5-13-2013 CAYUGA COLLEGIAN

Cayuga Community College Auburn & Fulton, New York

Collegian www.cayugacollegian.com

VOLUME 59 ISSUE 20 MAY 13, 2013

Students rally to support faculty facing furloughs

CCC students rally on the Auburn Campus Monday, May 6th while faculty and staff listen to trustees at a special meeting inside on the college’s budget crisis.

INSIDE:

PHOTO BY ABIGAIL YOUNG

PHOTO BY ABIGAIL YOUNG

PHOTO BY ABIGAIL YOUNG

By Abigail Young, editor

Pizza with the President!

Details on the meeting page 4.

PHOTO BY ABIGAIL YOUNG

Professors pack the meeting of the college’s Trustees. Find out what they said on page 3.

“If they go, we go!” “Support our professors, support out education!” “Support the students, not the buildings!”

These were the chants that the CCC Board of Trustees heard Monday, May 6th during their second meeting about a possible increase in furlough days for college instructors.

As the meeting ran, a student rally was held near the meeting area. More than 30 students and a few faculty members gathered in the front traffic circle on the Auburn Campus to show their support for their professors.

Waving signs and chanting, the students were caught on news footage recorded by cable news channel YNN and News Channel 9.

This was the first student rally ever held at CCC since its opening in 1953, according to CCC student Amy Ankrum.

Ankrum arranged the rally after visiting with one of her favorite professors at the college recently. The professor told Ankrum that she was very upset over the furloughs and possible layoffs. In a matter of 72 hours, Ankrum, with help from fellow students, had fliers out and were making signs for the rally.

“They really made me jump through some hoops,” said Ankrum referring to the college.

During the rally, Ankrum and a few other students gave speeches.

“My teachers without a second thought guided me up to a future I never could’ve imagined,” said Ankrum. “Teachers are the meat in a learning facility, we cannot allow the president to cut out our main course.”

“If we stand by and allow the president to plant this seed, it will blossom into the demise of the college,” she said.

James Molina, president of Auburn Campus’s SGO also spoke to the rally crowd.

“I’m more than proud to be your SGO president.

These professors have brought us on for the past two years. You know they take out time from their day to help every single one of us.”

SEE STUDENTS RALLY PAGE FOUR

President Obama’s Watergate?

“I can only conclude then, the faculty is only interested in their own compensation.”

Dear Board of Trustee member Stan Kott, I understand it was a Monday. No one likes Mondays. Mondays really suck. Maybe you just weren’t thinking clearly. Maybe, you were just the patsy for the entire opinion of the Board of Trustees.

Either way, what you said at the Board of Trustees meeting on May 6th was an uncalled for ad hominem attack that is below the discourse Alec Rider

that we as a college are trying to have.

Your words could potentially put an agreement between the administration and the Faculty Association at a freeze.

Your words made absolutely no positive impact on the discourse, and only served to piss a lot of people off, so congratulations.

I wouldn’t be too confident of yourself, because I personally asked a member of the faculty to start no-confidence proceedings against you.

We’ll see if your “many contributions” that put you in “the president’s circle” helps you out of that one.

— Alec Rider, editor-in-chief

IRS targeting conservative groups for tax audits

By Alec Rider, editor-in-chief On the heels of accusations that the State Department and the Obama Administration conspired to cover-up the revisions of CIA talking points in regard to the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012, it has been reported by the Associated Press that the IRS has been maliciously targeting groups affiliated with the tea party since 2011.

This directly contradicts an IRS statement apologizing for “inappropriate” targeting of conservative political action groups (PACs)— the number of which have risen dramatically since the Citizens United vs. FEC ruling— during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.

The agency previously blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware and that it had not happened

before 2012.

The woman who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt status, Lois G. Lerner, on June 29, 2011 learned at a meeting that groups were being targeted, according to the report. At the meeting, she was told that groups with “Tea Party,” “Patriot” or “9/12 Project” in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny.

The TV personality Glenn Beck runs a group called the 9-12 Project.

On Jan, 25, 2012, the criteria for flagging suspect groups was changed to, “political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding Government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, social economic reform/movement,” the report says.

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PAGE TWO

Editorial Board ALEC RIDER - Editor-in-chief ABIGAIL YOUNG, Editor MARY G. MERRITT, Advisor Staff JAMES GRANGER, Staff Writer SARAH GUIDONE, Staff Writer DANIELLE SKOWRON, Staff Writer

On September 11, 2012 Muslim terrorists attacked the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya setting fire to the building and murdering 4 Americans, including the United States Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens.

This had the potential to de-rail President Obama’s re-election, but it was not to be.

When Mitt Romney rightfully made it clear that Obama had not referred to the Benghazi attack as a terrorist attack until weeks after, the moderator of that 2nd debate, Candy Crowley intervened when she shouldn’t have and made a buffoon out of herself by saying the President indeed had said so.

The comments in question came from a Rose Garden press conference with then Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, where President Obama had only used the words “acts of terror” in the context of American defiance. Not Benghazi.

After the election, the controversy lost its steam and it would seem as if the memories of these 4 dead Americans would soon be lost.

But one reporter wouldn’t let it go. Sharyl Attkisson, who was a reporter for CNN when the Persian Gulf war began and shot the 24/7 news cycle into the national consciousness, has become an investigative journalist for CBS News.

Her pursuit for the truth in the ATF’s bungled Fast and Furious gun walking scandal brought numerous awards and recognition to her.

She has been after the truth in Benghazi since that fateful day and has never stopped, even when it has not been so convenient for her. You see, Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser for President Obama has a brother.

That brother is David Rhodes, the President of CBS News. Ben Rhodes has been accused of conspiring with people in the State Department (namely spokeswoman Victoria Nuland) to cover-up the fact that talking points given to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice were revised 12 times in order to fit the administration’s first story, that a YouTube video defaming the Islamic prophet Muhammad that she called “heinous and offensive” was responsible for the “protests” that led to the attack and erased anything referring to Islamic extremism.

Except there were no protests, and she never once regarded the attack as “heinous and offensive.”

New York Times reporter Maureen Dowd wrote recently in an op-ed, “Yet in this hottest of hot spots, the State Department’s minimum security requirements were not met, requests for more security were rejected, and contingency plans were not drawn up, despite the portentous date of 9/11 and cascading warnings from the C.I.A., which had more personnel in Benghazi than State did and vetted the feckless Libyan Praetorian Guard. When the Pentagon called an elite Special Forces team three hours into the attack, it was training in Croatia — decidedly not a hot spot.”

Last Wednesday, Congress listened to testimony from whistleblowers, both current and former members of the State Department. One of them was Ambassador Stevens’ 2nd-in-command Gregory Hicks.

Hicks was 600 miles away in Tripoli, where Stevens should have been any other day in the year. He pleaded with the military to scramble planes, just for a simple fly over to scare the terrorists away. He was told it couldn’t be done.

Four Special Forces officers in Tripoli were

eager to race to Benghazi and were given a “stand down” order, effectively signing Ambassador Stevens’ death certificate.

“My reaction was that, O.K., we’re on our own,” Hicks said quietly. He said the commander of that Special Forces team told him, “This is the first time in my career that a diplomat has more” chutzpah “than someone in the military.”

Hicks also mentioned that when he asked why Susan Rice had blamed the YouTube video on all of the 5 Sunday morning talk shows, undersecretary of state Beth Jones bristled. He believed he was demoted because he attempted to blow the whistle.

Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff Cheryl Mills also verbally berated Hicks for talking to Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz R-UT when he visited Benghazi.

Throughout the entire 2012 campaign, President Obama repeated dozens of times that al-Qaeda was “no more” and had been vanquished. The attack on Benghazi immediately suggested otherwise. But you can’t let the facts get in the way of an awesome mythical narrative.

So Nuland and Rhodes made sure that the CIA’s victory lap in the talking points were struck out, in e-mails recently obtained by ABC News White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl.

“The Agency produced numerous pieces on the threat of extremists linked to Al Qaeda in Benghazi and eastern Libya,” and had warned about five other attacks “against foreign interests in Benghazi by unidentified assailants, including the June attack against the British ambassador’s convoy.”

Nuland and Rhodes didn’t care about the loss of American lives, they just cared about what would happen when Congressional Republicans got their hands on this information. The information “could be abused by members” of Congress “to beat up the State Department for not paying attention to warnings, so why would we want to feed that either?” Nuland wrote in one e-mail.

I guess we shouldn’t beat up incompetent jackasses in the State Department when they screw up anymore.

House Speaker John Boehner R-OH made it clear that he would be subpoenaing for more records and for more people to appear before the House to testify on Benghazi.

On Friday, “Thank God it’s Friday” became “holy crap, can I go home” when White House spokesman Jay Carney was blasted on all sides of the James S. Brady White House press room, fielding 38 questions on Benghazi. His ears and face were so red by the end of the grilling, Twitter had taken notice.

Carney said that the e-mails had been known to Congress for two months and only leaked them to reporters once it was politically beneficial. Which wasn’t what the Obama Administration was doing when it met with only 14 news organizations not too long ago, right? But he just couldn’t defend the outright lies and attempts to cover-up key information from the American people.

“It’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up” was the phrase during Watergate that made it acutely aware that the crime is usually forgotten, but the cover-up is not so easily done.

President Obama’s 2nd term hasn’t gotten off on the right foot. They almost never do. But this has the ability to turn into a nightmare at best and impeachment of people he works with or even himself at worst.

— Alec Rider, editor-in-chief

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What was said at the CCC Board of Trustees meeting May 6th

By Alec Rider, editor-in-chief is a horrible way to negotiate. Shame on you Dr. Larson and shame on you Board of Trustees.”

Susan Wolstenholme said that she would not let some of the comments that were said, specifically by Trustee Kott go unchallenged by her.

“The faculty are only interested in their own compensation,” Wolstenholme said reiterating Trustee Kott’s controversial statement. “Mr. Kott!” she exclaimed. “and board members… we have not had a raise since September 1, 2010. If we were only interested in our own compensation do you think we would continue to do the dedicated job that we have been doing over the last three years when we received no raises at all?”

PHOTO BY ALEC RIDER

The Board of Trustees met once again Monday night May 6th inside the student lounge at Cayuga Community College. This time around they were met by a student rally going on right outside the window.

Faculty and staff, journalists and other on-lookers filed into the room to hear from potential speakers and the Board themselves.

A sarcastic, satirical look at the Board’s proposals from Secretary of the Administrative Professionals Group, Joseph Myers, led off the public portion of the meeting. This was followed up by 1983 CCC Graduate and current librarian Sara Davenport.

Davenport served on a retention and completion committee that consisted

Cayuga Community College faculty and staff voice their concerns over budget cuts at a meeting of the college’s Board of Trustees on May 6th. of nine other faculty and staff from the institution. The committee’s charge was to develop an innovative approach to improve retention outcomes based on a collective understanding of Cayuga, its students and culture as well as the best practices in the field.

“While retention is clearly not solely the responsibility of the faculty, research does indicate that the ratio of full time faculty to full time equivalent students is a critical component of successful student retention,” Davenport said. “The retention committee report cites data included in a report of the college’s advisement task force as well.

According to this report, in 1979, 89 full time faculty were employed to advise 2,273 full time equivalent students. By 2008, that number had dwindled to 71 full time faculty to advise 2,925 students.”

Shannon Lavey-Reohr also spoke to the retention issue.

“Yes, retention has been an issue, but there are a wide range of factors that affect student retention and completion,” LaveyReohr said. “It is not one individual, one office, policy, or practice. Rather, retention is the primary responsibility for us here at Cayuga. We are all here to support our students and help them persist through their course work.”

Professor Dan Schultz commented on the ever decreasing level of morale among faculty and staff at the college. He complimented President Dan Larson on his vision but made it clear that vision should only be coupled with a sound financial state. He blasted the notion that the faculty and staff should be blamed because they wouldn’t take a pay cut.

Trustee Stan Kott stirred the drink halfway through the public session, making it very clear how he felt about the situation.

“I can only conclude then, the faculty is only interested in their own compensation, and in not helping the college solve… an unfortunate budget deficit,” Kott said.

As far as Kott was concerned, the Faculty Association wasn’t meeting the Board of Trustees halfway and they would be ultimately responsible for any actions taken by the Board.

CCC employee Doug Brill was having none of it.

“Yes, there have been lots of negotiations with us. The negotiations tend to be “all of what we say by this date or there’ll be layoffs”, over and over and over again,” Brill said. “Nobody wants pay cuts, nobody wants layoffs, seems like nobody on either side wants to listen a whole lot. But negotiating by “do this by this date or we’ll lay you off”

“We have continued to serve on committees, to advise students, to teach our classes. Would we be doing that if we were only interested in our own compensation?”

Wolstenholme said. “We don’t need to apologize for the fact that we feel that we need to be compensated for our services!

This is our career, this is our life, this is our livelihood!”

The following are quotes from individuals transcribed from an audio recording of the meeting. Some have been shortened in consideration of available space: JOSEPH MYERS CCC EMPLOYEE SECRETARY APG UNION I am disgusted and appalled by the college administration and its Board of Trustees, that it expects the faculty and staff of this college to pay for its mistakes. The faculty and staff of this college should not be financially responsible for the financial mismanagement that led to this crisis by the administration and the Board of Trustees.

I am personally against any notion of shared sacrifice and the implications of allowing such mismanagement to go unpunished. Is it really that hard to admit one’s mistakes and to take responsibility for them? Therefore I have to express my complete lack of confidence in the college’s administration and its Board of Trustees.

KRISTIN MARINO SGO PRESIDENT, FULTON CAMPUS I wanted to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak at tonight’s meeting and with the heavy agenda I understand the importance of time constraints and getting to the point; the point being that layoffs are not the answer.

Retention and enrollment would not be possible if it were not for the amazing instructors and support staff at Cayuga Community College.

Athletic buildings, stadiums, the new campuses did not bring us here. I know that it did not bring me here. The Instructors and staff did. They push us to be the responsible, community involved, committed students that we are.

I walked into my first class on the old Fulton campus almost two years ago. I was one more bad day away from someone having to read my eulogy. They didn’t turn their backs on me when it felt like everyone else did. My instructors pushed me to keep going and that I could do absolutely anything as long as I wanted to.

I’ve been encouraged to get involved within my own community, in my school and otherwise, and shown how to be a better person. All since that first day on the campus, if any of those experiences were less by even just one of those professors or staff, my life would be different.

They have each molded me into the person that I am today, and who I will be tomorrow. They have each taught me a little bit more about myself and they have taught be a little bit more about who I can be.

They all taught me that I was in charge of my own future. Each and every single one of them and now it’s my turn to stand up for them. And if my tiny minuscule bank account could fill this budget gap that oh, so needed filling, I would give you every single cent.

Tonight, I’m asking as a student to the Board of Trustees, to please find another way. Layoffs will most negatively affect enrollment, and I promise you that they will negatively affect retention and completion.

On Friday, we told Dr. Larson how much they all meant to us and tonight we are telling you for the sake of the school, for the sake of the currently enrolled students, and for the sake of the students to come. Do not layoff. Not now, not ever, and not even just one.

“I am personally against any notion of shared sacrifice and the implications of allowing such mismanagement to go unpunished. Is it really that hard to admit one’s mistakes and to take responsibility for them?

Therefore I have to express my complete lack of confidence in the college’s administration and its Board of Trustees.”

—Joseph Myers,CCC employee SHANNON LAVEY-REOHR CCC FACULTY, 13 YEARS Late February, 2013, the atmosphere at Cayuga Community College started to change. It was then that the faculty was made aware of the financial situation that Cayuga is currently in. It’s been a roller coaster ride since then but one fact will remain, will always remain. We the faculty are all here for the same reason. We are here tonight and we have been for the last year, the last 13 years, the last 35 years, whatever the case may be. We are here to support our students.

There are two issues that upset me the most about this entire situation. The first goes along with a quote in last week’s edition of The Citizen ‘enrollment rates have not been met for the fiscal year and retention, which is a primary responsibility for the faculty, has been an issue.’

Yes, retention has been an issue, but there are a wide range of factors that affect student retention and completion. It is not one individual, one office, policy, or practice. Rather, retention is the primary responsibility for us here at Cayuga. We are all here to support our students and help them persist through their course work.

As I think about the full time faculty here at Cayuga, I think about how much they’ve done to retain students in the last two years, the retention committee in all their work that Sarah [Davenport] highlighted for us. The Cayuga 100 and 101 courses, the re-designed Math modular courses, the learning communities, the BRIDGE program, the split semester courses, to name a few. Collaboratively, thousands of hours have been dedicated to retention. With that, I can’t help but think about how many full time teachers we have here at Cayuga.

Next year, there will only be 47 full time teachers, the lowest number in the last 40 years.

Yet the college anticipates that it will have the 5th highest number of students in the history of the college. Clearly, the faculty has given more with far less. In fact, Cayuga has the worst ratio of full time teachers to full time equivalent students in the 30 community colleges in New York.

It is discouraging to say the least. The second issue that troubles me about the entire situation is the fear of it happening again. To my knowledge, Cayuga has never been in this position before, why then, are we here now? If we do not identify why we are here now, what is to prevent history from repeating itself?

DAN SCHULTZ 47 YEARS GRANDFATHER OF THE FACULTY For those of you who haven’t been here 20 years or less, my name is Dan Schultz; I’ve been here for 47 years. And I speak, I think, for a bulk of the faculty and staff who have been here; we came here, not for a job but for a career. All of us have been here for a long period of time.

You know, in a half century, I’ve been through a lot of crises. I’ve seen them all; I’ve been through them all.

I’ve never seen morale as low as it is at this particular point in history. We got an e-mail reminder the other day, today rather, about enrollment and I wonder if that malaise that has permeated the campus has had a negative impact on enrollment. Why should students sign up for courses and classes that may, in fact, not be offered? This is a serious issue. We have a dedicated faculty and staff, they deserve better than a euphemism for a furlough, that amounts to an almost 4% cut.

This strikes very hard at those on the low end of the economic totem pole; we’re talking about the loss of a paycheck or more. That’s a hard hit for a lot of them to take for decisions that were not their fault. The level of discontent from the faculty, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it this bad. I think, the fact they walked out of the Faculty Association meeting on Friday speaks volumes to their discontent.

I have to hand it to Dr. Larson, in his role as a visionary.

He’s done a lot in terms of looking at the future of the college, in terms of the Fulton campus, the theater, building dorms, the Indian exchange program, but all of those plans have to be made on a sound financial basis.

And we’ve heard this statistic from everybody else, that enrollment is higher than ever but our faculty is shorter than ever.

Was it smart in terms of some of the decisions made, in terms of paying off the Fulton campus out of the surplus? There were also associated legal costs linked to the takeover at the Fulton campus. The Faculty Association has made a number of suggestions that, as far as I know, have gone unheard. The faculty seems to be implicitly blamed. You heard all the discussion regarding retention as an issue. We work very hard to keep them here but in terms of programs and a variety of techniques and advisement in order to keep them here.

There also seems to be an implicit blame, on the part of the faculty, it’s our fault that we do not accept a 4% cut or a furlough, because we don’t want to cannibalize our junior faculty and I think that’s an outrage. The young faculty are like a lot of the college. They advise clubs, they design courses, they’re active in student activities… and I think it’s grossly unfair to place the responsibility on the backs of dedicated faculty and staff. We have always done our part as fairly and as professionally, and I urge upon the Board to do likewise.

CELEBRATING 60 YEARS OF THE CAYUGA COLLEGIAN IN 2014

STAN KOTT ACC GRADUATE 1968 SGO PRESIDENT BOARD OF TRUSTEE MEMBER I give my time, my talents, and my contributions freely to this college. I ask for nothing in return. The last several years I have been contributing at the President’s Circle level for the Foundation, I’ve served on the Foundation board and am currently secretary of this Board of Trustees, I, too, love this college. I give to this college, I take nothing in return, I’m here to make it a better place.

The officers of this Board of Trustees met with the Faculty Association on two separate occasions… both times nothing really happened. Now, again, I hear no vote current. Before faculty agreed to meet with us they actually wanted to solve this problem through negotiations for a new contract, which we did meet with them, in a formalized contract session and the proposal was for a much richer contract. Our salaries and benefits for this college represent 79% of this operating budget. The salaries for the faculty are the 8th of the 30 community colleges in New York State. The only upstate college with a higher average salary is Erie, yet our operating budget is 18th and our enrollment is 19th. There are lots of untruths that need to be known, on both sides, lots of mistakes have likely been made.

But we can’t continue to force the issue and say it’s their fault and not contribute. No one wants layoffs, layoffs would be terrible, a contribution is what we ask for. The faculty wouldn’t even take a vote.

I can only conclude then, the faculty is only interested in their own compensation, and in not helping the college solve… an unfortunate budget deficit.

As I mentioned, the salaries paid to CCC faculty are very near the top end of any New York State community college outside of the New York region.

In this fiscal crisis, we have asked for your cooperation.

Two months ago we worked with faculty, the strategy seems to delay and arouse as opposed to dealing with us.

We need to balance the budget, we have no choice but to balance the budget, we’ve asked for your cooperation and consideration, we have not received it. What caused the problem? It wasn’t some of the, all of those issues that were mentioned by the previous speakers, state aid was cut by 21% that’s what a 7 million dollar deficit in our 3 year operating budget. We’re trying to close a $500,000 gap. We do not want layoffs, we have asked for reductions in raises, the faculty has become the lead unit in negotiations and you have refused to vote. Certainly, there’s not much more we can do but to ask for your cooperation, we haven’t received it, I hope we get it.

KEVIN COLEMAN STUDENT TRUSTEE AT CCC MARINE CORPS. VETERAN It’s been hard for me, because I am a student first and foremost, and to see the discontent of the faculty and staff the last couple weeks is very disheartening.

The compromise on both sides —I hear rumors first and then after the rumors came it was the innuendos about what’s going to happen— I don’t see that kind of compromising going on, “what can we do for you?”

I’ve watched the Board work tirelessly, tirelessly to come up with a solution. I’ve watched the faculty and staff grind the bone, hours after hours of working with students, trying to help students.

The harmony that I saw when I first got here, I don’t see, I don’t see that harmony. We’re not saying it’s us against them. It’s never going to work. It’s never worked in history and it’s not going to work now. We have to bridge the gap, we have to think this out and we have to come up with a solution, together.

I’ve served my country for half of my life. I came to Cayuga, just to go to school and I ended up serving again. I see it from both sides and it’s very, very hard.

This is not something the Board, myself, and I’m sure the faculty and staff, is taking lightly and anyone that thinks the Board is just throwing numbers out at you so we can get some kind of positive response, you’re wrong.

They work just as hard to maintain the level of excellence that we’ve had, and I just want it to be noted that I am first and foremost a student, and I see, the faculty and staff, I talk to you guys, you talk to me.

I’m humbled that we’re not getting along, there is no harmony.

SUSAN WOLSTENHOLME 35 YEARS PLUS, FACULTY I’ve been on this faculty for over 35 years. I could not let some of the remarks that were just made go unanswered. “The faculty are only interested in their own compensation.”

Mr. Kott! and board members… we have not had a raise since September 1, 2010. If we were only interested in our own compensation do you think we would continue to do the dedicated job that we have been doing over the last three years when we received no raises at all?

Since we’ve been asked to solve the problems of bad budgeting, we have continued to serve on committees, to advise students, to teach our classes. Would we be doing that if we were only interested in our own compensation? That’s what I would like to ask you.

Could anyone listen to the remarks that Sarah Davenport just made or the remarks that Shannon Reohr just made, and believe that we are only interested in our own compensation? I don’t think so.

We don’t need to apologize for the fact that we feel that we need to be compensated for our services! This is our career, this is our life, this is our livelihood, how many people could lose ten days’ worth of pay, it’s not a furlough, it’s a cut! A cut of almost 4%, how many people could lose that and just give it up, and give it up, why? Because we’re being asked to solve some budgetary problems here.

Let me say one more thing. We’ve had in my 35 plus years here, cuts in state spending before, this isn’t the first time it’s happened. But it is the first time that we have gone on a spending spree and undertaken four major projects at one time. It is the only time, it is the first time since I’ve been here, that we have spent down the fund balance the way it has been spent down.

There must be ways out of this crisis that isn’t built on the backs of the faculty and staff that have served this college so well and in such a dedicated way.

PAGE THREE

So long, 2013 graduates PHOTO BY ALEC RIDER

What’s next?

CCC President Dr. David Larson (back to camera) fields questions from student leaders during a “Pizza with the President” event May 10th.

Pizza with the President Address Student’s Concerns Last Friday, Auburn Campus had their annual Pizza with the President. As President Larson sat down to talk with students about things going on around the campus, there seemed to be some tension in the air.

President Larson opened the session, addressing the number one topic on student’s minds: the increase in furlough days faculty and staff would have to take if an agreement were made with the administration.

He said that he was as equally concerned about this issue as the students were. The president said that meetings with the bargaining units for the teachers have had tremendous progress and that they were within striking distance of closing the budget gap.

He closed his speech by saying he doesn’t want anyone to lose their jobs.

The first student to ask a question referred to a sheet that she had brought with her.

She said that there had been a three year gap since the faculty had received a raise, twomembers of the Registrar’s office had been fired, and that one person in the library had their hours cut. She concluded by saying that the president himself had received a five percent raise.

President Larson responded to this by saying he had been taking furlough days recently and had even increased the number of furlough days he had to take. In total thus far, President Larson has taken 12 furlough days.

Speaking on the other topics the student had raised, the president responded that 2 years ago the faculty had taken a pay raise that would be given out retroactively, meaning that they received their pay raise shortly after their contract had been negotiated.

Amy Ankrum, a member of the History Club, asked the next question. Have the cuts and layoff that have been done thus far helped bridge the gap in the budget?

PHOTO TAKEN WITH ALEC RIDER’S CAMERA

By Abigail Young, editor

CCC President Dr. David Larson with Collegian editors Alec Rider and Abigail Young at pizza event.

President Larson responded that all of the cuts have been helpful.

A question was raised that if the teachers reach no decision on either accepting the furlough days or cuts in staff, what would happen?

“Then it’s in the hands of the Board of Trustees,” said Larson.

President Larson took a moment to congratulate students on the rally held during the last Board meeting. He thought it went really well.

Amy Ankrum asked what students could do to help with the current problem.

Larson said that students need to encourage positive things and encourage people to come to CCC, not only after high school but registering for next fall.

The session closed on a positive note with looking to the future. Larson is very excited about the Harriet Tubman Symposium that will be hosted at the college during the summer.

Students and Larson also talked about how to encourage people to come to CCC.

CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF ‘13 GRADUATION IS MAY 19, 2013

something Students

funny...

Rally... continued from page one

The rally continued during the executive session that was held. Students put their signs up to the windows to show the Board what they were feeling.

Kristan Marino, the president of SGO on the Fulton Campus, said that Fulton Campus has been holding rallies for the past two days.

“The faculty and staff shouldn’t have to pay for these mistakes,” she said, “They’re what bring us back.”

Marino said that it’s not the shinny new things like a new dorm or athletic field that brings students back but it’s the teachers that bring people back.

Another rally is being planned for Monday May 13th, during the next Board of Trustees meeting.

Nilsa DeJesus

Katie Dunn

1. I am graduating from the Liberal Arts program at CCC 2. I will be moving on to study sociology at Le Moyne College 3. In 5-10 years I hope to be finished with my Master’s degree in guidance counseling and I hope to have started off my career as a college admissions counselor at a high school. My main focus is to help teenagers realize how important college is and to make the application process somewhat easier for them.

1. I am graduating from CCC with a liberal arts degree.

2. I’m transferring to Roberts Wesleyan for a communications degree.

3. I hope to do some international traveling and further my passion for writing.

LaRae Brooks 1. I am graduating with a degree in telecommunications with a concentration in Broadcast Journalism.

2. In the fall I will be attending SUNY Cortland where I will continue studying communications.

3. In 5-10 years I hope to be finished with school and working at a TV station as on camera talent, or behind the scenes in production. If finding a job doesn’t work for me, I hope to be married living out the rest of my life as a house wife/ stay at home mom.

Andy Schemerhorn Andy is graduating with degrees in Telecommunications and Liberal Arts. He is going to Ithaca College to get his Bachelors in the TV and Film Production concentration of Telecom.

“In 5-10 years I’d like to be living in NYC or LA working on the sets of major movies or popular TV shows.”

Denzel Conze Right now Denzel is studying Criminal Justice at CCC. In the fall he is transferring to Post University in Connecticut on a Lacrosse scholarship.

While at Post he plans to continue studying Criminal Justice and look in to Business. In 5-10 years he plans to have a shared business with two of his friends and living in Manhattan.

Faith Fanning 1. I am graduating from CCC with a degree in Liberal Arts: Social Science and Humanities 2. I am going on to Hobart and William Smith Colleges with a double major in English and Writing & Rhetoric.

3. I hope to have my Ph.D. in English and be on my way towards a career as an English professor.

It’s time for a fifth umpire!

The umpires of Major League Baseball are routinely lauded as by far the best officials in American major sports. The ability to call balls and strikes that include 100 m.p.h. fastballs going over a 17 inch plate to precision is something to be marveled at.

But fans have begun to complain over the last few years of a ridiculous amount of missed calls on the lines and on home run calls. So a few years ago, MLB made instant replay available to the umpires, but only on disputed home run calls.

A few years have passed and two incidents that have occurred one after another have proved that MLB doesn’t need more replay. They need more umpires.

Instant replay of a home run by Oakland’s Adam Rosales in Cleveland on Wednesday night still didn’t reverse the umpires’ decision to rule in a double, while everyone in the ballpark knew it was a home run. A fifth umpire in the booth could have easily overridden this ridiculous mistake.

The very next night umpire Fieldin Culbreth’s crew allowed Houston Astros

manager Bo Porter to remove reliever Wesley Wright from the game against the Los Angeles Angels without facing a batter.

This is strictly against MLB rules, unless the pitcher is ill or injured.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia stormed the field and declared an official protest on the game, which would have probably went in his favor if the Angels hadn’t staged a comeback and won the game.

Culbreth was suspended and fined, the rest of his crew was just fined.

Providing a fifth umpire in the booth would allow for there to be a qualified man (or woman) to be separated from the thrill of the game and be able to make an objective call. I believe this would be a great compromise for baseball purists that don’t want any replay, and for those that want a replay on every line drive. That is something baseball doesn’t need.

MLB, it’s time to hire a fifth umpire for every game and stick them in a room upstairs with the same footage that the commentators are getting.

C AY U G A C O M M U N I T Y C O L L E G E ’ S S T U D E N T- R U N N E W S PA P E R