Cayuga Community College Auburn & Fulton, New York
Collegian www.cayugacollegian.com
Vol. 60 Issue 8 February 13, 2012
STUDENTS ‘TRASH’ LATTIMORE HALL
CAYUGABriefs
CORRECTION In the last issue of The Cayuga Collegian, the group in this photo were incorrectly identified. The students in the photo are members of the Fulton Campus’ Student Activities Board. We apologize for the error.
By Ryan Elsenbeck, Staff Writer
CCC Helps Veterans
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CCC Students Spend the Intersession in London
PHOTO BY RYAN ELSENBECK
Approximately 2.3 million veterans have returned home after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more than 47,000 are healing from physical wounds and countless others face emotional scars. These veterans have a higher rate of unemployment than civilians, with the latest numbers indicating that more than 13 percent are unemployed. Many veterans are taking advantage of federal programs and incentives to go to college and find a new path for their lives. In the past three years, the number of Cayuga Community College students who are veterans has grown 400 percent, to approximately 150 students. “These veterans require special support, advisement, and other services when they come to college,” said College President Daniel P. Larson. “It makes sense that we provide these whenever we can as a team, instead of duplicating services.” To help facilitate that process, Cayuga Community College took the lead on a establishing a Veteran Regional Consortium, which includes representatives from nine academic institutions, Fort Drum, the Department of Veterans Affairs, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, U.S. Representative Richard L. Hanna, and several organizations that support veterans. Invitations were sent to potential consortium members, and the response was outstanding, Yaw said. The 32 people who attended the first meeting of the Veteran Regional Consortium identified three shared priorities: advocacy, sharing information and resources, and outreach to veterans returning to the region. “We believe this unique approach of attracting veterans into our school then directing them out to veterans’ resources could potentially serve as a national model for improving rural veterans’ use of the services and programs available to them. We hope to make Central New York an attractive place for our veterans to come home to,” said Sarah Yaw, interim director of the Academic Support Center at the Cayuga CC Fulton Campus who chairs the Veterans Working Group and initiated the consortium. The consortium will meet again on March 14 at Syracuse University. Organizations or entities that would like to get involved in the group or believe they can contribute to its success are encouraged to contact Yaw at yaw@cayuga-cc.edu or 315-5924143, ext. 3078.
Lattimore Hall, an off-campus housing option for Cayuga Community College students in downtown Auburn, is under fire from some of its tenants. “People are loud, the place is dirty,” said two-year resident and CCC sophomore Chase Sereno. “The place is not worth the money that we are paying. I do enjoy living with my
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Is the Search Engine Giant GOOGLE Spying on YOU? By Jamie Blumrick, Editor-in-chief
What do you do when you need to look something up? Whether it be a recipe or directions to a friends house, most people reply just “Google it”. Google is fast and easy to use, why wouldn’t you use it right? Its abilities are outstanding and endless, however, with technology constantly rising to newer and newer levels along with the benefits that come, so do the risks. Think of all the things you have ever Googled, do you remember? No? Well, Google does. Everything and anything you have ever put into the google search bar has been saved. It knows everything. Recently a federal judge has ordered that whether Google is spying for National Security Agency or not, you have no right to know. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ordered that “The NSA need not disclose ‘the organization or any function of the National Security Agency, [or] any information with respect to the activities thereof.” According to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the demand for more information is being appealed. The Organization then went on to explain that “EPIC had sought documents under the FOIA because such an agreement [between Google and NSA] could reveal that the NSA is developing technical standards that would enable greater
surveillance of Internet u s e r s ” . They then responded by choosing to neither confirm nor deny its legal doctrine allowing agencies to see existing records that could also be subject to public disclosure. Therefore the Electronic Privacy Information Center plans to appeal the decision. The situation wasn’t brought to attention until January 2010 when there was suspicion of Chinese hacking, that’s when EPIC wanted more information about arrangements with Google on cybersecurity, as well as records regarding the agency’s role in setting security standards for Gmail and other web-based applications. EPIC then admitted that on Jan. 12, 2010, Google claimed hackers from China had attacked Google’s corporate infrastructure. The company then suggested that the evidence was that their primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. After that it was reported that Google and the NSA “had entered into a ‘partnership’ to help continued page 4
friends and we make the best of it, but the water is hard and everything is just on the verge of breaking.” “The floors don’t have carpets, the bathroom is gross, and every time I look out a window, it looks like a prison,” said Will Backhouse, an international student from England. Mario Paive, an international student from Brazil who plays soccer for the Spartans, says he does enjoy having an individual room compared to other schools where privacy is sometimes hard to come by, but he is frustrated by the lack of maintenance. “Our toilets have been broken for some time now, and nobody has fixed it. They came in and put some signs on the door to not use it, but we would like our own toilets,” he said. Two-year resident and CCC student Mike Sloan said he thinks Lattimore Hall serves its purpose. “Lattimore Hall is a good place to start living on your own and has a good location in downtown Auburn,” he said. One of the resident advisors said that the declining conditions of Lattimore Hall are only because of how the students treat it. “Lattimore would not be something to complain about if the students did not treat it so bad, it is a circle, the students make it a dump, and then they treat it like a dump for being a dump,” he said. Students also have complained that there is nothing to do in the building.
THE VOICE OF THE STUDENTS OF CAYUGA COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOR MORE THAN 50 YEARS
Opinions The Murder of Joe Paterno Opinions Opinions
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Smoking Causes Lung Cancer and you
will more than likely die. Did that get your attention or did it just go one ear and out the other because it’s been drilled so far into your skull by the Surgeon General and the media that you think you’ve grown another vertebrae? Smoking has been a long, drawnout, contentious issue in the United States going on forty years now after Congress had their way with tobacco companies on Capitol Hill. In our opinion Congress is worse for our health these days than cigarettes, but that’s just our opinion, a sarcastic opinion at that, sort of. Cigarettes if smoked in excess and for a period of years have an incredible destructive effect to your body and also those around you. I’m not talking about the ones who will grieve when you’re gone, I’m talking about the ones that you’ll be grieving for when you kill them with second-hand smoke. Cigarette smokers cease to amaze us, because no matter what shocking w a r n i n g or graphic image is displayed next on packs and cartons ( w h i c h should be constituted as terrorism and banned from the airwaves), no matter how bad the e c o n o my gets, no matter how high the price goes (which is about a $9.00 average nationwide and a $10.00 average in New York) they just won’t stop buying those damned death sticks. Yes, we get the idea of how hard it is to quit cold turkey. But don’t you believe that the price should be enough of a deterrent? Yet we still have millions of people smoking cigarettes, God only knows how many of them are children. Isn’t it interesting that cigarettes are now shunned by the rich people who can afford them the most? Yet the poorest of the poor still manage to get their hands on them? What a conundrum. Here’s the thing, on January 1, 2009 it officially became against school policy to smoke cigarettes on any part of the CCC Auburn campus, what we mean is EVERY SQUARE INCH. Was that clear enough for you? Yet any one of us here at the Collegian could walk around this campus and take a number of photos showing groups of cigarette butts on the ground. Don’t think we don’t see you at the side exits and even the front entrance, because we do. Seriously boys and girls? Not only do you break school policy but you risk a $250 fine for littering?
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That’s right, two hundred and fifty bucks. You also put every single one of your fellow peers’ health at risk by having to walk through your smoke screen. Have you ever stopped to wonder if any of your fellow peers or professors had experienced bouts with cancer, smoking related or not? Could you live with yourself if you had first-hand knowledge that your cigarette smoke awakened cancer cells in re-mission in those people? The current provision banning any kind of smoking campuswide was written under current College President Dan Larson, this is what the president had to say. “Some people say I enjoy smoking, leave me alone, it’s my right to smoke, don’t bother me and you know what, that’s fine. But as a public institution, we don’t want you smoking on this campus.” “It’s a real balancing act, because our approach to it is from the vantage point of education and that we should not police the students, but this is a smoke-free campus.” Here is our opinion, the school made a great step in enacting the 2009 provision, and it is not the P r e s i d e n t ’s job to execute it. But it is the campus police’s job and if you want people to take you seriously then you need to be consistent. Either execute this policy by giving warnings and writing $250 tickets for repeat offenders, or cut the ban altogether for the outside of the school and designate one area to be a smoking zone, an area away from the general student populous. Be sure to install a receptacle as well, so cigarette butts don’t magically appear on the ground. It’s about time that we begin to be proactive as a student body in what we have to deal with in a school that we pay tuition towards. The recent “Pizza with the President” was in our opinion extremely successful, and we hope for another next semester. But in the mean-time. All we ask is for smokers on this campus to be respectful and do not smoke on this campus, your car is a perfectly fine place for that. We also would like to ask the security office to start executing policy, because obviously it isn’t be executed well enough. Either execute policy or get rid of it. -Alec Rider Cayuga Collegian Staff Writer
Murder, you say? Joe Paterno, the 85 year old legendary coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions was murdered? Officially he died from metastatic small cell carcinoma of the lung, but from a certain point of view you could say he was murdered, with total malice. You see, Paterno (affectionately known as Joe Pa among the Happy Valley community) was unceremoniously fired over the phone by the Penn St. Board of Trustees for something he had no control of. This sudden and swift betrayal led to the protest of alumni and several thousand reasonably upset Penn State students in the streets of Happy Valley that included the overturning of a news van. All of this stemmed from the 40 counts of child sexual abuse leveled against former Defensive Coordinator Jerry Sandusky this past November. Mike McQueary a graduate assistant told Paterno that he had witnessed sexual acts in the Penn State showers between Sandusky and a young boy. Under the law Paterno was required to report the abuse to his superior, Athletic Director Tim Curley, which he did immediately. He also told Head of Campus Police Gary Schultz. Both men did not report the story to the police. The problem was that the Attorney General and the Board of Trustees believed that it simply wasn’t enough and that Paterno should’ve notified the police. Most of the Penn St. community stood behind Paterno making it quite clear that it was Curly’s job to notify the police and that Paterno did what was necessary. What ultimately tipped the scales in the public condemnation of Joe Paterno was the incessant, negative coverage of Paterno by ESPN, a network that has had its share of controversies over the years (including sexual harassment). Wall to wall negative coverage by commentators, and a tidal wave of negative articles on ESPN.com angered the Penn St. community and the Paterno supporters around the nation. The fact that ESPN reaches nearly 100 million homes and basically everybody that has internet, I’d say that’s a pretty large, looming shadow. What lies under all of this is the utter hypocrisy of ESPN. Not long after the Penn St. allegations had surfaced, our very own local school Syracuse University was hit by sexual abuse allegations involving Senior Assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine. Fine was accused of abusing two former ball boys (who happen to be step brothers). It was later found that ESPN and our local newspaper The Post-Standard were approached by one of those ball boys about the incident and refused to share the story with the public due to the lack of corroboration, and they didn’t report the abuse to the police. Even worse was when a tape of a conversation between Bernie Fine’s wife and the same ball boy surfaced that seemed to indicate that Mrs. Fine knew about the abuse and apologized for it. It has further come out that she had sexual relations with Syracuse basketball players over the years, bragging to the accuser about it. ESPN and The Post-Standard were both in possession of this tape yet didn’t turn it over to authorities.
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Yet ESPN was more than happy to be in the forefront of the lynch mob and the sullying of an 85 year old father of 5 and grandfather of 17. Paterno won 409 games in 46 years as the coach of Penn St, the most in FBS history that included 5 undefeated, untied seasons, a record number of victorious bowl games and two national championships in 1982 and 1987. But he could care less; Paterno was a man that never put football in front of his players’ academia, what he referred to as his “grand experiment” marrying football and academics. He famously told the students that gathered at his residence after the news of his firing was handed down to “Go home, get some sleep, and study!” He was proud of the diplomas that nearly 5 decades of his student-athletes received. After winning his first national championship, Paterno challenged Penn St. to not only be #1 in athletics but also academics, saying “Without a great library, you can’t have a great university.” He started a fund-raiser for a top quality library that ended up raising 13.75 million dollars and was named Paterno Library in his honor. Paterno donated more than 7 million dollars to the library in his lifetime. You see, the media ripped this man’s passion and life blood away from him, murdering the legacy that he built effortlessly. Many argue that Paterno’s life was cut short by that pain and that he may have died from a broken heart instead of the cancer that ended his life. I don’t think people quite understand that this man was no spring chicken. Would those same people be condemning their grandfather for this tragedy? Nevertheless, 12,000 people packed Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center where the Chairman of Nike Phil Knight commented on the media and the Board of Trustee’s witch hunt. “...this much is clear to me. If there is a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation and not in Joe Paterno.’’ “Who is the real trustee at Penn State University?’’ Knight asked. Joseph V. Paterno, a father, grandfather, coach, mentor and father figure will be sorely missed for his old school presence that included thick rimmed black glasses, rolled-up khaki pants, a white shirt and tie, white socks and athletic shoes. Paterno wasn’t in the business of making his kids famous. He wanted to make sure they knew plenty of life lessons that could carry them beyond football. Many alumni have said that beside their own fathers, Joe Paterno made them the men they are. And as the students, alumni, and general mourners pass by the statue of Joe Paterno outside of Beaver Stadium laying their flowers, rosaries, candles, and Penn St. gear at its feet, they also pass the three words engraved into the wall, to the left of that statue which easily describes one of the greatest, most respected men in the history of American sports. “Educator, Coach, Humanitarian.” Rest in Peace Joseph Vincent Paterno 1926-2012 -Alec Rider Cayuga Collegian Staff Writer
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Fund Planned Parenthood?
Save Lives: Give Blood I recently decided to give blood at the blood drive that was held at the school. I have given blood many times and it just comes as second nature. Whenever I give blood it makes me feel good because I just helped someone who needed blood. When I asked one of the workers of the Red Cross if it had been busy with students and faculty giving blood, she said it had been slow. This got me thinking why weren’t more students and faculty giving blood? I know for some people needles really freak them out, which that is fine, I completely understand. If someone isn’t afraid of needles, why don’t you try to give blood whenever you get the chance? Why not take the short time to help someone in need? Although it is a student blood drive, faculty can also give blood. It may be possible
that many of them had already given blood that month, which that is great! We just need to get as many students, teachers, janitors, receptionists, IT people involved in this great cause and help people who really need it! Many people think giving blood takes too much time. It does sometimes take a little more than an hour because you have to go through all the questions to make sure you are eligible to give blood. After that you finally can start giving blood and that could take from 10 minutes to 25 minutes depending on how fast it is being pumped out. An hour may seem like a long time for someone who is busy, but when you get done and think about it you feel great because you just saved three lives! -Mike Westmiller Cayuga Collegian Staff Writer
CCC FULTON STUDENTS The Cayuga Collegian is looking for staff writers to cover news and events happening on the CCC Fulton Campus. Please email cayugacollegian@gmail.com
The Cayuga Collegian welcomes letters from its readers. Submissions must be emailed to cayugacollegian @gmail.com. Submissions may be edited for content or length. Submissions must include your name, address and daytime phone number. All letters to the editor are copied exactly and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of the Collegian office, its staff or advisors. All letters are simply the opinions of the writers themselves.
Editorial Board JAMIE BLUMRICK, Editor-in-chief D.J. DuVALL, Sports Editor MARY G. MERRITT, Advisor Staff ANGELA WORNICK - FULTON JIM COLLINS - AUBURN KATE MORLEY - AUBURN ALEC RIDER - AUBURN DAWN PERRAULT - AUBURN RYAN ELSENBECK - AUBURN CHRISTINA LUPIEN - AUBURN JOE PRUE -AUBURN ANDREW SCHEMERHORN - AUBURN MIKE WESTMILLER - AUBURN
It looks as if Susan G. Komen for the Cure has reversed its initial decision to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood. Well that’s a shame. On January 31st the Komen Foundation announced that they would be cutting all funding and grants to Planned Parenthood in accordance to their own rules barring funding to any groups under investigation. But after 26 US Senators and scores of p ro - ch o i c e rs and feminists objected to what they called a move forced by politics and promised they would never give money to Komen again, Komen ended up recanting under the hypocritical political pressure from the same people. Florida Rep. Cliff Stearns launched an oversight investigation into the taxpayer funding of the group. As the Chair of the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, a panel under the Energy and Commerce Committee which he heads, Rep. Stearns has brought potentially illegal actions by Planned Parenthood to light. In 1976 Congress passed the Hyde Amendment to rein in Roe v. Wade by outlawing federal funds to pay for abortions except in the case of rape, incest, or the endangering of the mother’s life. But there have been significant questions about whether Planned Parenthood has been misusing taxpayer money for abortions, overbilling the government and using those funds for abortion, which violates the Hyde Amendment. Planned Parenthood and Susan G. Komen share a large relationship on the local, state, and national levels. Parenthood’s mammograms, and the screening and treatment of cancer with Komen’s funding are commendable. But that isn’t the issue here; the issue is abortion, which the mainstream media is trying to cover up. Planned Parenthood is by far the single largest abortion provider in the United States. I can understand how at one time they could be called Planned Parenthood, but in all realization, that’s Catholic Charities’ claim to fame now. But the Obama administration is trying to force Catholic hospitals, schools, and agencies like Catholic Charities to betray their religious conscious and teaching and give out contraception, trampling over the Freedom of Religion. Freedom of Religion is expressly told about in the Constitution, the very First Amendment, correct? But the “privacy” that protects Roe v. Wade isn’t found anywhere folks, look it up. Planned Parenthood should really be called “Where 15 year old girls go seeking help, but instead aren’t given the information that they should and are convinced to terminate their pregnancy without consulting their parents first.” Planned Parenthood claims to be the largest provider of birth control and comprehensive sex education, but how they can
THE VOICE OF THE STUDENTS OF CAYUGA COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOR MORE THAN 50 YEARS
claim all of this when in fact they are not planning parenthood anymore, but in the business of terminating it is beyond me. Business you say, how is that a business? I’ll tell you why? MONEY!!! Cha-ching!!! Abortions make Planned Parenthood a whopping 164 million dollars every year, making up 15% of their revenue stream. S c r e w counseling the woman, the father, and their families. Hoping that everyone will come away from the situation happy and maybe giving the child up to a couple who are unable to have children. We need the money, so we can’t tell the girl that you’ll be emotionally scarred or there’s a chance that you’ll never be able to bear children again. Planned Parenthood is prochoice and was against the ban of intact dilation and extraction partial-birth abortion in 2003 under President Bush. Babies aborted by this technique are almost always above the first trimester limit set by Roe v. Wade. IDX is when the cervix is sufficiently dilated; the doctor then uses an ultrasound to locate the baby and uses a forceps to grasp its leg. The doctor then pulls one or both of the baby’s legs out (leading to what many people refer to as partial birth), then they extract everything else leaving the head inside of the uterus. An incision is made at the base of the skull, an opening is made then a suction catheter is placed in the opening. The brain is then suctioned out killing the child (unless a kill injection had been made earlier), and the skull collapses which allows the fetus to come out easier. It is known as IDX when the baby comes out intact, but if it isn’t so luck and comes out dismembered, it becomes just D&X. What a beautiful interpretation of “planned parenthood”. I look at it like this. Girls get upset over something as trivial as “Why do girls get called whores when they sleep with a bunch of guys, but when guys do they’re the man?” While guys get mad over the fact that the age of consent in this state is 17. Yet that 15-year-old can be sexually active, and get some 18-year-old kid in jail and saddled with a rape charge and a place on the ever coveted sex offender list. But Planned Parenthood can give that girl an abortion without the father or the family’s consent. Yet the family has to pay for her headstone when she commits suicide. Teenage girls who have an abortion are 7 times more likely to commit suicide than a teenager who eventually gave birth to that child. These same expectant mothers are not required to gain consent from the father. Last time I checked, you needed both parties to terminate a marriage. Here are my last words of advice. You want the choice? Well do us all a favor and choose to keep your legs closed. -Alec Rider Cayuga Collegian Staff Writer
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CCC’s Future Business Leaders Valentine’s Day: its History not of America PBL Chapter News for the Faint of Heart! By Dawn Perrault, Staff Writer The FBLA-PBL chapter at Cayuga Community College, Auburn, NY, is in their second semester of renovating the organization – bringing it to life once again, at CCC. Our chapter’s fund-raising endeavors are twofold: to raise funds for our organization so that we may compete with other chapters in and out of New York State as well as attend Leadership conventions. We also raise funds as a community service for others. In the fall of 2011, we held several fund-raising events which included a Pizza Hut Fund-raiser, Holiday Gift Baskets at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and a raffle for a pair of VIP tickets to a Syracuse University Men’s Basketball Game. Coming soon on February 13th, we are hosting a fund-raiser night at our local Buffalo Wild Wings, which is a fund-raiser for the club
By Christina Lupien, Staff Writer itself. This event will take place from 4:00 p.m. until Midnight. Also slated for the Spring Semester, we are teaming up with a new Event Planning class at the college to coordinate fund-raising efforts on a larger scale. Specifically, on April 25th we will be holding at Talent Show / Open Mic event and plan to donate the proceeds to a community charity. Additionally, we are planning a “Daddy Daughter Dance”, earmarking the funds for “Air One” – a search, rescue, and medical chopper utilized by our county that is facing a loss of funding from its home county. FBLA-PBL is open to anyone who is interested in joining! Stop into our next club meeting which is Wednesday, February 22nd, 11:00 a.m. in Room T-312. Don’t forget to “friend” us on Facebook! FBLA – Phi Beta Lambda at CCC.
Join CCC’s Fitness Challenge By Mike Westmiller, Staff Writer The Fitness Challenge is back at Cayuga Community College. This is the third year that Cayuga will sponsor a little competition for its faculty, staff and even students. What is the challenge? Well, students and faculty sign up to participate in an eight week period of working out and keeping track of their steps and what they eat. For Cayuga students will be competing in an individual challenge against other students. Cayuga employees compete as part of a four
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analyze the attack by permitting them to ‘share critical information,’. Electronic Privacy Information Center then spent their time seeking out any records on an agreement between NSA and Google, or communications between the groups and others. NSA denied the request even though Pamela Phillips of the NSA admitted the organization was working with a broad range of commercial partners and research associates. The agency still refuses to release any further information “explaining that any response would improperly reveal information about NSA’s functions and activities,” Claimed judge Richard Leon. He then continued to say “even an acknowledgment of a relationship between the NSA and a commercial entity could potentially alert ‘adversaries to NSA priorities, threat assessment, or countermeasures.” The reveal of
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person team. Each person on the team will have to fill out an activity sheet each week. Participants will earn points for the number of steps they have per day and how long they exercise per visit to the gym. The cost of the competition is $10 for faculty and students. The challenge will begins on March 19th and will run for eight weeks. At the end of the competition, the person who has the most points, the most steps throughout the competition and the individual who has lost the most % percentage of body weight will be the winners. There will also be awards for the leading league division, overall fitness challenge team winner and overall student winner. If you are interested in participating, deliver your entrance fee to Jackie Caputa in the Business Office, Adam Williams in room M239 or Bruce Walter in room L114, all on the Auburn campus.
such information could make U.S. government information systems susceptible to exploitation or attack so the Washington federal judge’s decision was to grant the NSA’s request for a summary judgment overall dismissing the case. So when you make a search on Google, your IP address, the time, and what you searched for is permanently stored in their database forever. This information is then used to identify you and determine every search, website, picture, and video you have ever used. Though Google claims they keep this information to “improve service” it is also being used to target advertising to your interests. But your whole search record is also available to any U.S. government agency which can get a court order, and given Google’s close relationship with the U.S. Spy service and military, it may even be accessed illegally by other groups as well.
Every year billions of people celebrate Valentine’s Day around the world. An estimated one billion cards are sent (second only to the estimated 2.6 billion sent at Christmas), and nearly eighty-five percent of those are purchased by women. But how many of us actually know the history behind one of the most celebrated holidays around the world? Valentine’s Day can find its roots in both Christian and Roman traditions. The Catholic Church recognizes at least two saints named either Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. The first legend was that of a priest named Va l e n t i n e . He served the church in third c e n t u r y Rome. It was during this time that Emperor Claudius II o u t l a w e d marriage for young men, rationalized by the belief that young single men made better soldiers than men that were married and had children. It is said that Valentine continued to perform marriages for young men and women in love in secret. When he was found out, Claudius II sentenced him to death for his actions. The second legend is that Valentine sent the very first “valentine” himself. It is said that while he was incarcerated he fell in love with a young woman that visited him in prison. It is alleged that before he died he sent her a letter from his confinement and signed it “from your Valentine.” By the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France. Some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate Valentine’s death or burial around 270 A.D. Others believe that Valentine’s Day being celebrated on February 14th was the Christian Church’s attempt to “Christianize” the pagan Lupercalia Festival. In ancient Rome, the ides of February, (beginning February 15th), was the official beginning of spring and a time for celebration and purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by thoroughly sweeping them out and then sprinkling a mixture of salt and spelt, (a type of wheat), throughout them. Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to the Roman God of Agriculture, Faunus, as well as to Roman founders Romulus and Remus. The Lupercalia Festival began each year with the members of the Luperci, an order of Roman Priests, gathered at the cave where Romulus and Remus were believed to be cared for by a lupa, (a female wolf). The priests would sacrifice a goat for fertility, and a dog for
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purification. Once the sacrifices were made, the goat’s hide would be cut into strips and dipped in sacrificial blood. These bloody strips were then taken out into the streets of Rome where women and crops alike would be gently slapped with them. The Roman women welcomed this ritual believing that the goat hides would make them more fertile in the coming year. Once this part of the ritual was performed, all of the eligible
women would place their names in a large urn where the city’s bachelors would draw a name and be paired together with the woman they drew for one year. Many of the matches resulted in marriages. Pope Gelasius declared February 14th Valentine’s Day around the end of the fifth century. The Roman drawing for pairings was later deemed un-Christian and outlawed. The oldest known Valentine still in existence today is a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans, in 1415 to his wife while he was being held captive in the Tower of London. Charles had been captured during the Battle of Agincort. This poem is now part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England. Around the 17th century, Valentine’s Day became popularly celebrated in Great Britain. By the 18th century, tokens of affection or hand written notes became common place between friends and lovers across all classes. The end of the 18th century marked the beginning of printed cards replacing hand-written notes due to advances in printing technology. Americans began exchanging hand-made greetings in the early 1700’s. In the 1840’s Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America. Howland is known as the “Mother of the Valentine” for making her elaborate cards with real lace, ribbons, and colorful pictures known as “scrap.” In addition to the United States, Valentine’s Day is celebrated around the globe in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France and Australia.
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CCC Welcomes Humanitarian Samite Mulondo By Jamie Blumrick, Editor-in-chief On Wednesday February 8th Cayuga Community College was honored with the presence of the world-renown musician, humanitarian, and photographer Samite Mulondo. Samite was chosen to continue on the legacy of the late CCC professor Robert H. Brunell, who witnessed firsthand the devastation and loss that emerged from war as a U.S. Army soldier and interpreter who participated in the D-Day invasion, saw the Battle of the Bulge, and served on a reconstruction team in Paris. After his military service during World War II, Brunell decided to focus his life toward education where he then went on to become one of the
Robert H. Brunell
Mulondo, who shared several similar experiences and traits of Brunell himself. Samite was born and raised in Uganda, where he learned to play the flute and experienced the powerful effects music had on the soul. He is also a former refugee who has witnessed genocide, human rights violations, and experienced a lose of family under the dictatorship of Milton Obote and Idi Amin. Once he immigrated to the United States in 1987, he also decided to turn his life to something, which was music, bringing his message of peace and hope to others. “We often neglect healing the soul. While performing, I see that people are able to forget their differences and join as one in the moment; my hope is for that moment to last. If we can make that moment last, the world will be a better place.” said Samite. When you first entered the auditorium for Samite’s performance you immediately noticed several interesting instruments on display with an image of a refugee camp Samite had previously visited. After being formally introduced to the audience by Howard Nelson, a teacher who also serves on the Brunell Visiting Scholar Selection Committee, Samite then came out and greeted the audience explaining his excitement for being at the college. He then joked to the audience how happy he was for there to be no snow during his visit from Ithaca, where he lives. He then started to play with a few instruments he brought with him such as the kalimba, explaining the instruments age, what it was made of, along with what he does for the refugee camps by bringing them such music. “Bringing music to someone brings them life.” he explained, that when he would play his music in the
how his Grandfather would play the flute and what an impact it made on his own life seeing the people and animals reaction to his music growing up in Uganda. Another huge moment for him was when he met Paul Simon and how he had him sign a small kalimba he had, joking that maybe he’d sell it on Ebay for a lot of money someday where he continued to play a song he wrote with a message of “to teach you to be humble”. After playing a few songs he really opened up to the audience by telling more jokes of cultural differences such as Ithaca’s vegetarian lifestyle, his love of Wegmans, learning to dance the salsa, and how he learned sarcasm and the appropriate times to laugh because of watching the show “Cheers”. It was a really amazing show to hear, see, and experience. The power that Samites music had on people was overwhelming, one song he preformed that really stood out was called “voices” where he explained it represented the many voices when he used a recorder to echo his voice multiple times which gave an incredibly intense feeling that left the audience in awe. By the end of the concert Samite had the audience dancing and singing and clapping along with him right in front of the stage. Samite also had some of his photography on display in the library of the campus where he later
came down and explained how it all started with his love of technology and cameras, always wanting to know how things worked that later lead him to get into photography. He told stories of his childhood, where he was privileged enough to go to school in the kings palace, the beauty of his homeland, and stories along with the photographs. The photo’s showed a lot of emotion that Samite was able to better elaborate on when he explained that it wasn’t until he was at the refugee camp, where there were beggars, doctors, lawyers, teachers, and all kinds of people, that he realized that we all the same, and all hurting looking for an outlet. That’s when his music was able to bring hope to a lot of people in need, including some that had never even experienced the sound of an instrument. He went on to tell the audience his need to capture the emotions of these places to show others to have them help as well. Samite also explained how much of a struggle it was to take photographs of certain areas such as market places in fear of having stones thrown at him which discouraged him slightly until he entered a village of former child soldiers. A place of such sadness, he refused to play until a little boy asked what his flute was and as he began to play the little boy called over his friends, and they called their friends and family, and shortly after the entire area was in the streets enjoying his music. He found it amazing that the children were able to overcome such hardships and troubles and still have hope, they had dreams that he knew one day that they were one day going to achieve. He explained his hopes of making the world a better place, and how he plans to continue preforming and doing photography in his aspiration to help. Samite will spend much of the spring semester at Cayuga Community College, holding master classes, sharing his experiences, delivering lectures, hosting faculty enrichment programs, and performing for the campus and broader community. Samite is also a co-founder of Musicians for World Harmony, a nonprofit organization that introduces music to African orphans. So if you missed Samite this time don’t worry, he will be back again in March for another performance. For more information about him or his music you can find him on facebook!
Samite Mulondo performs at Cayuga Community College’s Auburn Campus. longest-serving teachers, not only at Cayuga Community College but also within the New York State University system devoting 57 years to teaching before dying unexpectedly in 2004. Though he is no longer with us his legacy of bridging communication gaps continues today through the Cayuga’s Brunell Visiting Scholar in the Humanities program, established through an estate gift from the professor. This year’s Brunell Visiting Scholar is Samite
villages life would come back to the people. They were no longer sad, mothers would dance, and children would clap and they would be so happy to have the music in their lives again. While preforming he also encouraged the audience to join in and clap and sing with him also telling them it was alright to dance, to follow the feeling the music gave. Before each song he would explain a little about his instrument and the reasoning of his songs such as
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s ’ J
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RANDOM Sports
RANTS
Super Bowl XLVI:
Brady’s Re-occurring Big Blue Nightmare This year’s Super Bowl was a great one for many reasons, and is proof that the underdog story never gets old in the hearts of Americans. The Patriots. What can I say; they are the hated rivals of my beloved Buffalo Bills and the scourge of the earth in my opinion. Arrogance oozes from every pore on their bodies, and they honestly believe their hype. Now this is strictly my biased opinion, and you don’t have to agree, however you and most of the country probably do. They’re just an easy team to despise I mean come on; their quarterback is a male model on the side. You’re a football player, man up a bit, and quit throwing a temper tantrum every time a call doesn’t go your way. Then the leader of it all Mr. Bill Belichick, boy his press conferences are exciting, I swear he grunts or has no comment on 90% of the questions asked. You get the picture, needless to say I was none too pleased when the Patriots squeaked by Baltimore and found themselves in another Super Bowl. But if anybody could take them out it was the New York Giants….oh that’s right, they already did in 08. The Giants aren’t my favorite team however; I respect their organization, head coach, and most of their players who seem a little more blue collar, and “Human” I guess. Whereas the Patriots remind me of the Soviets back in the 1980 Olympics, winning is just a way of life, it’s not just hoped for, but expected. I, like most people thought the Giants season was over about two months ago, when they were on a four game losing streak, and looked to self destruct before the season ended. Then they won three of their next four to earn the NFC East division title after beating the Dallas Cowboys in a week 17 winner take all matchup, finishing the season with a 9-7 record. The Playoffs started a week later and the Giants beat the Falcons in convincing fashion 24-2. Big win but not exactly shocking, their road to the Super Bowl would get much harder the following week when they would travel to sacred Lambeau Field in Green Bay to take on the Packers. It was close for awhile before Quarterback Eli Manning lead the Giants to a 37-20 beat down of the defending champs. It was harder still in the conference championship traveling into Candlestick Park in San Francisco to take on the surprising 49ers. Overtime would be needed before the Giants would catch a break and find themselves headed to their 2nd Super Bowl in four years, and 5th overall. Of course the Patriots road wasn’t quite so difficult. They finished the season 13-3, earning a first round bye, and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Then came the Denver Broncos led by Tim Tebow, who in my opinion will never amount to much of anything when it comes to being a starting QB in the NFL. The Broncos didn’t do much to show they were real contenders, falling in embarrassing
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fashion to New England 45-10. The following week the Pats faced a strong Baltimore team, but when a couple of breaks went their way, New England was on their way to their 2nd Super Bowl appearance in four years, and 7th overall. So they would meet again, Manning vs. Brady….. Skywalker vs. Vader….. Roosevelt vs. Hitler, I could go on but you catch my drift. Four years earlier Manning would lead the Giants to a historic come from behind victory against the heavily favored Patriots who were riding a perfect 18-0 record into the Super Bowl. Then a week nine matchup this season, where the Patriots were on a 20 game win streak at home, it sadly came to an end against…. you guessed it! Eli Manning and those pesky New York Giants. I’m sure Brady was just pleased to see those thorns in his side, slip past the 49ers and into a Super Bowl rematch that made the game one of the most highly anticipated in a number of years, for obvious reasons. Oh and the Patriots were once again flying high with a 10 game win streak heading into the big game. The Giants had taken the “scenic route” struggling through the season and winning two road playoff games, but suddenly the much stronger Patriots (record wise) weren’t so heavily favored. Instead many experts started picking the Giants; while others thought Brady would finally get his revenge. The game ended up going much like the last; in fact the similarities were almost creepy at times. The Patriots were leading late and just like 08, Manning led the Giants on a wild 4th quarter comeback, for a staggering 7th time this season. Bringing new meaning to my high school senior quote, “You don’t always have to lead, if you have the heart to come from behind.” Not sure who said it first but if ever there was a poster with that quote written on it, the 2012 Giants, and Eli Manning should be plastered all over it. So this year’s drive included a long throw and catch, not as mindboggling, but reminiscent to the one four years earlier. It helped spark the winning drive in Super Bowl 46, because when Brady got the ball back with 57 seconds to play he’d stepped on that “GIANT” tack for the 3rd time in four years and a last second hail marry was his only hope at a 4th ring. Luckily it harmlessly fell to the turf, crowning New York once again, and pushing early Hall of Fame talks for both Eli Manning, and head coach Tom Coughlin who happens to be from Waterloo, NY, and a Syracuse University Alumni. The 21-17 victory finished off another underdog story that Hollywood couldn’t have written any better, and the villain was sent home with his head held low, and his super model wife publicly blaming his teammates. So Brady, my you lose sleep over this heartbreaker for the next six months, or until the next time you see the BIG BLUE team from New York in your schedule.
Brady looking upset as he leaves the field, suffering his 2nd Super Bowl loss in four years.
Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin celebrate with the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
Yankee Great Posada Retires By Mike Westmiller, Staff Writer After 17-seasons in pinstripes, Yankee great Jorge Posada has officially announced his retirement. Posada spent all of his 17 seasons right “at home” in the Bronx. Jorge was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 24th round of the 1990 draft and made his Yankee debut on September 4th, 1995. Jorge Posada will go down as one of the great Yankee catchers. He finished his career playing 1,574 games behind the plate, 11 postseason home runs and 5 World Series rings. His career numbers are among some of the best for catchers with a .273 batting average, 275 home runs and 1,065 runs batted in (RBIs). Posada was named to the AL All-Star team 5 times and he also received the AL Silver Slugger Award
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for catchers 5 times in his career. Many people may not realize Jorge didn’t start his career as a catcher Jorge surprised everyone when he switched from playing second base to catcher in the minors. Many sports experts agree that position change helped to advance Jorge’s career. Now that Jorge Posada has officially announced his retirement many fans will now wonder, “Will Jorge go into the Hall of Fame?” If you go by the numbers, there is no doubt that Posada was one of the best catchers in this era. During the steroid use scandal, Posada put up amazing numbers and was never linked to performance enhancing drugs. Among Yankee fans, Jorge Posada will go down as one of the great catchers in franchise history.
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SPARTAN SPORTS Two Cayuga Athletes Earn MSAC Player of the Week Honors By D.J. DuVall, Sports Editor
Youthful Spartans Look to End Strong
The final week of January was a great one for CCC basketball with both Dashawn Williamson of the men’s squad, and Tyresha Mathis of the Lady Spartans earning Mid-State Conference player of the week honors.
Dashawn Williamson
By D.J. DuVall, Sports Editor As the 2011-2012 basketball season begins to wind down, the CCC Spartans look to end their season on a high note. The team has experienced a variety of ups and downs this year, starting the season 0-2, before getting their first win in convincing fashion with a 114-86 stomping against Three Rivers CC. They would win their next game at home against Alfred State before dropping eight of their next ten games including a rough drought during winter break. The Boys came back with vengeance notching four straight victories before being blown out at
home to Herkimer CC on February 4th. That brings their season total to 9-13 overall with an impressive 5-5 record here at Cayuga. The Spartans have just five games remaining in the season, and three of those are at home. The young Spartans squad looks to end the season strong with a push into the Mid State Tournament on February 25th, and 26th. It’s been an impressive year so far considering the fact that nine roster spots are filled with freshman. The team has meshed together well and will continue to build chemistry as they begin their playoff push.
Dashawn Williamson
Mathis helped lead the Ladies to a win against TompkinsCortland CC when she sank 22 points, and went up to grab 20 rebounds. Then turned around a made 20 points, and had Tyresha an outstanding Mathis 24 rebounds in a loss to MSAC’s number one team Onondaga. She is currently leading the nation in rebounds. Williamson helped lead the Spartans on a four game win streak including a big win against conference unbeaten TompkinsCortland CC, and Onondaga. Williamson averaged 18 points a game and 9 rebounds as he earned his player of the week honors. With just a few weeks left in the Basketball season, both will look to help lead their Spartan teams into the playoffs with hopes of finishing out the season strong.
CCC MEN’S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE Wed 15 Sat 18
Finger Lakes CC * at Tompkins-Cortland CC *
7:30 PM 3:00 PM
CCC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE Wed 15 Finger Lakes CC * Sat 18 at Tompkins-Cortland CC * Home games in bold. *Conference Game
Shorthanded Lady Spartans Looking to End With W’s By D.J. DuVall, Sports Editor The CCC Spartans Women’s basketball team has had their fair share of struggles this season including an eight game losing streak through December, and much of January, but they have pulled two wins out of their hats in the past four games as they look to finish up strong in 2012. With an overall record of 6-17 it is easy to write off the season as a complete loss, but not so fast when you dig a little deeper. The Women have racked up four wins in their 11 home games here at CCC including a 20 point spanking they put on Tompkins-Cortland CC for the second time this season on January 25th, and they will meet
again on February 18th where the Lady Spartans will look to sweep the season series. Three of the last five games are here at home where the women have played their best ball all season. They take a look at the roster and you will find that these Women have been playing with just nine athletes all season. That means most of these girls are on the court nearly the entire game. It has been a respectable performance to say the least, so come out and cheer on your Spartans before the season ends on Tuesday, February 21st right here at CCC when the Spartans take on Schenectady CC.
5:30 PM 1:00 PM
GO SPARTANS!!! THE CAYUGA COLLEGIAN PRESENTS
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CCC STUDENTS IN LONDON
THE VOICE OF THE STUDENTS OF CAYUGA COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOR MORE THAN 50 YEARS