Is Cabrini more protective than parents?

SAMANTHA BOKOSKI GUEST WRITER SCB728@CABRINI EDU

JILL FRIES GUEST WRITER VJF722@CABRINI EDU

College is the time students are expected to gain independence and demonstrate responsibility. Is Cabrini allowing us to do so?

Respectfully and honestly, many students would answer this question negatively. Why are more students than past years transferring? Why is there a population on the weekend of what I can count on one hand? Why is Cabrini allowing so many students to leave and not do anything about it?

The simple yet controversial answer to these questions is the current visitation and curfew policy. Yes, Cabrini is a Catholic college. However, does that give them the excuse to treat us as adolescents?

According to the law, we are considered adults at the age of 18, suggesting that we are at a mature age to essentially make our own choices. As our current visitation policy stands, we have a “curfew” of 12 o’clock Monday through Thursday and a whopping two o’clock on Friday through Sunday. We could not imagine being upperclassmen having only two hours longer on the underclassman.

Yes, we all know this ludicrous visitation policy at Cabrini and how we are treated like children. Hello Public Safety! We do not need you to hold our hands and make sure sex will not go on! Okay, we did not graduate high school to move on to a more strict and overbearing environment. Do you want to make life boring and unsociable? Seems like it.

Do not take us the wrong way, we believe security is a priority, but they are strictly there for our safety not to be our parents or babysitters.

Fellow Cabrini students should not have to sign in to other Cabrini residences. Although this is a Catholic college, it is a college and authorities must realize we are losing and pushing away students from enjoying their time spent at this beautiful institution.

All the curfews and rules are seriously doing nothing for this college but bring it down. We are adults who work very hard at school and deserve the freedom of having friends over! Continuing the path of Public Safety and other officials trying to replace the parent role, Cabrini will be in for a real shock for transfers next year.

Having been students who have had to follow this absurd policy, we feel very annoyed and decided to take action and create a solution. Personally, we do not have curfews at home and should not have a curfew in a place that should represent our step to independence.

We have a well-thought-out solution and our new idea is to encourage the “guest card” policy. The guest card would be given out by resident assistants (RAs) at the beginning of the year; students would be limited two guests per person for a maximum of three nights per visit. The safety aspect of this policy will stay in effect; when having a guest, the guard on duty must take some sort of identification from the guest and the resident’s guest card to acknowledge when they have a guest and who it is.

We believe that we should be allowed to have a guest of the same or opposite sex without a hassle. Cabrini stresses the safety and accompaniment of a guest at all times. But if a guest is not of the same gender we are FORCED to leave them with someone they do not know and quite frankly might not be comfortable with. This essentially makes another student responsible for a stranger and vice versa.

Please understand we are not promoting sexual activity or alcohol. We are simply looking out for the sake of our college and our peers. There is no reason for this college to commit itself to old fashioned ways. If so, we think this college will lose good potential.

If you visit theloquitur.com you will notice the recent poll of why most students leave Cabrini College. The majority, 58 percent are because of the current visitation policy. This is ridiculous and should be unacceptable in a college atmosphere.

These are strict and overprotective policies and that is the reason we stand confidently and strongly against them. These rules lead to the lack of students on weekends, the high number of those who transfer and who are pushed to live off campus to have a life.

In reality, the policy is backfiring on Cabrini’s goal of having a safe environment because students are taking unsafe measures to work their way around the system.

We have to do something because we are going to keep losing good students and friends. College should be a place to enjoy and be able to better ourselves, why are we not allowed this right? Why are we being babysat? Please support the change at: http://www.facebook. com/group.php?gid=10662985689

BRITTANY LAVIN FEATURES EDITOR BLL722@CABRINI EDU

The face of journalism is changing. It is no longer just about words printed on a page, but rather about the combination of print, audio and video content that make up multimedia. The students in Cabrini’s communication department all grasp the importance of multimedia in today’s world, but none so much as Amanda Finnegan, a senior English and communication major, who is taking her education in multimedia and making it a career.

“I never thought I’d be where I am today,” Finnegan said in regards to her work in the communication department.

Growing up, Finnegan never thought about being a writer. She took dance for 13 years and played field hockey, basically dabbling in just about everything before joining The Loquitur as a sophomore.

“I never expected to end up in writing,” Finnegan said.

Now, Finnegan is the 2007-2008 president of the Cabrini chapter of the Society of Collegiate Journalists. She was also the editor in chief of The Loquitur for the 2006-2007 academic year when the paper received the Associated Collegiate Press’ Pacemaker Award. Finnegan feels that her work with The Loquitur has truly helped prepare her for her future.

“When I interned at The Washington Post, I was the only college editor in chief there,” Finnegan said. “I think that really gave me a leg up.”

When she was in Washington, D.C. interning for The Washington Post at washingtonpost.com, Finnegan was a part of the media development team under the guidance of Rob Curley, who is currently revamping news content on the Web.

“Working with Rob was the most amazing experience I’ve ever had,” Finnegan said. “He really changed my mentality about the journalism world and opened a lot of doors. He’s so energetic and is just a pioneer for media.”

When going into her internship, Finnegan was set on sticking with print journalism, but working with Curley changed that.

“He really showed me that the Web is not just an ‘add on’ to the print and that it’s really becoming the other way around,” Finnegan said. “The biggest thing he has taught me is to think web, not just print.”

Clearly Curley has had a huge influence in Finnegan’s life. After graduating, she is planning to move to Las Vegas and work with Curley and his team to make over the Las Vegas Sun’s Web content. Though she is nervous about leaving her home in North Plainfield, N.J., Finnegan is excited and prepared to take risks.

“I know I could have stayed local and

ALICIA COOK STAFF WRITER ARC725@CABRINI EDU

“Music was something that I used to take away my pain, make me look at the brighter side of life. It healed something inside of me.”

Senior English and communication major AnnMarie Chacko’s life was changed forever at the end of her senior year of high school.

For as long as she could remember, singing was not only a passion, but part of Chacko’s identity.

“My mom says that I was singing before I began to talk,” Chacko said.

“When I was younger I would go to shows with my mom and come home singing every song, reciting every line.

Disney movies would always be playing in my house and I knew the songs word for word. There was nothing else I wanted to do.”

While growing up in the Bronx, Chacko attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music, Art and Performing Arts.

“Singing was a part of me that kept me together. It got me through some real rough times,” Chacko said. “I woke up with music on, went through my day with music playing in the background.”

Chacko was a member of the Mixed Chorus, Gospel Chorus and Girls Chorus. Over the years as a performer in these choruses, Chacko performed on Broadway for Broadway Cares with Patti LaBelle, in different churches around the New York City area and in a few colleges in New York State and in Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall. Her school work was focused on performance. Chacko said “at school, to pass our midterms and finals, we were asked to perform selections from different operas and classical works.”

As her singing talent excelled, her passion for performing increased as she grew up. Chacko’s personal hopes, plans and aspirations for the future were cut and dry.

“I had plans to do it big. I wanted to continue my musical played it safe,” Finnegan said. “But if I don’t do this I would definitely regret it.” education and keep performing,” Chacko said. “I had plans to apply to Julliard School of Music as well as NYU’s Tisch School for Performing Arts.”

Amanda Finnegan is the Society of Collegiate Journalists’ student president for the 20072008 school year and is an example of what upcoming communication majors should do in order to do well in their careers after receiving their degrees.

While in Las Vegas, Finnegan hopes to gain more experience in multimedia and learn more from Curley.

“When you work with Rob everyday you’re learning something new and that’s the great thing about working with his team,” Finnegan said.

Chacko, as an only child, described the relationship between herself and her parents as a plane ride.

“Sometimes the ride was smooth and everything would be going as planned, as expected,” Chacko said. “Other times, I would be locked in my room, pissed about something new that happened that day.”

“My mother was very supportive of my decision to pursue a career in music. She came with me to auditions, every rehearsal and every performance. My father, however, did not,” Chacko said.

“He refused to believe that something as frivolous as singing could ever put necessities like food on the table or a roof over your head.”

Cabrini College, or any other non-performing arts school for that matter, was not an option for a future education in Chacko’s mind, for she wanted to sing and nothing else.

The plans Chacko had in mind for her future were changed drastically and her future spun out of her control.

“I got the acceptance letter from Cabrini in the mail, without having applied in the first place. I went to my father and asked him what it was. He told me he hadn’t seen me apply anywhere yet and

With only a few weeks left in her senior year, Finnegan feels that, thanks to Cabrini, she is fully prepared to take on anything.

“I definitely will feel sad to leave Cabrini, but I feel that everything I have accomplished in convergence and multimedia is thanks to this college and the communication department,” Finnegan said.