offices of the Provost and Registrar said the continued usage of the current grid would serve the college best while the offices plan to analyze data from the 2023–24 academic year in order to determine how a new design can be created by college administrators in the future.

“We will consider data including course credit offering, times of offering by credit, student time conflicts, room utilization, course spread (using all start times 8 a.m. – evening), and other key data points to design the future schedule grid at Ithaca College,” the registrar stated in the email.

However, Michael Smith, adviser and professor in the Department of History, said he is unsure of how the Offices of the Provost and Registrar would achieve this through the 2023–24 academic year. Smith said the email sent by the registrar stated that a new schedule grid had to be developed by November 2022.

In the meantime, Ali Erkan, associate professor and chair in the Department of Computer Science, and Thomas Pfaff, professor and chair in the Department of Mathematics, have decided to create their own grid design for the Fall 2023 semester. They plan to test it for the 2023–24 academic year and then send it to the Provost and Registrar to be fully adopted.

Pfaff said the pair had not been given any direction to create a new grid. However, Pfaff said that given their backgrounds in computer sciences and mathematics, along with speaking to numerous faculty members about what they need for a grid, they knew how to go about designing a new grid.

Pfaff said there is no plan or strategy that the school is trying to implement for the creation of a new grid currently. He said that the process of designing a new grid that he and Erkan are taking on is completely on their own.

“We’re not a committee,” Pfaff said. ”We’re not appointed by the provost. There’s no real sort of

formality to this.”

The grid proposed by Erkan and Pfaff is more compact than the grid proposed by the Offices of the Provost and Registrar and offers 50-, 70-, 75- and 100-minute courses. Erkan said it is different from the grid currently being used, since three-credit, 50-minute courses serve as its foundation.

These two attributes of the current grid have been identified as some of the most problematic pieces of the currently used grid. The current grid does not work efficiently for both faculty or students since it causes many time conflict issues for students either needing courses that overlap or are interested in overlapping courses. Erkan said these are two reasons why the college had pushed to create a new design for the grid in the first place.

The new grid proposed by Erkan and Pfaff includes classes that are switching from three credits to four credits, like labs, practicals and other longer classes with more assigned work than a typical 50-minute, three-credit course.

Sophomore Nandini Agarwal said via email the grid may benefit her as a student since she said she takes on plenty of work at once.

“Taking fewer classes will be great,” Agarwal said. “I, like so many other students, are doing so many things at one time and fewer classes will help to narrow the focus even if the workload is the same.”

Erkan said he admits that the compact design of the grid he and Pfaff created appears to cause as much conflict and has just as many risks as the grid proposed by the provost and registrar; however, he said that this grid offers a chance for more communication between

schools who tend to share students.

Erkan said that while there seems to be several risks involved with the grid on face value, the five schools simply have to communicate in order to minimize that risk.

“[Our grid] actually is advocating for departments to have agency and having a greater set of options,” Erkan said. “If they don’t exercise that agency in the right way, the students will be hurt, because this could potentially lead to a greater number of conflicts.”

Pfaff said communication between the five schools is necessary, regardless of creating a new scheduling grid, especially because the college has had to decrease the amount of sections it can offer per course because of the recent downsizing of the college as enrollment numbers decrease as well.

“When you offer multiple sections of the same class, it’s easy enough for somebody to get what they need,” Pfaff said. “But if you start getting to the point where we’re offering only one section of a course that a lot of people need from different departments, it gets harder to accommodate everyone. I think that it’s more of a problem when you offer fewer sections of courses as a smaller college.”

Along with not receiving any direction from the Offices of the Provost or Registrar, Pfaff said there was also little communication from the school throughout the entire process of creating a new grid from when it began in 2019, until now.

“It seems like one would have spent a lot of time talking to the community before you say, ‘This is the grid we’re gonna use,’” Pfaff said. “But that didn’t happen.”

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bipoc students were promised

commentary: ithaca college's image projects acceptance, but the reality is

By Cyerra Adams

For many of us, Ithaca College is one of the most forward thinking, liberal and supportive places we’ve ever lived in. Coming from Yonkers, I really appreciated the integration of different groups of people in one place and having new identities to explore was amazing. I was in the early stages of finding myself and the college was there to support the many avenues I wanted to explore, specifically when it came to my sexuality. I was never one way or the other, always blurring the lines between straight, bisexual and pansexual, but before that, I was a Black woman looking to feel at home within my community like I did in Yonkers. As time went on, I began to realize something: my sexuality was becoming the forefront of what people wanted to know about me, and I was being forced to think about it more and more, even though I didn’t want to. People were being so vocal about supporting sexuality, gender and all things within the LGBTQ+ community but were rarely speaking up about the need for support of the Black, Indigenous and people of color community here at our primarily white institution. More and more I felt like I was choking on my realization, too afraid to speak up for fear of backlash and being called anti-LGBTQ+ — even though I was a part of the community myself.

Before I go any further, I will say that I’ve kept my

sexuality fluid and have previously identified as bisexual. Because of this, I (for a very long time) didn’t engage or participate in the LGBTQ+ community because of biphobia that I had seen and heard before I came out. However, my participation was hindered further because it wasn’t the identity that was first in my mind; being a Black/mixed race woman was. This was the identity that I was aware of and had to deal with no matter where I was. I also had to think about how to navigate the BIPOC community having its own issues that needed to be dealt with while still trying to feel close to people who were culturally similar to me. I never got to remove or change the way that I looked, and I’d always be a Black woman no matter what — a fact that I am immensely proud of and grateful for.

“Looking” like the group you belong to is something that has become more popular within the LGBTQ+ community as well, as there is a rise in dressing like your sexuality — “she looks lesbian,” “they look nonbinary,” et cetera. This increase in “the LGBTQ+ look” has added to an increase in reasoning for anything bad happening to someone of that community. It’s easier to say that someone wronged an LGBTQ+ community member because of the fact that the wronged person is in that community. This gives white LGBTQ+ community members a way to minoritize themselves, sometimes escaping responsibility for their own actions. They think that making

themselves a minority group will protect them from being bad people.

Outcry leads to things being done, right? Well, for our white LGBTQ+ community members, yes, this is true. Is this the same for our BIPOC students, who have time and time again requested more support, more community building and less usage of our likenesses to fake diversity? No, it’s not. The voices of white students still ring louder at the college, no matter how liberal, diverse or inclusive Ithaca College tries to make itself out to be. But it doesn’t stop there — the City of Ithaca has a history of being performatively supportive of the needs of people of color, and the people in the city are just the same. Through the past four years, Ithaca has lost 247 BIPOC-identifying students with no information on retention and graduation statistics on said students, while the percentage of white students has stayed above 70% since 1985. Personally, I know why. We’re starting to be real with incoming students about what goes on here. None of us want to lie to these students, and they know that this place isn’t what it seems because they can feel it. Ithaca College is a beautiful place with an ugly internal system that no one ever talks about because calling out the performance makes the performers upset. Start supporting your BIPOC students with the same voracity that you support your LGBTQ+ students with — because you can’t have them without us.

not what

Senior Cyerra Adams provides insight as a Black woman on campus. She argues that Ithaca College must be supportive and transparent to the Black student community. Xinyi Qin/ the ithacan

Campus community considers the effects that new ai program, ChatGPT, could have on students' academics

By Prakriti Panwar

ChatGPT, an Artificial Intelligence tool that lets users instantly obtain human-like answers to questions or prompts, rose to controversy during the Spring 2023 semester. Ithaca College’s campus community is considering how the new AI chatbot might affect students’ academics.

Ever since its release in November 2022 by OpenAI, college students across the nation have been using the chatbot to complete their assignments and papers. Higher education institutions have been changing their academic policies to address the issue of students misusing the AI tool.

Doug Turnbull, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at Ithaca College, said ChatGPT is based on a framework called transformer, which first emerged in 2017 and facilitated a wide range of functions, like writing code or stories, across different disciplines.

OpenAI also launched ChatGPT Plus on Feb. 1, which is a subscription model available to users in the United States at $20 per month. ChatGPT Plus will allow users to access the AI chatbot even when there is high web traffic on the site, learn about new features before other users and obtain faster results from the chatbot.

Turnbull said that while he has not studied transformers in depth, what sets ChatGPT apart from other transformers is its ability to focus on specific elements or words of a given prompt and predict the answer based on the content from its database that is relevant to those elements. Turnbull said the AI chatbot uses Natural Language Processing to communicate information to users in a human-like manner.

“[ChatGPT] did a couple of clever things,” Turnbull said. “It really uses attention from what are the keywords from earlier in a … sentence that really matter [when] deciding what the next word is going to be.”

Antony Aumann, professor of philosophy at the University of North Michigan, now requires his students to physically write and present initial versions of their essays in class and explain the changes they make to the draft as they go along the editing process.

Aumann said he also believes that colleges do not need to institute new policies for ChatGPT and can let professors individually decide how they interpret preexisting anti-cheating and plagiarism policies of the institution in the context of ChatGPT.

“I think that there are uses of ChatGPT that are obviously problematic and uses that are acceptable,”

Aumann said. “But obviously, there’s a wide range of uses in between those two extremes that are really hard to negotiate.”

John Barr, professor in the Ithaca College Department of Computer Science, said it is too early to predict if ChatGPT will be detrimental to academics considering that it has not yet reached the stage where it can produce extremely sophis ticated or advanced content. Barr said professors are able to distinguish between con tent curated by ChatGPT and students.

“[ChatGPT] can solve very simple, small prompts that you might get in a classroom, but it’s not ready for prime time,” Barr said. “It’s not the monster people think it is. It’s not God; it’s not going to take over the world. We don’t want to get too excited about this.”

Barr said professors teaching humanities courses can ask students to write something on the first day of class which will help faculty recognize when students misuse the tool because they will know what students’ real writing style is like. He said he plans on working with ChatGPT in his classes and expects students to be transparent with him about it.

“So my plan is to say in my courses, ‘It’s OK to use ChatGPT to

get a start in this code, but you have to acknowledge it and you have to say what it gave you and then how you modified it,’” Barr said. “And it’s like any other tool, right? I can’t stop my students from using a spreadsheet. I can’t stop my students from using Google. And in fact, to be a successful professional, you have to be able to use those tools.”

First-year student Haris Li said that as a computer science major, he feels that knowing how to use ChatGPT based on the assignments that students might have is important.

“I feel like it’s the same as if you went on, let’s say, GitHub or any type of question-asking forum dedicated to coding and then just straight up pull [or] copy the entire code and paste it into your

assignment because in that case, it kind of feels like plagiarism because you didn’t do anything; you didn’t edit it,” Li said. “If it was only a subset of assignment, I will understand because it would be more like, ‘Oh, you got a little bit of help on this’ and, ‘Then you edited this part yourself,’ or, ‘You added on here and there.’”

David Weil, chief information officer in the Office of Information Technology, said ChatGPT has not fully been developed yet. Weil said that while the AI tool collects data from different sources to present the user with one comprehensive answer, the repository of data that the AI is aware of does not extend past 2021.

“ChatGPT is beta,” Weil said. “It’s still in development. I could say, you know, who will win the NFL playoff games this weekend? It says, ‘My knowledge cutoff is in 2021.’ So it can’t tell me about that.”

Weil said users should consider the fact that ChatGPT gets information from sources that already exist.

“So you really have to look at it and you have to question it and use your judgment,”

Weil said. “The other problem with it is you don’t know where it’s getting this information from. So you don’t know if there are biases built into it. You don’t know what the bias is, you don’t know who’s providing that.”

Turnbull said he does not feel the need to institute a collegewide policy to deal with the repercussions of the

chatbot among students.

“It’ll be interesting to see how the new tool is adopted, but I think it does place more value on professors explaining why they’re having students do the work that we’re doing,” Turnbull said. “Professors and students can have mutual respect and work with each other. I don’t necessarily feel like I need students to have some broad policy. … I’d rather have that conversation with the students in my classroom myself.”

Mead Loop, professor in the Department of Journalism and director of the Sports Media program, said ChatGPT is a new tool that the campus community will have to get used to.

Loop said that as of now, professors should be able to address any concerns that might arise as a result of ChatGPT being used by students, as they would normally.

“Plagiarism is plagiarism regardless of the tools that you use,” Loop said. “[Using ChatGPT] would be another form of plagiarism, and we’ll deal with it when we do like anybody else would [under any other circumstance].”

The college also hosted a panel discussion about the AI from 12:10 to 1:00 p.m. Jan. 31 in Textor 102.

A panel of six members from IT, the Provost’s Office, the Center of Faculty Excellence, the Student Governance Council and the Department of Computer Science discussed their thoughts on the AI tool.

In the panel discussion, members of the CFE said they will host discussion sessions that will focus on what faculty can do this semester to adapt to ChatGPT in their classes.

Senior Austin Ruffino, Senate Chair of the SGC, said ChatGPT has been helping him communicate more effectively via email and put his thoughts across succinctly.

Aumann said colleges must teach students how to use ChatGPT ethically and reasonably.

“I think that this technology is going to exist, whether we like it or not,” Aumann said. “And students are going to have access to it the second that they graduate, so you can be naive and just try as best you can to prevent students from using it, but that’s just going to widen the gulf between school and the real world. I think we owe students; we have an obligation to train students to use this technology responsibly.”

illustration by malik clement/the ithacan

Cost of attendance raises for 2023–24 academic year, including an increase in both tuition and housing costs

By syd pierre

TheIthaca College Board of Trustees announced that it has approved changes to the cost of attendance for the 2023–24 academic year, including an increase to the cost of tuition and housing.

In a Nov. 21 Intercom post, David Lissy ’87, chair of the board of trustees, and James Nolan ’77, vice chair of the board of trustees, said that for full-time undergraduate students who live on campus, the cost of attendance will be increasing by 2.89% for a total cost of $65,910. For the 2022–23 academic year, the cost of attendance was $64,060, which was a 2.68% increase from $62,457 in 2021–22. In 2020–21, the cost of attendance was $62,457 and in 2019–20, the cost was $60,845. Included in the increase is a 3.65% increase in tuition, which is rising to $49,880 from $48,126 for the 2022–23 academic year. Tuition for most graduate programs will also increase by 3.65%. From 2019 through 2021, the cost of tuition increased by 2.95% each academic year.

According to Forbes, the average tuition prices for private colleges have doubled over the past 30 years, totaling to an annual increase of 3.2% on average.

For the 2023–24 academic year, there is a 1% increase for room — $9,160 — and no increase in board — $6,870. The $75 public health fee has also been eliminated.

“The modest increase for returning students is in line with the Four-Year Financial Forecast first introduced for this year’s incoming class, which set an annual cap of 2.9% on their direct cost increases for

each of their four years at the college,” the post stated. Following the implementation of the Four-Year Financial Forecast — a walkthrough of the costs of all four years of attendance for incoming students — for the Class of 2026, each incoming class will be assigned a direct cost cap, meaning that the maximum percentage the cost could increase for their four years will be set prior to their arrival.

Shana Gore, executive director of Student Financial Services, said that, in theory, there could be four different caps for each of the four class years. Gore said that because of the increases in costs for everything as a result of inflation, the college wanted to work to implement the Four-Year Financial Forecast.

The post also stated that the college has decided on the costs for the Class of 2027. The total direct cost for the first year will be $66,540 and the cost increases are set at a maximum of 3.5% each academic year.

Tim Downs, vice president of Finance and Administration and chief financial officer, said via email there are many factors that go into calculating the maximum cost increase.

“The main factors considered are based on the costs needed to operate the institution,” Downs said. “In years, like the last one, where the costs for labor, services and supplies have increased significantly, the cap will be set higher.”

According to the post, about 93% of students receive some form of financial aid directly from the college, which adds up to $117 million. Gore said students could receive more aid each year when tuition increases, but it is entirely dependent on the student’s

situation and need, as well as where they are receiving the aid from.

Sophomore Ainsley Perkins said she thought the college was not the best in terms of having financial stability. She said she would be receiving more financial aid if she chose to go to an in-state college in her home state of Massachusetts.

“I chose this school for the connections and for believing it would be a good school to come to,” Perkins said. “I also have been very honestly looking at transferring, with price raises, with closing down parts of the school and making it all smaller. … The school has to acknowledge there are a lot of people from Massachusetts here. A lot of us could get it cheaper outside of here, especially with the price raises.”

Junior Henry Vierschilling said he thought the increases in the cost of attendance were disappointing and a sign that the college is still struggling through the COVID-19 pandemic — noting faculty cuts made as a part of the Academic Program Prioritization process as an example.

“I had a cousin who was interested or at least potentially interested in applying to the college,” Vierschilling said. “But this school is so clearly in a state of tumultuousness that it does not inspire confidence in its students, and to raise prices, raise tuition and housing is, I would say, offensive. I think there needs to be stronger justification than what’s in that [post].”

Assistant News Editor Noa Ran-Ressler contributed reporting to this story.

illustration by grace vanderveer/the ithacan

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commentary: current college seniors fear the weight of paying off their student debt following covid-19

By ella skinner

Ihave always pushed back the thought of paying off my student debt. However, now that I am a senior and approaching my very last semester at Ithaca College, the reality of these payments is becoming much more pressing.

I am very fortunate to be splitting the price of my private institution education with my parents. Still, I have requested upwards of $40,000 from Citizens Bank, a private loan supplier.

What really makes this number daunting is the added interest. When I finish paying back my student loans, I will likely pay around the same amount in interest as the loan was worth in the first place, ultimately doubling the price of the loan. And unfortunately, interest rates have been on the rise since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, my student loan interest rate increased by over 3% during the last two years.

It is intimidating for me to wrap my head around how much student debt I will have when I graduate from the college in May 2023, but I am encouraged to work hard for a career within public relations or strategic communication that will help me pay it off quickly.

Another thing important to mention is that the number of private loan funds I expected to request during my time at the college dramatically decreased due to the pandemic. I saved quite a bit of money during the two-and-a-half semesters when I lived at home in 2020–21. This unexpected aspect of my college experience was certainly challenging, but I am now grateful for the money I saved and the personal growth that I experienced during the turbulence of the last few years.

I would be interested to find out if other current college students had a similar financial experience during the pandemic. According to the latest data from the College Board, between the 2020–21 academic years, total annual per-student borrowing fell by 5%. Student debt has been a problem in our country for many decades, and it is curious how the pandemic might have altered our perception of cheaper, online classes.

We also may now reconsider the process of repaying our debt, seeing as the government implemented an extended pause on student loan repayment during this recent crisis.

In fact, in November 2022, the U.S. Department of Education announced an extension of the pause on

student loan repayment interest and collections. The pause could last until the summer of 2023. Nevertheless, the payments will eventually resume and student debt is still something millions of Americans struggle with financially.

It makes very little sense why student debt is so much higher in the U.S. compared to other countries around the world. With the exception of the United Kingdom, U.S. student loan amounts are nearly double that of all other countries.

At this point, my experience with student debt is only the nervous anticipation of what it will be like for me to start paying off my loans. I will have to hustle throughout my young adulthood to get ahead of the debt, but I feel motivated and ready to start. According to recent data, 20 years after entering school, half of student borrowers still owe $20,000 each on outstanding loan payments. I will try my best not to let that happen to me, but the time it takes many people to fully pay off their student debt can be unfortunately very long. However, I am grateful for my college education, and if given a chance, I would choose again to attend an expensive private university. I had a great time the past four years and overall I feel prepared for my life post-graduation.

Senior Ella Skinner talks about her experience with student debt so far. She discusses the effects COVID-19 had on the cost of student loans and wonders why the U.S. tolerates enormous student debt. Skinner said she has requested upwards of $40,000 from Citizens Bank, which is a priv ate loan supplier.

Leila Marcillo-Gómez/the ithacan

the ithacan's Diversity Report - fall 2022

Headline goes here and in most cases there should be two lines of text for each title in the book.

Thisyear, The Ithacan is revisiting last year’s diversity report. The new diversity report was formulated by the current community outreach manager. We asked for demographic information in an effort to compare last year’s data and monitor changes and improvements. The new survey consisted of 10 questions and some were answered by multiple choice while others were open-ended. Similar to our previous report, all answers are anonymous, and the answers were charted and compared to available Ithaca College student population data. The survey was sent out to all 26 of The Ithacan’s editorial board members and 23 of them answered. This diversity report serves as a progress report and motivation for our team to develop strategies and devise a plan to attain them. As a paper led by students, we are conscientious of the importance of amplifying marginalized voices. We will continue to work on reflecting that with the representation in our editorial board and our coverage of all communities on campus. That starts with sharing comprehensive data about our demographics.

our findings

In the past year, The Ithacan began to implement diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging sessions. We asked board members to attend these sessions and held a debrief meeting at the end of the semester to discuss our approach to DEIB. In future semesters, we hope to open these sessions to all staff and create a time for the staff and editorial board members to have an open dialogue about topics ranging from intersectionality to microaggressions in the workplace. The previous diversity report allowed us to share this year’s data and reflect on our progress and update the steps that need to be taken.

The purpose of this diversity report is to be fully transparent about our makeup as an organization and address gaps in our representation. We are determined to build a more balanced workplace that recognizes that diversity is intersectional, and encouraging an inclusive environment is a step toward equitable and impartial coverage.

While this report can track significant progress, we recognize that it will take continued effort to hold ourselves accountable.

• In our sexuality section, there was a substantial increase in our representation of LGBTQ+ members, and the data is becoming increasingly balanced between all sexual identities.

• We’ve taken steps to introduce our board to DEIB sessions led by The Center of IDEAS, ranging in topics from intersectionality to implicit bias.

In accordance with the U.S. Census Bureau’s standard of collecting racial and ethnic background data, this survey question had six multiple-choice options. The Ithacan editorial board continues to be predominantly white, with the percentage of white editorial board members growing 5.3% from last year. While there was no mixed-race option, this survey question allowed for multiple answers. The findings show that there are still no members that are Alaskan Native or Pacific Islander. Black, Indigenous and people of color on The Ithacan’s board represented 28% of the newsroom; a 5.4% decrease in BIPOC representation compared to 2021. This is 7.3% higher than the BIPOC population at Ithaca College, compared to last year’s 10.1%. Population data for the campus is located under the Office of Analytics and Institutional Research on the college’s website. Its data classification is different, as the college includes international populations. However, our survey did not include a question about international student status.

For comparison, Ithaca College’s most recent data from Fall 2021 reports that students are 72.4% white, 4.8% unknown, 2.1% international and 20.7% BIPOC.

Nonbinary

The Ithacan board continues to be predominantly composed of cisgender women, with cisgender women making up 65.2% of the board, an 8.7% decline compared to last year. Cisgender men make up 21.7% of our board, a 4.3% increase compared to last year. The student body of Ithaca College is reported as being 56.7% women and 43.3% men. Nonbinary representation on the editorial board has grown to 8.7%, a 4.4% increase from last year. Transgender representation is low at 4.3% but is an increase from last year’s 0%. The AIR does not report the number of nonbinary or transgender students at the college.

• Our nonbinar y and trans population has grown significantly.

• While our data shows that the representation of people of color grew, the numerical gap between the POC and white members also widened.

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This survey question was not multiple choice, and each board member wrote their answer in a text box. This means the categories for sexuality data are specific to how the board member completing the form identifies. This year the board is much more balanced, with both bisexual and heterosexual sexual identities reported at 30.4%. While 13% identified as lesbian, 8.7% queer, and 4.3% as gay, there are no individuals who identified as pansexual. For this and the following categories, there is no readily available data to compare with the college’s student body. However, the college continues to be ranked as the “Best of the Best” on the Campus Pride index since 2012.

Like other categories, there is still no publicly available data to compare the larger student body with The Ithacan’s board. However, our population of disabled members has grown from 4.3% to 8.7%.

The editorial board is considerably more balanced with the number of sophomores and seniors being the same at 34.8% while the number of juniors on the board decreased from 46.2% to 30.4%. The editorial board for the fall semester was hired during the previous spring semester, so there were no incoming first-year students on campus, and therefore, they are not represented on the editorial board. First-year students are also seldom hired as board members.

our call to action

According to the college’s website, 15% of the student body is first-generation students. Ithaca College defines First Generation as “Students (and their siblings) who are the first in their family to attend and graduate from a four-year residential college in the U.S.” The college’s data has not been updated for the 2022–23 academic year. Our representation of first-generation students has decreased from 8.7% to a low 4.5%.

We are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive community that amplifies marginalized voices. We are focused on developing activities and scenarios that reflect our progress and the work that still has to be done. We are hoping to expand our resources dedicated to DEIB and continue to search for other resources that promote diversity in the workplace.

Life & Culture

Kalysta donaghy-robinson/the ithacan

the ithaca night bazaar offers artists and musicians space to share their crafts with the ithaca community

By Elizabeth Kharabadze

Beneath

the warm glow of fairy lights, the sound of reggae and funk music filled the air as artists happily talked to guests about their art, and Ithaca creatives convened to dance the night away in a celebration of music, art and life.

The Ithaca Night Bazaar began for the first time in 2022 and runs monthly from May to September at the Ithaca Farmers Market with an eclectic mix of visual artists, vendors and performers.

The bazaar takes inspiration from Asian street markets and European music festivals, welcoming a diverse crowd to peruse through the booths while enjoying live music. The Aug. 18 market featured artists, including SunDub, Bella’s Bartock and Ithaca local Road Man — as well as a performance by Parlor City Burlesque.

Jack Clausen, one of the event’s organizers, said the bazaar was a joint effort between him and his wife

Sarah Clausen to support local and regional artists. Jack Clausen said he was especially surprised that there were no events like the bazaar in Ithaca before the May 2022 launch of the night bazaar.

“We were just talking about how it’d be super cool to do one of these late night markets, introducing different ideas and different aspects,” Clausen said. “Not just the food but apparel, vintage things … and then mixing a live music element as well.”

Jonathan Petronzio ’04, performed on stage with his solo experimental music project, Road Man, which mixes funk, blues and reggae through the lens of introspection and environmentalism. Petronzio previously performed with the funk band Revision — producing six albums and touring across the United States with bands including Sublime, Groundation and the Easy Star All-Stars. After turning away from the hustle and bustle of life on the road, Petronzio said he created Road Man, which documents the past seven years of his life.

“In all the traveling that I did, I never really found a place that was so special,” Petronzio said. “It took years, but we did it. … Everybody comes together and you get to see this beautiful local community of people who love live music. … Even though it’s a small town, [there is] a lot of rich music.”

Russell Posegate, instructor in the Ithaca College Department of Music Theory, History, and Composition, said it was his first time at the bazaar and that while he came to support Petronzio, he was also pleasantly surprised by how many people came out to support music and the arts.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Posegate said that it was especially important to support live music.

“I’m glad that there are so many people who are willing to come out for live music,” Posegate said. “It’s really encouraging to see.”

The effects of COVID-19 deeply impacted the concert industry, with many artists forced to cancel or

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Ithaca local Jonathan Petronzio ’04 performs Aug. 18 at the Ithaca Night Bazaar for the first time with his experimental funk and reggae music project, Road Man. The Ithaca Night Bazaar, which began for the first time in 2022, welcomes diverse local and regional artists and musicians to the Ithaca Farmers Market. kalysta donaghy-robinson/The ithacan

postpone live shows in 2020 following the outbreak. In 2021, live music began its slow recovery as artists began to reconnect with fans and venue operators grappled with balancing COVID-19 restrictions with a desire to return to normalcy. With venues reopening, the next challenge lies in getting people to attend live concerts. Petronzio said he was glad to see there was still a need for it.

“The pandemic really shifted so much to the outdoor venue,” Petronzio said. “So even though it kind of feels like the tail end of that chapter, it’s kind of cool too that things shifted toward these kinds of venues that normally wouldn’t have had that same kind of draw. And we don’t play a whole lot. We’re hoping to play a lot more in the coming year.”

Olivia Gillespie, owner of Baked by Liv, said she was a first-time attendee at the bazaar.

Gillespie said she initially heard about the bazaar while vending at the Freeville Farmers Market in Freeville, New York.

“There’s a lot of variety, which is really cool,” Gillespie said. “And in terms of the vendors that are here, I’ve heard great things about it just through social media and word of mouth. And so I’m just really excited.”

Becoming disillusioned by online classes during the pandemic, Gillespie said she decided to take time off from Cornell University in 2021 to focus primarily on Baked by Liv.

“I think there’s so much to be said about sharing

with other people,” Gillespie said. “And, just like, the connection you have when you do something like that. I love seeing how happy little kids’ faces and adults’ faces light up when they see cookies and things like that.”

Similarly, Brighit May, a local witch and jewelry

artist, said she took the pandemic as an opportunity to step away from retail work to create a business on her own terms. After losing her job because of the pandemic, May said she turned her attention toward figuring out what she wanted to do for herself.

“My main prerogative every day is just to have as much fun as I can,” May said. “The more I [made jewelry], the more fun it was, you know, printing things out, getting more and more competent at the machine, seeing like, ‘What can I do?’ You know, ‘How can I take the things that I can have and branch them out? What do I make for myself that I can make for other people? What delights me and might delight other people?’”

Huyen Tang, owner of Suede Moon, said he was also in attendance at the bazaar for the first time. Tang said she was inspired by the celestial — turning her love of crystals and mushrooms into a business selling rings, necklaces and candles. The bazaar, Tang said, was a great opportunity to meet like-minded creative individuals.

“I think that’s really cool because right now it’s like a side gig for me,” Tang said. “I’m seeing people who were like, ‘Oh, yeah, I worked on this for two years, and now I do this for a living.’ That’s what I want [to do], so it’s really inspiring.”

A crowd of people gather Aug. 18 at the Ithaca Farmers Market to listen to a blend of live folk and reggae music from Road Man, SunDub and Bella’s Bartok. The Bazaar began in 2022 and runs monthly from May to September.

KALYSTA DONAGHY-ROBINSON/The ithacan

Petronzio performs Aug. 18 at the Ithaca Night Bazaar. His project, Road Man, is the result of Petronzio’s self-introspection.

KALYSTA DONAGHY-ROBINSON/The ithacan

Headline goes here and in most cases there should be two lines of text for each title in the book.

ithaca staple, the alley cat cafe, is featured in a Netflix documentary about the science behind cats' behavior

By prakriti panwar

Alley Cat Cafe, a place that prides itself on being a shared community for coffee and cat lovers of Ithaca, was used as a shoot location and set for a recent Netflix documentary “Inside the Mind of a Cat.”

The documentary, produced by Red Rock Films, which was released Aug. 18, focused on cat research conducted by scientists across the world as well as the science be hind cats’ behaviors and actions. Several action shots with in the documentary were shot in the Alley Cat Cafe, located in Downtown Ithaca. It was the Red Rock Films crew that reached out to the cafe after already being in touch with Bruce Kornreich, senior extension associate director at the Cornell Feline Health Center, Kristin O’Scammon, owner of the Alley Cat Cafe, said.

“In kind of brainstorming together, [the producers] thought that, you know, that the Alley Cat Cafe would be awesome,” Kornreich said. “Because they’re just a great local entity. What they’re doing is very consistent with what we’re trying to do, which is trying to provide people with really positive experi ences with cats and the benefits that cats can provide. ”

The documentary crew spent a sig nificant amount of time in the cozy and aromatic shoot location, while Kornreich said he shot his clips in a local Airbnb because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the crew first came into the cafe, their emphasis was different, O’Scammon said. It was more focused on what she called the “cat and human connection,” or the emotional bond between the two. The crew was initially interested in talking to someone who had adopted a cat from the cafe — which they did get on camera, but did not use for the documentary, O’Scammon said. The documentary focused more on the science behind cats’ behaviors and cat research by the time it came out.

Ithaca College first-year student Paris Agiomavri tis said she recently visited the cafe and talked with O’Scammon about the documentary.

“I heard about the Netflix docu mentary from the owner herself and I found out some interesting details from her,” Agiomavritis said. “I guess the Netflix docu mentary was originally going to be

totally different from what was released. It was much more centered around community service and how the cats have helped people with anxiety and depression, a much more serious documentary than what was turned out.”

we need because cats aren’t meant to be caged; they’re meant to be roaming around free. So I’m just glad that they got a good representation or view of what cats

The cats at Alley Cat Cafe are from Browncoat Cat Rescue, a volunteer-run organization that brings “adoptable kitties” to the cafe. Along with BCR, the cafe hopes to “create a sense of community; a place for people to come together with a common interest.”

The cafe has high- and low-energy rooms that cater to what mood one is in.

and human beings.

Regardless of the outcome, O’Scammon said she enjoyed the process. But at the same time, she would have liked it if the documentary focused more on educating people about foster ing cats and taking care of them.

First-year student Samantha Guzman, who has two cats of her own, said she liked the accurate repre sentation of cats in the documentary.

“In terms of the documentary, it’s just nice to get scenes of the cats just playing around and being their natural selves rather than getting a sad view of the cats caged in a shelter,” Guzman said. “I think that’s what

The high-energy room is an option for people with allergies who can watch the more social, high-energy cats play from the cafe seating area. The low-energy room, located at the back of the store, is better suited for those who want to cuddle with the more laidback kittens while

“I was able to start off easy with cats in the low-energy room that just like to sleep and then build myself up to the more playful ones,” Agiomavritis said. “So I definitely think as a person who hasn’t really had experience with cats, it’s well worth the hype and I would definitely go there again.”

The Alley Cat Cafe, featured in the recent Netflix documentary “Inside the Mind of a Cat, ” is home to cats, like Emilia, drinks and food. The documentary was released Aug. 18 and focuses on cat research. Rory cassidy/the ithacan

Ithaca College chemist is highlighted in youtube series for using cooking to promote diversity in stem field

By evan miller

Honey

and dried guajillo chiles was the dish of choice that Daisy Rosas Vargas, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at Ithaca College, prepared in an episode of the “Chemists in the Kitchen” YouTube series which she was featured in during summer 2022.

Rosas Vargas appeared in the episode from her kitchen in Ithaca alongside Robin Mays, a chemical engineer, and Matt Hartings, an associate professor of chemistry at American University in Washington, D.C. All three scientists appeared in the episode remotely from their own homes. The video explored the topic of why chile peppers are spicy and what can be done to tame their spiciness.

Rosas Vargas said she was contacted through Instagram in late December 2021 by Keri Stoever, a program officer at LabX, the public engagement program of the National Academy of Sciences, which produces the “Chemists in the Kitchen” series. Stoever wanted to schedule a meeting with Rosas Vargas to gauge her interest in participating in the project.

Rosas Vargas later filmed the video in May, and it was released on LabX’s YouTube channel in June.

Through her participation in the video, Rosas Vargas, who identifies as an Indigenous person of color, said she wanted to represent female chemists and chemists of color who do not normally see people like them represented within the scientific community.

“Not many people get to see that,” Rosas Vargas said. “YouTube is so big; I think it’s an awesome opportunity for people who do have access to it to see someone that may look like them.”

Stoever said LabX tries to reach people who might not exactly love science but enjoy cooking.

The idea for the show, which began in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, is to teach audiences how cooking is almost entirely chemis try and some biology or physics mixed in. In the past, the show has ex plored the differences between quick pickling and fermentation, how different types of flour with varying gluten content affect baking soft

pretzels, and much more. With all of the scientists in its cast, the show aims to reflect that they are all relatable.

“These are scientists, but they’re real people,” Stoever said. “They are not just professors and they are not just researchers. They’re just regular people who hang out in their kitchens and try to make good food.”

Rosas Vargas’ goal aligned with that of LabX, which in their content aims to be representative of all diversities and show audiences that there are people like them in the scientific field.

“They’re not just fact-checking robots,” Stoever said. “They’re not all old white men in lab coats.”

Lack of diversity and representation is not a foreign issue within the sciencommunity. While 13% of the population of the U.S. is Black, only 6% of faculty positions in STEM departments of academia are made up of Black researchers. In all science and engineering roles, white males make up about one half of all who are employed in S&E occupations.

Nearly 62% of Black STEM employees have experienced ethnic or racial discrimination in the workplace, while Asians and Hispanics have experienced 44% and 42% respectively.

The idea of properly representing those who are underrepresented is one that not only Rosas Vargas identifies with, but one that junior Rachel Hollis identifies with as well.

Hollis said she and Rosas Vargas have spoken in the past about the need for diversity within the scientific community.

“I think it’s important to open up a conversation about it because it does need to be talked about, not

in an aggressive way,” Hollis said. “But I do think that she’s trying to start that conversation.”

Hollis said Rosas Vargas has been an invaluable asset for her in the past, introducing her to various resources available for her on campus if she ever faces bias or other barriers from her professors or peers based only on her race.

Hollis said she has experienced acts of bias in some of her own classes.

She has had instances where she would submit scientific reports with white colleagues to then see the credit for the entire report go to those white colleagues and not to her as well. This would at times occur even when she may have been the one to write the entire report.

Hollis said she appreciates that Rosas Vargas is willing to start conversations about proper representation for women and minorities within STEM.

“I like that even if it’s not within STEM, she also tries to help minorities find resources on campus that maybe we wouldn’t know about,” Hollis said.

On “Chemists in the Kitchen,” Rosas Vargas was able to represent her own culture, not only through her honey and dried guajillo chilies dish, but also through what she used to cook it.

One of the recipes in her dish was a chile paste that her grandmother had made for her that she holds very dear.

“I have carried this at least for the past five years,” she explained in the video.

The dish itself did not end up being as spicy as Rosas Vargas thought it could have been. On her own personal spicy scale, she gave the dish a three or four out of ten.

She acknowledged that she may be a bit biased in terms of how much spiciness she can handle, but she encourages people to never turn away spicy foods.

“Don’t completely ignore spicy food because you think you can’t handle it,” Rosas Vargas said. “Just try it at least once to say that you tried it as opposed to rejecting it all completely.”

Rosas Vargas said she hopes to return to “Chemists in the Kitchen” in the future, where she would be very interested in being featured in an episode about brining and how it changes the taste of meat.

Stoever said that Rosas Vargas is in the show’s rotation of chemists and looks to have her back on the show in 2023.

Daisy Rosas Vargas

Thomas Kerrigan/ the ithacan

ithaca favorite, Porchfest, returns to the music scene after covid-19 restrictions brought two-year hiatus

By Elizabeth Kharabadze

As 12 p.m. hit on a rainy Sunday afternoon, porches suddenly came to life with varying sounds and vocals from performers eager to partake in a yearly tradition of bonding over music with friends, family and Ithaca locals.

Porchfest returned to Ithaca in full swing Sept. 25, following a two-year hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each year in September, music lovers convene to witness a medley of rock, folk, gospel and choir — just to name a few — on the porches of homes in the Fall Creek and Northside

neighborhoods of Ithaca.

What started as outdoor ukulele playing and a conversation between neighbors Gretchen Hildreth and Lesley Greene in 2007 evolved into an Ithaca staple, highlighting local musicians and inviting them to perform in neighborhoods they are familiar with. While only 20 groups performed at the first Porchfest in 2007, the number of participants has since expanded — welcoming about 150 performers at the 2022 event. With Ithaca as its inspiration, Porchfest has also expanded internationally, with 170 cities across the United States and Canada hosting similar events.

Andy Adelewitz, co-organizer of Porchfest, said

the driving mission of Porchfest is giving local artists the space to perform for members of the community. While the original concept started out simple in nature, he said the event has grown exponentially in recent years.

“It was really just about getting people out of their houses and celebrating playing music for your neighbors, by neighbors, and celebrating this really cool musical community that we have here,” Adelewitz said.

Performances were broken up into hour-long time slots, with acoustic performances starting off the day’s events at 12 p.m. and non-acoustic sets running from 1 to 6 p.m.

Headline goes here and in most cases there should be two lines of text for each title in the book.

The Diana Leich quartet performs at Porchfest on Sept. 25 as crowds of people walk by, taking in the sound of various music genres from different porches. Jasmine Scriven/the ithacan

Adelewitz said Porchfest is a community effort. Between arranging performers, sorting out food vendors and planning street closures for pedestrians to easily bounce from porch to porch, it took a team of about 70 dedicated volunteers to bring the event to life this year. He said that despite the hardships from behind-the-scenes work, running Porchfest is something he enjoys doing.

“People will ask us, ‘Why do you keep doing this year after year,’” Adelewitz said. “And the answer is always because I want Porchfest to keep happening, so we keep making it happen. That’s really all it is. And that’s the payoff.”

For some community members, Porchfest is a beloved tradition. Ithaca College senior Eleanor Shanton, an Ithaca local, said she always looks forward to Porchfest and is especially glad to see the event’s return to the community after its hiatus.

“We’re still in the middle of a pandemic, but it kind of feels like things are starting to get normal again,” Shanton said. “This has been such a big, communal thing for the city for years now. … We’ve made it through what has been hitting us the past couple of years and we will continue to persevere through whatever is coming in the future.”

Adelewitz similarly said there was increased interest from the community to see the event return to its former glory. Adelewitz said that it was evident early on in 2020 that Porchfest would not be able to happen because of social distancing guidelines. While there were plans for the event’s return in 2021, he said it became clear after a certain point that planning a public gathering as large as Porchfest while following COVID-19 safety protocols was still impossible.

“It’s really exciting to have it back this year,” Adelewitz said. “We’ve heard a lot of excitement from the community. This is an event people really love. It just feels nice to be [back].”

Cornell University alum Cristina Dabaco said she views Porchfest as a unique opportunity to form a closer connection to local artists in a way unlike other music festivals and performances.

“I think it gives people a chance to share what

they are thinking and feeling,” Dabaco said. “One of the performances we saw already I felt was communicating the artist’s unique perspective and worldview. And I feel like it seems like a good thing for a community to see your neighbors in a nice setting, but you could still … express your thoughts about the world.”

For others, Porchfest provides a link between college and local communities. Ithaca College senior Sara Ostermeier said Porchfest was one of those opportunities that provided an incentive for college students to explore the community.

“I definitely feel, like, as a college student, it makes me feel connected,” Ostermeier said. “We had Apple [Harvest Festival] last year, but it’s different than being able to just walk around and hear music.”

First-year student Sophia Kasper, who attended Porchfest for the first time this year, said she was impressed by the musical diversity of the performers and that it was a great way to support local artists.

“I love supporting other people’s passions,” Kasper said. “I guess it’s sweet; if I was doing music, I’d love [to be supported].”

Adelewitz said part of the charm of the event was the

diverse range of performers — from seasoned artists to local choir groups.

“It’s all about the music and the people who are making it,” Adelewitz said. “This ranges from bands that are out gigging and [at] clubs all the time all year long to people whose only gig of the year will be Porchfest. … There’s nothing else quite like it.”

From left, Cornell graduate students Jessica Lyemore, Sharon Xiao, Josh Jones, Diana Balint and Hector Loyola meet up at Porchfest on Sept. 25. jADyN DAVIS/THE ITHACAN

A group of Ithaca locals wait in line for food trucks like Silo Food Truck, taking in the smell of warm food and listening to the different sounds of live music. MARI KODAMA/THE ITHACAN

Fall in ithaca on film

Schoolyard Sugarbush, one of the businesses at the 40th Annual Apple Harvest Festival on The Commons, sold a variety of maple syrup products. Ray Milburn/The Ithacan

The gorges and trails of Buttermilk Falls State Park are popular nature attractions in Ithaca for both frequent hikers and tourists alike. Kalysta Donaghy-Robinson/The Ithacan

Emma Galletta, an employee at Sugar Lips Ice Cream, serves caramel apples to attendees of the 40th Annual Apple Harvest Festival. Ray Milburn/The Ithacan

The upper part of Buttermilk Falls State Park in Ithaca features a trail surrounded by trees that gives hikers a view of the old stone dam. Kalysta Donaghy-Robinson/The Ithacan

Defensive coordinator Trevor Warner talks to the Ithaca College football team during a game Oct. 8 against the University of Rochester. Brendan Iannucci/The Ithacan

Brendan Iannucci/The Ithacan

Senior Miriam Maistelman takes in the lush fall scenery of the Ithaca College Natural Lands while hiking on a class outing. Leila Marcillo-Gómez/The Ithacan

Dolly had a blast running around the pumpkins at the popular fall attraction, Indian Creek Farm, in her festive jack-o’-lantern costume. Ray milburn/the ithacan

the college talks all things film with pre-FLEFF events

Headline goes here and in most cases there should be two lines of text for each title in the book.

By evan miller

The Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival is the second oldest environmental and human rights film festival in the United States. During its 25 years as an Ithaca staple, it has captivated, entertained and enlightened international audiences through a variety of multimedia events and conversations.

Now entering its 26th year, the festival had its humble beginnings at Cornell University while also partnering and collaborating with Ithaca College. Although the college has always been one of the major supporting sponsors of FLEFF and events for the festival were held at the college when it began, the college did not run it.

This year, FLEFF has found its new home at the college’s Roy H. Park School of Communications. To celebrate this development, the Park School announced it will be hosting five pre-festival events for the first time in conjunction with Cinematic Currents: FLEFF and the History of Film Festivals, a new Park course for FLEFF interns, in a series it is branding “Festivals in Focus.”

Not only will these pre-festival events, which are open to the public, serve as the kickoff for this year’s FLEFF film festival, it will also mark the beginning of a new public-facing initiative developed by Amy Falkner, dean of the Park School. As part of the pre-festival events, the Park Communications Forum aims to address current and unfolding developments affecting the field of communications nationally and internationally through the promotion of critical analysis and public dialogues.

A Deep Dive Into FLEFF, the first of these events, took place Feb. 1 in the form of a roundtable conversation be tween Patricia Zimmermann, Charles A. Dana professor of screen studies in the Department of Media Arts, Sciences and Studies and director of FLEFF, and Tanya Saunders, retired assistant provost in the Department of International Programs and Extended Studies and executive producer emer ita of FLEFF.

The roundtable, which celebrated FLEFF’s history as an interdisciplinary, multi-arts festival was moderated by Andrew Utterson, associate professor in the Department of Media Arts, Sciences and Studies. Utterson has been involved with FLEFF for over 10 years and thought of the events for Festivals

in Focus with the goal of enhancing the festival experience itself by bringing in professors and ex perts to discuss the state of the film industry. Through the five conversations, he said he wants his students and the public to gain new perspectives and understandings, collectively enriching the festival ex perience before it begins March 20.

This year, FLEFF will run from March 20 through April 9. The festival will feature over 65 events, including displaying films, new media, con certs, book launches, showings of silent films with live music, talks, roundtables, forums and more. While most of the events will be taking place at the college, select showings of films will be hosted by FLEFF part ner and local independent cinema Cinemapolis in Downtown Ithaca.

“The hope is to begin the party early in terms of unique pleasures and opportunities, in terms of bringing people together to discuss the environment and the various environ ments we all inhabit,” Utterson said.

Other roundtable discussions in the series that occurred include “Public Health and Media Cam paigns,” “Resets of Festivals and Theatrical Runs,”

and “Shifting Terrain: Pro ducing Live Events.”

how they each aim to incorporate multiple voices and perspectives. Polyphony, itself, means combining various individual elements to create something harmonic. This is some thing Zimmermann said she takes pride in and hopes to reflect through the festival’s interdisciplinary structure.

“FLEFF has a mission and a mandate to be in terdisciplinary and that is from the time it started,” Zimmermann said. “When it moved to Ithaca Col lege, that was more than a mandate. It was a direct institutional goal and, of course, it’s a goal that I completely agree with intellectually.”

Organizers of the festival have encour aged the participation of all five of the college’s

encouraged attendees to ask inquisitive questions to each speaker throughout the five events to further their knowledge about the world of media and how film festivals bring important ideas to the table for discussion, an idea that Brett Bossard ’95, executive director of Alumni and Family Engagement, said he personally identifies with.

Bossard served as the executive director of Cinemapolis for nine years before transitioning to his new role at his alma mater in September 2022. Bossard said that at the theater, he was more hands-on regarding the execution of the festival. In his previous role, he specialized in managing relationships with distributors and handling things around the venue. He now holds a more advisory role at the college, focusing largely on the campus experience while co-teaching the Cinematic Currents: FLEFF and the History of Film Festivals course with Utterson and Rachel Schaff, lecturer in the Department of Media Arts, Sciences and Studies.

Bossard’s decade of experience at Cinemapolis and his direct knowledge of film distribution and festivals informs his impressions of the present state of film festivals. Similar to how many of FLEFF’s 65-plus events will be both in person and virtual, so too will other festivals in the future. While he believes this is a necessary effort considering the state of the industry in the post-pandemic world, he maintains that the best way to experience film festivals is in person.

“There’s no replacing an in-person film screening and the kind of energy that comes from being in a communal environment, seeing a film for the first time and being able to, in that immediacy, really address the issues that a film brings up and talk about those issues in a local context with the people sitting right next to you,” Bossard said.

The future of film festivals and the role that streaming and virtual platforms like Zoom will continue to play as the industry returns to a state of an embodiment will be a major topic of discussion throughout the remaining pre-festival events.

“Every issue being discussed is turbulent,” Zimmermann said. “This is the biggest reset in the arts and entertainment industry since the coming of sound in 1927 and since the Paramount Decree in 1948 and since the massive conglomeration in the early ’60s and since the massive mergers in the late ’80s. This is a huge time of turbulence. Things are being reorganized.”

Learning more about these topics and the other academic institutions participating in the remaining pre-festival events are just two things that junior Guadalupe Fanelli is looking forward to in the coming

weeks. Fanelli, a cinema production and screen cultures major who also participated in the FLEFF mini-course offered by the Park School before it became a four-credit seminar this year, is happy to see a lot of the same themes carry over but with new events and new opportunities.

“There’s a lot more to engage with and I think that’s intellectually exciting,” Fanelli said.

Freshman Madison Schriver said they are also eager to engage with the various opportunities that the festival will provide this year.

“For me, I’ve never attended any kind of film festival,” Schriver said. “So, just the fact to be watching all these different varieties of films and cinema and emerging media is what I’m most looking forward to in the class.”

A group of people gather to listen to a roundtable discussion for the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival. The discussion is part of several pre-festival events. jadyn davis/The ithacan

Headline goes here and in most cases there should be two lines of text for each title in the book.

ithaca college celebrates the spirit of compassion with ephemeral sand mandalas made by Tibetan monks

By Prakriti Panwar

Two monks clad in red and yellow robes from Ithaca’s Namgyal Monastery Institute of Buddhist Studies bent over a square table as a crowd of curious onlookers witnessed them intricately create a multicolored mandala from Nov. 2 to 7 in Ithaca College’s Campus Center.

A mandala is a geometrical design made with colored sand and is usually found in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain cultures. Mandalas are made with funnel-shaped tools called chak-purs that disperse the multicolored sand grain by grain to create a pattern of squares and circles. Mandalas generally take several days to construct but are destroyed and dispersed soon after, which symbolizes the concept of impermanence — highlighting that many things in the world and in people’s lives are temporary. Mandalas also represent the home or palace of a particular revered deity. According to the mandala event website, practitioners use the mandala to envision, in their minds, the qualities of the deity who resides in the symbolic palace.

Eric Steinschneider, assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion, said he got

the idea for the event when he took students from his Seeking the Buddha class to the monastery in Spring 2021. The Namgyal Monastery is the official and only seat of the Dalai Lama, who is considered to be the physical manifestation of Chenrezig, the Buddhist deity of compassion, in North America. The monastery was founded in 1992 as a branch of the main Namgyal Monastery in Dharamsala, India, as an academic hub for Western students to study Tibetan Buddhism within a monastery.

“It is a beautiful place and it is a sort of a hidden cultural treasure,” Steinschneider said. “When I went there, I was speaking with the administrator, and I said, ‘How would you like to come to our college and maybe build a mandala?’ And he said they would love that.”

Steinschneider said a mandala represents the universe in a more intricate way, conveying the idea that there is a structure to life, despite the unpredictable and chaotic world people live in.

Diana Dimitrova, director of International Student and Scholar Services, has been involved with the planning of the event from the beginning and said the mandala constructed in the Campus Center was a

tangible representation of the Chenrezig deity.

“[It is] very sacred for Tibetan Buddhists [and] very important for everybody else who values compassion,” Dimitrova said. “The premise of watching this elaborate process of creating a mandala and then wiping it off clean also speaks to all of us in terms of impermanence. … I think that’s why these mandalas resonate with so many people.”

The six-day event was a collaboration between the President’s Office, the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life and the Department of Philosophy and Religion. Special events like movie screenings and public lectures took place alongside the mandala project for members of the campus community. On Nov. 1, a Tibetan movie called “The Search,” which documents the story of a film crew driving through Tibet to look for the perfect cast for their upcoming project, was screened in Clarke Lounge, followed by an interactive discussion led by Steinschneider. On Nov. 3 in the Klingenstein Lounge, Geshe Jamyang Dakpa, a senior teacher at the Namgyal Monastery, highlighted the institute’s history and values with the help of his translator, Palden Oshoe, which was followed by Steinschneider’s lecture called “Mandala and

Venerable Namgyal, a visiting Buddhist monk, works on a mandala in the lobby of the Campus Center. A mandala is a geometrical design made with colored sand. Jasmine scriven/the ithacan

Meaning: Historical Perspectives.”

At the public talk Nov. 3, Dakpa spoke about secular morality and said one does not need to be Buddhist to apply the religion’s value in their daily lives. Instead, he said that understanding one’s own emotions and introspection are key strategies for one to be a more enriched and enlightened being.

“Whoever may look at [the mandala] may not have much familiarity with the practice … but [simply] looking at it itself is to connect with the spiritual deities that are imagined to be in the mandala,” Oshoe said, translating Dakpa. “In order to enrich yourself with means to develop or promote greater morality is to know more about your mind. … The ultimate means for happiness needs to come from within, from your own mind.”

A livestream video of the event was also available on the college’s YouTube channel from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. throughout the six days. Each day, there would be a meditation session open to all, preceded by chanting by the monks. The monks would chant in the morning before they started working on the mandala as well.

Sophomore Sarah Anhalt said she was fascinated by the making of the mandala and was curious to learn more about Buddhism. The intricate act of creating the mandala filled her with wonder, Anhalt said.

“I think the mandala and the traditions around it are absolutely fascinating, and I would love to learn more about them,” Anhalt said. “I love that the mandala was open [and] anyone can go and see it, watch it being made. … Everyone was so respectful. It was a great atmosphere [and was] very educational as well.”

Ron Liso, a local Ithaca resident who attended the public talk Nov. 3, said he enjoyed the enriching conversations that took place after the talk and was pleased to see the mandala in the Campus Center.

“I was here in Ithaca when the Dalai Lama came many years ago and they had a mandala at the Johnson Museum at Cornell,” Liso said. “And [now] we were having this wonderful discussion afterward about seeing the mandala and [drawing a] parallel to other religious traditions. Several of us grew up Catholics, seeing the host as the embodiment of God. And seeing the same thing, the same thought about the mandala being the embodiment of certain spiritual deities [was a parallel we saw].”

Steinschneider said one of the ways the team promoted the event was by scheduling the viewing of the mandala as a noon-hour event for the college’s first-year Ithaca College Seminar students. The event was open to the public, and local K-12 schools from the Ithaca area were also invited to see it.

The dissolution ceremony of the mandala took place at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 7 in the Campus Center and the

Muller Chapel. The monks skillfully swept the mandala into a black vase, pinching out grains of sand from particular sections of the mandala first. They then led the procession of viewers toward the Muller Chapel pond where, after a short ritual, the sand was dispersed into the water. The ritual involved a round of chanting by the monks and the lighting of a fire. Ngawang Dhondup, administrator of the Namgyal Monastery, said the fire signified prosperity for the college and the town’s community. However, not all of the sand was poured into the pond. After the event formally ended inside Muller Chapel, spectators of the dissolution ceremony were offered small amounts of the remaining sand, in plastic containers, from the mandala. Dhondup said

placing the container of the mandala sand at the entrance of homes will protect people from the evil and natural disasters. Dhondup said traditional Buddhists put this sand on the crown of their head and believe that it leads to them being reborn within 49 days.

Steinschneider said he hopes that events like these will be beneficial to the college and local community.

“We are going through a very challenging time as a college and as a community and as a country as a global community,” Steinschneider said. “I hope that events like this can help bring people together and spark … people’s interest in new and perhaps unfamiliar cultures.”

Geshe Jamyang Dakpa pours the sand used to create the mandala into the pond near Muller Chapel on Nov. 7. KALYSTA DONAGHY-ROBINSON/THE ITHACAN

Venerable Nyima Tserig prepares the urn filled with sand used for the mandala for transportation to Muller Chapel. daisy bolger/the ithacan

Headline goes here and in most cases there should be two lines of text for each title in the book.

IC outing club aspires to offer all students respite from stresses of academics and student life in nature

By Chelsea Coichy

Late nights, heavy workloads and mounting deadlines leave many students feeling like a hamster on a wheel, desperate to slip away from the pressures of school. Nature being one of the best remedies for stress inspired the Outing Club to be that bridge for Ithaca College students looking to escape the confines of campus to decompress in nature.

The Outing Club was established in 2018 by students with the objective of providing access for all students interested in the outdoors regardless of previous experience. The club’s pledge to accessibility has provided students previously unable to reach vast wilderness because of geographic or financial barriers a chance to experience the beauty of unrefined nature and the joy of participating in outdoor activities.

Senior Ellie Swanson, president of the Outing Club, is originally from Washington and grew up surrounded by the greenery of nature. She joined the club her first year at the college with the desire to be involved with something familiar and becoming part of a connected community.

“Anybody who wants to join is welcome to join,” Swanson said. “You don’t need any experience. … We’ve got people who have never been on a hike to people who have done countless backpacking trips.”

Senior Morgan Kingsley, a member of the club, said she wants to reassure students that despite how daunting it can seem to participate in outdoor activities, the club is for people of all shapes, sizes and physical activity levels.

“When we think of hikers, it’s like these people who are super strong, and they’ve got these incredible lungs and legs,” Kingsley said. “But there’s also people [in the club] who haven’t gotten to be in nature, and [for them], it’s a form of meditation [or] a form of exercise. For me, it’s both.”

The activities offered by the club are designed to give students the opportunity to build these connections. Every Monday from 4 to 6 p.m., the Outing Club hosts their Weekly Hangs in the Ithaca Natural Lands, where students come to chill in hammocks and relax on blankets while basking in nature and chatting with one another. On Wednesdays, the club runs a rock climbing event from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Fitness Center, which Swanson said always produces a large turnout. Bigger events include hiking in Robert H. Treman State Park, camping trips, a yearly backpacking trip to the Adirondacks and biannual watersports on Cayuga Lake.

The accessibility of planned activities and trips are guaranteed by providing transportation and any gear

for students, like sleeping bags, tents and snowshoes, free of charge. A guiding principle on every trip is the concept of environmental stewardship, which is the idea that humans are responsible for taking care of and maintaining the quality of the environment while enjoying its wide variety of beauties and benefits.

Specifically, the club follows Leave No Trace, a policy consisting of seven principles of how to conduct oneself in nature. The seven principles are: plan and prepare ahead; travel and camp on durable land; dispose of waste properly; leave what you find; minimize campfire impacts; respect wildlife; and be considerate of other visitors.

These activities also serve as a place to learn skills for when students are ready to embark on their own adventures, Swanson said.

Along with acquiring skills, exposure to nature can improve a person’s mental and physical well-being by improving attention, lowering stress, elevating mood and increasing empathy and cooperation, according to the American Psychological Association.

These scientifically proven benefits led to the invention of ecotherapy: the idea that humans have a deep connection to the environment and that mental health problems like anxiety and depression can be treated by immersing yourself in nature.

Sophomore Ben Newsome said the club’s atmosphere is mellow and non-competitive, the focus is not about comparing one’s abilities to others but about trying new activities and improving on your skills and experiencing the lure of nature.

Newsome said excursions with the Outing Club offered some reprieve from the pressures of school.

“I find that if I’m stressed with school or any other outside personal experiences, just going outside and being within nature just helps me put my mind at ease and get in touch with myself,” Newsome said.

Being out in nature has also prompted the realization in some students as to how disconnected humans are from our natural environment.

“[The world] has been around since the beginning and I feel like sometimes we forget that,” Kingsley said. “Sometimes you forget to honor the fact that trees are helping us breathe. I think if people are more aware of the earth as a place where we cohabitate with it, they become more empathetic and appreciate its beauty and its purpose.”

From left, senior Ben Vajdos, junior Juliann Vadney and sophomore Eleanor Wester hold a workshop for the Ithaca College Outing Club to educate students about what things to pack for a hiking trip Oct. 4. Jasmine Scriven, Nolan Saunders/the ithacan

Photo-sharing social media app BeReal finds popularity among the student community on ithaca college campus

By Victoria Kellogg

At a random moment every day, a phone notification goes off, alerting individuals to “be real.” With in the span of two minutes, users are expected to take a photo that captures a picture using both the front and back camera at the same time.

The app is designed to offer users an out let to show off a real version of themselves and their friends. Created by French en trepreneurs Alexis Barreyat and Kevin Perreau in 2020, the BeReal app has taken off globally with over 20 mil lion active users. In August 2022, the app rose to the No. 1 spot on the Apple App Store for free apps.

Yvette Sterbenk, associate professor in the Department of Strategic Com munication, said her biggest concern is how addicting social media use can be.

Students have a strong depen dence on their social media. According to Forbes, the most used social media outlets are Snapchat and Instagram. On average, members of Gen Z spend around 50 minutes a day on Snapchat and 53 on Instagram. Sterbenk said she joined BeReal in Spring 2022 with her students because she was teaching a social media class. It was not a part of her curriculum to join BeReal, but she encourages her students to test out new social media platforms.

“The students I see use it, for the most part, to be real,” Sterbenk said. “I’m sure there are people out there curating their BeReal, though.”

The app gained its popularity going against social media norms by emphasizing capturing random moments in one’s life. Instagram users are often encouraged to edit and prepare photos as part of a strategy to create curated social media content. In contrast, BeReal emphasizes on-the-go, everyday lifestyle content. Under the slogan “Your Friends For Real,” the company promotes authenticity by encouraging users to share their day-to-day lives. BeReal has also taken off among Ithaca College students. First-year student Sophia Renaud said she is consistent with her BeReals. Renaud said she enjoys scrolling through her feed

to see what her friends are up to, especially when it is time to head home for break and she misses her friends from college.

“I like doing my BeReal when I am around my friends,” Renaud said. “It’s fun to have them take my BeReal. The one part I don’t like about BeReal is not knowing when it will go off, especially if it goes off super late at night.”

Senior Lauren Schmit said she was introduced to the app after a member of the BeReal team reached out to her and the Ithaca College Tap Club in Fall 2022 to further promote the app. Members of the club were asked to encourage others to join Be-

For each new user the team was able to recruit to the app, Schmit said the club would receive money. From mid-August to November 2022, BeReal’s College Team reached out to college students across the country to recruit them to help create a stronger presence among young users. While the club is no longer using the app to fundraise, Schmit said she continues to use the app personally and she finds that it is easier to be more authentic on the app than on other apps like Instagram.

“I do find it actually kind of fun because, I mean, the whole thing is [that] you’re being real within those

two minutes,” Schmit said.

However, as the app grew in popularity, the more staged “the realness” became. While some embrace the spontaneity the app offers, others choose to take photos at their own pace.

Sophomore Thomas Magee said the title of the app says it all and intends for users to take the picture as soon as the notification goes off. But Magee said he finds himself waiting to take his picture when he gets to a certain venue.

Sophomore Birdie Sink similarly said she often waits to capture more interesting moments.

“I think it’s interesting that it was designed to be … candid,” Sink said. “Like, the point is [that] it shouldn’t be like other social media. It should be like, ‘This is real.’ But then … I don’t post if I’m not doing something interesting, so it’s kind of like I do it in a way that kind of defeats the purpose.”

Rymer said he thinks that the app could have negative effects on users’ well-being depending on how seriously they take posting content.

“I can assume it is detrimental because if you aren’t doing something interesting and you see your friends are on the app, it can have an effect,” Rymer said.

Schmit said she hopes BeReal will be able to change the way people view social media and that there will be a shift toward being more authentic online.

“I am hoping that platforms like BeReal will continue and take over the picture-perfect Instagram,” Schmit said. “I think for mental health reasons, [it] can also be really refreshing and helpful because it’s like you’re not constantly seeing people who look like the most perfect person in the world.”

Students across campus receive an alert once a day from the app BeReal on their phones, where, within the span of two minutes, they are prompted to post a photo for campus members and other users to see.

photo illustration by nolan saunders/the ithacan

Headline goes here and in most cases there should be two lines of text for each title in the book.

ithaca college Dance groups unleash unbound talent, showing off their student-choreographed dances

By Patrick Mazzella

As the end of Fall 2022 approaches, all of Ithaca College’s clubs wrapped up their time together before winter break. Two dance companies, IC Defy and IC Unbound, had their end-of-the-semester showcases Dec. 3 and Dec. 4, respectively — ready for the payoff for months of work.

IC Unbound’s showcase, titled “IC Unbound Dance Company in Technicolor,” showed off 24 student-choreographed dances, ranging in style from tap to theater to modern. The evening ended with a number to Destiny’s Child’s “Lose My Breath,” choreographed by graduate student Treasure Blackman.

Another student choreographer was sophomore Cassi Silver, but beyond choreographing a number in the show, she participated in five other dances. She said she has been learning something new every day from being a choreographer now, after having danced for 15 years before joining IC Unbound. She said she has become a much better dancer this semester, which is only her second with the company.

The song she chose to choreograph was John Kander and Fred Ebb’s “All That Jazz” from the musical “Chicago.” Silver said she had been imagining choreographing a dance to the number from “Chicago” since she joined the club in Spring 2022. Even though she underestimated how hard it is to track all the minute details of the dancers, she said she is very grateful she got the opportunity to see it come to life.

“When you are choreographing a dance, there are a lot more logistical aspects than I think people realize,” Silver said. “There are so many things you need to think about blocking and movement-wise.”

While Silver said she found herself challenged throughout her process of choreographing the dance, she said it was a valuable experience and that it helped her grow.

“I think being on the choreography side challenged me and has made me a better dancer,” Silver said. “It’s been a learning experience I’ve really enjoyed.”

Junior Angelina Larkin also choreographed her own dance, set to a compilation of Doja Cat songs, including “Streets,” “Kiss Me More” and “Options.” She said her goal for the dance was to evoke confidence and a feeling of sexiness in her dancers while they performed it. She said she was inspired by the other dancers and choreographers she has watched develop their own creations and wanted to express the same kind of feelings that the songs evoke in her.

“I wanted the dance to be all about confidence,” Larkin said. “It’s on the sexier side of things, but people shouldn’t be afraid of that part of themselves.”

For its first show after sending off its founding members in Spring 2022, senior Abby Stengel, president of IC Defy, and junior Madeleine Jimenez, vice president of IC Defy, said they were both ready to reinvent the company. Entering its fifth year, IC Defy is the college’s newest dance company, and Stengel was ready for a change. She said she wanted to overhaul the structure of the company.

Defy’s showcase this semester was called “Emergence,” signifying the company coming out as something new and fresh and making a new name for themselves on campus. The show included 21 student-choreographed dances, including some whole company numbers and some small groups. Junior Catherine Jantson, who is one of the co-chairs of promotion on the IC Defy executive board, said the theme has always been an important part of the development of a show, but this time it felt very personal to many of the returning company members. Jimenez expressed her gratitude to the company for reigniting her love for dance once she got to college and wants to give something back to Defy, and a reintroduction to the school is what it needed.

“When I got to college, I wasn’t sure if I was going to dance,” Jimenez said. “But Defy made me feel like I found a community, and I want to give back to it.”

Jantson similarly said she was excited to see how IC Defy will continue to evolve as a community.

“I guess, in a sense, we’re emerging as a new version of Defy,” Jantson said. “We love our alumni, but we have a lot of fresh faces this semester that people didn’t associate with Defy originally.”

Although there are different structures and processes for creating their shows, both companies live in a kind of in-between space in the world of the college’s extracurriculars. Stengel said that while dance companies are considered club sports some years, and arts club other years, they are ultimately both. Jimenez said she believes that dance is art, but people often underestimate the athleticism and precision of it.

“It’s absolutely both a sport and an art,” Jimenez said. “There’s creativity in it, so people don’t totally expect it to be as challenging as it is.”

Silver said she thinks that dance is an incredibly meaningful and fulfilling experience with the ability to blur the line between sports and art. She said she has

Senior Andrea Cosgrove choreographed and performed a dance routine to the song "Gloom" by DJO. Daisy bolger/the ithacan

always felt a connection with the way music moves a person, figuratively and literally. And that connection, she said, helps her to understand herself better.

“I remember when I was really little and first discovered my passion for dance,” Silver said. “I was taking a hip-hop class, and the music turned on, and I just felt this rush of adrenaline, and I felt like [I] could express myself in any way through this kind of movement.”

Both Stengel and Jimenez said they wanted audiences to walk away from the show thinking about the clear bond between the dancers. Stengel and Jimenez said they have formed such genuine and close relationships with the other dancers, and the dedication and love poured into the show has helped form a community around dance.

“I want everyone to leave Emerson Suites on Saturday thinking, ‘That’s a family,’” Stengel said.

Stengel and Jimenez both said they hope they can

encourage people curious about getting into dance to put themselves out there. There are eight dance companies on campus, covering a wide range of styles like contemporary, ballroom, hip-hop and tap. Jantson said that she truly believes that joining IC Defy changed her outlook on dance.

She said prior to coming to the college, she had quit competitive dancing because of feeling unwelcome in her own company. But Defy made it enjoyable for her, and she said she found a community within the company that would bring the fun back to a childhood activity.

Silver said she wants audiences walking away from the Unbound show knowing they had fun. She said she wanted audiences to have a great time watching the performance.

“I just want people to enjoy it.” Silver said. “I want people to yell and scream at the top of their lungs if they want, as long as they enjoy our show.”

Dancers from IC Unbound perform a piece to the song "Wash" by Bon Iver. Kalysta Donaghy-Robinson/The Ithacan

From left, senior Alexa Chalnick, sophomore Mary Rion and first-year student Taz Foreman. Nolan Saunders/The Ithacan

From left, sophomore Nicole Morgan, senior Ciara Ephault and first-year student Kate Staron. Ana Gavilanes/The Ithacan

From front, first-year Taz Foreman, junior Angelina Larkin and senior Alexa Chalnick. Nolan Saunders/The Ithacan

summer movie releases

NOPE

By SYDNEY BRUMFIELD

Agripping spectacle that keeps viewers hanging on to the edge of their seats, Jordan Peele’s third directorial film “Nope” holds nothing back. “Nope” tells the story of siblings OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald Haywood (Keke Palmer) as they work to capture proof of a mysterious force that is wreaking havoc on their ranch in rural California.

“Nope” is a brilliant cinematic experience crafted especially for the big screen. By utilizing wide shots in the isolated environment of the ranch, Peele captures the intimacy, seclusion and fear that accompany the characters as they face unimaginable terror. In addition to its astounding visuals, “Nope” is a touching narrative about a family coming together, driven home by Kaluuya and Palmer’s spectacular acting. The narrative is only heightened by supporting

character Ricky ‘Jupe’ Park (Stephen Yeun)’s equally incredible performance, adding immense depth and dimension to this striking film.

The horror in “Nope” definitely leans more toward sci-fi thriller than gory horror, which makes the use of blood in the film that much more effective. The suspense and pacing of the high-intensity scenes are well curated. Peele manages to keep the audience just enough in the dark on the looming threat that the horror of this film shines through.

The weakest part of “Nope” is that a character introduced roughly midway through the film — cinematographer Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott) — derails the primary narrative and is poorly developed. Despite this brief shortcoming, “Nope” masterfully walks the line between comedy and horror, yet again solidifying Peele’s excellence as a filmmaker.

top gun: maverick

By matt minton

Onefilm this summer burst into theaters to remind us why movies are truly magic. With its stunningly choreographed flight sequences, beautiful cinematography and strong writing, “Top Gun: Maverick” became an undeniable hit.

The original “Top Gun,” released in 1986, had some fun action sequences and characters to boast in spite of a fairly standard script that hit all the expected story beats without pushing the envelope. However, “Top Gun: Maverick” improves on its predecessor in just about every way, with director Joseph Kosinski building the story to real emotional stakes that deeply invests the audience in the characters. Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is someone who refuses to slow down or stop chasing his love for

flying, leading to several exhilarating scenes that examine just how far humans will go to chase a high. However, Maverick finds himself struggling and digging into past memories upon having to train Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), creating a deeply personal conflict that grounds the story. While there were many other blockbusters that came out this summer, very few, if any, came close to the momentum and rush that watching “Top Gun: Maverick” provides for audience members. Many forgettable and lackluster films have entered the billion-dollar club over the years. However, “Top Gun: Maverick,” which hit a billion dollars in June 2022, is one of the few films that deserves its entry, carrying real merit to its name.

“‘Top Gun: Maverick’ improves on its predecessor in just about every way.”

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“‘Nope’ walks the line between comedy and horror.”

summer music releases

Renaissance — BEYONcÉ

By jadyn davis

After nearly six years since the release of “Lemonade,” Beyoncé’s latest album “Renaissance” gives longtime fans a fresh, new sound that will surely get them moving. The record blends disco and house music, proving that Beyoncé has no limits when it comes to creativity and innovation.

Beyoncé sought to celebrate and honor the Black, queer roots of house music.

Additionally, Beyoncé said that the COVID-19 pandemic brought isolation to many people and that this album will allow people to feel loved and free. In a note posted on Beyoncé’s website, Beyoncé revealed that the album was not only dedicated to her children and husband but to her late, gay cousin “Uncle Jonny,” who battled HIV.

As evidenced by her influences, “Renaissance” isn’t just another one of Beyoncé’s works but

harry's house — harry styles

By eleanor kay

Thewhimsically warm sounds of the summer emanated from Harry Styles’ newest album released May 20.

“Harry’s House,” Styles’ third solo album release, brought a fresh, summer-pop sound to his discography.

Although “As It Was” was Styles’ only single off the album to be released before the full album, fans had a chance to enjoy his newer tracks during his Coachella performances in April 2022, where he performed “Late Night Talking” and “Boyfriends” for the first time.

“Late Night Talking” features an array of trumpets and trombones, which is a newer sound for Styles. In “Boyfriends,” he slows

the tempo down with an acoustic love song dedicated to boyfriends all over the world. Styles has slowly begun gravitating more toward pop-sounding music since his first solo album was released in May 2017, which contained a focus on rock genres. So, this shift to more pop-sounding music on his latest releases might deter fans of his previous albums. Despite much of the summer pop feel of the album, “Harry’s House” still has diverse sounds among the 13 released songs. From acoustic to rock to pop, there is something for everyone on this album.

has many themes tied to it, such as love, family and freedom.

The dance-pop anthem and lead single “BREAK MY SOUL” features background vocals from the artist Big Freedia. The lyrics “I’m ’bout to explode, take off this load / Spin it, bust it open, won’t ya make it go” showcase Beyoncé’s strength and resilience while also empowering listeners with a modern and up-tempo beat.

While “CUFF IT” doesn’t quite have the same energy as “BREAK MY SOUL,” it remains another highlight and fan favorite of the album. With this track, Beyoncé goes more toward her usual sound of R&B and pop.

Overall, “Renaissance” is a unique experience that encourages listeners to freely express themselves. Beyoncé took a risk with this album, experimenting with different sounds, genres and concepts such as house and disco music. Her efforts clearly pay off.

“From rock to pop, there is something for everyone on this album.”

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“Beyoncé has no limits when it comes to creativity.”

new horror creation is a uniquely terrifying thrill

BARBARIAN

By evan miller

There have been few genuine cinematic surprises in the past year quite like “Barbarian.” Going in knowing as little as possible about this film is easily the best way to go about seeing it — this is a horror film unlike any other in recent years that demands to be seen.

“Barbarian” follows Tess (Georgina Campbell), a young woman who arrives at an Airbnb late at night in Detroit to discover that the home is already being rented by a man named Keith (Bill Skarsgård). With no other options, Tess decides to share the home with Keith after he extends the offer to her so they can figure out what went wrong together. She soon learns that there is much more to fear within the house upon the discovery of a hidden stairway in the basement that seems to go deep underground.

While most of the basic synopsis of this film may sound like a romantic comedy where two strangers who, because of peculiar circumstances, are forced to spend an evening together and then later fall in love, “Barbarian” is not even close to deserving of being categorized in this manner. It is a frighteningly original and disturbing horror film that truly must be seen to be believed.

“Barbarian”’s marketing campaign was refreshing in that it did not give a single aspect of the film

away besides what is covered in its synopsis. There are so many shocking twists and turns throughout writer/director Zach Cregger’s masterful screenplay that it would be a crime to say anything about “Barbarian” that is not already featured in its trailer.

As the film seems to constantly reinvent itself throughout its three acts, the viewer learns one bit of significant information each time. By the end of the film, audiences are able to put all of the pieces together in a way that is not simply handed to them.

The manner in which Cregger goes about plotting and arranging the film feels inspired and fresh. He consistently builds suspense and tension with such ease throughout the entirety of “Barbarian” that once it ends, the viewer is left in a perpetual state of unease and fear regarding what they have witnessed on screen.

Tess is very much the viewer’s guide through the winding and seemingly never-ending hellscape that Cregger creates through his smart and twisted original work. Campbell effectively portrays Tess’ intelligence and fearlessness through her terrific performance, helping make her a character that is easy for the audience to root for.

Skarsgård is equally fantastic in his suspicious role. The actor who has made a name for himself in projects like “IT” and “Castle Rock,” in which he has

expertly portrayed frighteningly unsettling roles, is very mysterious here. He does an amazing job of keeping his character’s role in the plot hidden as the viewer constantly questions what his true intentions are and if he is who he says he is to Tess.

Justin Long plays a supporting role in “Barbarian” as AJ, a character that is refreshingly unlike many of the types of dorky characters he has played in past projects throughout his career. Long provides plenty of comedic relief and even adds an element of social commentary to “Barbarian.”

Though, “Barbarian” is not quite as deep or thematically complex as a film like “Nope,” it does have something to say about gender politics. This element adds some unexpected depth and makes the film all the more impactful.

“Barbarian”’s only fault is that it sometimes airs on the side of being silly and ridiculous simply for the sake of being silly and ridiculous in its third act. While these moments are fun and spark engagement from the audience, they can at times take them out of the film entirely.

“Barbarian” is the film in 2022 that fans of the horror genre have been waiting for. It is a uniquely terrifying thrill ride that will leave viewers breathless. With their jaws on the floor, audiences leave eager to experience it all over again.

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'x' prequel crowns mia goth the scream queen of a24

pearl

By evan miller

With“Pearl,” writer and director Ti West has secured his “X” horror franchise as a staple of the genre just one year after the original film hit theaters in March 2022. Not only does “Pearl” stand on its own as a strong character study, the prequel movie simultaneously makes “X” even better. In the process, Mia Goth cements herself as a star in the titular role.

It is during the peak of the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918 that “Pearl” picks up on the title character, who is living on her family’s farm with her strict mother (Tandi Wright) and ill father (Matthew Sunderland).

Pearl is desperate to leave the farm and make a name for herself as a dancer in motion pictures where she feels she truly belongs. Pearl knows she is meant for more in her life than what she was raised to expect. At the same time, she also suspects that she is not quite the same as those around her. As she commits horrific acts, she begins to wonder if there may be something wrong with herself.

Just as “X” replicated the style of slasher films from the 1970s, “Pearl” replicates the style of films from the 1920s and 1930s to match its enthralling period setting. West and cinematographer Eliot Rockett compose sweeping wide shots of serene, picturesque backdrops that appear as though they are ripped straight from

films like “Gone With the Wind” or “The Wizard of Oz.”

“Pearl” uses its period setting in smart ways to reflect the modern COVID-19 pandemic. While the Spanish flu pandemic is never the main focus of the film, it does provide some clever commentary and moments that make its inclusion feel justified.

While the film’s first half could feel rather slow at times, Goth’s powerhouse performance constantly keeps the viewer engaged. Pearl is an extremely complex character whose descent into madness is at times purposefully uncomfortable to watch. There are several sequences in the film in which Goth is simply haunting in this role, just as she was in “X.” There are two mindblowing scenes in particular toward the end of the film — one of which is a monologue — where the camera simply focuses on her face in an unbroken shot for several minutes. The intense levels of emotion that she is able to convey during these two scenes alone make her performance award-worthy. Goth truly goes all in with this character to mesmerizing effect.

Not only does Goth star in the film, but this time around, she also co-wrote the screenplay with West and served as an executive producer. For all intents and purposes, she is the face of the “X” franchise. Her work in “Pearl” is nothing short of breathtaking, leaving viewers eager to see her appear in “MaXXXine,” the third film in the franchise that has already been

greenlit by A24, and will take place after the events of “X” in a 1980s-era setting.

Whereas Pearl as a character is extremely fleshed out between this film and “X,” many of the supporting characters in the film are not quite as well explored. While Pearl justifiably receives all the attention, it would have been nice to see a couple of the relationships in the film explored a bit further than they were. The largest example is likely the relationship between Pearl and her husband Howard (Alistair Sewell), who is overseas fighting in World War I throughout this film’s entirety. While their relationship is explored well enough in “X,” it would have been appreciated in “Pearl” to see its backstory explored a bit further than it is.

While we learn enough about the supporting players in “Pearl” to care when some of them meet the fates that they do, it can sometimes feel as though certain characters are only being built up to suffer a gruesome death by its end and to further Pearl’s transition into insanity.

“Pearl” presents audiences with an empathetic character study into the mind of one of 2022’s most unsettling characters in film. It does exactly what a prequel should do, adding context to and strengthening the original film while also leaving audiences excited for the next installment.

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highly-anticipated thriller falls flat with lazy writing

Don't Worry Darling

By sydney brumfield

Imagine being promised the best ice cream flavor, but then getting to the ice cream parlor to find it’s sold out. This is what it’s like watching Olivia Wilde’s new film, “Don’t Worry Darling.” With an insane roster of actors, including the phenomenal Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Chris Pine, Gemma Chan and Nick Kroll, as well as enough drama to set the internet ablaze, this film will ultimately leave viewers with a disappointed taste in their mouth.

“Don’t Worry Darling” follows Alice (Pugh) and Jack (Styles) as they enjoy their picture-perfect, 1950s-esque life in the community of Victory. Victory appears to be a newly developed community that houses the families of husbands who work for the Victory Project. Alice seems happy being a member of the cult of domesticity, but when her friend Margaret (KiKi Layne) starts to spiral into insanity as she questions what the Victory Project actually is, so does Alice. Alice must decide whether or not to keep with the status quo of Victory or push for the truth.

“Don’t Worry Darling” hinges so much of its success on Pugh’s talented shoulders, and it is not a jump to suggest that her on-screen talents saved this film. Pugh has already proved she is a remarkable force in the world of acting with her incredible performances

in “Lady Macbeth” (2016), “Little Women” (2019) and, of course, the cult classic “Midsommar” (2019). In this film, Pugh not only demonstrates her innate ability as an actor, but shows that she can bring to life even the most lackluster material.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Pugh’s co-stars. The problem was not any of their individual acting, but instead the fact that their characters are so horribly underdeveloped and haphazardly written that all of their performances feel like they are overacting. For example, Frank (Pine) had such potential to be an evil male-manipulator character. Instead, his little screen time is horribly used, feeling more like a one-dimensional villain from a children’s film than a legitimate threat.

Similar things can be said for all the supporting roles. Their performances feel rigid and over-the-top, with all of the characters having such weak motivations. None of this is the fault of the performers, though, rather the fault of a script that feels rushed and poorly executed.

The first two acts of “Don’t Worry Darling” are horribly structured and lazily written. The entire premise of the film is that there is something askew in the community of Victory, but this is established so early on in the film that the pacing is thrown entirely off. The first and second acts feel like they are crawling

toward the answer to the question “Why can no one leave Victory?”

Additionally, the stakes in the film are never escalated, thus leading to the film having an intense lack of agency. The film also has many narrative coincidences where plot points happen a bit too easily, breaking the world of the film because it is so unbelievable.

The cinematography of “Don’t Worry Darling” is one of its strong suits. Interesting framing and shots are used to try to build up Pugh’s descent into madness. Unfortunately, this easily gets pushed aside by the distracting editing. Shots used for montages and cutaways were used too frequently, leaving viewers bored of them. The viewing experience is also interrupted by some postproduction issues, especially when it came to audio quality.

“Don’t Worry Darling” is one of the most unsatisfactory films of the year, especially when the raw narrative and eventual third act twist truly had so much potential.

This is made even more apparent after reading what the original screenplay ending was before Wilde bought and rewrote the material. In the end, this film feels more committed to being a feature film spectacle rather than being a successful and thrilling story.

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biopic reduces Hollywood icon to her worst moments

BLonde

By sydney brumfield

In an attempt to go against the developed tropes of popularized biopics like “Bohemian Rhapsody” (2018) and “Elvis” (2022), “Blonde” focuses solely on the alleged darkest moments of Marilyn Monroe’s (Ana de Armas) life. “Alleged,” because the novel that the film is based on, “Blonde” by Joyce Carol Oates, is a piece of historical fiction, as opposed to a nonfiction biography. Whether it’s because of the need to break through the noise, or director Andrew Dominik’s pure disdain toward Monroe, “Blonde” is an extremely aggravating and unpleasant viewing experience.

“Blonde” is an incredibly muddled narrative with poorly executed plot points. There is a large slew of details that serve no purpose, as well as having terrible pacing and a lack of narrative drive. Multiple plot points and characters find themselves being carelessly tossed to the side and never acknowledged again. Even more disturbing is that what Dominik decides to spend extra screen time and care on are incredibly insulting sequences.

Despite “Blonde” being about one of the most iconic women on the planet, it is atrociously misogynistic and demeaning toward them.

The majority of the film feels like trauma porn. The film shows Monroe being sexually assaulted, coerced,

physically abused, involuntarily drugged and verbally abused. None of these sequences were necessary to what little plot there was, and none were handled with grace or humility.

Even worse is that “Blonde” tells the story of one of the most objectified women on the planet, all while overtly objectifying de Armas — and not in an intellectual way to highlight or poke fun at the male gaze. Dominik chose to make de Armas topless in multiple scenes where it was not only unnecessary, but extremely inappropriate. De Armas is completely naked aside from underwear when Monroe is physically abused by her husband Joe DiMaggio (Bobby Cannavale). De Armas is unnecessarily topless when her manager and on-set doctor force her to take sedatives so that she can continue to perform on set. De Armas is completely naked for yet again another traumatizing scene when Monroe is kidnapped in the middle of the night and given a forced abortion — the second forced abortion in the film.

“Blonde” manages to be one of the most prominent pieces of anti-abortion propaganda in a year when the U.S. has openly declared a war against access to safe abortions. The dialogue alone would classify this film as anti-abortion. Despite the alleged abuse she is depicted as having undergone as a child, Monroe praises her mother Gladys Monroe (Julianne

Nicholson) for not aborting her by saying, “You were brave. You did the right thing. You had your baby. You had me.” Moreover, the three times Marilyn Monroe discovers that she is pregnant, the film cuts to an animated fetus with whom she has conversations with. Not only is it anatomically incorrect because of how early Marilyn Monroe’s pregnancies were, but they are also used to build up the anti-abortion messaging. Dominik has the second fetus speak to Marilyn and say, “You won’t hurt me this time, will you? Not do what you did the last time?”

The way in which “Blonde” depicts the abortions is extremely demonic and terrifying, not exactly rhetoric that needs to be spread any further in today’s political climate.

De Armas in the role of Marilyn Monroe does not make or break the project. It’s up for debate whether or not she was the strongest choice for casting, but given the disaster this film already is narratively, the performances would never have made much of a difference.

“Blonde” infantilizes Marilyn Monroe and depicts her as a neurotic, silly, yet incredibly attractive woman. In the end, this film belittles this cultural icon down and defines her by her trauma and supposed daddy issues, rather than highlighting her remarkable brilliance in spite of them.

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Todd Field film captures the current cultural moment

filled with much more dialogue than action, there lies a deep look into Tár, the character, and her sinister practices. The film takes its time revealing its true intentions, but there are numerous hints throughout. Field’s screenplay attempts to get the audience to see where Tár is coming from, although audiences may not agree.

By Patrick Mazzella

Director Todd Field is back after a 16-year hiatus, and he has much to say with his new film. The Venice Film Festival winner for Best Actress follows internationally recognized classical composer and conductor Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) as her years of dubious practices begin to catch up with her in a new era of cancel culture.

“Tár,” as a film, is a careful and slow character study, which may turn some audiences off to it. However, underneath the numerous and lengthy scenes

Blanchett appears in what seems to be every single scene in the film, with editor Monika Willi going so far as to only briefly cut away from her in many scenes, allowing viewers to study her complexion, expressions and emotions. The rest of the ensemble includes Tár’s wife and the first chair violin of the orchestra she conducts, Sharon (Nina Hoss), Tár’s assistant and conducting student, Francesca (Noémie Merlant) and the leader of her nonprofit, Elliot (Mark Strong), which helps find jobs in the music industry for marginalized prospective conductors. Each of these actors give very strong performances — Merlant being the best of those three

— but Blanchett gives a career-defining performance, so it’s a bit hard for them to keep up.

It’s hard to say confidently what Field’s directorial and authorial intent is behind the story, as much of it is directly from Tár’s perspective and the audience is following her experience as allegations by a former fellow of her nonprofit come to light. Although the film seems to take a somewhat neutral stance on Tár herself and her guilt, there is enough depicted in the film to indicate to the audience that Tár is not the next cinematic saint, to say the least.

Watching her career face its greatest challenges allows the audience catharsis in seeing the conductor get what she deserves.

There isn’t much to complain about in “Tár.” Field seems to understand the cultural moment we’re in, one that has proven difficult to capture, with many films about this fast-moving culture proving to be a snapshot of an era already come and gone. The worldbuilding of “Tár” works to create such a vast but focused universe, forcing out any real indication of what exact moment we are in, and creating a sense of timelessness in the film.

Field’s brilliance is finally back on the big screen; here’s to hoping there’s not another 16-year wait for his next masterpiece.

Journalism film gives survivors space to tell their stories

By Sydney Brumfield

In October 2017, two journalists for the New York Times — Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey — wrote “Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades.” This report shined a giant spotlight on a massive systemic problem that was continually pushed under the rug surrounding Weinstein’s pattern of workplace sexual harassment toward women.

Written by Rebecca Lenkiewicz and directed by Maria Schrader, “She

Said” does an admirable job at tackling a beast of a topic.

“She Said” follows Kantor (Zoe Kazan) and Twohey (Carey Mulligan) from 2016 to 2017 as they investigate and ultimately break the story on Weinstein. In addition to showing the great lengths these women went to break the story, “She Said” attempts to highlight the individual plights that Kantor and Twohey faced as working women. Both characters struggle to find a balance between their work and home lives. Unfortunately, this dual plotting was a part of one of the film’s flaws.

One of the clear elements of a compelling film is having a rootable interest in the primary character. While Kantor and Twohey are easy to root for because they are attempting to bring down a predator, the narrative itself does not lend itself to building up their characters at all. Their friendship as the two women investigate unremittingly could have been a great opportunity for an arc, but disappointingly, it was not. Part of this could be

attributed to what the film does well: letting the survivors of these attacks tell their stories.

It would have been very easy for “She Said” to turn to trauma porn or to dramatizing the horrific events that happened to the victims of these assaults for the sake of making a more engaging film. Thankfully, this was not the case, especially as Schrader made the tasteful decision to not include a single scene of violence against women — as she said in a New York Times article, “I do not need to add another rape scene to the world.” “She Said” allows survivors’ stories to speak for themselves while also keeping as many of the elements surrounding this story as factual as possible.

“She Said” had pretty unengaging cinematography and editing. Everything was shot in a very objective and passive manner, which did build up the reputable tone of the film, but led to lulls when watching it. While this did not distract from the film, it definitely did not add anything to it.

“She Said” is an incredibly powerful film which tackles an abuser in his own medium. It found ways to give strength to survivors and also ensure that this is the only legacy that Weinstein leaves behind. It is truly unfortunate the flaws this film had were so prominent. What “She Said” does well it does well, but it probably would have benefited from more time in development.

Djo’s sophomore album makes wise artistic decisions

newest collection has been highly anticipated among his established following. The recent piece, clad with cover art featuring a vintage Magic 8 Ball and neon blue hues, is an ode to retro synth-pop and a glimpse into the future of alternative psychedelia.

“DECIDE” lets listeners know that Keery is not just an actor with a side-hustle but rather a true two-way performer with some serious star quality in the studio. The collection opens with “Runner,” a nihilistic track disguised by waves of techno and pop-rock sounds. It’s an explosive entrance into the experimental album that introduces listeners to Keery’s inner dilemmas with self-actualization, ultimately setting a contemplative tone for the remainder of the collection.

By Tess Ferguson

All-around entertainer Joe Keery lets down his legendary Steve Harrington curls to don a ’70s ’stache and wide-brimmed sunglasses in his sophomore album “DECIDE” under his musical moniker Djo.

Although his 2019 debut album “Twenty Twenty” flew relatively under the radar, largely because audiences hadn’t connected the artist to his iconic “Stranger Things” character, the release of Keery’s

The album is riddled with Keery’s introspection about his personal quandaries with fame, social media and an increasingly misanthropic world. Tracks like “Half Life,” “Fool” and “On and On” address these looming issues all dressed up in tingly disco tones.

“Fool” effortlessly tackles Keery’s struggles to balance acting and life with the claim that everything he does feels like a performance, while “On and On” is a censure of the media’s endless flow of content, desensitizing the world to devastating news that is now dismissed with a “digital candle.”

An easy highlight of the 13-track collection lands

itself right in the middle. In “End of Beginning,” Keery ditches his signature auto-tuned sound for a more intimate yet powerful tone. The piece is a nostalgic love letter to Chicago and Keery’s former psychedelic rock band, Post Animal, which he left in 2019 to pursue his solo career.

Although brief, clocking in at two minutes and 39 seconds, the ballad is one of the most memorable points of the album. Keery’s dynamic, unaltered voice on the dreamy track is a grounding intermission before diving right back into the funky, sci-fi inspired energy that surrounds the second half of the album.

Keery could have stuck with the alt-rock psychedelia that has already earned him musicianship status. Instead, he took a risk and created “DECIDE” — a funky, sometimes goofy sci-fi odyssey with tons of twists, both sonic and emotional.

Ultimately, “DECIDE” is wholly cohesive with an inflamed flair for dreamlike world-building through ambitious production, with too many individual highlights to list. The fun that Keery consistently prioritizes is expertly showcased, but he also touches on some notably brooding themes.

As a result, the record is thrillingly artistic while maintaining an alluring accessibility that makes it hard to stop listening.

Noah Cyrus tackles heavy topics in emotional debut album

The vocal harmonies throughout the album are the shining star of the album, showcasing both the power and lightness to Cyrus’ voice. The country twang that Cyrus uses adds to the country-pop sound that is the sonic centerpiece of the album. The opening track “Noah (Stand Still)” highlights this musical element.

The first half of the album is the standout. Opening with an emotional ode to the journey that is growing up, “Noah (Stand Still)” features advice given to Noah by her father. “Every Beginning Ends,” featuring singer and guitarist Benjamin Gibbard, is the only feature and one that truly enhances the album; their voices combine beautifully, in a way that illustrates the somber reality of falling out of love.

By Sarah Payne

Noah Cyrus took a big leap in her career, officially releasing her first LP, “The Hardest Part,” on Sept. 16. Cyrus is known for her popular songs: “Make Me (Cry)” in 2016 featuring Labrinth and “July” in 2019, the latter becoming popular on TikTok.

This new album tackles heavy-hitting topics such as love, heartbreak, loss, youth and addiction. The heavy topics are accompanied by guitar riffs and gentle yet powerful vocals.

“Mr. Percocet” dives deep into how substance abuse takes a toll on a relationship. “You’re only mine till your high is gone,” Cyrus sings passionately. “But I wish you’d still love me / when your drugs wear off in the morning.” The track is the zenith of the album and develops Cyrus further into a future hit-maker.

The second half of the album drags a tad, often repeating similar lyrics again and again. The lyrics also become less sophisticated and emotional as the album progresses. The title track, “Hardest Part,” seemingly never ends (not in a good way), and the same harmonies that bless the other tracks overwhelm the song,

especially with the added mildly synth-influenced vocal effects. The production swallows the pleasant parts of the vocals; the song overall is very loud. Thankfully, the drums add a nice touch and are the strongest point of intrigue to the track.

Some of the worst lyrics are on “I Just Want a Lover,” which opens boldly and cheesily with, “In the united hate of America / The hearts are just as broken as the nation.” The chorus has stronger lyrics, but ones that feature a very common trope in songs about wanting genuine love. “Yeah, I just want a lover who’s in love with me,” Cyrus belts smoothly over a sweet country-pop beat. These emotive lyrics showcase Cyrus’ songwriting prowess, but the formerly mentioned lyrics tarnish the glory of “I Just Want a Lover.”

“Unfinished” and “My Side of the Bed” are another set of breakup songs that are pleasant to the ear. However, they are forgettable and somewhat reminiscent of the heartbreak anthems that have skyrocketed to popularity on TikTok, with its list-like, action-based lyrics and piano instrumentation.

This album could easily draw a crowd to Cyrus. Although it could be cut down and reworked a bit, “The Hardest Part,” in its flaws and all, showcases the potential that lies in Cyrus, one that could bring her a lot of artistic evolution, fame and praise.

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COURTESY OF AWAL RECORDINGS

The 1975 is back and is not afraid to be controversial

playful odes to technology addiction, “The Man Who Married a Robot,” accompanied by its eclectic music has earned them praise (and criticism) for the risks they are willing to take for the sake of art.

Being Funny in a Foreign Language

By Kinsey Burr

For two decades, The 1975 has supplied — and sometimes shocked — the music industry with controversial songs and boundless lyricism. The four members formed the pop rock group in high school in 2002 but didn’t reach international recognition until the release of its first album, “The 1975,” over a decade later in 2013. Insightful tracks from past albums critiquing modernity like “Love It If We Made It” and

The band’s most recent album, “Being Funny in a Foreign Language,” makes no exception in using its music to make a statement about injustices in our society. The album’s opening track, “The 1975,” dives deep into a series of social, political and economic issues currently affecting society. Matthew Healy, the lead singer of the band, calls for immediate change over a rapidly increasing piano, creating a nearly overwhelming experience for listeners — mirroring the feelings he has about our current society.

The lyrics “You’re makin’ an aesthetic out of not doing well / And minin’ all the bits of you you think you can sell” argue the modern world is painful and engaging in toxic social behaviors that are a lot more harmful than most are willing to admit.

In one of the more personal tracks on the album, “When We Are Together,” Healy navigates his emotions while missing a relationship despite how toxic it was. The soft rock instrumental and violin are unique to this song and set the yearning tone for the breakthrough Healy has when he sings, “‘I’m better at writin’’ was just a way to get you bitin’ / Oh, the truth is that our egos are absurd.”

This theme of self-awareness can be seen throughout the album, including the upbeat folk-rock song “Part of the Band,” where Healy once again points out his ego and questions the progress he thought he had made. The song opens with Healy telling stories of his past, only to reveal that they were a figment of his imagination. The realization that his perception of himself has been sabotaged by his ego forces some perspective as he sings, “Am I ironically woke? The butt of my joke? / Or am I just some post-coke, average, skinny bloke / Calling his ego imagination?”

“About You” is easily the most unique of the record, featuring a duet with Carly Holt, wife of the band’s lead guitarist Adam Hann. “Wait (Don’t let go) / And pretend (Don’t let go) / Hold on and hope that we’ll find our way back in the end,” Healy and Holt sing as they harmonize over the powerful electric guitar. Holt’s delicate voice perfectly compliments the electric chords and Healy’s deep, breathy voice to tell a story that represents a common theme throughout the album: Healy’s imagination is a place he goes often to find comfort in memories.

“Being Funny in a Foreign Language” is executed just as well as its past records, intertwining folk and electric rock music with controversial statements and deep interpersonal realizations to create an eccentric album that offers something for everyone.

Arctic Monkeys drives to success with latest album

Compared to 2013’s “AM” and 2007’s “Favourite Worst Nightmare,” “Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino” didn’t quite land with fans like most of the band’s earlier work did. However, Arctic Monkeys uses “The Car” to drive even further from the heavy basslines and catchy riffs that they used to be known for.

The orchestral new collection masterfully builds on the sonic palette of “Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino” all while making the band’s sound more colorful, grand and cinematic. The result is some of the greatest and unique songs of the band’s career.

the car — arctic monkeys

By Tess Ferguson

Four years after the release of its experimental album “Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino,” Arctic Monkeys picks up right where it left off with the release of their elusive new album, “The Car.”

In 2018, frontman Alex Turner obliquely exposed his fears and desires through the concept of an elaborate, mysterious resort in the cosmos. It was the most intimate Turner had ever been in his lyricism, opening up only with the safety of fiction and metaphor.

To open the collection, the first promotional single, “There’d Better Be A Mirrorball,” is a gorgeous heartbreak tale, with Turner’s classic croon telling of a “heavy heart” and lounge-pop string instrumental evoking a similar feel to that of a vintage film score.

Elsewhere, “Sculptures Of Anything Goes” experiments with heavy, imposing drum beats that are not entirely dissimilar to those that memorably ran through the band’s hit single “Do I Wanna Know?” nearly a decade ago. The more recent track is a nostalgic reminder that the DNA of the band remains the same, regardless of their creative growth.

Unlike “Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino,” which felt more like a Turner solo project to many listeners, “The Car” expertly utilizes his bandmates to their

highest potential. Guitarist Jamie Cook, bassist Nick O’Malley and drummer Matt Helders are present and powerful, guided by Turner’s songwriting and delicate vocal performance but never ceding to it. “Body Paint,” a ’70s-inspired epic, features the full band sounding more dynamic than they have in years.

The objects of Turner’s fascination on “The Car” are hazy, making his writing on the album all the more rich. He is not strictly heartbroken or smitten, but there are often distant lovers in the periphery. He works in plenty of autobiographical lines that could easily apply to a man who’s been in the public eye for the better part of two decades, but just as soon as he reveals something personal, Turner quickly pivots away from the thought. Nothing is concrete, and that’s a key point of the collection: nothing is ever as it seems.

“The Car” is overwhelming in terms of its ambition and scope, but it provides ample motive to revisit this record over and over again. Whether it’ll be enough to reach across the divide and convince the naysayers that flaked after the release of “Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino” is still yet to be seen. For now, though, Arctic Monkeys stands alone like the abandoned car on the rooftop: the greatest band of their generation still operating at their highest level.

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Taylor Swift's 10th studio album meets fans at Midnight

Headline goes here and in most cases there should be two lines of text for each title in the book.

By Gabriel Biennas

Taylor Swift returns with her 10th studio album, “Midnights,” a danceable yet deep-cutting pop record.

In 2020, pop superstar Taylor Swift shocked the world with her second original album of the year, “Evermore.” With poetically descriptive lyrics and introspective themes, “Evermore” was a soft and solemn sequel to its sister album, “Folklore,” which was released earlier in the same year. At this time, Swift made a departure from her pop-infused country roots to a melancholy folk album, drawing focus onto her brilliant lyricism.

“Midnights” by Taylor Swift is a retelling of 13 sleepless nights over the course of the singer’s career. After gaining a whole new side to her fan base, Swift uses “Midnights” to remind the world who she is. As a body of work, this album has emotional highs and lows. Blending the glistening synths previously seen on albums like “Reputation” and “1989” as well as poetically heartbreaking lyricism seen on works like “Folklore” and “Red,” “Midnights” feels like a love child of all of Swift’s previous pop albums.

Heavy influence from indie pop artists like Lorde and Lana Del Rey is apparent on the album. “Labyrinth” seems to recall the cinematic dream-pop elements of Lorde’s “Melodrama.” Del Rey is even heard delivering

enchanting backing vocals and has a writing credit on the track “Snow on the Beach,” which sounds like a lost demo straight off her 2017 release, “Lust for Life.”

In Taylor Swift’s 2019 Netflix documentary “Miss Americana,” she opens up about what it’s like for her to have her life documented through music. During the interview, Swift said, “I’ll be going through something, write the album about it; … sometimes it’ll just coincide with what they’re going through … kind of like they’re reading my diary.” Using her elaborate storytelling, Swift touches on topics that many of her fans can apply to their lives. On “Bigger Than the Whole Sky,” Swift sings a gut-wrenching yet uplifting tune about not having enough time with someone but remembering the joy they brought to the world.

The 32-year-old singer still does not lose her quirkiness. On “Bejeweled,” Swift delivers peppy and optimistic lyrics, shining with personality. This song is reminiscent of some of the singer’s former dance anthems like “I Think He Knows” and “Style.” Swift even recalls the punching bass and accusatory lyricism of “Reputation” in tracks like “Karma” and “Vigilante Shit.” Though she continues to go for that bubblegum-pop sound, Swift never fails to make a catchy hit. This is a quality of Swift’s music that is hit-or-miss for most people. However, it is evident that whether people respond more to “I thought the plane

was goin’ down / How’d you turn it right around?” or “Karma is a cat,” this album has a song for everyone.

Overall, “Midnights” sees Jack Antonoff’s signature dance-pop cohesively blended with Swift’s immersive lyricism, firing off the start of the album with the groovy “Lavender Haze.” With hard-hitting ballads like “Sweet Nothing” and “You’re on Your Own, Kid” merged with scorned country rage on “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” Swift masterfully explores various genres and topics throughout “Midnights” while still maintaining a cohesive body of work.

Björk returns to earth with new mind-bending record

By Jess Williams

It has been over five years since Björk’s last record, the heavenly “Utopia,” an album that takes place in a paradise in the sky teeming with birdlife and many flute passages. On “Fossora,” Björk returns to Earth. Following the death of her mother, the isolation of the pandemic and the departure of her daughter, she crafts a scattered album that catches listeners up on this era of her life, tied together with reed orchestras and hardcore electronic beats.

“Fossora” is Björk’s “mushroom album” (whatever that means), a claim she has affirmed since the album was first confirmed but was never fully supported with explanation. When listening to the full project, it is easier to see what she means. “Fossora” is dark, mystical, fantastical and fun. The silly bass clarinet melodies on the album sounds like the soundtrack to a fantasy adventure with glowing plants and dancing woodland creatures. If this sounds too specific, one listen to the track “Fungal City” will convince otherwise.

“Fossora” attempts to break apart from the subjects portrayed on 2015’s “Vulnicura” and 2017’s “Utopia,” which were reactions to Björk’s divorce, but grief still finds its way onto the album. As a tribute to her mother, who passed away during the creation of this album,

Björk includes two emotional songs about her passing, “Sorrowful Soil,” and “Ancestress.” The latter features some of Björk’s best lyrical highlights in recent years. The two tracks dedicated to her mother land next to each other on the tracklist. Afterward, “Victimhood,” and the short interlude that precedes it, continue the darker, more somber tone. “Victimhood” returns to the subject of Björk’s divorce. The song finds its place to settle in on this album, but since it is placed right next to “Sorrowful Soil” and “Ancestress,” a tonal break is needed.

After this dim emotional point on “Fossora,” Björk exposes the listener to more carefree material, like the flute-driven “Allow” that depicts a blossoming friendship, or the aforementioned “Fungal City,” which is, of course, about a fungal city. “Freefall” is another highlight on this album, joining the canon of incredible Björk love songs. The string arrangements on this song are stunningly beautiful, and the pace switch to plucked strings at the midpoint is equally magical.

The closer, “Her Mother’s House,” features background vocals from Björk’s daughter, Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney, as Björk sends off her 19-year-old daughter into the world. The ballad is a sweet duet between the two, written to be somewhat humorous and self-deprecating as Björk lets go of her

midnights — taylor swift fossora — Björk

overprotectiveness. The track is a bittersweet moment to wrap up a rather scattered selection of songs.

“Fossora” is arguably the most uncoordinated concept Björk has undertaken since 2007’s stylistically insecure “Volta,” but her execution here works surprisingly well. She brings together lamentations of grief with songs of boundless fun, letting the focus on low-end sounds, gabber-influenced drum machines and the bass clarinet tie everything together into a cohesive experience.

winter music releases

Headline goes here and in most cases there should be two lines of text for each title in the book.

sos — SZA

By Tess Ferguson

Following a five-year hiatus from her hit sophomore album “Ctrl,” SZA returned to the music scene with the release of her highly anticipated third album, “SOS,” on Dec. 9. The ambitious 23-song collection, clocking in at just over an hour long, expands upon the familiar “sad girl” themes that SZA has explored in her earlier work: revenge, longing and insecurity.

Counter to the often melancholy messages that SZA relays in her music, her performance in “SOS” is notably looser and more confident than her cadence displayed in “Ctrl” (2017) and “Z” (2014). She weaves in and out of pockets effortlessly, issuing line after line that lands with precision. There is nothing scatterbrained about her music.

Despite the familiar content, SZA keeps her newest release fresh through the incorporation of an eclectic roster of genres, including R&B, pop and indie rock.

The melting pot of styles works to ponder and interrogate SZA’s conflicting impulses — casual sex lasting love, relationships, or independence, or revenge, forgiveness, self-respect, familiar problems or a new start, power or trust — while showcasing her growing comfort and versatility within her own artistry.

In her decade-long career, SZA has proven that her strength as an artist lies in her sharp writing and the blending of genres to build her own unique sound. This, with stream-of-consciousness flow that many of her songs emote, shapes much of “SOS” into

a deeply personal testament of work.

However, the reiteration of such familiar themes and agendas without incorporating any notably new ideas subtracts from what could have been an undeniably original and classically vulnerable installment to SZA’s discography.

No Thank You — lil simz

of last year.

The Mercury Prize winning 2021 album “Sometimes I Might Be Introvert” is an extravagant and ambitious landmark of U.K. hip-hop. Its involved storytelling and incredible scope have landed it as Simz’s most impressive effort yet. Her 2022 follow-up project stands in contrast to that album, with more roughly produced beats and outward, emotional lyricism.

By jess williams

Little Simz returns with a much more rough-around-the-edges follow-up to what many people consider to be the best hip-hop album

Powerfully named “NO THANK YOU,” Simz’s newest masterpiece expands on the themes included in her 2021 opus without sounding too much like a collection of outtakes or an unneeded epilogue.

The minimal and expertly penned “Angel,” the

grand statement that is “Gorilla,” the clever and scalding “No Merci” and the momentum-fueled “X” are all highlights here, but they all bow down to the centerpiece of the album, “Broken.”

“Broken” is a 7-minute monster of a track that dives deep into generational trauma, mental health struggles and coping mechanisms. It is by far one of the most heartbreaking and pressing songs of 2022, and it just proves that even when Simz is taking a more robust approach to an album, she still can’t help but flex her ability to focus all in on a singular topic to maximize emotional impact.

Not many artists are on the same level as Little Simz right now. Her consistency, lyrical ability and craft are all top notch, which is why it is unsurprising that she has put out one of the best hip-hop records of the year two years in a row.

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Courtesy of AWAL Recordings

“The melting pot of styles works to ponder and interrogate SZA’s impulses.”

“Not many artists are on the same level as Little Simz right now. Her consistency, lyrical ability and craft are all top notch.”

winter movie releases

PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH

last of his nine lives.

expressive and a spectacle to watch.

By joshua pantano

Everybody’s favorite fearless hero, Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas), has put another gold star on Dreamworks’ film catalog.

In this stunning sequel to the famous feline’s 2011 solo film, after a fight with a giant ends in his death, Puss discovers that he is down to the

However, with a magic star that can grant a single wish, he might find a way to save himself — if old friends and foes do not get in the way, that is. One of the primary aspects of this movie that will definitely stick with viewers is its potent themes. The story tackles the meaning of life, the fear of death and what our lives mean when they come to an end.

It is surprisingly mature for a film of its kind and is likely to engage even the most fervent opponents of animated films.

“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” knocks it out of the park with its meticulous animation. It is fluid,

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER

By GIANCARLO MESSINa

Director James Cameron’s love of new, boundary-pushing technology, large-scale special effects and aquatic life makes a return in “Avatar: The Way of Water.”

The long-awaited sequel to Cameron’s record-breaking film “Avatar” (2009) comes out after thirteen years in the works.

In that time, Cameron continued to expand his vision for the fictional world of Pandora and began to plan for the next four installments.

He also spent time investing in new motion capture technology that can operate in water for underwater sequences.

The film follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), fourteen years after the events of the first film, as they care for their five children and are on the run from the Resources Development Administration, the corrupt corporation from Earth that carries on with its plan to colonize Pandora. They end up meeting a new clan of Na’vi, located on the oceans of Pandora,

and must adapt to their way of living. However, the film falls into many of the same storytelling traps as the first one, with story beats that tend to feel formulaic as it rehashes many of the ideas and messages that the first film sets up.

There is still

enough visceral action and bold scenery to keep the audience immersed in the world of Pandora for its three hours of runtime, but it would have been more satisfying if that were attached to a story that was more daring. Another element of the film that is of note is its bold decision of filming at 48 frames per second. This was likely done to make the action scenes appear crisper and to remove any motion

The fight scenes in particular perfectly use movement, not only in how the characters leap and run across the screen but also in how the camera follows them.

The story is predictable at certain parts but never enough to make it unengaging or boring.

The main trio’s chemistry, particularly between Puss and Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek Pinault), packs a lot of laughs and heart.

Although having six villains admittedly feels a little bit overstuffed, their backstories, jokes and motives are add enough fun to the plot without feeling overdone.

And while Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and “Big” Jack Horner (John Mulaney) are entertaining antagonists, Wagner Moura as Wolf steals the show with a terrifying performance.

Overall, “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” will be a satisfying meal for starved animation fans and a breath of hope for fans awaiting the next film in the “Shrek” franchise.

blur. However, the film tended to alternate between both 24fps and 48fps seemingly at random, often making the use of the 48fps feel unnecessary and underutilized.

Still, “Avatar: The Way of the Water” is a technical marvel that, despite its flaws, remains one of the most striking large-scale productions that should be witnessed in theaters.

COURTESY OF DREAMWORKS

COURTESY OF DISNEY

stop forcing celebrities to come out

By matt minton

It’s natural for us to want to know more about the lives of people we watch and admire on the big screen. Our culture’s obsession with celebrities leads us to inquire about the deepest details of their personal lives. But what happens when our desire to intrude on the lives of celebrities goes too far?

Case in point: Kit Connor of “Heartstopper” fame, only one example out of the many actors who have been forced to come out against their wishes.

“Heartstopper” first premiered on Netflix in April 2022 to massive critical and audience acclaim for its positive and inspirational queer representation. Connor, who is 18 years old, portrays Nick Nelson, a character coming to terms with his sexuality throughout the course of the season. Connor said he felt unfairly pressured to come out by fans after the show was accused of queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is a term used to describe media that tries to appeal to queer audiences by teasing representation but then fails to follow through with their promise. On Oct. 31, Connor posted the tweet (which has since been deleted), “Back for a minute. I’m bi. Congrats for forcing an 18 year old to out himself. I think some of you missed the point of the show. Bye.” Prior to this tweet, Connor had not been public about his sexuality and was not ready to label himself.

Rebel Wilson is another actor who was recently pressured into coming out. According to US Magazine, Wilson was contacted by The Sydney Morning Herald, asking about her romance with a woman. The paper gave her a deadline of two days to make a statement about her relationship with Ramona Agruma before publishing.

For anybody who is a part of the LGBTQ+ community, coming out and if/how somebody decides to do so should be up to them. Pressuring somebody to reveal this strips them of their ability to tell their own story. Situations like that of Connor and Wilson’s set a dangerous precedent for the future of LGBTQ+ media.

One of the most profound and formative experiences of my life was when I came out as gay in high school. I was able to make that choice for myself because it felt right at that point in my life, and I had finally gotten to a place of self-acceptance after years of feeling like I did not belong to any community. I did not want anybody else to take my story away from me — I wanted to own my narrative. Celebrities, despite their privilege and status in society, deserve to own their stories too.

Ultimately, nobody owes anybody an explanation for who they are. The beautiful thing about being a part of the LGBTQ+ community is that everybody’s story is so uniquely different. That is something that should be celebrated and embraced with flying colors — both in our personal lives and in the media we consume.

Grammys hold Black women to unfair standards

By sarah payne

Beyoncé made history Feb. 5 by becoming the most decorated artist by the Recording Academy with 32 wins after the 65th Annual Grammy Awards. However, many think that the momentous achievement is diluted by Beyoncé’s loss of Album of the Year for her dance album, “Renaissance.”

Beyoncé was nominated in three of the “big four” major categories: Song, Record and Album of the Year. She lost each of those nominations, but her Album of the Year loss to Harry Styles’ “Harry’s House” was especially criticized by the public. Many find that the Recording Academy’s treatment of Beyoncé is unfair, as she has been nominated in and subsequently lost in that category four different times.

The album was well received by the public and critics alike; “Renaissance” received a 90 on Pitchfork and was named the best album of 2022 on its “The 50 Best Albums of 2022” list and on Rolling Stone’s list, too.

An aspect of this pattern of loss for Beyoncé is that all of the times in which she lost the Album of the Year award, she lost to a white artist. She lost her Album of the Year nominations in 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2023 for her project “I Am … Sasha Fierce” (2008), “Beyoncé” (2013), “Lemonade” (2016) and “Renaissance” (2023) to Taylor Swift, Beck, Adele and Harry Styles, respectively. Adele even acknowledged at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards that she thought that “Lemonade” deserved the award. This pattern of Beyoncé losing the award multiple times, despite her consistent critical acclaim, showcases the unfairly high standard that Black artists, especially Black women artists, are held to.

“Losing album of the year does serve as a reminder that even when you’re at the absolute pinnacle of Black excellence, there is still that glass ceiling that remains firmly in place,” Leah Sinclair, writer for Stylist magazine, wrote, pointing out this ridiculous and impossible standard.

In an interview with Variety, five Grammy voters explained their justification for some of their voting decisions, including their reasoning on awards related to Beyoncé. Two of the anonymous voters in particular gave reasons for not voting for Beyoncé that were overtly biased.

Lacking variety in voters and allowing for internal biases and perceptions to seep into the Grammys voting process does not allow for fairness and authenticity in results. Also, with this mentality, losers and winners alike could potentially never be certain if their win or loss is fair. Furthermore, that ideal alongside the white privilege in the music industry will prevent Black artists (especially Black women) from being given the credit they deserve for their work.

Cancellation of streaming shows is unfair have its economic ambitions stripped disney of its magic?

By evan miller

During a company earnings call for the year-end 2022 quarter Feb. 8, Disney CEO Bob Iger ’73 announced that the company would be laying off 7,000 employees, roughly 3% of its entire workforce. This is one of the most significant job cuts in the company’s 100-year history.

The news of these layoffs should have been the talk of the entertainment industry. However, it was drowned out less than one hour later during the same February earnings call when Iger announced that the studio would be developing sequels to three of some of its most popular intellectual properties: “Toy Story,” “Frozen” and “Zootopia.” While people had their attention geared toward debating on Twitter whether another entry in the “Toy Story” franchise should be made, it almost seemed as though the announcement about the layoffs did not even happen — no one was talking about it. It is not a coincidence that Iger chose to announce the sequels shortly after announcing the layoffs. It was a direct attempt to distract from the fact that Disney is currently in a more vulnerable position than it has been in years. When Iger stepped down as Disney CEO and handed the reins over to Bob Chapek in February 2020, the company’s stock price was worth roughly $128 per share. Less than one month later, the company’s stock price plummeted to about $86 per share thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2021, the company’s stock was the highest it had ever been at about $201 per share — Disney+ was thriving and the theme parks were reopening after over a year of being shut down. But then, thanks to Chapek’s incompetence as CEO, Disney’s stock fell back down to roughly $87 in December 2022, almost exactly where it was at the beginning of the pandemic. Luckily, the company’s board of executives decided to boot Chapek in favor of bringing back Iger for a two-year term to course correct. Instantly upon Iger’s return, the damage wrought by Chapek began to dissipate.

Iger recognized that sacrifices would be necessary to aid the company in gaining more capital, hence the layoffs. It was an inspired move by Iger to announce three ground-shaking projects for billion-dollar franchises at the company’s earnings call to prove that he has returned to the company to bring back quality and profits. However, he should have had the foresight to recognize that doing so mere moments after announcing the layoffs would seem a tad insensitive. While big billion-dollar projects help keep Iger from having to make difficult decisions, like the recent layoffs, he should have known better than to toss 7,000 people aside and make it feel like a victory. It is just as great a defeat for Disney as it is for every single one of the employees who are affected by the layoffs.

By lily lipka

Television has been around since the early 20th century, but the traditional format of serialized television has vastly changed since then. The introduction of streaming has played a significant role in how we consume media and the varying shapes that said media now takes.

Streaming has provided a place for shows to be made that may otherwise not have existed. The sheer amount of television shows that are available to stream is so high that ones with a lesser-known cast and creative team can easily get buried. Even shows like “Genera+ion,” which was wonderfully written and acted and garnered a decent fanbase during its time on HBO Max from March 2021 to August 2022, did not have the big names and massive amount of viewers that now seem to be necessary for a streaming show to be renewed.

Netflix will gladly milk shows like “Stranger Things” for all they are worth and spend millions of dollars producing new seasons for as long as it can while simultaneously canceling other shows before their stories are over. This has been happening for years now with the cancellation of “Sense8” in November 2017 and “GLOW” in October 2020.

A prominent example of this is the HBO Max Original Series “Minx.” The show was relatively successful and well-liked when it first debuted on the streaming platform in March 2022 and was renewed for a second season in May. In December 2022, HBO Max decided to cancel “Minx” as it was nearing the end of filming on the second season. The show’s first season was then completely wiped from HBO Max and no longer available on the streaming service. “Westworld,” “Infinity Train” and “Genera+ion” were also completely removed from HBO Max, along with many others. While these shows had already completed their run prior to their removal, it is still a devastating loss that is terrifying for creatives.

In removing their own content, they save money on residual checks to actors and creatives. These shows can also then become tax write-offs for the streaming services’ parent companies. This trend has wildly harmful implications for the future of television.

As cliche as it probably sounds now, streaming is the future, which is why this is so concerning for many who work in the industry or would like to pursue a career in television. It takes agency away from the artists who worked diligently to produce these shows. For their work to no longer be available to the public so these already insanely rich companies can save money is disheartening and discouraging to all those who hope to create streaming content in the future.

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Junior on IC men's basketball team rides 112 miles in charity bike race to raise money for cancer research

to be a grandmother to Andrew and his brothers. It’s not an understatement to say I owe my mother’s life and that time with her to Dana-Farber, so it’s a deep personal cause.”

When Andrew Geschickter decided to ride this year, he rode in honor of his friend Mark Barrett’s late mother, Susan Barrett, who passed away after a battle with cancer in 2020.

Andrew Geschickter has played basketball with Barrett since they were in middle school, though their playing careers have taken them in different directions, they have remained friends.

When he approached Barrett, Andrew Geschickter said he wanted to make sure Barrett was comfortable with him riding in honor of his late mother.

“It is a lot having your mom’s battle with cancer brought up,” Andrew Geschickter said. “I’ll do social media posts about it to fundraise there. Then email and reach out and text a lot of people. So, you know, I think it’s just important to make sure that, you know, he’s comfortable with it, which every year he’s been.”

By daniel king

OnAug. 6 and 7, more than 6,000 people strapped their feet to their bikes and rode in the 2022 Pan-Mass Challenge to benefit the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

According to its website, the Massachusetts-based bike-a-thon event is one of the biggest athletic fundraising events in the country. Hosting its first event in 1980, it has raised over $831 million for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to date. Founded by Sidney Farber in 1947, it started out as a cancer research center for children. In 1969, it expanded to patients of all ages and became known as the Sidney Farber Cancer Center. In 1983, the center acknowledged the support of Charles A. Dana and incorporated his name to create the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

One of the 6,000 riders in this year’s challenge was Ithaca College junior Andrew Geschickter, who plays for the college’s men’s basketball team. Geschickter, along with his father, rode a 112-mile portion of the race. Riders have the choice of 16 routes to ride, spanning from 25 miles all the way to 211 miles. The route he rode started in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, and ended in Bourne, Massachusetts. When graduate student George Sikoryak, Geschickter’s teammate on the basketball team, heard he was taking part in this race, Sikoryak said he chuckled.

“I rode 30 miles once and was struggling,” Sikoryak said. “When he told me he was riding 112 miles, I thought he was joking. That’s just an insane number.”

While it is his second year riding in the race,

Geschickter said he has been a part of this race for seven years as a volunteer. The event has been a staple for Massachusetts and requires a great deal of coordination to ensure its success.

“Every town’s police department has to be on board. It’s just awesome watching people come together for this awesome cause,” Geschickter said.

Geschickter said he was born into cycling. When he was younger, he said that he would watch the Tour de France with his father and that is how his love for cycling developed.

“I still bring my bike to campus, I still like to go on rides, and it’s just like, right now, it’s a great way for me to just, like, do something active, but that’s different than basketball,” Geschickter said.

As he got older, Geschickter said that he grew even closer to the organization. His mother started to work for the PMC and has worked her way up to be the current chief financial officer of the organization. Through this, he got an even more in-depth look at how this massive event is set up and gained even more appreciation for it.

“I was always close to the organization and would go then when she started working there,” Geschickter said. “I’d be in the warehouse, like helping, you know, volunteer during the week leading up to it.”

The charity in which the ride is for, Dana-Farber, has also played a big part in the Geschickter family. Andrew Geschickter’s grandmother underwent a battle with cancer when his father was younger.

“They saved her life and [she] had 25 bonus years,” Chet Geschickter, Andrew’s father, said. “She was able

Chet Geschickter described himself as a “proud papa” when his son said he wanted to ride in honor of his friend’s late mother and raise money for Dana-Farber.

“Andrew took it by the handlebars and has really done some amazing things,” Chet Geschickter said. “That’s what the event is about. It’s about coming together, setting high lofty goals, and making a dent in this terrible disease.”

Each person has a $4,000 fundraising minimum to hit for the challenge; Andrew exceeded his minimum early and had until the end of October to raise even more money. The October deadline allows time for individuals who have not hit their fundraising minimum to reach their set number.

Sikoryak said the team felt a sense of pride knowing the cause his teammate was riding for. Sikoryak said he went around and advertised the fundraising link to his friends and family to have more people chip in and raise money for Dana-Farber.

“It’s awesome,” Sikoryak said. “Not only did he ride in this challenge, but the cause he was riding for made it even better. We wanted to help out in any way possible.”

As Andrew Geschickter turned his attention to his second season on the court for the Bombers, he said he is proud of what he’s accomplished and making a difference.

“At the end of the day, I’m just trying to do my part in making a difference in this fight against cancer,” Geschickter said. “I’m hoping I got a few more of these rides in me because it was a ton of fun.”

Junior Andrew Geschickter, guard on the Ithaca College men’s basketball team, rode 112 miles in the Pan-Mass Challenge in August, raising money for cancer research through the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. COURTESY OF 13 PHOTOGRAPHY

rowing alumni represent Team USA at championships and reflect on their time as ithaca college bombers

by David Schurter

Even though their time at Ithaca College may have ended, two Ithaca College rowing alumni, Pearl Outlaw ’20 and Savanna Brija ’18, were set to pick up their oars once again, but this time for Team USA.

Both were set to compete at the annual World Rowing Championships at the end of September. The event took place Sept. 18–25 in Racice, Czech Republic. Outlaw competed in the World Championships in 2018 and 2019, and while Brija competed at Olympic trials in 2021, it was her first time at the event. Brija competed in the women’s quadruple sculls, while Outlaw will be a part of the Para Rowing classification, competing in the mixed double sculls. Becky Robinson ’88, head coach of the college’s women’s crew and sculling teams, said that being able to coach athletes such as Outlaw and Brija are why she made the decision to coach at the college.

“It’s a great part as to why I chose to work at [the college] and in NCAA Division III,” Robinson said. “I knew Division III athletes had capabilities of rowing at that level, and here at [the college], you can compete at the collegiate level and still be prepared to row at a higher level when you graduate.”

Brija said that she would not be professionally rowing had it not been for Robinson’s guidance and her overall experience at the college.

“I absolutely loved my experience at Ithaca,” Brija said. “My experience on the team totally set me up to keep rowing at the next level, and I’m completely grateful for that.”

The college’s rowing programs have had a successful history, as Outlaw and Brija are not the first alumni from the college to compete in the world championships. Meghan Musnicki ’07 and Emily Morley ’17 previously represented the college at both the world championships and the Olympics, according to Robinson.

“In 2017, we had two alumni compete at the world championships, [Morley] for the Bahamas and [Musnicki] for the U.S.,” Robinson said. “We are starting to see it more and more and

that’s in large part because of the emphasis of our sculling team.”

Musnicki competed in several world championships and was a member of multiple Olympic teams, winning the gold medal in 2012 and 2016, as well as competing in 2020 for the U.S. Morley competed for the Bahamas in the 2016 Rio Olympics as well as in the 2017 World Rowing Championships. Robinson said Brija brought a great presence to the team and helped shape the culture of sculling for the college.

“[Brija] had a commanding presence,” Robinson said. “She brought an increased level of competitiveness to the team and was in her teammates’ face in a positive way to get them going.”

Despite Outlaw having troubles with her vision, Robinson said that Outlaw was one of the strongest individuals she has ever coached.

“[Outlaw] had some visual difficulties when she first came here as her eyesight diminished through the years,” Robinson said. “That’s a huge thing for a young person to deal with and at the same time find a sport to excel and succeed at. When she gets in that boat, it doesn’t register with her that she’s blind. The amount of positivity and confidence she displayed and her ability to push through is incredible.”

Although she was born with retinitis pigmentosa in her eyes, causing her vision to slowly deteriorate, Outlaw said she had all the support from her teammates and coaches and was able to stick with rowing

and continue to grow at the sport.

“I came in not at the level I’m at right now and the coach did a great job of pushing me in ways I didn’t know I needed,” Outlaw said.

Having been teammates for three years at the college level, Outlaw said she knows Brija very well, both as an athlete and friend, and said she is excited to team up once again.

“When I first got to know [Brija], I knew she was going for big things ahead of her,” Outlaw said. “I can’t wait to watch her race and have a fellow Ithacan on the national team.”

Just like Outlaw, Brija said she had the full support of Robinson, who always held her accountable and relied on her leadership.

“[Robinson] was phenomenal in guiding me and she never let me take the easy way out of anything,” Brija said. “She always pushed me to be better, even when I was good. She never gave settling as an option and she always held me to a higher standard to keep elevating my game, and I’m extremely lucky to have a coach like that.”

Robinson also said that Brija and Outlaw complimented each other and led by example, supporting their teammates, which added to the chemistry of the team.

“They both led by example,” Robinson said. “Seeing a teammate excel or overcome something difficult really adds to the team.”

From left, former members of the Ithaca College women’s rowing teams Pearl Outlaw ’20 and Savanna Brija ’18 were set to compete at the annual World Rowing Championships at the end of September. The event took place from Sept. 18–25 in Racice, Czech Republic.

File Photo/the ithacan

First-year athletes make statements on and off the court

By Tess Ferguson

With a stacked schedule, including four nationally ranked teams within their first three multi-header tournaments, the Ithaca College volleyball team ensured that its young roster could handle the pressures of late season Liberty League play.

With two weeks of in-season competition under their belts, first-year student athletes Maddie Cox and Leila Chipepo were able to make a lasting impression on the court. The pair started nearly every match since their season opener against Swarthmore College on Sept. 2 and have since established themselves as leading contributors in both kills and assists.

Head coach Johan Dulfer said that he expected his first-year athletes to compete with the same level of energy as his upperclassmen and that the Class of 2026 did exactly that.

“To have two or three contributing members from each class is a healthy expectation for a healthy program that’s continuing to grow,” Dulfer said. “The competition is what fuels our game.”

Cox, a setter, averaged 30 assists per game while Chipepo, an opposite hitter, averaged nine kills per game. The offensive duo appears to mesh seamlessly with their veteran teammates.

Typically, fall sports have a much shorter window for preseason practice than sports taking place in the winter or spring. The team had only been together for three weeks prior to their season opener Sept. 2 at Ben Light Gymnasium.

In an extremely chemistry-oriented sport, team bonding is essential to integrating new players before the first games begin.

Despite the brevity, Cox said that by being with her teammates often during such a short time frame, it feels like she has known her new teammates forever.

“You’re with each other every day, every lift, every practice, every meal,” Cox said. “I don’t think I’ve ever connected with a group of people so quickly before.”

However, in typical athlete fashion, the pair said that there will always be room to grow. The more time the team spends together as the season progresses, the closer they will become.

“Of course, the more we practice, the more we’ll improve,” Chipepo said. “But, for so early in the season, I feel like we’re in a really good spot right now.”

Senior middle hitter and captain Jennifer Pitts said preseason scrimmaging and team-building events have been essential in terms of integrating first-year players into the team.

“Scrimmages have been a great opportunity for the new girls to get some game-like experience under their belts,” Pitts said. “We’ve made the best of the time we have and it’s really seemed to be working out for

us so far.”

In addition to their time in the gym, Pitts said spending time together outside of practice has provided the first-year athletes an opportunity to get to know each other through some wholesome fun.

“We went to our coach’s lake house before school started and spent a day of bonding there, so the time we spend together really adds up,” Pitts said.

Although her team has been occupied between practice, games and spending quality time together, Pitts recognized that, for the first-year students, playing in a new environment so far from home can be a big adjustment.

“I think that [Cox] and [Chipepo] have been adapting really, really well,” Pitts said. “As a team, we always have people to lean on and shoulders to cry on, but they’ve been doing great.”

Cox, who is from Apex, North Carolina, said her decision to make the trip upstate is one she is grateful for.

“I genuinely can’t say why I decided to move 12 hours from my home, but it’s definitely been an experience and it’s a choice that I’m glad I made,” Cox said. “I guess I just kind of wanted to experience something new. There was a lot about the opportunity that was really intriguing to me.”

Similarly, Chipepo, who is from Peoria, Arizona, said that during her recruitment process, she was willing to go anywhere if it meant she could continue to play the game she loved.

“I get asked a lot why I decided to move so far, but I just really, really wanted to play volleyball in college,

you know?” Chipepo said. “It’s definitely a totally different environment that I’m still getting used to, but I’m really enjoying it and I’m liking the level of play that I’m getting out of it.”

The program has had players residing from all over the country, ranging from Florida to Washington to even Hilo, Hawaii.

Dulfer explained that this geographical diversity is essential when it comes to being able to compete at the national level.

“Our team is full of players who understand what it’s like to be far away from home, so the support system for each other kind of sustains itself,” Dulfer said.

As the season progresses and more in-conference competition approaches, Cox and Chipepo said they have been reflecting on the beginning of their first year in Bomber threads and what they aim to do with the remainder of their time on the court this season.

“My position is easy when I’m surrounded by such amazing passers and hitters, like [Chipepo],” Cox said. “I just really hope to be able to come into my own on the court this season and get comfortable in those high-pressure situations that I know we’re going to continue to face as a team.”

Similarly, Chipepo said her position grants her an amazing opportunity to continue learning and growing as a contributing player.

“I’m really looking forward to those big tournaments and exciting games, but I just really want to try my best and help out my team as much as I can,” Chipepo said. “I want to play a part in achieving what they couldn’t last year.”

Ithaca College first-year student Leila Chipepo hits a ball over the net during a volleyball match against SUNY Genesseo. Chipepo started nearly every match since the season opener against Swarthmore College on Sept. 2 Rory Cassidy/the ithacan

Division I and II transfers help lead men's soccer to victory

By Rocco Di Maiolo

As the start of the 2022 season opened up for the Ithaca College men’s soccer team, some new faces that arrived on South Hill from other collegiate soccer programs looked to showcase their skills in their new colors.

The team welcomed in three new transfer students that were once recruited and played for NCAA Division I and II programs: junior defender Emmett Delesie, sophomore defender Jack Longo and junior midfielder Ian Oltman. All three players have taken their collegiate soccer pursuits to Ithaca in an effort to seek better opportunities in making impacts on the field. It is not the first time the Bombers have welcomed in DI transfers either, with the men’s and women’s basketball teams having transfer athletes from big institutions in recent years, among others.

Delesie hails from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, where his team won the NCAA Division I National Championship in 2020. Delesie has been attending classes at Ithaca College since Spring 2021, pursuing his undergraduate degree in economics. Despite his academic transfer process, which he said was difficult, Delesie said the college made the process a lot more feasible for him.

He said the advisers and faculty were welcoming and made an effort to meet him, which was helpful. In terms of making his way onto the soccer team, he said he was pleased by how welcoming head coach Garret Eldridge and assistant coach Austin Mansell were to him.

When it came time to connect with his new teammates, Delesie said he wanted to make that one of the most important things on his priority list.

“I was really close with my team at Marshall, so that was a concern,” Delesie said. “This semester has been amazing. Not only do I know the freshmen very well, but I know the seniors very well and the juniors. … They’ve all been amazing. I’ve got a great group of friends that I can hang out with outside of soccer.”

Romildo Sanches has coached Delesie in his home state of Florida since he was seven years old, where he established a training program called Players Club International Tour, where young American athletes exchange cultures by training, playing and interacting with future Brazilian professional athletes.

Since 2009, Sanches has worked with Delesie as both a coach and a private trainer, which Delesie said they still do today. In 2013, Sanches brought a group of kids down to his home country of Brazil to play against teams based there for two weeks, including Delesie. During their stay, not only did Delesie get to experience playing soccer in South America, but Sanches also brought the group to watch

games that were played as a part of the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup.

Sanches said he could not help but commend Delesie for his great attitude of competitiveness that he has brought on the field every time he worked under his instruction.

Longo transferred to the South Hill from Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island, where he appeared in five games during his first year for the Division I program. He used his time training with the Bombers during the preseason to study how his new teammates played the game and how it was different from how the team played last year.

“Last year [Ithaca College’s men’s soccer team] didn’t keep the ball on the ground as much,” Longo said. “This year we play on the ground, we’re a hard nosed team, we play the balls through their team and pass them around. … A mix of that is deadly for a team.”

Tom Mulligan was Jack Longo’s high school soccer coach at Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, New Jersey, where the program won two Non-Public A New Jersey State Championships, two New Jersey State Sectional Championships and a championship in the Shore Conference while Longo was on the team.

“You always trusted Jack Longo in the back,” Mulligan said. “I always knew I had an anchor with Jack Longo on my back line. Someone that can be trusted, that understood the game and was fully committed to the team and the process of playing the style that we wanted to play.”

Oltman came from the Division II program Metropolitan State University of Denver. Oltman referred to his transition to Ithaca College as a “fresh start” for his collegiate soccer career as he plans to use

this opportunity to play better than he did at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

“This offseason was the hardest I’ve worked in two or three years fitness-wise, work ethic–wise and training-wise,” Oltman said. “I just wanted to be ready. I know it’s a [Division III] school but all the research I did and all of the people that I talked to said that this school is a really good school for soccer. … It’s definitely my last shot, but I got two years and I’m gonna show what I got.”

This year marks the third year in charge of the college’s men’s soccer program for Eldridge.

He took the time to commend all three of the players and the skills that they bring to South Hill, saying that all three of them looked impactful in the preseason scrimmages.

“We’re excited to see where they go in the season,” Eldridge said. “We were very intrigued with [Longo’s] attacking abilities out of the right-back position. He’s a guy who’s not only a defender but a guy that can join in when we have the ball. Ian Oltman is an outside midfielder or an attacking option for us that has really good feet. Emmett Delesie is a player with a lot of skill in the final third.”

With great on-field abilities come off-field abilities, and Eldridge said he was pleased with who the three players were as individuals off the field.

“I think the most important thing is that they’re really good people and have certainly fit in well with the rest of our guys in terms of just characteristics that we look for in all of our guys,” Eldridge said.

Since the season started, Delesie, Oltman and Longo each registered minutes on the field and continued their work when the Bombers hosted SUNY Brockport at 4 p.m. Sept. 16.

From left, junior Ian Oltman, junior Emmett Delesie and sophomore Jack Longo all transferred to Ithaca season to help the men’s soccer team reach their championship aspirations during the Fall 2022 season. Nolan Saunders/the ithacan

ithaca college students take flight with club quidditch

By Tobiah Zboray

When Ithaca College’s students returned for Fall 2022, many club teams returned to practice and play at the start of the new academic year. Among these teams was the Ithaca Hex Quidditch team, which returned to South Hill flying high with excitement.

Senior Lauren Mitchell said the team plays a form of quidditch referred to as muggle quidditch. Mitchell said the game involves five different positions: chasers, keepers, beaters, seekers and the snitch. Points are scored when chasers throw a volleyball, referred to as a quaffle, through one of three rings at the end of the field, while keepers and beaters try to stop them from scoring. After 20 minutes, the snitch, which is someone with a tennis ball attached to a pair of special shorts, is released, who the seekers go after. The game ends when a team gets to 80 points after the 20-minute mark. With 10 members on the team and the relatively niche nature of the sport, club president senior Athaliah Knoell said the team has to do more work to get its name out there.

“I would say we do a fair amount,” Knoell said. “We had a table at the first-year organization fair; we put up posters around campus. … We want to get the word out there.”

The team’s work recruiting does help them reach the specific audience that they look for. First-year student Elliot House-Kelly said the club caught his attention at the first-year student organization fair. With the new year, however, the team was looking forward to regaining some stability in its schedule. The team usually practices on Intramural Fields but could not during the 2021–22 academic year because the fields were included with Emerson Hall, where students who had COVID-19 were isolating.

Knoell said the return to Intramural Fields makes scheduling easier for the team. The team no longer needs to get permission to use a field and only has to tell club sports officials when they plan on using the field. Knoell is now able to focus on the role of president, which she said has been one of the most enjoyable parts of their time at the college.

“Being on the quidditch team has been one of my most important things on campus for me since my freshman year and something that I’ve come back for, and so being the president has been so rewarding,” Knoell said.

Knoell said another benefit of the team returning to Intramural Fields is a better ability to schedule games and tournaments against other schools. But on top of organizing on-field events, the team also wants

to work on connecting off the field through team bonding events. Mitchell said the team tries to get together regularly, building connections off the field and keeping everyone in touch with each other.

“We went to get Purity [ice cream] last week with a bunch of the new first-years," Mitchell said. "We’re trying to organize some things like a Harry Potter movie marathon. Sometimes it’s just little things like getting lunch or dinner after practice, or during practice taking the time to relax and talk to each other when we’re getting a water break.”

These team bonding events have helped to cultivate an environment on the team that Knoell said is extremely friendly and close.

“The team is incredibly supportive,” Knoell said. “We have had a group chat on Facebook, and now we have a Discord server where everyone can interact with each other about quidditch and non-quidditch things. I’ve gotten so much support from the team. … We’re just really good friends. It’s been a really warm and supportive environment. It’s wonderful.”

Despite only being on the team for a short time, House-Kelly said their experience with the team has been positive, even convincing their friends to join the team, saying that the team’s atmosphere has made their experience much more enjoyable.

From left, first-year student Elliot House-Kelly, senior Lauren Mitchell and senior Alex Kennedy chase a ball in mid-air during a game of quidditch at practice. Jasmine Scriven/the ithacan

bombers connect at annual cross-country alumni race

By Aidan Charde

As the runners lined up to await the start gun for the Jannette Bonrouhi-Zakaim Memorial Alumni Run at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 3, Jim Nichols, head coach of the Ithaca College men’s cross-country team, made sure the athletes knew how important the event was.

For current athletes, alumni of all ages and their families, the alumni run represents more than just a race. Held every year since the mid-1980s — Nichols said he forgets the exact year it began — the run gives the team and its alumni a chance to connect with each other and have a memorable weekend.

“It’s just a really fun, low-key type of a thing to get the season started,” Nichols said. “And it brings our alumni back to something that’s a tradition, where they get to meet their former teammates and … they get to meet our team and get to see our teams because we’ll send them weekly results.”

Dan Malay ’02 and Erin Malay ’03, a married couple who said they met on the cross-country team, have been coming nearly every year since they graduated. Although Dan Malay said he and his wife feel a lot slower every time they compete against the varsity athletes, it is still nice to be able to interact with the team.

“It’s good to come back and see how well the program has been doing,” Dan Malay said. “It’s fun to have our kids come and see what that’s like also, so that they can be cross-country runners someday maybe.”

There are two races each year. First is the “Will Be” run, where the children of alumni, all wearing Ithaca College cross-country shirts that read “Will Be” on the back, circle the Upper Terrace Fields.

Afterward, alumni, who wear shirts that read “Has Been,” and current athletes, wearing their speedsuits, line up to take part in the 5K around the college’s home course around the Upper Terrace Fields and Kostrinsky Field before heading up through the natural lands.

Children are welcome to join the 5K as well, like 12-year-old Meghan Malay, the oldest daughter of Dan and Erin Malay, who said this is her third year doing the 5K and 12th doing the Will Be — which she said she and her sisters, 10-year-old Claire and 8-year-old Kate, have swept the past two years.

Even for people not involved directly with the team, like Ben Frahm — the husband of Erin Dinan, head coach of the women’s cross-country team — it can be great to see alumni come back year after year.

But for some, the event is even more than just a time to connect with past teammates or a tune-up for the season. Gitty Bonrouhi is the mother of Jannette Bonrouhi-Zakaim ’90, a former cross-country star at the college who is the namesake of the event.

Bonrouhi-Zakaim died in February 2000 of an unknown cause at just 32 years old. Bonrouhi said seeing her daughter’s memory kept alive by the team means a lot to her, but it brings back some sad memories.

“It is bittersweet,” Bonrouhi said. “It’s nice to … keep her memory alive, and especially to see so many people.”

Lizzie Zakaim, the daughter of Bonrouhi-Zakaim, was just three when her mother died. Although both she and her younger brother David have almost no memory of their mother, Lizzie Zakaim said she appreciates that the college does an event in her honor.

“I just think it’s nice that her death wasn’t forgotten,” Zakaim said. “Something was done to keep it alive. And of course, seeing coach Nichols every year and how dedicated he is to keeping this going every year is really touching and inspiring.”

Nichols said he remembers learning of Bonrouhi-Zakaim’s death and how it affected him. Even though he was the men’s coach and did not work with her personally, she was, at the time, the most successful runner in program history, so he knew her well.

“That was a hard day for me,” Nichols said. “I had to walk next door and tell [Bill Ware, former Ithaca College women’s cross-country head coach] that [Bonrouhi-Zakaim], a four-time All-American in cross-country and six-time All-American in track and field, at age 32, I think it was, had died.”

Now 22 years later, Bonrouhi-Zakaim has not been forgotten by the alumni of the program. Erin Malay did not run with Bonrouhi-Zakaim, but she said she was at the college around the time of her death and participated in the first race after it was named in her honor.

“We had met all of her family and knew the importance of the events,” Erin Malay said. “I think just, being in a small little running community, being able to come back and show support for her mom and the family is a really neat way to connect.”

Elvis Zakaim, Bonrouhi-Zakaim’s ex-husband, and his wife Andrea Zakaim also make the trip from New Jersey every year. Elvis Zakaim said he still enjoys being at the event and spending time on campus.

“It’s the pinnacle of our summer,” Elvis Zakaim said. “We come here very happy and leave here very sad. It’s the end of the summertime, and it’s hard to leave Ithaca behind. It’s inspiring to see what [Nichols] has done to honor her memory, and we appreciate it every year, every day.”

The run is only part of the weekend. After the run, Nichols invites all the attendees and their families back to his house, where they have a cookout and play a game of volleyball, alumni vs. current students — and of course, he said, the alumni almost always win.

“The alumni have won every match except maybe two or three out of 30 years,” Nichols said. “And the metaphor for that is that the alumni communicate with each other, they talk to each other. They’re able to do things whereas the young team still hasn’t learned to communicate … so that’s a metaphor of how the season’s going to go. A couple years back, the varsity actually beat the alumni, and that team qualified for Nationals.”

This year, Nichols said, the alumni came out on top again, but both teams will continue to work to qualify for Nationals. Both the men’s and women’s teams have to get ready for the competitive season ahead. Both teams will be racing at 11 a.m. Sept. 10 at Hamilton College for the first meet of the season.

Parley Hannan ’20 crosses the finish line at this year ’s Jannette Bonrouhi-Zakaim Memorial Alumni Run. Atticus Rubottom/the ithacan

Win streak powers volleyball team toward postseason

By Emma Kersting

Editor’s note: This story was published Oct. 19, prior to the team’s win at the Liberty League Championship on Nov. 5.

The Ithaca College volleyball team set itself up for a strong season and performed as strong competitors, with an overall season record of 18–4 and standing second in the Liberty League conference as of Oct. 11.

Last fall, the Bombers qualified for the NCAA Division III Championships but lost in the first round against University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Despite the loss, junior outside hitter Alexandra Montgomery said she still found the opportunity to be valuable.

Head coach Johan Dulfer said he believes that making it to the NCAA Championships at all, considering the obstacles that came with playing after losing the 2020 season to the COVID-19 pandemic, is a great achievement. The team went a long time without practicing or playing together, and from the 2019 to 2021 season, there had been a great change in the roster and the team had not been on the court for a year.

Dulfer said he considered the 2021 season to be a time the team took to rebuild based on what was lost after the canceled season.

“I always tell recruits, ‘Listen, if in a rebuilding year you still make the NCAA Tournament, that’s a sign of a really strong foundation,’” Dulfer said.

Even though the Bombers did not win the Liberty League in 2021, they were able to qualify for the NCAA Tournament in the at-large bid, which is selected by an NCAA committee.

The committee looks at all of the resumes of teams that did not win their conference tournaments and see if they have enough quality wins to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Dulfer said he always makes sure the team plays a nationally competitive schedule, which helps them impress the committee at the end of the season.

This season, the Bombers were on the rise, defeating nearly all of their opponents, including college rival SUNY Cortland on Oct. 11 and Johns Hopkins University on Sept. 16, which was ranked No. 14 in the country at the time. Dulfer said that while the team had more wins than past seasons, they still played a highly competitive schedule.

“This team doesn’t seem to really care who’s on the other side of the net,” Dulfer said. “They just want to play, and they love it when whoever’s on the other side of the net turns out to be good, because it allows us to then raise our level.”

Junior middle/right side Jamie Koopman was

off the court at the start of the season because of an injury, which she said allowed her to experience the season differently by spending many games on the sidelines.

“These girls are all so talented and just want to get better at volleyball, and I could tell just by watching them that there is a fire there this year that has led us this far,” Koopman said via email.

One of the key elements to the team’s recent success is improved communication. According to Dulfer, the athletes told their coaches they believed more communication would better the team, so it became one of the primary goals for the season. Koopman said the team had many goals, big and small, to help keep the team on track throughout the season.

Montgomery said she wants to make sure the team is a supportive environment for everyone, on and off the court. Dulfer said that one of the team’s core values is communication and that the players respect each other.

“One of my biggest goals right now is just … trying to make sure they know I’m here for them and their biggest cheerleader,” Montgomery said. Compared to last season, Dulfer said he believes the team is better. The players trained hard over the summer and are more confident because of it. The Bombers came into this season strong and were able to improve their skills rather starting fresh.

Not only did the team improve its communication this season, but serves were stronger as well. The Bombers were able to get strong serves against competitors, which lead to their victories. Dulfer said this year’s team was likely the best serving team he has coached in 20 years.

“Even against really good opponents that may be bigger, physically stronger than us, we serve so tough that everybody is struggling against us at the moment,” Dulfer said.

Only one athlete, sophomore middle blocker Aleka Darko, has started all 22 matches, but 14 players have started at least one, and 18 have played in at least one. Dulfer said the team does not care who puts the balls down as long as they go to the floor. Dulfer compared the team to a spider web, because each individual player is integral to the success of the team.

“It makes no sense to talk about individuals because we call [the team] the web,” Dulfer said. “We’re all inextricably linked. You take out one little piece of a spider web, the whole thing falls together.”

Looking to the remainder of the season, Montgomery said the team hoped to win the Liberty League Championship Nov. 5, an achievement that had never been accomplished in the team’s history. It last won a conference championship in 2016, when the college was still in the Empire 8.

Montgomery hoped to take home the title as it would serve as an automatic qualifier to join the NCAA Tournament. As the Bombers were placed second in the Liberty League as of Oct. 11, Montgomery hoped the team could potentially move up in the ranking.

Darko said in an email she felt confident in the team’s work and had high hopes for postseason matches. Similar to Montgomery, Darko said a big goal for the team was to win the Liberty League Tournament.

“Everyone plays with their heart and the game is never over until it’s over,” Darko said. “If we keep playing with this unison and drive, I definitely see first place coming our way.”

From left, senior Camryn O’Leary, first-year students Maddie Cox and Leila Chipepo, graduate student Elli Gaskill, and senior Jennifer Pitts celebrate on the court. The team won 13 straight matches between Sept. 16 and Oct. 13. Xinyi Qin/ the ithacan

soccer first-year students embody spirit of the team

By Dustin Terry

First-year students Ali Amari and Kaelyn Fernandez made the most of their debut seasons for the Ithaca College women’s soccer team, stepping into big roles as the season began and embodying the important and positive team culture that contributed to a successful season.

As roommates and midfielders, the duo were side-by-side on and off the pitch, learning and growing. Both Amari and Fernandez started in the Bombers’ first game of the season, a 3–0 victory over Elmira College on Sept. 1. Fernandez since started in all but one game, scoring two goals and an assist on the season as of Oct. 25. Amari started in 12 of the Bombers 15 contests.

Head coach Mindy Quigg praised Fernandez for reading the game at a high level and being very productive in the midfield for her small size.

“She brings a value of technical ability, tactical awareness and a really incredible pace to the midfield,” Quigg said. “We’re asking a lot of her because we’ve moved her around. She’s played up top, she’s played attacking midfield and she’s played holding midfield, and in the course of one game, she may do all three.”

Prior to her collegiate career, Fernandez said she was accustomed to holding her midfield position. Her role for the Bombers gives her more freedom in her positioning and helps her to see the field better.

“I know what I want when I’m [in attacking positions], so when I’m in the midfield, I have a better perspective of what my teammates want from me,” Fernandez said. “It also gives me more knowledge about the game and how you can play certain ways in different positions.”

Amari has also expanded her game since joining the Bombers, playing as holding midfielder — who stays close to the defensive line and takes primarily defensive responsibilities — behind or next to Fernandez. A natural outside defender, Amari made a transition to a more central position because of team personnel.

“She took it on right away and she gets better every single day,” Quigg said. “She is a really good one-on-one defender, really tenacious on the ball. She’s fearless and likes to challenge people in the air and tackles hard well.”

The transition was challenging for Amari, but she said support from her team made it easier to adapt to a new role.

“In the beginning, I was a little bit lost, but I had great resources around me,” Amari said. “The girls were so supportive and helped me so much on the field and off the field.”

Quigg said she quickly noticed the work ethic and values that Amari and Fernandez brought to the team as the season started.

“They’re very passionate about the sport,” Quigg said. “They listen extremely well and they don’t take offense to criticism; they take it for what it is, which is an opportunity to get better and that’s helping them tremendously grow into the pressures of a program that has high expectations.”

In addition, because they are roommates, Amari said they have been able to forge a close bond, which helps their performances in-game. Off the field, their relationship as teammates has given them something to connect over.

“We have really good communication and can read each other on the field,” Amari said. “It’s so nice to have that support system and to even come back to the dorms and talk about the games.”

The close bond extended to the large first-year student class that had 14 athletes on the roster.

“We’re all in this big adjustment together and it’s been super helpful,” Fernandez said. “I couldn’t ask for a better group of girls to be going through this with, and it makes me really excited for the next four years.”

The first-year student class performed well on the field, contributing to four goals and seven assists on the season as of Oct. 25.

“They are all quality players and really good teammates,” Quigg said. “They’re really great women who love the sport and figure out ways, even if they’re not playing in matches, to impact us and make us better every day.”

Fernandez and Amari said they immediately felt like part of the team, and that eased the transition into college life.

“I was a little intimidated coming into my first year of college,” Fernandez said. “All our upperclassmen and coaches made it a really easy adjustment. Through the very beginning, we did everything as a team and they made us feel super comfortable.”

The team is fulfilling Quigg’s expectations of being hardworking and getting better throughout the season.

For Amari and Fernandez, their goal coming into the season was to be positive impacts, whether in training, from the bench or on the field.

“I didn’t have any expectation of starting or anything; I wanted to do as much as I could in practice and working hard,” Amari said. “[I was] taking advice from the older girls, seeing how things worked for them and how I could learn from them and just absorb as much as I could.”

As they solidified their roles in the squad, their expectations for themselves were to show up every day and be ready to make positive impacts each game. They are still learning and adapting each day, understanding the game better as they play higher pressure games in a push for the postseason.

“Something I’ve learned, especially in the tighter games, is that you can’t ever check out mentally,” Amari said. “We need to stay locked in for the entire 90 minutes because something can just change in an instant.”

The Bombers began the first round of the Liberty League tournament Nov. 1.

From left, first-year student midfielders Ali Amari and Kaelyn Fernandez of the Ithaca College women’s soccer team and St. Lawrence University Saints sophomore midfielder Alyvia Ronning chase after the ball. Ana Gavilanes, spencer park/the ithacan

students celebrate halloween early with bomberthon

women’s swim and dive teams, the softball team and the golf team.

Testani said that her leadership role allows her the perfect opportunity to continue supporting a cause extremely personal to her.

“My high school had an annual dance marathon, and when I learned that there’s one here on campus as well, my college decision was a no-brainer,” Testani said. “My own mom has cancer, so the cause is really important to me and I knew that it was something that I wanted to stay involved in.”

Testani explained that all of the fundraising done over the course of the academic year worked to cover general wish lists for families, which included commodities like gas cards, coins for laundry and free or discounted meal vouchers.

Sophomore Preston Tompkins, a tournament participant, said that regardless of how his team performed in competition, which ended up losing in the quarterfinals, he largely felt more fortunate to be able to support BomberTHON’s message.

By Tess Ferguson

On opposite sides of the Ithaca College Fitness Center’s south gymnasium stood Robin, Batman’s trusty sidekick, and a person dressed as a jar of salsa. There was less than a minute of competition left and only two balls remaining.

The gym grew silent in anticipation as the pair shuffled across their respective baselines, sizing each other up as the final two standing in the first match of the evening. It was the salsa that made the first move, only narrowly missing his opponent, but Robin ultimately came out on top, catching the jar off guard on his follow-through. The gym fell into hysterics, and there were still 19 more games to go.

Founded on campus in 2019, the Ithaca College BomberTHON is a student-led organization that joins a network of over two hundred colleges and universities hosting dance marathons to benefit Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals across the country. Specifically, the college’s chapter is working to support the Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital in Syracuse.

Outside of the dance marathon that took place in April, BomberTHON made an effort to host additional events that promoted fundraising to contribute to its cause year round. For its first event, the organization hosted its first-ever Halloween Dodgeball Tournament on Oct. 24.

Sophomore Ellie Chelnick, the finance and operations chair on BomberTHON’s executive board, was the mind behind the festively themed event. A self-proclaimed “ideas person” in terms of her role as

an officer, Chelnick said she was looking forward to hosting the tournament this fall.

“When I pitched this event to the board, I really just explained how much fun it would be,” Chelnick said. “It’s super practical, and it’s a really easy way to promote our cause.”

The event hosted 12 eight-person, costume-clad teams and each person was charged $5 to participate. Chelnick said all of the money collected will be donated to Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital to support families in need.

“Events like these are really important because they’re low cost for us,” Chelnick said. “When people signed up for the tournament, it was not only because they wanted to have fun, but because they were willing to give a little bit to our cause.”

Junior Sophia Testani, the president of the campus chapter, said Chelnick, a member of the women’s tennis team, came up with the idea in hopes to target BomberTHON’s largest audience: student-athletes.

“[Chelnick] is always coming up with these awesome ideas for promotional events, and we knew that [the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee] hosted a dodgeball tournament last year that the athletic teams went nuts for,” Testani said.

Chelnick explained that networking with both varsity and club sports teams is an essential piece of running a successful event for BomberTHON, and the dodgeball tournament was no different.

True to Chelnick’s efforts, the organization was able to host a 12-seed double-elimination tournament bracket including players from both the men’s and

“You can only win in this scenario,” Tompkins said. “Even if you lose [the tournament], you’re still contributing to a much larger cause. You’re still a better person at the end of the day.”

Clad in full swashbuckling uniform, Tompkins said that when Chelnick approached him about signing up for the tournament, the idea of dodgeball in Halloween costumes was an opportunity that he could not pass up.

“Of course I just happened to have a pirate shirt and a feathered hat, so was I supposed to let those go to waste?” Tompkins said. “It makes the event just that much more fun.”

Sophomore Anna Cornell, a tournament participant and member of the softball team, said her team took the tournament as an opportunity to represent athletics on campus and her program’s involvement in service projects. Cornell also said that as BomberTHON continues to raise awareness across campus, the softball team will always be there to support it.

When the tournament eventually drew to a close, it was a squad of members of the men’s swim and dive team that came out on top, playing five undefeated matches to take home the championship title. With the help of its participants, BomberTHON was able to fundraise $330 that will go directly to families in need under the care of Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital. As she reflected on the event that she helped to orchestrate, Chelnick was largely grateful that it happened at all.

“We really put a lot of effort into these things, so it was especially cool to see how many people showed up and wanted to participate,” Chelnick said. “It means so much to our club and our cause.”

BomberTHON is a student-run organization that hosts dance marathons to benefit children’s hospitals each year. The organization hosted a dodgeball tournament to raise money for the Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital. Maddy Tanzman/the ithacan

Transgender student finds a community with men’s rugby

By Aidan Charde

In the fall of 2021, first-year student August Donato was expecting to be at Fordham University, where he had been given a scholarship to compete on the Division I rowing team. Instead, he is at Ithaca College playing on the men’s club rugby team — a sport he had never tried before being approached by the team early in Fall 2022.

Donato came out as transgender earlier in 2022 and has been on testosterone treatment since August. His scholarship at Fordham was for the women’s rowing team, and the university does not offer a men’s team. Because of NCAA rules, Donato could not use testosterone treatment if he was competing on a women’s team, so he would have to choose between being on the team or being open about his identity.

“It took me a while [to figure out what I wanted to do],” Donato said. “I initially committed verbally to Fordham; I even signed a contract. The contract didn’t end up going through, which basically saved my life, because that ended up letting me come here and actually medically transition.”

Senior Nick Bikah, one of the captains on the rugby team, had nothing but praise for Donato.

“Everybody loves [Donato],” Bikah said. “Every time he gets hit, he still gets back up. He’s never whining about anything.”

Donato said he would have stayed at Fordham but could not afford the school without the athletic scholarship. Even once he decided to come to Ithaca College, he had considered joining the men’s rowing team but opted not to because of how early in the transition process he was.

“[Rowing at the college] didn’t seem like the right environment for me,” Donato said. “I might go back to rowing next year; I haven’t decided yet. I’m also just quite short for rowing, anyways.”

Transgender athletes in sports has long been a topic of discussion for the NCAA. The college has had openly transgender students on varsity teams in the past and has worked to be more inclusive in its policies regarding transgender athletes.

But the topic goes far beyond just South Hill. In March 2022, Lia Thomas made headlines after winning the Division I national championship as a transgender athlete, sparking national debates. Athletes at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 also drew international attention and more debate.

Donato said it was difficult for him to make his decision, considering what he could or could not do after beginning treatment, and said he does not think other people should have to make that choice.

“I think it’s kind of unfair,” Donato said. “I actually had to come out earlier than I wanted to, earlier than I was ready to. It was an adjustment period. But I knew

if I signed a contract for four years, I wasn’t going to be able to medically transition … and it was too difficult for me not to transition.”

Junior club president Sammy Harig said, at the club’s level, there are no rule changes or other differences when it comes to having transgender athletes on the team or in the league.

Even though rugby is a physical sport, Bikah said he wants the campus community to know anyone can join, and he feels that having players like Donato on the roster shows that.

“I know there would probably be some people on the team that joined when they were [first-year students] that weren’t comfortable coming out,” Bikah said. “I think now that they see that our whole club is accepting of everything, I feel like we’ll get more people to [join].”

Senior Steven Zucker, the other team captain, said head coach Annemarie Farrell plays a large part in building the culture around the men’s team and keeping the bond strong among all the players.

Like Zucker, Donato said Farrell has made an effort to make sure he feels supported on the team. Although Farrell was gone for part of the semester — she was serving as the team manager for the USA Women’s Rugby World Cup team in New Zealand, which began Sept. 8 and ended for Farrell on Oct. 29 with Team USA’s quarterfinal defeat — Donato said the two of them spoke earlier in the semester.

“[Farrell] is amazing,” Donato said. “She kind of, like, after some practices, pulled me off and we talked about gender, what I’m comfortable with, things like shirts versus skins.”

Although shirts versus skins was something the team had done for years and is a common practice in sports, Bikah said it was a simple switch that really

makes no difference. Now, the athletes use pinnies or tuck their shirts in to denote which team they are on in a scrimmage. The acceptance on the team is something Donato said he feels is reflected by the rest of campus. He said he feels like he can be himself at the college, regardless of what sport he is playing.

The Ithaca College Center for LGBT Education, Outreach & Services held events during the month of October to celebrate LGBTQ+ history month. The college has a 5/5 star rating on the Campus Pride Index for being inclusive to LGBTQ+ students.

Both Zucker and Donato said there were other members of the team who identified as transgender or gender-nonconforming, but they declined to mention who out of respect for their privacy. Zucker said the main goal for the team is to have an enjoyable experience, and being inclusive is part of that.

Harig said the group is as tight-knit as ever, and he is happy to have Donato on the team. The team stayed close during the season by spending time together and doing activities outside of practice.

“We still hang out together; we have pretty much all the rugby people hang out every weekend together,” Harig said. “Everybody’s always invited, everybody’s always welcome.”

No matter what his future at the college holds, Donato said he wants to make sure every transgender athlete makes the decision that is right for them. He made the choice to give up a varsity sport, but he said that does not mean it is what everybody should do, because every situation is different.

“If a person really loves their sport, where they’d like to postpone medical transition to play, and that’s cool with them, they’re still as valid as somebody who decides to do a new sport to medically transition,” Donato said. “Whatever your journey is, it’s valid.”

First-year student August Donato, who is on the men’s rugby team, came out as transgender earlier this year and began hormone treatment in August. Donato joined rugby after being approached by the team in Fall 2022.

Maddy Tanzman/the ithacan

Bombers reclaim the Cortaca Jug in front of 40,232 fans

by Aidan Charde & Tommy Mumau

On Nov. 12, 40,232 people filled the stands at Yankee Stadium to witness the 63rd annual Cortaca Jug game. Under sunny skies, despite the threat of rain the night before, the 9–0 Ithaca College Bombers and 9–0 SUNY Cortland Red Dragons kicked off, both with hopes of finishing their seasons at a perfect 10–0.

When the clock hit zero at the end of the fourth quarter, the Bombers had come out on top for the 38th time in the rivalry’s history with a 34–17 win. The 10–0 record marked the first time since 1986 that the program ended its regular season without a loss.

Senior quarterback A.J. Wingfield, who went 18-for-20 with 209 yards and three touchdowns to go along with 28 yards on the ground, lauded the tens of thousands of fans who showed up for both sides. Although the attendance number did not break the Division III record of 45,161 set by the Cortaca Jug game at MetLife Stadium in 2019, it was good enough for the second-highest mark.

“The crowd was electric,” Wingfield said. “They got really loud and we talked about it all week [that] the emotions are going to be high.”

Sophomore Carolina Cedraschi said she does not know much about the rules of football, but she still had a great time at the game because of the

people around her.

“I had a great view, I had good food, I cheered, I had so much fun,” Cedraschi said. “The atmosphere and the vibe of, you know, school spirit [was great]. … People were doing the wave in the stands! I had a really good time and it was so much fun.”

In addition, the game was broadcast by YES Network, who brought in NBC sports anchor Bruce Beck ’78 to call the game alongside students. Senior Jeremy Goldstein, who was the football play-by-play announcer this season for Bombers Live on ICTV, said it was surreal to be able to call a game on YES and to do it with someone like Beck.

“It was on my lifetime bucket list to call a game for that network,” Goldstein said. “[And] Bruce Beck was actually a mentor of mine for a long time. … I’ve known him for a while and it was almost like it was a full-circle moment for me.”

When the game started, the Bombers struck first with 10:31 remaining in the first quarter, taking an early 7–0 lead over the Red Dragons. Wingfield completed a screen pass to junior running back Jake Williams, who made his way into the right corner of the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown.

Williams led the team in both rushing and receiving yards in the game, with 70 and 63 yards respectively. He also accounted for scores both in the

air and on the ground. While Williams said he was not expecting to play a role in the passing game, he said he knew anything could happen in a game against such a highly ranked opponent.

“[Wingfield] was giving me the ball, he told me, ‘If you’re open, I’m going to give you the ball,’” Williams said. “He told me, ‘You’re one of the best players on the team,’ so I [had to] do what I [had to] do.”

SUNY Cortland answered back later in the quarter, tying the game at 7–7 with 3:25 to play. Sophomore quarterback Zac Boyes evened the score by finding junior wide receiver J.J. Laap in the left corner of the end zone.

The South Hill squad got the lead back with just 0:05 left in the first quarter, taking a 10–7 advantage on a 37-yard field goal by senior kicker Nicholas Bahamonde. In the second quarter, the Bombers extended their lead again as Wingfield completed a screen pass to senior wide receiver Michael Anderson, who hustled past the goal line and made it 17–7.

Down 10 with a chance to make it a closer game, Boyes and the Red Dragons offense stalled not once but twice, with back-to-back drives ending in turnovers, including a goal-line interception by the Bombers’ senior linebacker Matt DeSimpliciis with 11 seconds to go in the half.

Boyes said postgame that he took responsibility

The Ithaca College Bombers celebrate together after taking down rivals SUNY Cortland 34–17 in the 63rd Cortaca Jug on Nov. 12 at Yankee Stadium. Brendan Iannucci/the ithacan

for the two turnovers, a fumble and an interception, as well as another interception that happened in the fourth quarter.

“[The Bombers] were matching our routes pretty well,” Boyes said. “And honestly, I just misfired on a couple of throws.”

The Bombers increased their lead early in the third quarter with a field goal to make it 20–7, but the Red Dragons began to claw back in the frame and entered the fourth quarter down just 20–17. Curt Fitzpatrick, head coach of the Red Dragons, said that settling for a field goal at the start of the fourth quarter instead of scoring a touchdown, which would have given his team the lead, was a key factor in the final outcome.

“In the third quarter, in a different game, if we’re able to punch it in in the red zone and go ahead by a point, I think you would’ve seen the left field crowd a lot louder,” Fitzpatrick said.

The Bombers answered just a few minutes later, advancing their lead to 27–17. Wingfield let the ball fly by throwing a 40-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Julien Deumaga, who leaped over a defender to make the catch before running into the left corner of the end zone.

Deumaga’s catch landed him a spot on ESPN’s Top 10 Plays the next morning. Michael Toerper, head coach of the Bombers, said he was impressed not only by the catch, but that Deumaga was ready for the play given his tumultuous season.

“I just want to give Julien [Deumaga] credit there,” Toerper said. “He’s a guy that, you know, started off really hot in the year, the ball found him a lot and he made a lot of plays. And toward the end of the season,

the ball didn’t find him as much … Just really proud of him.”

At the postgame press conference, Justin Lutes, associate director of athletic communications at the college, was asked whether or not there were plans to go to another big venue for the game anytime soon. While he joked that he would like to go to Citi Field where the New York Mets play, since it is the last big stadium in the area that the game has not been at, he did not say if there was any official plan to look into that or any other stadium.

Sophomore Sena Namkung, who said Deumaga’s catch sent her section of the stadium into a frenzy, said she thinks Yankee Stadium was the perfect place to host the game, both because of the way seating worked and because she thinks Butterfield Stadium is too small to host it.

The Bombers began postseason play at noon Nov. 19, hosting the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in the first round of the NCAA Championship. Toerper said he did not care how many people showed up for the playoffs.

“If there’s 1,000 people at Butterfield Stadium, great,” Toerper said. If there’s 5,000, great.”

After spending three seasons with the Bombers as the defensive coordinator from 2017–19, Toerper made his return to South Hill having spent two seasons as the safeties coach at the College of the Holy Cross. Toerper said the decision to leave the college in 2019 was hard because of the bonds he had made with the team.

“It’s really hard to put into words [because] I’m just really proud of these guys,” Toerper said. “[The seniors] are guys who I knew when they were 17. I’ve been to every one of these guys’ high schools and recruited them. And to see where they’re at right now and see how they brought this team together, if I talk about it too much I’ll get emotional.”

With the season on the line in every game now, DeSimpliciis said he and the team were ready for whatever comes next.

“It’s been four or five years in the making,” DeSimpliciis said. “I think we got something special, and I think we just gotta keep it rolling.”

The 63rd Cortaca Jug on Nov. 12 was held at Yankee Stadium, garnering a record attendance of 40,232 fans. kalysta Donaghy-Robinson/the ithacan

From left, junior running back Jake Williams rushes for a 10-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter while being tackled by sophomore defensive back Ty Kolar and junior defensive back Mark Noel. Nolan Saunders/The ithacan

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The Hidden Opponent hosts home run derby fundraiser

By aidan charde

Beforethe Ithaca College softball team got in action during Spring 2023, it is already got some practice in — and let members of the campus community take some swings, too.

Sophomore catcher and utility player Alex Cruz is one of eight campus captains at the college for The Hidden Opponent, an organization advocating for mental health in collegiate athletes. As part of the role, Cruz said she and her fellow captains, some of whom made it to the event, have to host a fundraising event once a month. The event Sept. 17 was the first one of the semester.

This month, the event was a softball home run derby at Kostrinsky Field. For $5, anyone, not just Ithaca College community members, could come and swing the bat five times, trying to hit the ball as far off the tee as they could.

Cruz said 30 people attended and raised about $300, which will be donated to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, a group Cruz said she personally wanted to support.

“September is suicide awareness month,” Cruz said. “I struggled a lot with mental health, especially last season. So having that organization available to other athletes, I want to build more awareness so people know it’s there.”

Senior Lauren DePietro, who is roommates with another campus captain, senior Erin Kiley of the women’s swim team, showed up to support her roommate to show that she cares about the cause, even though she is not an athlete herself.

“I’m not on the swim team, but I live with [other members of the swim team],” DePietro said. “Supporting them and knowing that, like, I’m a person they can talk to [is important]. I’m also a coach at home, so I’m just trying to be a better coach and make sure I have the awareness of mental health.”

Cruz said one of the biggest issues she sees in mental health, especially with athletes, is the stigma they face for speaking out about issues. The Hidden Opponent was started by Victoria Garrick, a former Division I athlete at the University of Southern California, in 2019. Garrick spoke at TEDxUSC in 2017 on the topic, where she outlined the stigma she faced in coming to terms with her mental health. She also spoke at the college in 2021 as part of the Student-Athlete Advisory Council’s Mental Health Awareness Week.

A 2022 survey from the NCAA found that 22% of men’s sports athletes and 38% of women’s sports athletes reported feeling mentally exhausted in Spring 2021. The numbers are a decrease in findings from Spring 2020 — 26% for men and 39% for women — but still remain a concern.

Now that The Hidden Opponent is making strides to ensure no one feels that way by starting conversations and educating people about mental health, Cruz said it is important for her to make sure athletes know they can talk about their emotions.

“[Mental health] is so stigmatized that people don’t want to talk about it until it’s too late,” Cruz said. “And especially with athletes, you know, we’re taught to be mentally tough and not show emotions when we’re playing, [but we want to show] people it’s OK.”

Even some parents showed up for the cause. Linda Fabbo, the mother of junior Louis Fabbo on the baseball team, said she was at Butterfield Stadium with her husband John Fabbo for the football game against Alfred University on Sept. 17. But when her son told them there was an event going on that they should stop by for, they made their way up to the field.

Linda Fabbo said she is a psychotherapist, a licensed therapist who completed psychiatric training, and between her job and having a son who has been an athlete his whole life, she said she knows plenty about mental health and the stigma behind it.

“It’s been an ongoing conversation for a long time just with high school students about pressure and understanding that on social media, not everything looks as it is,” Fabbo said.

The support from fellow athletes and teammates has been outstanding, Kiley said. She has not hosted an event yet, but she said she has some ideas and is excited about the opportunity.

“I think we’re going to all work together a lot to plan events like this and get the whole team involved,” Kiley said. “I want to get a swim meet involved and get my team involved, because I know they care a lot too.”

Senior Lauren Brady, another member of the swim team who showed up to support Kiley and the organization, said she has first-hand experience with mental health struggles and that she just wants to make sure her teammates have a support system.

“I’ve swam ever since I was little,” Brady said. “Every single one of my teammates has dealt with mental illness from high school to college, myself included. I think it’s really important.”

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From left, sophomores Bella Scolaro and Cynthia Ehrenfeld of the Ithaca College softball team take swings during The Hidden Opponent’s fundraiser Sept. 17. Malik Clement/the ithacan

college kicks off sport psychology programs for student-athletes

According to a study by the NCAA in 2021, 59% of men and 50% of women responded that they strongly agreed or agreed that their coaches took mental health seriously.

Shelley said a team’s coaching staff will reach out to him for help so that he can program group discussions with the athletes to address an issue.

Editorial: Priority needs to be given to athletes’ mental health

For athletes, mental health is typically taboo. A coach will likely tell players, “Get your head in the game!”, but that is about the furthest extent of mental health acknowledgment besides “walk it off.”

By Tess Ferguson

TheIthaca College Department of Exercise Science and Athletic Training has provided educational tracks in both the clinical and the practical side of human function since its establishment. But in recent years, the program has begun to further explore the root of quality athletic performance: sport psychology.

The program has offered undergraduate and master’s degrees in the field, as well as a minor. Athletic training has been offered at the college since 1975, but the dual-degree program for a B.S. and M.S. was first created in Fall 2020. The sport and exercise psychology minor began in 2006. Additionally, the program has worked to connect varsity athletic teams on campus with mental performance consultants.

Mental performance consultants at the college, who are professionally trained in athletic psychology, are aiding student-athletes in developing mental and life skills to optimize performance while encouraging personal development in their respective sports.

Tara Stilwell ’18, former athlete on the volleyball team and lecturer in the department of Exercise Science and Athletic Training, said her experiences off the court working with mental performance consultants inspired her to pursue the same career path.

“While I was an undergrad[uate], the sport [psychology] master’s were only slowly starting to work with the teams on campus,” Stilwell said via email. “When I played volleyball, we only had a few sessions with Greg Shelley, Ph.D., and I was hooked.”

Shelley, retired associate professor in the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences, has worked with every varsity team on campus to facilitate workshops covering a range of topics including culture development, team communication and mental toughness. He has served as a mental performance consultant for more than 20 years.

“Rather than a one-time talk, I like to do things in a sequential manner,” Shelley said. “It’s important to look at the long-term messages of those conversations. One talk rarely fixes anything; the conversation needs to continue.”

In addition to his role as a mental performance consultant, Shelley helped establish the college’s chapter of the Leadership Academy. Launched in 2014, the Leadership Academy is a comprehensive, four-year program with a curriculum designed to develop leadership traits in its student-athletes.

Stilwell said that from the classroom, relaying Shelley’s messages to student-athletes is equally as important as her own curriculum.

Senior Jake Lentz, an athlete on the men’s rowing team and a member of the Leadership Academy, said that as a Sport and Exercise Psychology minor, he finds his studies to tie in closely with his day-to-day life.

“I think one of the things that I like most about sport psychology and Leadership [Academy] is that it can really give you some answers,” Lentz said. “The courses I’ve taken and the things I’ve learned through [Shelley] have been really impactful when it comes to my own outlook on sports.”

Despite the clear progress that the college has made in developing its educational programs and support systems for student-athletes, Lentz and Shelley agreed that there is a long way to go.

“We need practical, hands-on training to make sure that students are prepared to not only apply the research and theory but to truly understand it,” Shelley said. “We teach the theory really well, but what we’re lacking is the ability to teach our young professionals how to actually do it.”

Lentz said that many of the hurdles that the college faces when it comes to supporting its athletes comes down to the number of resources available.

“Sport [psychology] is obviously not the center of attention at any school right now, and bringing it to the forefront could really open up some doors in the field for more funding and opportunities,” Lentz said.

It’s not something that should be shared openly with your team because it shows weakness, at least, that’s the mentality of many professional sports organizations. Currently, Ithaca College is developing and expanding programs in the field of sports psychology to overcome both the stigmas and obstacles that come with maintaining the overall well-being of athletes.

In 2003, the Center for Disease Control launched an initiative called the CDC HEADS UP Campaign, which over the past 20 years has reached over 20 million people and changed the way athletic organizations handle and treat concussions. Just like concussions, mental illnesses occur in the brain and it can be difficult to notice symptoms. But with proper training and outreach, discussions and action taken to treat mental health issues can become as normalized as the steps taken to recover from a concussion.

When someone gets a concussion, they are actually at greater risk of getting more concussions in the future. Training initiatives like HEADS UP emphasize knowing warning signs, susceptibility and prevention measures in order to reduce risk as much as possible. The same principle can be applied when talking about mental health struggles. Issues like stress, injury recovery and psychiatric issues are conditions that can be persistent and long-term and are more likely to arise more than once upon the initial onset.

“It’s important to look at the long-term messages of those conversations,” Greg Shelley, retired associate professor in the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences said. “One talk rarely fixes anything; the conversation needs to continue.”

Expressing struggles is not a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of strength. Athletes who acknowledge their own issues and work towards addressing them will likely see improvements in their performance.

Some of the toughest coaches might say something like, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” Although this is usually in regard to developing athletic techniques and strategies, it applies to mental health, too. Pretending there isn’t an issue will not make it go away. You must embrace the issue in order to cope, heal and prosper.

Planned turf field at IC to contain toxic chemicals

By aidan charde & elijah de castro

Despite Ithaca College’s stated commitments to public health, the environment and cutting carbon emissions, the college is building a new artificial football field that will expose athletes to cancer-causing chemicals, pollute ecosystems and increase greenhouse gas emissions, according to multiple scientists The Ithacan spoke to.

On Nov. 29, the college announced that Monica Bertino Wooden ’81 — whose brother, John Bertino ’80, was a part of the 1979 National Championship football team — had donated $3 million to replace the college’s natural-grass Butterfield Stadium with a new artificial turf. The field, which is in Butterfield Stadium, will also be renamed as Bertino Field.

Environmental effects of artificial turf

Sarah-Jeanne Royer is an oceanographer and scholar at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where she specializes in how the degradation of plastics affects the environment. In 2018, Royer co-authored a study on the life cycle of plastic in the environment. The study concluded that polyethylene — the most common type of plastic and the type used for the grass blades of artificial turf — emits greenhouse gases, ethylene, propylene and methane into the atmosphere as it breaks down.

Royer and other scientists concluded that because of its composition and surface area, artificial turf has a distinctly large contribution to climate change in comparison to other plastics.

Both Scott Doyle, director of Energy Management and Sustainability, and Susan Bassett ’79, associate vice president and director of Intercollegiate Athletics, said they did not speak to scientists independent of the college or the synthetic turf industry.

Kyla Bennett is the director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and a former wetlands enforcement coordinator for the Environmental Protection Agency. Bennett said artificial turf also contains many different toxic chemicals that put the health of athletes in danger.

To help hold the blades in place, most artificial turf fields are filled with 100 to 120 tons of crumb rubber, which is made from recycled tires. Bennett said crumb rubber contains manufactured “forever chemicals” like perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (called PFAs) that never break down and put athletes at risk of getting cancer.

Megan Wolff is a public health historian and the policy director of Beyond Plastics, a group of scientists and policy experts aiming to end plastic pollution. Wolff said the fake turf compromises the college’s commitment of going carbon neutral by 2050.

“Not only is [building an artificial turf] in contradiction to net zero goals, it is so much worse than you could ever imagine,” Wolff said. “It’s made out of a petrochemical feedstock that will last forever and is infused with chemicals.”

College’s claims of environmental benefits

In the college’s initial December announcement, it claimed that artificial turf is beneficial to the environment. However, in interviews, multiple officials at the college had conflicting messaging.

In a statement to The Ithacan on behalf of the college’s leadership, Timothy Downs, chief financial officer and vice president for Finance and Administration, said the college had frequent discussions with industry experts before choosing an artificial turf.

“College leadership is very comfortable with the installation of artificial turf … which includes the use of an innovative product and a proven installation process that maximizes environmental friendliness,” the statement said.

In contrast, Ernie McClatchie, associate vice president in the Office of Facilities, said there are risks to artificial turf, including microplastics, but the college believes it has made the safest decision.

Bassett said she knows of the links between PFAs and cancer. However, she said it was important to note that Bertino Field at Butterfield Stadium will not be the first artificial field on campus, and the majority of surfaces athletes play on are synthetic turf as well.

Doyle said that using artificial turf will reduce the college’s Scope 1 carbon emissions — direct emissions from stationary sources like boilers and water heaters. Since artificial turf does not require lawn maintenance, carbon emissions are reduced. However, natural grass fields absorb carbon dioxide and artificial turfs require carbon to be made and have carbon in the blades that gets released into the environment.

“I felt like there were a lot of things that would

help us move forward, environmentally speaking,” Doyle said. “I have a great deal of concerns about microplastics too. … But I think in this case we’re striving to manage that as effectively as we can.”

Artificial turf industry

The college’s new artificial turf field and the stadium improvements will be serviced by Clark Companies. The manufacturing and direct installation of the turf will be done by Chenango Contracting.

Chris White ’07 is the marketing manager of Chenango Contracting. White said the college will be using a FieldTurf brand of turf, which contains filtration systems and a concrete curb, both of which White claimed help contain environmentally hazardous components of artificial turf.

The artificial turf industry, which was worth $2.7 billion in 2019, has pushed the idea that artificial turf is better for the environment. Many artificial turf companies make claims online that it is good for the environment without citing scientific research.

While White said there will be PFAs in the turf that the college receives, he said they were a type of PFAs that are safe for humans. However, according to Bennett, there are thousands of different types of PFAs, and most remain untested and the types that have been tested are known to cause cancer. Additionally, the industry has made claims that natural grass fields are not environmentally friendly because they require fertilizer, pesticides and irrigation. Most fertilizers used on natural grass fields are made with fossil fuels and contain nitrous oxide.

However, Wolff said fossil fuel-free fertilizers that do not contain nitrous oxide are becoming economically feasible, and environmental damage from artificial turf is far larger than that of natural grass.

Every scientist The Ithacan interviewed said the college’s goal to be carbon neutral by 2050 is at odds with its announced construction of a plastic turf.

Ithaca College announced in November that Butterfield Stadium would be replaced with an artificial turf surface. malik clement/the ithacan

Artificial turf raises concerns about equity and injuries

By aidan charde & elijah de castro

OnNov. 29, the college announced that Monica Bertino Wooden ’81 had donated $3 million for the natural grass at Butterfield Stadium, the home of the football team, to be replaced with artificial turf.

Bertino Wooden’s brother, John Bertino ’80, was part of the 1979 National Championship football team.

The college has said that it prioritizes the health and safety of all its athletes. But along with environmental questions, sources that The Ithacan spoke to raised concerns about injuries, logistics and equity with the new surface.

Concerns about injuries

On Nov. 12, J.C. Tretter, the president of the National Football League Players Association, called for the removal and ban of all slit film turf.

Slit film turf is a type of artificial turf used at six of the 14 NFL stadiums that do not have natural grass.

Chris White ’07 is the marketing manager of Chenango Contracting, the company building the turf at the college. He said the surface will have a hybrid filament, including slit film and monofilament blades.

However, whether or not artificial turf causes more injuries than natural grass is up for debate. Chris Colloca ’90, who has a doctorate in kinesiology, wrote to the Ithaca College Board of Trustees in December when the plan was originally announced opposing the turf field. Colloca said part of his reasoning is because of potential concerns for injuries caused by turf.

“This study says that and that study says this,” Colloca said. “But when we look at all of the evidence, we begin to get a trend, we begin to see … there’s an increased risk of lower extremity injuries. So that’s a concern to me.”

One article that Colloca cited, which was published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine in 2019, found that in Divisions II and III, athletes experienced ACL injuries on artificial turf at 1.63 times the rate of natural grass. For posterior cruciate ligament injuries, the rate was even higher — 3.13 times the rate on turf than grass.

Susan Bassett ’79, associate vice president and director of Intercollegiate Athletics, said the college looked at data when considering the safety of artificial turf. Bassett said some studies, like the one Colloca cited, may be out of date.

Tom Heinzelman ’75, a member of the Athletics Advisory Council at the college and a former high school football coach, said he does not think artificial turf would be so popular if it truly were a serious risk to athletes.

“They’re not going to put multi-million dollar athletes on unsafe surfaces,” Heinzelman said.

In addition, Bassett said inclement weather can cause Butterfield Stadium to be unusable for practices, forcing the football team to practice at Higgins Stadium, the turf field behind the Athletics & Events Center.

Head athletic trainer Michael Matheny agreed and said it is beneficial for the team to practice on turf since many of its away games occur on the same surface.

Sarah-Jeanne Royer is an oceanographer whose work has looked at how artificial turf harms the environment and endangers athletes. Royer said that since artificial turf does not have the ability to absorb water or bacteria, it can trap bacteria and diseases that are shed from an athlete while using the field.

“It takes water to keep [grass] healthy,” Royer said. “The amount of sweat that gets gathered into the synthetic turf — and the blood and all of the germs — is crazy.”

Concerns about logistics and equity

Currently, Butterfield Stadium has a six-lane track surrounding the football field. However, according to Bassett and men’s track and field head coach Jim Nichols, that track has not been usable for competition or practice in several years and has not been resurfaced since 1997, according to the athletics website.

Although the track and field teams can practice indoors at Glazer Arena, Nichols said the team has to travel to Cornell University in order to practice at an outdoor facility.

“We’re able to utilize during the outdoor season for practices [in certain events],” Nichols said. “But there are definitely events that we’re not going to be able to do outdoors … so we’re going to have to venture over to Cornell.”

Katelyn Hutchison ’22, a former runner who transferred to the University of Kentucky for track and field following her senior season, feels that the move is disrespectful, considering the prestige of the women’s program.

“Why don’t we deserve to have concrete plans surrounding a team that has proven [itself] immensely

over the last few years?” Hutchison said via voice note.

In the initial statement, the college announced that a fundraising campaign would be implemented to raise the money necessary for a full-time outdoor track and field facility. A member of the women’s track and field team, who wished to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation from coaches and administration, told The Ithacan that she does not understand why the track and field teams have to continue to find other ways to practice for the outdoor season.

Marc Hudak ’90, a former football player and one of the promoters of the Cortaca Jug games at MetLife and Yankee Stadium, said he thinks the lack of a plan for a new track is because of Bassett’s desire to renovate the football stadium.

“I sort of feel like [Bassett] wants to leave a legacy project before she walks out the door,” Hudak said.

Hudak, Hutchison and Colloca all agreed that the gift of Bertino Wooden was generous. Hudak said he just does not understand why the track has not been rebuilt yet, especially if the college knew it was not usable for competition.

“I think this has been part of her plan for a long time,” Hudak said. “She’s had no involvement by the board of trustees. … This has been [Bassett] and a couple of other people on her staff.”

Bassett, however, refutes that. She said the decision has been in the making for several years and many people have been involved in the discussion, rather than having it be a secret or “conspiracy.”

“This has been worked on, planned, proposed and discussed since 2016,” Bassett said. “I work within a governance structure that guides all major decisions.”

The anonymous source also told The Ithacan she is worried that the vague plan to build a new track means it may never get built.

“Without a timeline and without accountability, there’s nothing,” the anonymous source said. “They can say everything they want, but I really don’t think that means anything until [they say], ‘We’re going to be doing it on this given day.’”

Brendan Iannucci/The Ithacan

Offensive lineman earns back-to-back All-America honors

By David Schurter

Following the 2022 season for the Ithaca College football program, senior offensive lineman Jake Villanueva earned an Associated Press second-team All-America selection, marking back-to-back seasons Villanueva has earned that honor.

The historic season saw Villanueva and the Bombers finish undefeated in the regular season for the first time since 1986, as well as clinch their first Liberty League Championship. On top of that, the team made the NCAA tournament and reached the National Quarterfinals for the first time since 2003 before falling to the No. 1 North Central College Cardinals, 48–7.

Since joining the program in 2018, Villanueva has powered the college to a 36–9 record. With his commitment, Villanueva became the 153rd all-time All-American selection for the football program and the first to earn back-to-back selections by the Associated Press since Daegan Gray ’90 in 1987 and 1988.

“I’m honored, man, that’s really all I can say,” Villanueva said. “It was awesome to play for such a well-renowned program in Ithaca. With our coaching staff, teammates and supportive staff, all five of my years at Ithaca [College] were a great experience that I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.”

Villanueva added that he could not have been an All-American alone — he needed the help and

teamwork of everyone else in the program.

“I’m nothing without my coaches and my teammates,” Villanueva said. “They’re constantly pushing me to be the best that I can, supporting me whether I play really good or bad. They’ve just helped keep me grounded.”

Offensive coordinator Sean Reeder said Villanueva’s commitment to the program is unmatched and that he will leave a big hole with his departure.

“[Villanueva] has had a huge impact on the program,” Reeder said. “He was a part of my first recruiting class in 2017. … It’s been really rewarding to see his growth all the way through the process.”

Another player from Reeder’s first recruiting class was fellow graduate student offensive lineman Brendan Martin. Martin said he and Villanueva have been close ever since their first practice in 2018 and working alongside Villanueva was one of the best experiences of his career.

“We’ve spent a lot of time together; our offensive line position group is close-knit and really has been these last five years,” Martin said.

Martin also said playing alongside Villanueva removed a lot of pressure from his game, allowing him to play the way he does best.

“Playing next to him has made my job so much easier,” Martin said. “Since we have that great chemistry and communication, we’ve done really well on

the right side.”

Villanueva was not the only player for the Bombers who received honors for their excellent play. Also earning an All-America second-team nomination was senior linebacker Matt DeSimpliciis. DeSimpliciis and Villanueva also earned All-Region first-team honors for Region 2, alongside senior kicker Nicholas Bahamonde. Senior quarterback A.J. Wingfield secured a spot on the All-Region Second Team, with senior wide receiver Anthony D’Addetta earning an All-Region third-team selection.

Finishing his final season with the team, Villanueva said there were several memories he will cherish from his career.

“The Cortaca Jug game in 2019 was definitely one of the craziest experiences of my life, when we broke the Division III attendance record,” Villanueva said. “Winning the Liberty League Championship this year was something that we had been working for since our [first year]. It felt so good to finally achieve our goals.”

Above all, Villanueva said he will remember the time he spent with his teammates the most, allowing him to have an enjoyable experience as a football player in college.

“I had a great experience overall playing and you don’t hear that too often with college football players nowaday[s],” Villanueva said.

The Ithaca College football team won its game against SUNY Brockport on Sept. 10. The 2022 season saw the Bombers finish undefeated in the regular season. nolan saunders/the ithacan

Field hockey sends three athletes to national game

By Tess Ferguson

On Oct. 20, graduate student goalkeeper Macy Brandwein was sitting in class when she received an email from the National Field Hockey Coaches Association. The contents included not only a congratulatory note on an impressive season but an invitation to the Victory Sports Tours Division III Senior Game.

Each year, the NFHCA recognizes 60 all-star senior athletes across all six national regions to compete in an event designed to showcase high-level field hockey stemming from all over the country. In 2022, the highly anticipated senior game, featuring athletes from 47 different institutions, shared the stage with the theatrics of National Championship weekend Nov. 19 at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey.

Brandwein was not the only player to receive the exciting news. Invited alongside her were graduate student midfielder Jacqueline Mirabile and senior midfielder Brianna Lennon, who was selected as an alternate. Brandwein said that when she opened the email, she almost thought that it was fake.

“I really thought that somebody was pranking me,” Brandwein said. “When I checked the [NFHCA] website, it was just so crazy to see my name actually on that list.”

The Bombers are no stranger to the nationwide senior game. In 2021, senior striker Morgan Mullen ’22 earned a spot on the team, as did goalkeeper Savanna Lenker ’20 in 2019. However, it is the first time since the games were established that the Bombers have had more than one player invited. The college is one of only four institutions with three invited athletes.

Associate head coach Mo Ordnung said that sending three athletes to the game exemplifies how far the program has come since joining the Liberty League in 2017. Prior to Kaitlyn Wahila being hired as head coach of the program in 2017, the team had only recorded five winning seasons since 2000.

The team only rendered one in-conference win upon completing its first season in the league and has since earned playoff berths in the past four consecutive seasons, including an appearance in the conference championship in 2021.

Mirabile said that the recognition can be attributed to a dedicated coaching staff that has always prioritized their teams’ success.

“I couldn’t have had the career that I’ve had if it weren’t for our coaching staff,” Mirabile said. “Having them to guide me for my whole five years here has been huge.”

Mirabile, who was named a third-team All American by the NFHCA in 2021, added that it is exciting to see her coaches being recognized for their dedication and the hard work that they have put into the program for the past six years.

“Our coaches always put everything they have into their job,” Mirabile said. “The fact that three of us are going to this game means that people are really seeing that and talking about it.”

As the teams are not sectioned until the weekend of the matchup, Lennon said that although it would be strange, the chance that she might be playing against her own teammates would be nothing new.

Lennon added that because the game took place during the NCAA Championship weekend, it was exciting to experience the dynamics between some of the most-skilled players in the country.

“Some … players will have just gone head-to-head in really important games,” Lennon said. “It’ll be interesting going from opponents to teammates.”

Similarly to Lennon, Brandwein said she was most looking forward to playing with and against some athletes that she otherwise would not have an opportunity to. As the team features athletes from all six national regions, many of these matchups would never occur during a regular season.

“The roster has players from some really great teams that we normally wouldn’t get to play against,” Brandwein said. “I think it’s going to add some super high-level competition that I’m really excited for.”

Ordnung also said it was interesting for her to witness the game from the stands rather than from her usual spot on the sideline.

“There are so many coaches in the stands and everybody is just so proud to be there and support their seniors,” Ordnung said. “After playing a whole season where every game is a grind to win, it’ll be really nice to just be a proud spectator for a bit and watch the players have some fun.”

Mirabile added that, overall, her invitation to the game is something that she is incredibly grateful for, and it will be the perfect way to tie together her five years with the program.

“We compete against each other every single day during practice,” Lennon said. “It’ll definitely be super fun no matter what.”

“I really just want to be able to play and have some fun with my teammates,” Mirabile said. “Being able to wear this jersey and represent this school is more than I could’ve asked for to finish my career.”

From left, senior midfielder Brianna Lennon, graduate student goalkeeper Macy Brandwein and graduate student midfielder Jacqueline Mirabile were all selected to represent Ithaca College at the NFHCA senior game. Maddy Tanzman/the ithacan

“I really just want to be able to play and have some fun with my teammates. Being able to wear this jersey and represent this school is more than I could’ve asked for to finish my career.”

– Jacqueline Mirabile Graduate student midfielder

Fantasy football tool started by alumni finds big audience

By Aidan Charde

WhenIthaca College students Sam Factor ’19 and Dylan Shane ’19 created an AI-powered fantasy football tool for their machine learning class in Spring 2019, they thought it would be nothing more than a final project.

Until the 2019 NFL season rolled around, Factor, the CEO of WalterPicks, said he and Shane had no way of knowing if the algorithm, which they named “Walter,” would work. But once games began and the pair could see how well their algorithm’s projections mirrored the real-life performances of players, they realized they might be onto something big.

“We built [the algorithm] by backtesting it against past seasons that it hasn’t seen before,” Factor, a former math major, said. “But it was in the fall after Dylan and I graduated where we actually got to see how it did live in real games.”

Fantasy football is a game ever-growing in popularity among the American public. Reports estimate that over 40 million people in the United States and Canada play fantasy football every year and Statista estimates that fantasy sports were worth around $8.88 billion in 2021. There are two popular ways of playing fantasy football. Users can join a league, usually through apps like ESPN Fantasy or NFL Fantasy Football, where they draft a lineup of players and compete weekly against the other members of the league, with one member winning the championship at the end of the season.

The other way is through daily fantasy sports, which is usually run through gambling companies like DraftKings or FanDuel. In DFS, users draft a lineup for one week only and compete against other users for a pool of money. In both versions, players earn points based on their in-game performances, and the users with the most total points are the winners.

The app is a tool to help users draft and set the best possible lineups for fantasy football. While users cannot play through the app, they can sync their accounts from other apps. It can be hard for smaller startups to break onto the scene. Not only has WalterPicks found an audience, but it has been 17% more accurate than ESPN and Yahoo, according to the app’s loading screen. Factor said he knew they had a good product, but he and Shane were surprised to see just how good it was.

Doug Turnbull, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, was the professor for Factor and Shane’s machine learning class in Spring 2019. He said he has seen many students create impressive tools for the final in the class, but it is uncommon for them to turn it into a full company.

“A number of my students have gone off to work in data science jobs where they apply the skills [they

learned in this project],” Turnbull said. “And we’ve had a number of people start web applications that they sort of work on as a side project after they graduate, but [WalterPicks] is, like, a full-time job with employees and stuff. It’s definitely a next-level kind of thing.”

Walter uses 20 million data points over 10 years of football to form its projections, according to the company’s website. Shane, who majored in computer science and now works on enhancing the software for the app, said finding the right data was the most important part of creating the tool.

However, Shane said just having a good app with accurate predictions is not enough. With the volume of fantasy sports apps and tools available, Shane said they worked hard to build a social media presence to draw new users to WalterPicks.

“When we started, me and Sam would literally respond to every single comment,” Shane said. “The biggest thing for [apps like] TikTok is just engagement and interacting with your audience.”

Factor said once they hit around 50,000 followers on TikTok was when he realized that they might be able to work with the app full time. WalterPicks has a TikTok account for all 32 NFL teams where they post content aimed at fans of that team, as well as the main account, a basketball account and an NHL account.

Senior Matt Kane runs one of the accounts, titled “Bengals.WalterPicks.” Kane said he loves content creation, so finding a company that was hiring, and having the college connection, was perfect.

“It’s honestly a dream to make content for people, even if one person is watching it or 1,000 people are watching it,” Kane said. “[Now], a lot of people are there to hear my opinions on [fantasy football], and it makes me feel valued.”

Kane also said he only learned of the company by scrolling through TikTok, before he even knew that it had been started by Ithaca College alumni. By the time the job opportunity came around, which Kane found through a TikTok video from the main account, he said he had heard about who the founders were, but it did not cause him to take the job.

“I first heard of WalterPicks … on TikTok,” Kane said. “I did hear about [Factor and Shane being alumni] from a couple of my sports media friends, but it first popped up on my TikTok For You page.”

Factor said he knows that the football tool is their most popular product, so making sure it stays that way is important to the company’s success. But he said the company is more than that, and he hopes it can continue to grow with the constantly changing landscape.

“I don’t think our entire business hangs on just the algorithm,” Factor said. “I think it’s much more than that now, even though that’s where it started and it’s obviously a big part of things. [But] the social media side of things, and also just our mobile app development … a lot of our competitors are just on desktop, and that’s another huge aspect of what we’re doing.”

As for what comes next, Shane said the current goal is just to grow the company. Right now, WalterPicks offers extensive help with fantasy football, as well as smaller tools for fantasy basketball and NCAA’s March Madness bracket. Shane said he and Factor are looking for ways to make that bigger.

“Football will always sort of be our bread and butter,” Shane said. “But there’s many more sports for us to conquer. … I’d love to get into soccer, baseball would be big, college sports. I think we definitely want to grow it out a little more, and we also have a couple ideas for other adventures to take on.”

From left, Dylan Shane ’19 and Sam Factor ’19, the founders of WalterPicks, an AI-powered fantasy football tool. The pair made the algorithm in a machine learning class in 2019 and expanded it to a popular app and TikTok brand. courtesy of sam factor

Historic season comes to a close for football team

By Tommy Mumau

TheIthaca College football team put together a season for the record in Fall 2022, posting a 12–1 overall record. The Bombers’ season came to a close Dec. 3 as the team fell to the No. 1 North Central College Cardinals 48–7 in the team’s first national quarterfinals appearance since 2003.

The 2022 Bombers achieved many milestones throughout the campaign, posting the program’s first undefeated regular season since 1986 and its first-ever Liberty League title. The team reached these marks by dominating the opposition, winning five games by a margin of 40 points or more. The South Hill squad’s historic season was led by first-year head coach Michael Toerper, who joined Mike Welch ’73 as the second head coach in program history to reach the NCAA tournament in their first year at the helm. Welch’s first season was in 1994, where he posted a 10–3 record and reached the semifinals.

Toerper is also the first head coach since Welch to win 10 or more games in their first season and the only head coach that has guided the Bombers to a perfect regular season slate in their first season. The head coach said he is proud of all that the team accomplished this fall.

“I think this is a group that has set the bar and the standard for years to come,” Toerper said. “Not just because of the results that they’ve earned on the field, but by the way that they work as a team off the field and support each other and do whatever it takes. … That selfless we-over-me mentality has really shined so bright with our leaders in this program.”

That selfless mentality was apparent in its performance on the field, with 16 players named to the All-Liberty League teams. The team also had three players named Liberty League Player of the Year, as senior quarterback A.J. Wingfield was selected as offensive player of the year, senior linebacker Matt DeSimpliciis was named defensive player of the year and senior kicker Nicholas Bahamonde was dubbed special teams player of the year.

Wingfield in particular was a catalyst for the program’s success this year, passing for 1,744 yards and 16 touchdowns in the regular season. These credentials not only provided the quarterback with Liberty League honors, but he was also named a semifinalist for the Gagliardi Trophy that “recognizes excellence in athletics, academics and community service,” according to an announcement from the football team.

Wingfield said he is humbled to receive this recognition and attributes his success to the support he has received from his teammates and coaches.

“It means a lot,” Wingfield said. “I try to just play within myself and do what I’m coached to do, and all

the guys around me have made that really easy for me. So, it’s definitely an honor and something I’m pretty proud of.”

Along with the awards presented to the program’s players, Toerper and his staff were named Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year. Toerper was also named the American Football Coaches Association Region 1 Coach of the Year on Dec. 6. Welch said he followed the program this season and was impressed by how the coaches led the team from the sidelines.

This year, Toerper led the Bombers to a 34–17 win over SUNY Cortland at the Cortaca Jug game Nov. 12 at Yankee Stadium. That was the highest margin of victory since the Bombers won 48–20 in 2017.

The Bombers had been knocking on the door of the postseason the previous four seasons under former head coach Dan Swanstrom, going 8–3 from 2017 to 2019 and logging an 8–2 record in 2021. Despite being a highly competitive program, the NCAA selection committee did not choose the team to be in the NCAA Championship during these seasons. Wingfield said he was impressed by the team’s efforts to make a strong postseason run this fall.

“Last year was kind of heartbreaking; two losses that held us out of the playoffs,” Wingfield said. “We came into this year knowing, like, ‘Listen, like, we could do this.’ … We’ve kind of known from the beginning that this is a special group … and it’s been really cool to see it all play out.”

Bahamonde said he enjoyed competing with this squad while making history in the process.

“It’s been so much fun, like, above everything else,” Bahamonde said. “We’re just so close as a group and everyone’s really bought into this. … This group has been building together for years now and

for … this [to] be the product of all that hard work is awesome.”

DeSimpliciis echoed a similar sentiment, saying that the team was further motivated to continue its postseason run because of the bond the group has.

The Bombers’ 20th NCAA tournament appearance in school history marked their first time in the dance since 2014. The team did not disappoint in its first tournament game in eight years, emphatically defeating the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth 63–20 Nov. 19 at Butterfield Stadium for the program’s first postseason win since 2013.

The South Hill squad then defeated Springfield College 31–20 in the second round Nov. 26 on South Hill, after facing an early 10–0 deficit. Senior linebacker Jason Haber said he was pleased with how the team displayed its ability to battle back in the pivotal matchup.

“I think the resiliency of this team is just incredible,” Haber said. “We [got] down early in the game against Springfield, [and] you look around the sideline, no one flinched. We were ready just to play our game; I think this team is just very well-rounded.”

Despite the group’s season coming to an end in the quarterfinals, the 2022 Bombers delivered one of the top seasons in program history. Toerper said he was happy to help the team to return to the postseason, maintaining its tradition of success.

“For the alumni, I know they waited a long time to be in the national tournament [and be] competitive in the national tournament because the standard of this institution and this football program is so high,” Toerper said. “I’m just proud of our team, that they’ve done the necessary steps prior to all these games, to have that type of success and make the alumni proud.”

The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers line up against the Bombers during their game Oct. 29. Xiaoyi Zhang/The ithacan

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How IC Sports returns for the Spring 2023 season. Each episode, host sophomore Luke Cammarata sits down with athletes across campus to discuss their experiences as student-athletes.

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