Issue 8, Fall 2015 - The Quadrangle

THE Volume 92, Issue 8

Q

UADRANGLE A Student Publication of Manhattan College Since 1924

Oct. 27, 2015

LO.V.E. Fall Festival

www.mcquad.org

The Noise Next Door Michelle DePinho Editor

Participants have at it in a donut-speed-eating contest at last Friday’s fall festival fundraiser, held by the L.O.V.E. program.

Tara Marin/The Quadrangle

Local Drug Busts Shed Light on Drug Activity Near Campus Amy Cordoza Staff Writer

Several drug busts over the past year in the college’s surrounding community have brought attention to the dealing operations-and the drug culture--in and around MC. According to an article in the Riverdale Press, on Aug. 13, the NYPD Narcotics Borough Bronx team busted two cocaine dealers just blocks away from Manhattan College. One occurred on Kingsbridge Avenue and the other on Irwin Avenue between West 234th Street and West 236th Street.

Both busts were accomplished by the work of undercover officers working for the 50th precinct. On Kingsbridge Avenue, the suspect was found with not only 140 grams of cocaine, but also 20 grams of MDMA and over one thousand dollars in cash. The second bust wasn’t as large, reaping five tins of cocaine and nine bags of marijuana. Still, anything over 500 milligrams of cocaine wields a felony charge and the first suspect was found with around 280 times the felony amount.

According to a press release from the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor for the City of New York, the authorities became aware of the cocaine sales to Manhattan College students after a tip was reported by a member of the Manhattan College community in late February. During this time, the NYPD began steadily purchasing and seizing over six thousand dollars worth of drugs, including cocaine and marijuana, while monitoring the dealer for half a year. Once they narrowed down the supplier, they busted both. The dealer, Victor Vigniero, admitted to dealing drugs

to Manhattan College students from his apartment on Irwin Avenue while being supplied by his cousin, Osvaldo Espaillat, who lived on Kingsbridge Avenue. Vigniero admitted the student body was a significant portion of his market and that his supplier focused on other customers.

In addition to the drugs they collected from the street bust, the officers also raided the houses of both the offenders. Cocaine and oxycodone were found in the dealer’s Irwin Avenue residence. His supplier was found with cocaine, two scales and almost three thousand dollars in cash.

These two busts are only a recent development in an ongoing problem concerning Riverdale and the sale of hard narcotics.

Earlier this summer, on May 17, the largest DEA heroin bust in New York history occurred near Horace Mann School. According to the New York Times, over 154 pounds of heroin were confiscated, making it not only the largest bust in the state but also the fourth largest in the country. In a CNBC interview, Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan made a statement that it was a “load so large, it carried the potential of supplying a dose of heroin to every man, woman and child in New York City.” This successful bust came as a result of a yearlong investigation.

According to the Riverdale Press, more heroin was discovered in an apartment on West 238th Street two weeks after the bust.

There was no connection between the two incidents, but they both represent a startling trend. Hard narcotics are being packaged and sold closer and closer to school grounds, both Manhattan College’s campus and the local high schools.

With all the recent attention towards

drug-related activity so close to campus, it could be assumed there would be a corresponding increase in on-campus drug activity. However, drug violations in the past two years has reportedly decreased.

Director of Public Safety Juan Cerezo reports that there has been “a 24 percent decrease in drug abuse violations on campus from 2013 to 2014.”

He also explained that in all of these instances, almost all of the drugs recovered were marijuana except for one instance where molly (a form of ecstasy) was found.

Cerezo also stated that this year as a community, “we’re on target to see a similar decrease in drug abuse violations.”

However, some students seem to feel differently.

“Drugs are definitely present on campus, and cocaine is no exception. It’s something that doesn’t really surprise me that he [Vigniero] was selling majorly to Manhattan kids. College kids are a great market for drugs in general, not just Manhattan, so that makes sense,” sophomore Chris Pagano said.

Other students are concerned that the closer drugs move to campus, the more related issues they will bring with them that will begin to transform life on campus.

“Drugs and violence go hand in hand,” sophomore Rebecca Maher said.

“When one increases, the other follows. That is what worries me the most about these stories. Not really what they’ve done, but what others like them have the potential to do.”

Continued on page 3

It’s no secret that some Manhattan College students like to have fun and get rowdy on the weekends, just like students at any other college.

But this penchant for partying leads to cases of noisy, destructive and (in some cases) illegal behaviors off-campus and in the surrounding community. Riverdale residents are fed up and, more importantly, working with the college on what to do to curb the noise and crack down on illicit activity outside the campus gates.

Jean Rincon is a 15 year resident of Riverdale and an active leader in the community, which has been organizing over the past year to urge the college, local law enforcement and politicians to take action on the issue of student behavior off-campus.

“If somebody had said last year, ‘Oh, my kid’s thinking of going to Manhattan College,’ I would have said, ‘Are you kidding me? They’ll get in with a crowd.

They’ll be drinking all the time,’” Rincon said.

This alcohol-driven behavior is what neighbors are dealing with, night in and night out but particularly on the weekends, as students pass through streets to journey back from bars and house parties. Noise, public urination, visible sexual conduct, littering and vandalism are just a few of the transgressions they’ve seen students commit.

Neighbors have been actively documenting these behaviors with photos, videos and written descriptions on Rincon’s blog, “Sleepless in Riverdale.”

With a ‘Neighbors’ Bill of Rights,’ signed by 150 local residents, Rincon and two other community members attended a student assembly meeting at MC last month to ask students for certain basic rights relating to their quality of life.

“It was horrible last year in the spring.

It was just such a blight on the neighborhood,” Rincon said. “Some of us feel it’s gotten better, because the college really has taken a lot of measures, and I do get the sense that they really do care about the problem and they’re as baffled as we are.”

Nicholas Weyland, student body president, led the meeting that Rincon presented at and said that he “personally didn’t find anything unreasonable” in her bill of rights.

“They specifically said that it’s not that they don’t want us partying or hanging out with our friends outside,” Weyland said.

“There comes a point in time, a span of time during the day, or a day of the week, that maybe you should have a little bit more respect of the people to your left and people to your right.”

Weyland said that he feels this is an issue of respect.

“It’s easy for students to say, ‘hey, they live on a college campus,’” he said. “But what about, ‘our campus is in the middle of a neighborhood?’”

To hit the issue head on, Weyland and student government are assembling an adhoc committee to work on relations with the community and what can be done to cut down on rowdy off-campus behavior.

But part of the problem with off-campus noise is that there are simply more

2

The

Letter to

opinions & editorials

Quadrangle www.mcquad.org

Vol. 92 Issue 8 Oct. 27, 2015

Sean Sonnemann Editor-in-Chief Michelle DePinho Managing Editor/News Editor Anthony Capote Asst. News Editor Kieran Rock Managing Editor/Features Editor Ally Hutzler Asst. Features Editor Lauren Carr Arts & Entertainment Editor Lindsey Burns Asst. Arts & Entertainment Editor Jon Reyes Sports Editor Jaclyn Marr Asst. Sports Editor Daniel Ynfante Asst. Sports Editor Victoria Hernández Kristie Killen Social Media Editors Kevin Fuhrmann Photography Editor Vanessa Sanchez Asst. Photography Editor Kelly Burns Luke Hartman Natalie Heinitz Production Editors

The Editor

Oct. 27, 2015

To the Editor of the Quadrangle:

I am an alumnus of Manhattan College, Class of 1975. My late father graduated from the College in 1949. I used to be proud of being an alumnus.

After graduation, I lived in north Riverdale from 1980 to 1994, then moved elsewhere.

Three years ago, my wife and I moved back to Riverdale and now live in a co-op apartment. Little did we know what awaited us.

Since then, we and our neighbors have been subjected to virtually nightly atrocities perpetrated by Manhattan College students. From 10 p.m. until 4 or even 5 a.m., gangs of students roam the blocks on West 238th St. between Waldo and Riverdale Avenues, yelling obscenities, spewing garbage, vomiting and urinating on our properties, etc. My wife and I sleep with a white-noise machine on--many of our neighbors use ear plugs--and even then we are frequently awakened. When we call 311 and/or the 50th Precinct, we get lackadaisical responses. By the time a patrol car arrives--if it arrives--the students have dispersed, and in any case, the police are reluctant to issue summonses, even though the students are violating City Noise Ordinances in effect between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

I should add that I teach as an adjunct in two prominent NYC universities. In the past 25 years, I have had over 1000 undergraduate and graduate students. So I’m intimately acquainted with the behavior of college students, from best to worst. Manhattan College students fall far below any reasonable expectations, and I’m referring to a minority of 100 to 200. But a relatively small number of your students nightly roaming our streets yelling “F----!” is assumedly not part of the College’s marketing plan.

Living or hanging around off-campus does NOT give students license to turn one of New York’s nicest residential neighborhoods into “Animal House.” Manhattan College is allowing its students to roam without any consequences for their disrespectful and disruptive behavior. These students’ parents would not tolerate this behavior on their own streets. The students are living in OUR neighborhood--people who have to wake up and go to school and work in the morning. The College needs to become a caring neighbor.

The 50th Precinct cannot be expected to be the College’s nanny.

I am on a committee of neighborhood folks determined to put a stop to this behavior and to reclaim our neighborhood. We have had numerous meetings with Dean Carey, President O’Donnell, and other College officials. They seem well-intentioned, but the College refuses to do the right thing: i.e., hire a foot patrolman to walk W. 238th St. between Waldo and Riverdale Avenues. Anything else is a band-aid.

I would ask the decent majority of students to pressure the administration to do what is needed to salvage the reputation of Manhattan College. We want our neighborhood back, and we intend to reclaim it. As they used to say in the 1970s, if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

Sincerely, Bill Kirchner

Daniel Molina Distribution Manager Tom Callahan Faculty Adviser

A tradition since 1924, The Quadrangle is a news organization run by the students of Manhattan College. We strive to cover news around campus and the greater community, publishing weekly in print and daily online. Our goal is always accuracy, relevancy and professionalism.

The staff of The Quadrangle meets every Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. in room 412 of the Student Commons.

Contact The Quadrangle at thequad@manhattan.edu The opinions expressed in The Quadrangle are those of the individual writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board, the College or the student body.

Sam Martin/The Quadrangle

Correction: Daniel Molina’s article Logistics of Locke’s was co written by Cat Goodyear.

news

3

Postponed Quadstock Moves to Draddy Kelly Burns and Kieran Rock Editors

MC students may have felt the absence of an MC tradition in the opening months of school: Quadstock. As The Quadrangle reported earlier this semester, Quadstock did not occur in its usual capacity due to summer construction on the quad.

John Bennett, the director of Student Activities, has decided to keep the name Quadstock for this concert that will take place on Nov. 14, most likely in Draddy Gym. Some students feel that the uniqueness of Quadstock may be lost with the venue change.

“I think the exciting part of Quadstock was that you got to spend the day with your friends on the quad just chilling out,” Kara Curtin said. “Now that it’s in the winter in Draddy, it’s more like a low-key Springfest.”

Senior Erin Cassidy would have liked to see the concert on the quad as well.

“It’s my senior year and it would have been nice to experience one more Quadstock outside in the nice weather,” she said.

“We are not going to have it on the quad, but we are going to keep the name Quadstock,” Bennett said.

The artist choice for this concert comes from a student wish list that is developed at the student government social life meetings, which are open to all students.

“We always look, for Quadstock, to start with student lists,” Bennett said.

The top five performers chosen by students for Quadstock were Panic! at the Disco, Andy Grammer, George Ezra, Vance Joy and The Fray. However, when contacted by the college, none of these performers were willing to play the concert.

The budget for Quadstock is $60,000.

Bennett explained that the goal of Quadstock is not to have a large concert like SpringFest, but to have a more stripped-down concert experience.

“We don’t want the big setup with the stage like SpringFest. It’s supposed to be acoustic and among the students. That’s the purpose of it, to be more intimate,” Bennett said. Bennett said Student Activities is keeping these artists in mind for Spring-

Fest.

However, not all artists are willing to perform under these types of guidelines. In an email, Bennett explained that one artist that Student Activities had reached out to was The Goo Goo Dolls, who were looking to fill the date. After offering the asked amount of money, they chose not to perform because of the type of show Quadstock is.

“I probably would have rather them put the money toward SpringFest and forgotten about Quadstock for this year,” student Danielle Kleinhans said.

“Not every artist is down with performing so unplugged and stripped down,” Bennett said.

percent in high schools.

“Not everyone has to put on their superhero cape and stop every act of violence they see, but through the spread of Green Dot we can get these numbers down,” she said.

There are three different ways to approach the Green Dot: direct, delegate and distract.

“Direct” includes assessing the situation head-on and confronting the person in danger by asking if they are okay. “Delegate” would consist of calling outside assistance such as public safety, 911 or even an RA. The “distract” technique would be to divert the attention of the people in the situation unobtrusively.

An example of this would be making up an excuse for the potential victim to leave or even spilling a drink.

“A lot of people would typically not get involved when they see dangerous situations like this happen because it can be uncomfortable,” Jo-Ann Mullooly, RA and Green Dot instructor, said. “The pur-

pose of this program is to help people react comfortably when they see something bad, even if it involves people they don’t know.”

On the flipside is the Red Dot, which is when someone witnesses a bad situation and chooses not to do anything about it.

“We all have a responsibility for people we don’t know to be an active bystander.

Everybody is somebody’s ‘person,’” she said.

Another significant component of the Green Dot is the proactive aspect, which essentially requires spreading the word of the program. This includes posting about it on social media and spreading awareness through word of mouth. Manhattan College is doing its part by training several clubs, campus groups and faculty.

“Instead of mandating a session about it, we’re taking a direct approach and going through social influence,” French said.

So far over 200 people have been trained in the Green Dot at MC throughout the past six months, including all of the

RA’s, faculty and administration, student government and Greek life.

“If you know everyone is doing it, it makes you so much more inclined to do something and get involved,” RA Morgan Seger said. “You might not be consciously thinking about it all the time, but when you look back you can say ‘I did something to possibly diffuse a situation that could’ve harmed someone’ and it feels good.”

There are several training sessions scheduled for Green Dot throughout the fall, which any student can sign up for through the residence life webpage.

“It’s a fresh approach to bystander intervention,” Mullooly said.

“Sexual assault and violence is a serious problem on college campuses, and Green Dot gives students the tools to do something when it happens. I think it’s going to make a difference.”

Green Dot Program Encourages Bystander Intervention on Campus Tori James Staff Writer

The Manhattan College student body and administration are taking a fresh approach to sexual assault, abuse and violence prevention on campus through the newly implemented Green Dot program.

Green Dot is centered on preventing sexual assault and violence on college campuses by encouraging students to take initiative to stop these problematic situations from occurring before they happen, rather than just being a bystander.

“It’s the moment when we see potentially hazardous behavior and choose to step in and intervene,” Tiffany French, assistant dean of students and Green Dot instructor, said. “Violence isn’t okay, and we have to actually do something in order to make a difference.”

Studies described on Green Dot’s website have shown that Green Dot has reduced this kind of violent activity by fifty

Michelle DePinho Editor

Continued from page 1 students living there, and more students equates to noise.

“We’ve never had that many students in residence halls and we’ve never had this many students overall. We’re 15 percent larger than we were five years ago,” Manhattan College President Brennan O’Donnell said. “We need to recognize that we’re bigger and we’re taking up more space.”

So, one of the key themes in looking at the college’s strategic master plan is examining ways to keep as many students as possible in campus housing for all four years.

“We only became a majority residential college in 2008,” O’Donnell said. “So now, the project is to be a really, really good residential college.”

The benefits would be to have more students engage in campus life, and to reduce some of the outpouring of students living off-campus and causing disruption to the neighbors, which O’Donnell sees as a serious concern.

“The conduct outside out of the quad and the classrooms….and in the neighborhood matters,” he said. “Whether they [students] want to or not, they’re representing

The Noise Next Door

the college and their fellow students. It’s just a fact that the college’s reputation in the neighborhood very often rests on activity that shows us not at our best.”

College administration is actively working to handle complaints from the community and adjudicate cases of misbehavior using the student code of conduct’s ‘Good Neighbor Policy’ The policy, instituted only a few years ago, clearly states the right of the college to regulate off-campus behavior.

It states: “Manhattan College is located within an urban environment surrounded by several residential neighborhoods.

Guidelines for off-campus conduct have been established in order to uphold standards of behavior consistent with the community standards of behavior for Manhattan College students.”

But enforcement doesn’t end with MC administration.

“We need to work with local law enforcement to make sure that they’re helping us and partnering with us in order to make sure we reduce incidents,” O’Donnell said.

“It requires a multifaceted approach.”

Richard Satterlee, Ph.D. and vice president for student life, is at the forefront of finding a blend of options to work with the community on student behavior.

“We have worked diligently with the 50th [precinct] to…up their support,” Satterlee said. “We’ve also worked with them

Daniel Aguirre/The Quadrangle around big events when we know a lot of partying happens. I think we had a very successful partnership,” with the spring concert.

As for what’s being done at MC, “we’re putting more resources in identifying where students live. We put more cameras on Overlook so [we] can identify students-- I’m gonna be completely transparent about that--that’s so that we can identify the problem,” Satterlee said.

All cases where students can be ap-

propriately identified are being adjudicated through the college by Dean of Students Michael Carey.

College administration hopes this multi-pronged approach will be effective in improving neighborhood conditions.

“We talk proudly about our sense of community….and then we’re perceived by our immediate community as being obnoxious, then we need to be careful about patting ourselves on the back,” O’Donnell said.

news

4

Oct. 27, 2015

Behind the Upcoming Registration Process Victoria Hernández Assistant Editor

The registration process for spring 2016 semester is just around the corner. Most of the students start looking at the classes they are interested in a week before, others wait until the last minute, but something that not a lot students think about is what happens behind the scenes. How is the registration process planned and who is responsible for it?

Lisa Rizopoulus, Ph.D. and chair of the education department, explained that the courses offered any given semester have to do with the demand for them by students.

“We look at that and we see where in the schedule they need all those classes,” she said.

The sections offered each semester are based on that year’s student enrollment. In general, the classes offered stay the same from semester to semester, but what really

changes is how many sections each department will provide for a class.

Rizopoulus said that “working with the student one-on-one during advising and planning ahead with them so they now in advance which courses are available,” is one of Manhattan College’s best features.

“We spend time trying to find out what the students are working on and what [they] need support in [because] it is our Lasallian mission to get to know our students,” she said.

At times, a class needs to be cancelled and replaced with a different course. Provost William Clyde said there are several reasons this may occur.

“The reason [behind the decision] of getting rid of a class or adding a new one is that there is no interest in it anymore, that it was a specialty of a faculty member that is not [in the school] anymore, or maybe [because] it was important to the field before and now is not,” Clyde said.

In other circumstances, independent

studies might be offered to help fulfill different course requirements, although Rizopoulus does not encourage them because “there is nothing like being in a classroom with your peers,” she said.

The whole registration system is set up online in the college database with the Registrar’s office. Each department gives the Registrar detailed information about the classes after the registration process, such as “if one class is full and we need to add a new section, or if a chair tells us a class has five students but it will run anyways,” Carla Fraser, associate registrar, said.

Clyde said the process “is a combined work between the chairs of the departments, deans and the Registrar’s office.

Degreeworks usually gives us a prediction to which classes will be necessary to offer each semester.”

For students who haven’t declared a major or are switching majors, predicting class demand can become more difficult.

“Undecided majors are a challenge be-

cause you have to try to guess which courses they would want to explore, [but] most of the time they tell their advisors where are they leaning towards,” Clyde said.

But the number of classes each school offers and the number of students they serve might appear to be the opposite of what MC students expect.

As it turns out, the School of Liberal Arts offers the most classes during the registration period. The School of Engineering has the most students, with a third of the student body. But because of liberal arts requirements, engineering students do enroll in courses outside of engineering classes.

Before beginning registration, however, Fraser recommends students to log in into SelfService to check their status, their class level and if they have any holds on their account because that will affect their registration process.

trade that seeks to treat all parties fairly – especially the farmer or producer whose work creates and provides the goods. It’s about economic justice.”

What does this mean for Manhattan College? “It recognizes what Catholic Social Teaching holds – every economic choice is a moral choice. It means that we are committed to helping our students and our campus community become ‘conscious consumers,’” Harr said.

“For me, this means that we pursue a very concrete way of living and demonstrating our Catholic Lasallian values –especially concern for the poor and social justice.”

Students may have noticed the Fairtrade bananas in Locke’s this month. More food and beverages around campus are Fairtrade than students may think. When a product on or off campus carries the “Fairtrade” mark, this means the producers and traders make sure the product has met the Fairtrade Standards.

The Fairtrade standards are designed to eliminate the injustices of the conventional trading ways. If a coffee farmer works on

his own land and sells his coffee to a roaster through his own co-op, he will receive the current market price, regardless if the Fairtrade minimum price is lower.

Students who order an Italian Roast from Starbucks, or Farmers Brothers in Cafe 1853, are supporting Fairtrade without even realizing it.

“Back home in California, my family was all for Fairtrade,” freshman Erin Garcia said. “I never really understood the purpose of purchasing Fairtrade until coming to Manhattan. Being on my own, I realized purchasing Fairtrade is easier than everyone thinks. And not only does it help the farmers, it’s just another way that I can contribute to making the world a better place.”

As a Fairtrade school, Manhattan College agrees that all of its on-campus retail outlets, including Cafe 1853, the bookstore and Starbucks must sell at least two Fairtrade products. This means that the retail outlets on campus handle the contracting, purchasing and selling of these products.

Along with that, Harr also sells Jasper Java, a Fairtrade coffee and hot chocolate

straight from her office in Miguel. With Manhattan being a Fairtrade school, Harr also added, “It also means that we have to do consistent and continual education about Fair Trade around campus – so that’s why we had the bracelet making, the coffee break and why we’re having an ice cream social on Oct. 28 – all to promote awareness.”

Last semester, Fairtrade USA created a March Madness Fairtrade bracket for which colleges that did the most Fairtrade, and Manhattan College won.

“I feel with Manhattan being a Fairtrade school, we aren’t wasting money and buying in bulk,” freshman Tom Englert said.

“We’re still paying the market price, just buying straight from the farmer. This gives us premium quality goods that don’t only benefit us, but also the farmers and workers. It seems fair on both parties, so why not do it? We’re buying smart and giving back at the same time.”

“I completely understand that students are extremely frustrated. We are taking that seriously. We’re throwing as many resources as we can at it to resolve the issue,” Moran said. “The administration has been taking this very seriously thankfully.”

Moran and the rest of ITS are well aware of the JasperNet issues and are working aggressively to fix them.

“We have been going piece by piece to improve our hardware,” Moran said.

“We had a one giga bit connection to the internet, which when we brought that online that was unheard of, even in a college our size,” Moran said. “We were fine for a while and specifically this year, we had the largest freshmen class I think in Manhattan College history. Unfortunately, not only do we have more people, every year students come with more and more wireless devices.”

ITS put in a new firewall over the summer and has replaced infrastructure in some campus buildings.

Although changes have been made, students still are having trouble connecting to JasperNet. One frustrated student is freshman Nick Colombo. “[JasperNet] hasn’t really changed since the beginning of the year,” Colombo

said. “Everywhere is spotty. It rolls in and out. It doesn’t really stay.”

“It’s important… I mean, how else are you supposed to research? Sure, books help but the internet is going to be much faster,” he said.

Colombo said that JasperNet is at its worst at night, “when everybody uses it back in the dorms.”

This is in fact true, as ITS confirmed that Netflix is often a third to half of the bandwidth usage on campus.

Other students have taken to Twitter to express their feelings about JasperNet. “@MC_ITS JasperNet is the worst,” wrote Carly Corbett-Frank, and “Oh come on jaspernet don’t fail me now,” tweeted Liz Bruchansky. ITS responded to their tweets and apologized via Twitter to the unsatisfied students.

“The vast majority of students have been extremely patient,” Moran said. “We should always be helping students and making sure that they are having a good experience and that we are doing everything that we feasibly can.”

Moran also said that the most trouble is happening with residents of Horan Hall and with MacBook users in general.

“Horan is still a challenge, we’re work-

ing through it and putting a lot of resources into it,” Moran said. ITS also plans to install access points in each ten-man suite in Horan Hall to increase internet connection on every floor.

But not every building is experiencing the same issues. Patricia Sheridan works in De La Salle Hall and is an associate professor of business law at Manhattan College.

“I don’t have any problems anymore since the remodeling process,” Sheridan said of the recent renovations to De La Salle in which desktop computers and podiums were installed in most of the classrooms. “I’ve actually had good success with the equipment in the classes that I’m assigned to this year.”

“We [teachers compared to students] have different needs. It works just fine for classroom usage,” Sheridan said.

“It is something that we have to keep up with,” Moran said of ITS talking about the bandwidth and infrastructure of JasperNet. “It’s a really cool age to be in. We have to keep up and keep supplying bandwidth,” Moran said. “They [students] want better service and they deserve better service.

We’re gonna get there.”

Fair Trade Promotes Fair Farming

RikkiLynn Shields Staff Writer

Recently, free Fair Trade coffee, chocolate and stickers made an appearance right outside of Thomas Hall. While the school routinely touts its status as the first school in New York to be labeled Fair Trade and the fifth school in the nation, some students may not know what this distinction means.

According to the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, “Fairtrade is an alternative approach to conventional trade and is based on a partnership between producers and consumers.

“When farmers can sell on Fairtrade terms, it provides them with a better deal and improved terms of trade. This allows them the opportunity to improve their lives and plan for their future. Fairtrade offers consumers a powerful way to reduce poverty through their every day shopping.”

To simplify it, Lois Harr, the director of Campus Ministry and Social Action on campus said, “It’s an overall system of

ITS Expands Campus Wi-Fi Bandwith Jack Melanson Staff Writer

Today, Wi-Fi is essential for the overall success of a college student. Being the outlet for both information and entertainment, JasperNet when running properly allows students to research for their classes, check their grades on Moodle or even watch Netflix to relax after a long day.

Lately, some students on campus have been experiencing slow Wi-Fi and other connectivity issues.

The problem is a combination of edge bandwidth and infrastructure, both of which continue to be improved by ITS. “We now have about effectively two gigs worth of bandwidth and we are increasing that to 10 within the coming weeks,” Robert Moran, director of IT infrastructure, said. “And hopefully with 10 gig out on the edge and better pipes into the dorms and actually every dorm should have a 10 gig connection and we’ll be able to keep up with it better.”

Moran has been employed at Manhattan College for 15 years and works with the wireless connection on campus.

features

5

This Week In History: Issue One Taylor Brethauer Staff Writer

The Archives in O’Malley Library hold an important part of Manhattan College history—past editions of The Quadrangle.

Just as our campus is continuing to grow, change and expand, so has the newspaper. Here’s a very interesting look back in time: The first Quadrangle ever published was on Oct. 27, 1924. Manhattan’s first paper was called “The Green Horn,” but once the school moved to its current location in 1922, the paper was superseded by “this new and better Manhattan College Quadrangle.”

Throughout the pages, jokes were interspersed to take up unused space. A great example: “Judge to Witness: Do you speak English?

Witness: Yes, your Honor.

J. to W.: Tell us what you saw then.

Witness: Cracked glasses, smashed dishes, and…

Judge: Hmm… Broken English, I should say.”

While no longer on campus now, at that time Manhattan College did have an intercollegiate men’s football team.

One of the lead headlines in issue one stated “Football Squad Beyond Expectations” and the article went in depth with

how well of a season the football team had.

In an “exclusive interview” with Coach McCarthy, the coach stated that they hope they get to play a great game against the school’s rival, Fordham University.

The school also announced in the paper that the students were finally starting the Engineering Club and students were encouraged to apply to ASCE. This group is still one of the largest clubs on campus today.

Similar to our recent versions of “Voices on the Quad,” a section existed titled “The Inquiring Reporter.”

The first question asked was, “Do you notice any improvement in the college cafeteria?”

Answers ranged from “Yes, with the exception of the ice cream for a few days” to “The splendid cafeteria service of this year is just another reason for being happy to be back at Manhattan.”

The main announcement of the “passing of the torch” from The Green Horn to The Quadrangle ended with a heartfelt message to all of Manhattan College’s student body and faculty: “Support YOUR paper then, and enjoy with us the long look for realization of the dream of a college paper worthy of the Old Manhattan that was; the New Manhattan that Is; and the Manhattan that will be.”

Taylor Brethauer/The Quadrangle

Studying Abroad...And Returning Home Jaclyn Marr Assistant Editor

Most Manhattan College students call Riverdale their home during the school year. These three Jaspers, however, embraced a change of scenery and traveled to foreign countries during their college career.

As a college student, arguably one of the best things you could do is study abroad. It is a great way to learn how to be independent even more than simply being at college away from home and your family. Manhattan College has a large study abroad program that offers semesters in various cities such as Madrid, Spain, Buenos Aires, Argentina and Florence, Italy.

“College gives you a unique opportunity to travel away and still have the protection of a home school back in the states,” junior Elizabeth O’Connor said, who spent last semester abroad in Dublin, Ireland. “I was able to be five time zones away from my parents, financially supporting myself and making adult decisions for myself.”

“Everyone should study abroad,” senior English major Sera Pisani said, who studied in Barcelona, Spain during her fall semester of her junior year. “It should be required for everyone to study abroad.”

Staying in the neighborhood of Gracia, Pisani was right outside the center of Barcelona. Tiny restaurants and cafés lined the streets of the neighborhood and the yellow line of the metro gave her close accessibility to travel elsewhere.

“My experience was really amazing,” Pisani said, “because it was something we were able to experience individually. We weren’t thrown into a program. We were able to figure it all out on our own and it contributed to our growing experience that is studying abroad.”

Senior art history and English major Matt Coyne spent a semester in Buenos Ai-

res, Argentina. This was his second study abroad trip, previously visiting Florence, Italy. Both of these trips gave him insight on what it is like to see America from a different perspective.

“I became acutely aware of the way Americans are viewed in other countries,” Coyne said. “I got the European view on Americans and then it was fascinating to get the Latin American view as well.”

O’Connor went back to her Irish heritage and chose Dublin to see the places that her ancestors used to call home. Comparing the two cultures, O’Connor said that Ireland is much more relaxed than America.

“No one seems to care about what you’re doing,” she said, “whether it be your weekend plans for exploring or how you are going in class. It is so much less judgmental as well. The Irish love their banter, so a sassy wit and acceptance of that will get you far.”

As for Barcelona, the culture is much more family and friend oriented than America, according to Pisani. Buenos Aires is quite similar to this, with a strong focus on social gatherings.

“Catalan culture is very gregarious,” she said. “It is very oriented around a community, nothing like New York.”

“It is extremely social,” he said. “Everything is based on social gatherings and people talk to you in the streets. It’s kind of the opposite of the closed-off New York.

Argentineans will hug and kiss and stop you for hours at a time.”

Pisani decided to choose Barcelona for its location by the Mediterranean Sea and for the city’s known architecture as some of the best in the world.

“I learned how to put myself out there and meet new people. I became able to find things in common with people who come from completely different cultures, which was probably my favorite part.”

Coyne wanted to study in Buenos Aires because he was familiar with the city

from a previous trip in high school and he has friends there. His grandfather lived in Argentina for six years before coming to America.

The main problem with studying abroad, however, is the transition back to America. While the trip to a foreign country is hard at first, it is not easy when it is time to come home.

Along with this, there are some things to readjust to, such as driving on the right side of the road or even certain spellings for O’Connor. Coyne used the word depress-

Elizabeth O’Connor/Courtesy ing to describe transitional back to America and said he had to get used to speaking English again after speaking Spanish during the trip.

“There was a culture shock going there and a culture shock coming back,” Pisani said. “I think you have the post-abroad depression. It was nice to be home though, coming back to that familiarity. Even every day since, I have this longing to go back to that feeling of being completely independent and seeing so much of the world.”

features

6

Oct. 27, 2015

Falling in Love with the L.O.V.E. Program Tara Marin Staff Writer

Flyers have been hung in every building, fundraisers have been held every week, and students of all classes and majors are talking about it - the L.O.V.E. Program is one of the most popular clubs at Manhattan College and it’s not hard to see why.

Short for the Lasallian Outreach Volunteer Experience, L.O.V.E. offers travel experiences for students who are interested in social justice and becoming immersed in other cultures. Destinations are all over the world - Haiti, Ecuador, New Orleans, Arizona, Montana, El Salvador, Florida, Texas, and San Francisco - and each trip has a different objective.

This winter break, there will be four different groups of students going on trips.

Students who went on them last year and want to go again are given the opportunity to lead the team their second time.

Kate Reuter and Caroline O’Connell are leading this year’s Jamaica trip, Fiona Dunn and Caity Callahan are leading Haiti, Olivia Smith is leading New Orleans, and Emily Whelan is leading Ecuador.

Junior sociology major Olivia Smith says that her trip to New Orleans last year was so influential that she wanted to lead the trip this year and show people a part of the city that not everyone gets to see.

Her team will be working with Project Homecoming to rebuild homes destroyed

by Katrina.

“I had been going to New Orleans for a while before my L.O.V.E. trip, but I always saw the beautiful parts. The touristy areas were not affected by Hurricane Katrina, but when I saw the parts that were, I felt like I needed to help those people,” Smith said.

As a leader, Smith’s job entails preparing for and overseeing the whole trip: picking a faculty member to be the advisor, getting people to apply, selecting the team and planning meetings.

Smith says that her meetings are focused on preparing her team for what they will see and experience in New Orleans, what their objectives are and creating a safe space for everyone to open up to each other and reflect.

Students are becoming more interested in these trips after hearing stories from those who went on them, and also because they are becoming aware of the greater issues in the world that don’t affect their daily lives.

“People have started to recognize their privilege enough to want to help others, and L.O.V.E. is great because they get the best of both worlds, travel and service,” Smith said.

Fundraising for L.O.V.E. is every week.

Each team gets an individual fundraiser, and there are four or five for the whole department.

On Friday afternoon, they had their Fall Festival in the backyard of Jasper Hall where students came to support the teams through fun activities like donut eating contests, painting pumpkins, tie-dying tshirts, making s’mores and getting henna tattoos.

Kate Reuter, a senior psychology major, and Caroline O’Connell, a junior civil engineering major, are leading the trip to Kingston, Jamaica. They have dedicated at least two hours each day to planning for the trip and fundraising, but know that all of their work is well worth it because of how changed they were by their experiences last year in Jamaica.

“It was the week of my life when I was most stressed out and most relaxed. It was a privilege to be that mentally strained, because I realized how lucky I was,” said

Jordan Bautsch/Courtesy

Kevin Fuhrmann/The Quadrangle Reuter.

“We can get so caught up in our everyday lives here at Manhattan and take for granted what we have. We are so lucky to be able to go to this school, but to kind of step out of that, even if it’s just for a week, and see how people are living in another country, is amazing. It can change your entire attitude about your friends, family, your major, and your life,” O’Connell said.

They also explained how difficult it was to adjust to their new setting and see what another culture is like firsthand. No one on the team is allowed to bring their phone with them, so they lose connection to their personal life for the week.

The twelve students on the Jamaica team will be doing a lot of traveling and working with Mustard Seed Communities, a Catholic organization that provides homes for adults and children with disabilities, people with AIDS and teen mothers.

They will be living in a home-style building specifically for missionaries, with running water and three meals a day, but they will also be witnessing poverty and illness up close.

“It’s a really overwhelming experience, so we have to make sure we’re preparing our team for what they’re going to see, because there’s a real shock factor. The L.O.V.E. motto is ‘participate don’t antici-

pate,’ so it’s really about getting everyone to focus on the present moment and take from it what they can,” said Reuter.

To support L.O.V.E Haiti, their next fundraiser is a corn hole tournament on Saturday October 31st at 2:00 p.m. on the Quad. Look out for more weekly fundraisers for the other teams, as well as the grilled cheese nights on Thursdays.

The L.O.V.E. program gives students an eye-opening, educating experience on social justice while also bettering the lives of other people in parts of the world where daily life is a struggle. If you are interested, applications for summer trips will be available next semester.

features

7

Stephen Zubrycky/The Quadrangle

It’s A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood Stephen Zubrycky Staff Writer

As one emerges from the No. 4 Subway station at 125th Street and Lexington Avenue in East Harlem, one arrives on what could only be described as an aggressively conventional 21st-century New York City block: dark, stained, gum-covered sidewalks, angry motorists whipping through traffic with horns-a-blazing, a 99-cent store, a delicatessen and a pawn shop. Were one to walk just a few blocks northeast, to 128th and Second Avenue, and gaze upon the bright orange “Crack is Wack” mural in the Crack is Wack Playground, one may discover that this neighborhood is far from conventional – that this neighborhood is one which had a unique identity, a sordid past, and a story that is quintessentially New York.

Visible from speeding cars on the neighboring Harlem River Drive, the mural present on the handball court today is actually in its second incarnation. In 1986, when artist Mark Haring first created “Crack is Wack,” it was vandalized and changed to read “Crack is It,” and was then promptly painted over by the authorities, according to a Huffington Post article from last year. The public outcry at the time was so great that the Parks Department then permitted Haring to redo his mural, even providing him with paint and a van. That mural still stands today, albeit surrounded by a high, black chain-link fence.

The “Crack is Wack” mural, and the controversies surrounding it, echo back to a particularly tumultuous time in East Harlem’s history, one ruled by gangs and drugs, even against the backdrop of President Ronald Reagan’s “War on Drugs.”

Even today, the neighborhood is still plagued by crime and other social ills. According to a 2013 article in The New York Times, violent crime spiked seventeen per-

cent in 2012, even as crime in the five boroughs as a whole fell. According to a 2012 report by the Department of City Planning, East Harlem has alarmingly high rates of joblessness, teenage pregnancy, asthma, drug use, homelessness and AIDS. Portions of the neighborhood, particularly those in the northern reaches of it, such as the area near Crack is Wack Playground, were desolate. Though it is predominantly occupied by light industry, open lots abound in the area north of 125th Street and east of 3rd Avenue. Some of these lots lie fallow and empty, while some larger lots are used for parking – an especially strange sight on the cramped island of Manhattan.

Proceed down 3rd Avenue into the heart of “El Barrio,” Spanish for “the neighborhood,” and things become livelier. It is here where the archaic name “Spanish Harlem” was born. Stores line the busy avenue and the sidewalk is as crowded as any other in Manhattan.

On this stretch East Harlem’s burgeoning street art scene becomes apparent. On the sides of buildings along side-streets, one will encounter a sea of murals on a vast array of topics.

It is also in this area that East Harlem’s Latin-American heritage is truly apparent.

Crowds hustle to-and-fro speaking only Spanish, businesses’ signs appear in both Spanish and English, and intermittently the street is filled with the scent of authentic Latin-American street food. Along 116th Street, countless Latin-American eateries line the sidewalk, serving their predominantly Puerto Rican and Mexican clientele.

The Associated Grocery Store on 116th just west of Lexington Avenue appears from the outside to be a rather conventional American grocery store. On the inside, however, one will discover a wide array of Latin-American specialty products, and a large delicatessen and prepared foods de-

partment offering up variations that look and smell delicious.

Under the Metro-North tracks above Park Avenue, between 112th and 115th Streets is La Marqueta, a massive market with multiple vendors inside of it. Vendors sell a multitude of items – ranging from groceries to novelty items. In the rear of La Marqueta is Hot Bread Kitchen, where people can watch through windows as the bakers prepare the fresh bread. Typically teeming with life, La Marqueta was surprisingly desolate.

Just north of La Marqueta, under the tracks between 115th and 116th, is Flea Marqueta, a large, multi-level venue with complete with tables and chairs, and even a stage for performances. This too was deserted on Saturday morning.

A few blocks south on Tito Puente Way (110th Street), is the Casablanca Meat Market. Anxious customers waited on a very long line that snaked out the door, into the cold mist, and down a few storefronts for the freshest cuts for their Saturday meals.

East Harlem is not purely a Hispanic neighborhood, however. Until World War II, East Harlem was primarily an Italian community, producing Italian-American Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and ItalianAmerican actor Al Pacino. East Harlem holds the distinction of being New York’s first “Little Italy,” and its Italian heritage is apparent on 1st Avenue and Pleasant Avenue between 114th and 118th Streets.

Along First Avenue at 118th Street is the world-famous Patsy’s Pizzeria, which still uses coal-fired ovens for an extracrispy crust. On Pleasant Avenue at 114th Street is Rao’s, the famous Italian restaurant for which one must reserve a table years in advance.

One block north, on 115th between Pleasant and First, is Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church, New York City’s first Italian church. The church is particularly ornate, with high, vaulted

ceilings which curve downward and pour into thick Corinthian style marble columns.

The church is dimly lit, with light entering only through stained glass windows.

Perhaps the most emblematic attraction within East Harlem is “The Spirit of East Harlem,” a mega-mural near the neighborhood’s southern end – at the corner of 104th Street and Lexington Avenue. The mural depicts a diverse array of ordinary people doing ordinary things: playing dominos, holding children or just standing there and watching the world unfold around them.

The particular area within East Harlem that is probably the most indicative of what direction the neighborhood is moving in lies in the far east – near Rao’s, Patsy’s and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The brownstones there appear better kept, and the neighborhood feels less edgy and, on the whole, more gentrified. On 116th, east of Pleasant Avenue sits East River Plaza, a large shopping mall complete with Target, Costco, Best Buy and other big box retailers.

The 21st-century forces of gentrification appear to be seeping westward from this area too. Along 3rd Avenue, newer buildings are rising up and are coming to clash with the older construction. The manner in which New York is changing is especially apparent at the corner of 119th Street, where there is a newer building with a dollar store in it, the brand new $135 million building for Hunter College’s Silberman School of Social Work, an older, more traditional building with a delicatessen, a liquor store and a few other staples, and an empty lot – waiting to be developed.

What will become of that space? That is the question that is ever present in the minds of so many in East Harlem with regard to so many East Harlem locations. But that’s to be still written in the ever-evolving novel that is the history of East Harlem; and still to be immortalized on the walls of its buildings.

features

8

features

Oct. 27, 2015

9

Gertude Turinawe Hatanga/Quadrangle

Our Jasper Nation: From Uganda to the USA Marissa Piazza Senior Writer

Sometimes it is the pursuit of opportunity that causes people to uproot and move to a foreign place. It was in such a pursuit that Gertude Turinawe Hatanga, a junior chemical engineering student at Manhattan College, found her way to the United States from Uganda. “I’m originally from Kisoro… in the western part of Uganda. I was born there but I’ve lived all my life in Kampala, the capital city,” Turinawe said.

“Kisoro [is] a small, quiet and safe village with hardly any crime where practically everyone is family, to the extent that if someone needs something from a store and they don’t have money there and then, they can just take the item and promise to pay the shopkeeper at a later time,” Turinawe said, “that’s how close-knit the community is. The people in Kisoro actually rarely go shopping for food [since] most of it is grown on personal gardens. I like to help out in the fields once in a while when I visit my relatives in Kisoro.”

Unlike Kisoro, the capital city of Uganda has “a more vibrant feel to it,” Turinawe said, “[and] most apartments in Kampala are surrounded by a fence mainly for safety and privacy…[which] creates less interaction amongst the neighbors and therefore [feels] less [like a] community [than] Kisoro.”

Even though Kampala itself is a major city, it is in many ways very different from New York City. “The skyscrapers… that’s something you hear about New York,” Turinawe said, “while there are some skyscrapers in the capital city, they

are closer to five stories tall,” unlike the massive structures that line New York City streets. Even the quicker pace of the New York City is something that Turinawe has noticed. “New York is fast paced [and] everyone is in a hurry,” whereas in Kampala, “it’s at a slower pace,” Turinawe said.

For a child, moving from Kisoro to Kampala can seem like a long journey, especially when it requires traveling for hours on a bus through the night. But it was in the search of opportunity that spurred this first move, and eventually the second as well. “The opportunities [in Kisoro] are not as many as in Kampala…so I went to study mainly and then the jobs are more available in Kampala” said Turinawe, “but most of my family stayed in Kisoro, all my grandparents [and] all my cousins, so we go there often. Whenever I go back I have to go and see them.”

In December of 2011, Turinawe first visited the United States with her family.

Her family made the trip because her father secured a job with the United Nations in the US that April. Her father had nearly fifteen years of experience working for the UN in Uganda, and applied for a position in the United States. Fortunately, he got the job.

“We all came together but we didn’t have a plan that I would stay and study,” Turinawe said. At the time, Turinawe had just completed four years of high school in Uganda. But the school system is Uganda is different than the United States, so even though she had completed four years of high school, Turinawe still had two years left to complete upon her return.

In Uganda, the school system starts with kindergarten, followed by primary school

1-7, then high school 1-6. High school itself is broken up into ordinary level, 1-4, followed by advanced level, 5-6. Students can then choose to attend university for three years. While the total number of years is equivalent to the number of years in the American education system, school is broken up and counted differently.

“I had just finished four years [of] high school… I was kind of on vacation and thinking about going to 5 and 6, and then we came… It so happened that my dad wanted me to stay and study… that’s when we got to look for schools” Turinawe said. “When I came I was, like, should I go to college?

They were telling me ‘since you have four years high school you could move to college’ but then I wouldn’t have the education level for college because I hadn’t done two more years” Turinawe said, “you need that knowledge of the two more extra years in Uganda… so I opted to go to high school for one year, here, at Cardinal Spellman in the eastern Bronx.”

Looking back, Turinawe never imagined she would stay in the United States.

“I was thinking ‘I’m visiting … for like a month or two and then we’ll go.’ It was a big thing in my mind… because I hadn’t brought some of my things from home… I just stayed… I never went back,” Turinawe said. Her family and friends felt similarly, “in high school, no one is expecting after this first level you’re going to the United States because it’s a big thing… a fascination,” Turinawe said, “The US? Who goes to [the] US? I was shocked when my dad told me I could stay, and kind of happy because, you know, this is like the biggest place in the world.”

Although December is a cold month to

arrive in New York, Kisoro can also be a cold place. “Kampala is ... different from Kisoro because Kisoro is colder, the temperature is colder, so when I first came to New York I was thinking ‘Oh it’s cold, it’s like Kisoro, like where I was born’ and then it was really surprising cause my fingers were literally freezing, we went for gloves and scarves when we came to New York,” Turinawe said. But the cold weather did not keep the family from enjoying the beauties of winter. “The first time it snowed we all spent the whole day in the snow, all of us.

In the morning, my dad woke all of us up and we were putting our hands out of the window to feel it,” Turinawe said.

Turinawe is the eldest of six, with two of her younger brothers studying here in the U.S. with her. “The rest are back home but they visit… I get to see them once in a while,” Turinawe said. Her brother was the first to attend school in the United States, at Cardinal Hayes, after a Ugandan teacher at the school was in contact with her family. Since it is an all boy’s school, Turinawe had to look for a different school, and ended up at Cardinal Spellman.

Since arriving in the United States in 2011, Turinawe has been back home just twice. Having a family split across two continents has been one of the biggest challenges.

“We don’t do stuff together as often as we want…you know, it’s sad… we miss some celebrations,” Turinawe said. One of the hardest things for her is not being able to watch her little sister grow up, or even helping her youngest siblings with their homework. Currently, Turinawe is in the U.S. with her father and two of her younger brothers, but her mom and three

of her siblings are back home with the rest of her family in Uganda. Of the siblings in Uganda, “Two are in primary [school] and one hasn’t began, [since] she’s two years [old],” Turinawe said. The distance between the U.S. and Uganda is sometimes hard to bear. Turinawe has only seen her youngest sister a few times since she was born. “I get to see her when she’s one year older each time, and she looks different, because you know they grow and change… the change is so different when they’re young,” Turinawe said.

When thinking about her future, Turinawe knew early on that engineering was the best option for her. “From an early age I really liked doing science and math, so I was thinking in the direction of something where I’ll continue applying math and science,” Turinawe said. Turinawe found her way to Manhattan College after speaking with her principal at Cardinal Spellman, who happens to be a Manhattan alumna.

Turinawe recalls a conversation with her principal when she spoke of her interest in pursuing engineering, “I told my principal and … she’s like ‘Oh Manhattan is a good engineering school’ so I applied and I got in, and since it’s in New York it’s also easier because my dad is working here,” Turinawe said.

Since Turinawe has learned the differences between American and Ugandan educations systems, she has adjusted with the hope of bettering her chances at securing a job, once she has her engineering degree in hand that is. “The difference I’ve seen over here is you have to work more to have a job after graduating... back home if you have really good grades sometimes you are offered a job when you’re still studying…

some companies can even ask you to come work for them,” Turinawe said. In the U.S. though, excellent grades do not necessarily guarantee a job at graduation. “Back home if you try to maintain excellent grades, you can almost be assured of having a job,” said Turinawe. Because of this realization, one of the biggest changes Turinawe has had to make is trying to be proactive in the job search, which includes really preparing for interviews and even being active on campus, since just maintaining high grades is not enough.

When thinking of entering the workforce, “I would love to work here but I think because of my status that would be challenging, I am also trying to work on working papers to work in the U.S.,” Turinawe said, “So I’m depending on [my father], unless I break off and get my own kind of visa… so for now… maybe Uganda unless something comes up… then I [can] get papers to work here.” Although Turinawe is a citizen of Uganda, it is because of her father’s job in the UN that she is able to stay in the United States, so long as he remains in his current role.

While Turinawe is enjoying the opportunity to live in the United States, the country where she grew up is not absent from her thoughts. A perfect day in Uganda for Turinawe would be Sunday, since “that’s when almost everyone is off work and that’s when you get to spend the whole day with your family, often that’s when you visit relatives… so it’s mainly seeing friends and families and spending time with them,” Turinawe said, “usually that’s when we have a big, big meal… during the week you cook something simple but Sundays specifically you cook something

different... something you can enjoy, something more special.” Turinawe’s favorite dish, and one she wishes she could have at school, is matoke. “It’s in the banana group… but it’s eaten steamed in the banana leaves,” Turinawe said, “and it can be eaten with sauce, that’s really good.”

While Turinawe is now able to speak English, it was not her first language. In the Kisoro district where Turinawe was born the language of Lufumbira is commonly spoken, especially around the house. Aside from Lufumbira, Turinawe also speaks Luganda, which is “very popular in the capital city,” Turinawe said.

Luganda is a language belonging to the Baganda tribe, and is spoken in the city.

Both Lufumbira and Luganda belong to the Bantu family, and are only two of the forty or so languages spoken in Uganda. While English is the official language, many other languages are spoken depending on the region. “English is mainly in the capital city… the farther you go in the villages, then the English is less used… and the local languages are used,” Turinawe said, “The national language [is] English… and they’re trying to make Swahili too because we’re in the East African community.”

While Turinawe did learn English at about age four, as she was beginning kindergarten, English words and phrases are often mixed with those of local languages.

In Uganda, “we sometimes include words from our local language or even make up new words for better understanding,” Turinawe said. This Uganda-English language is known as Uglish. An example of a phrase is “stop cowardising,” which means “stop being a coward.” Also, the Luganda term for when someone is living

a lavish or abundant lifestyle, “kura ubulamu,” might be termed as “eating life.”

New York, Turinawe’s most recent home, is “a completely different world,” Turinawe said, from both Kisoro and Kampala. “One the things New York is wellknown for if its skyscrapers and diversity and it is just as I expected it would be.

You know, it would make a bit of sense to think that more developed places like cities would have less crime and homelessness but to the surprise it is exactly the opposite,” Turinawe said, adding that “the best way I would describe the neighborhood experience in New York in my opinion is ‘everyman for himself’ because there is rarely or barely any communication with neighbors. It is just very interesting and also humbling to be able to experience different ‘extremes’ of the world.”

When reflecting on what she has been through, Turinawe thinks of what her father often says. “My father likes to use the phrase, ‘From the hills of Kisoro, to the skyscrapers of New York’ just summarizing the whole experience we are going through,” Turinawe said.

For anyone planning to visit Uganda, one of the biggest tourist attractions is the wildlife, specifically gorillas. “I would definitely… go see the wildlife at Bwindi Impenetrable [National Park] and at Queen Elizabeth National Park,” Turinawe said.

Other sites worth visiting include Kibale National Park, Murchison Falls National Park, and the Nile River.

10

features

Jasper Chat

Oct. 27, 2015

River Castelonia: 3D Printing Prosthetics for Veterans NY / Junior / Mechanical Engineering Leah Cordova Staff Writer

River Castelonia is an undergraduate mechanical engineering major currently working on some exciting things. When I first spoke with him about 3D printing, our conversation surrounded a small, 4oz, plastic iPhone case. This was in 2014. Since then, River saved up to buy his own 3D printer (a Lulzbot) and has continued to move forward. Our most recent chat involved 3D printing in a new light. River, along with a team of 30 engineers, is onto something groundbreaking: Havenlabs, a non-profit organization with a mission to help disabled veterans within the New York area.

3D printing has been significant in multiple realms.

What inspired you to use it for prosthetics?

A couple things. So, for me, growing up and knowing my grandfather plays into it. He's in the VA and will be coming up here [to school] in a couple of weeks. Also, being an engineer, I feel like solving problems is what we do. Overall it is personal for me. I come from really humble beginnings and have always felt that if I could help someone in any way at all, I will.

How did 'Havenlabs' come about?

Well the name, Haven, is like safe-haven. I don't know, my middle name is Haven and I feel like it is for a reason.

I guess I found it symbolic. But before everything, I approached my friend Brian Sopok, co-founder, who has a background in computer science. He lives in Albany, I live upstate, so we met in Poughkeepsie in a coffee shop near Vassar. I don't think he understood what I wanted to do, but we sat for like five or six hours and hashed everything out.

I wanted to get our ideas online and that's exactly what we did. From that point, it was straightforward.

next month and our website will be live in January. I guess we're in our design phase right now. Our long term goal is to design legs and stuff, but for right now, it's mock-ups. We have to fundraise a lot and that will begin in the next couple of weeks, I'd say in early November.

What are you looking forward to next?

One of the biggest things coming up is this conference and expo at the Javits Center. We will be there! It's funny because I went last year as a student, just a viewer, and am coming back a year later as a presenter. This expo is huge and will spread the word even more.

Compared to other companies and organizations that are 3D printing, what do you think makes Havenlabs special?

We are using 3D scanners to physically get a shape of the limb, so that it essentially fits like a glove. Once we get a solid hand prototype, we're planning for a local veteran to wear it and let us know how it fits. We’re also looking at our product’s durability and testing how much it can sustain.

We’re considering a lot of detail before we start building them for people that need them. Other than that, we’re doing this to help people. And some don’t get that - it’s not about money. As engineers, and I know the whole team knows this, we’re dedicated to problem solving. This is something we want to be a part of.

What were the first couple steps for getting people on board?

The networking resources at this school are everywhere.

The first stage was going to an ASME meeting. I passed out a sheet and described the project a little. It just started brewing from there and students as well as alumni have reached out to join. We’re at 30 people now. Recently, we contacted Formlabs, a 3D printing company that got big from Kickstarter. They emailed me back and support our ideas. We're actually going to buy a printer from them at a discounted price.

Do you have any words of advice for others who want to be a part of something?

What is Havenlab's current status?

Welcome failure. I think you have to fail as soon as posWe just met with a lawyer and we're officiating things. sible to meet useful experiences and your next endeavor.

We've got our teams: engineering, finance and web/app de- Discouragement is tough, people will doubt, but sometimes velopment. And within engineering we've got people work- it takes a maverick to make something happen. ing on specifics: the fingers, the palm and (my team) the gauntlet. We will start building an app at the beginning of

arts & entertainment

11

Lauren Beluzo/Courtesy

Manhattan College Student Turns Pop Singer Abi Kloosterman Staff Writer

A year ago, Lauran Beluzo was sitting in a communications class as a freshman at Manhattan College. She was making friends, eating at Locke’s and all the while pursuing a music career that, little did she know, would be a reality in her near future.

Beluzo is now signed to Water Music.

She works in the studio every day, learning new songs and recording tracks. Within the past year her life and been swept up in a whirlwind, going from a college student to an upcoming recording artist.

She is known as Elle B by fans and has gained a huge following on Twitter and Instagram (@ElleBofficial), where she posts beautiful covers of songs like “Good

For You” by Selena Gomez and “Hotline Bling” by Drake. When crafting her stage name Beluzo wanted to keep the B for her last name and her label liked the name Elle. The two names together was a great “pop star” name according to her label.

Before she was Elle B, Beluzo was singing at a very young age and knew that this was her passion.

“I started singing as soon as I could talk. My mom said I was always a singer and it is something I have always been passionate about,” Beluzo said.

When she was six, her talent for singing was noticed by a local group in Massachusetts called Dan Kane Singers. The group ranges from ages six to 85 and performances vary from events in local restaurants to holiday events to breast cancer walks.

“Instead of doing sleepovers on the

weekends, I was performing with him,” Beluzo says.

Throughout high school she performed at restaurants, special events and talent shows. Beluzo continued to perform with Dan Kane, who she now calls her mentor, and gained more and more experience with every performance.

After high school, Beluzo decided to attend Manhattan College. In college, she was undecided, but she was sure of one thing.

“I knew I wanted to share my voice with the world. I wanted to create and show emotion because when I am performing there is no other place I would rather be.”

During her short time at Manhattan, she was able to gain even more experience and knowledge that helped her to follow her dream of singing. It was during that time that Beluzo was discovered at the Apollo

Theater.

Even though her time at Manhattan was short, Beluzo did take away a few things from her college experience.

“I met the best of friends here. And from that I learned a lot about myself and luckily last spring is when I got picked up

by Water Music Publishing.”

Of course, working toward your dream is never easy. “My day to day routine is recording new tracks, getting an album together, building my fan base and letting people know who ‘Elle B’ is,” she said.

Beluzo is continuing to follow her dreams. She is in the studio every day, learning, listening and of course singing.

“I am trying to do the best that I can and I am loving every moment of it. I have never been so happy.”

arts & entertainment

12

The Book Nook

Oct. 27, 2015

Title: “The Glass Castle” Author: Jeanette Walls Genre: Memoir

Madeleine Schwartz Senior Writer

For centuries people have come to the United States for great opportunities and a chance at freedom, but even those living here have one thing forced upon them: their family.

In Jeannette Walls’ memoir, “The Glass Castle,” she tells the story of how she came to be the person she is today and what comes to mind when she hears the word family.

The book starts in the present day with Jeannette as a young woman living in New York City. As her taxi crawls through traffic, she spots a woman digging through a dumpster and recognizes her mother immediately.

To explain this, Walls jumps back in time to tell her earliest memory. She is three years old and is cooking hot dogs on the stove when her pink tutu catches on fire. Parts of her chest, stomach and thigh are severely burned and she stays in the hospital for six weeks as new skin graphs try to repair the damage.

Although this is Walls’ first memory, the majority of the stories from her past are very different. Most of her memories involve traveling from home to home in one beat up car to the next. She describes how bill collectors, or FBI agents as her father called them, were always chasing them.

They never lived in one place for too long and as a young kid, it was exciting. Walls, her two sisters and brother got to sleep like Indians under the stars. What six-year-old

wouldn’t want to do that?

As she describes her “always on the move” childhood, Walls tells the reader a little about her parents. Rose Marie Walls believed strongly in the phrase “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” She didn’t believe in modern medicine and there was no baby-talking in her house.

She was also very devoted to her husband and sadly, was willing to follow him into every bad decision he made.

The stories about her father are the most interesting. Rex Walls was a very intelligent man who taught his four children everything there was to know about geology, physics and math. However, the death of their second child drove him to alcoholism which stayed with him until he died. This disease caused him to waste the little money he earned and many times caused his family to go hungry for days on end. His most famous line, which he repeats dozens of times in his lifetime but is rarely answered, is “Have I ever let you down?”

The Walls’ family dynamic forced Jeannette and her siblings to grow up fast.

They became each other’s parents and were as independent as they could be. Once each child graduated high school, they each moved to New York City to pursue their own hopes and dreams. As soon as all four children moved out, their parents followed them and subsequently became homeless in the city. To survive, they dove into dumpsters and slept on park benches until the very end of their lives.

“The Glass Castle” is a story about family but it also one about love. Through

Madeleine Schwartz/The Quadrangle all the economic hardships the Walls family faced, each child was reminded of how special they were and that their parents loved them. One especially touching moment was one Christmas when the family was out of money for gifts. To make up for it, each kid got to pick out a star from the sky to call their very own. They felt like the luckiest kids on the planet.

I also loved how Walls makes a point of saying that each time a child left for New

York, their parents never stopped them.

They were free to make their own choices and when the opportunity came to leave their parents who were struggling financially to put food on the table, they weren’t held back.

Love sometimes means letting the people you’re closest with go and “The Glass Castle” does its best to explain this difficult concept in a very personal way.

sports

13

GoJaspers/Courtesy

Women’s Soccer Sets School Records, Secures Playoff Spot Jaclyn Marr Assistant Editor

With two games left in the regular season, Manhattan College has already had a season of matching or setting new school records.

Most notably, it went on a seven-game winning streak in the middle of the season, which is the longest stretch in the program’s 25 year history.

“The team has been working so well together,” Nicole Copping said. “We deserve this. We are definitely earning it, and I’m excited to see where it ends up.”

Manhattan also surpassed the previous mark of 16 points that was held by the 1998 team by setting a new record of 17 points. Its defense is a big part of this happening, which allowed only one goal in seven league games.

Kristen Skonieczny matched the program records for both shutouts and wins.

Nnotching 16 and 22 in her career, respectively.

“I’m not one to pay attention to records,” she said, “but it’s cool to see what

this team has done. It’s a team effort and I’m proud of everyone who has been a part of it.”

Along with these records, Manhattan clinched a playoff berth for just the second time in school history. Skonieczny noted how this time last year, the team just missed their chance at the playoffs. Now, it has a spot, and are even hoping for a bye.

“It’s great,” Brendan Lawler, Manhattan head soccer coach, said. “It was our first team goal to get into the playoffs to give ourselves a chance to win the conference championship. The team has been playing well all year. We were happy with it and now we are moving onto the next goal.”

The team’s next goal is getting a home playoff game and, as mentioned before, trying for a bye as well. It can achieve earn the latter, if they win their last two games of the season.

Lawler mentioned that the biggest difference between last season and this season is health. The team had 13 healthy field players last season compared to this season’s 23 healthy players, which has given them more depth and productivity in games.

“There were games last season where we were close,” he said, “but didn’t have enough power in terms of depth. We are now winning those games.”

Manhattan is coming off its first conference loss of the season. When it was matched up against Monmouth -- the top offensive unit in the MAAC. There was no score through the 79th minute of the game until Monmouth found the back of the net.

Lawler was happy with his team’s effort, adding that it was just the second time all season that Monmouth was held to only one goal.

“The biggest thing to take away from that game is that we know we can play with the best team in the conference,” he said, “and really slow down their attack.”

It took just one mistake in Manhattan’s back line for Monmouth to take advantage.

Skonieczny said that is something the team will build off of. The defense played strong throughout despite that one shot.

Both she and Coach Lawler said that they hope to see Monmouth again in the playoffs.

“We were right there with them,” Skonieczny said. “Overall, we learned that

we have to communicate more and work things out offensively.”

With the regular season winding down, Manhattan is looking at one game at a time. It played Marist to a double overtime 0-0 score last Saturday before it hosts Iona at Gaelic Park on Wednesday to end both teams’ regular seasons.

With important playoff seeding on the line, Manhattan is preparing just like it would for any other game, with concentration and focus.

“We know we have to come out and be ready for every game,” Copping said. “We know we can beat a lot of teams so we will just keep going.”

As one of the six seniors for Manhattan, Skonieczny looked back at her time and saw how great it was for the team to earn its spot in the playoffs in her final year.

“We’re all on the same page here,” she said. “The juniors and seniors have had a lot of experience working together. We’ve had a great freshman and sophomore class come in and build on top of that. We created a great team environment over the years since I’ve been here.”

14

sports

Oct. 27, 2015

Humble Freshman Credits Her Success to Teammates Ashley Columbia Contributing Writer

The week of Oct. 5 is the week Manhattan College took the MAAC by storm when it swept the weekly awards.

Lizzy Carlson and Kristen Skonieczny registered performances that garnered the Player of the Week and Defensive Player of the Week awards, respectively. But it was another player who stole the show.

Nicole Copping finished off the twogame stretch with one goal and four assists, earning herself the MAAC Rookie of the Week honor.

This season, Copping leads the team in assists and has formed a partnership with Carlson and Emily Ude that has made Manhattan’s midfield one of the most explosive in the conference.

“Nicole is a very dynamic player and brings a great work ethic to the team,” Ude said. “When she steps on the field, there is a great change of pace and this overwhelming drive to do well.”

On a crisp Thursday afternoon in October at Gaelic Park, Copping can be seen huddled around her team and making small talk with her teammates before practice gets underway. She hikes up her knee-high, emerald green socks and hustles over to discuss her recent Rookie of the Week status, her cleats kicking up dirt behind her.

However, the conversation takes a refreshing twist as she insists that she would not be where she is today, if not for the other girls on the roster.

“I look up to the older girls on the team,” she said. “It makes it easier to do well when you feel good with a team, and I feel really comfortable with this team.”

Periodically looking over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of the team workouts, it is evident that she is just itching to get back to work, losing herself in a sea of green and grey uniforms.

“Nicole has gelled really well with all of the players,” Ude said. “It has been a great experience to watch the program change and progress because of players like her that are making a difference.”

Having played the sport since kindergarten, Copping has familiarized herself with the ins and outs of soccer and knows

what it takes to get to the top. Among her many achievements, she was a secondteam honoree her junior year at BayportBlue Point High School and the first-team all-state selection her senior year.

Being one of the youngest players on the team, she exhibits qualities that are both unique and unexpected of a freshman.

Brendan Lawler, head soccer coach, said he looks for talented and intelligent soccer players with speed who are willing to put in the work.

“During the recruiting process, you learn that it is hard to bring out those skills in players who do not already have them,” he said. “Nicole is all about the work right now, and she had the highest fitness score on the team coming in as a freshman.”

Copping is currently tied for second in the MAAC and 56th nationally with six assists.

“All of our players are told to come in and work hard, which they have,” Ude said. “Nicole, however, has really stepped up for the team.”

Copping’s selfless nature, paired with her constant need to give back, is both contagious and admirable. Although her obvious talent and genuine desire to be there places her front and center, she would rather take a backseat to her team any day.

“Every team has to look at their rookies and see what they did that week,” Lawler said, “and that rookie of the week performance was as much about goals as it was assists. She draws a lot of the defenders to her and, in a very unselfish way, brings the rest of her teammates in and helps them to score goals.”

However, that does not take away from Copping’s ability to take shots of her own.

Not only did she have three assists during the first game of the week against Saint Peter’s on Oct. 7, but she had a goal under her belt as well.

“When she knows she can finish she does,” Lawler said. “Nicole is very balanced that way.”

Copping’s ability to set up goals works both on and off the field. As a student-athlete, it is important to find a happy medium between having an athletic and academic career.

“Soccer is a nice stress reliever,” she said, “and helps get my mind off of school.

Women’s soccer rookie Nicole Copping.

GoJaspers/Courtesy However, I feel like I give a pretty fair amount of time to both and work hard at both.”

Apart from the qualities that Lawler looks for, Ude mentions other intangible qualities that are just as important to a player’s overall character.

“This is a full-time job to us,” Ude said, “so time management is very important to have. In the end, keeping up in the classroom and with each other is definitely worth it.”

Copping may wear No. 23 on her back, but she sure has earned the number one spot in her team’s heart. She possesses all of the traits of a leader and has the support of the other 27 girls.

“The great thing about Nicole is that

Follow @mcquadsports Your New Home for Manhattan College Sports!

she is willing to do all of the small stuff that usually takes freshmen more than one season to get,” Lawler said. “That is the basic ground work you need in order to lead by example. She wasn’t starting at the beginning of the year, but she fought her way through that and now she is.”

Copping has the potential to lead this team in the near future, but, in the meantime, she has earned all the rave reviews.

However, she tries not to make a big deal out of it. She appreciates the honor, but will never stop looking for ways to improve.

“I feel like a lot of people can get Rookie of the Week,” she said, “but I try to not expect anything. This was a team effort that got me to where I am now.”

sports

15

Tough Calling To Be An Intramural Referee Kieran Rock and Sean Sonnemann Editor & Editor-in-Chief

A whistle blows. A foul is called. Eyes roll, players grumble, coaches yell and fans groan.

Whether they are called umpires, officials or referees, the men and women who perform the thankless task of enforcing the rules of the game are some of the most maligned figures in sports.

The student workers who maintain order on the courts and fields of Manhattan College’s intramural program are no exception, especially when playoff games come around and those coveted championship t-shirts are within reach.

“It can be intense,” Kyle deManincor, recreation coordinator, said. “For some [players], this is as far as you’re going to go for the rest of your athletic career, unfortunately. This is kind of like your Super Bowl, your NBA finals, your World Series, so they do take it pretty intense.”

That passion for the game and desire to win can sometimes translate into arguments with student referees, especially when an official’s ruling can ultimately be the difference between winning and losing the game.

“For the most part they are pretty mellow,” deManincor said, “but there will be games, especially come playoff time, where things get heated.”

Those students who have to be on the receiving end of players’ complaints take on the role of referee as part of the col-

lege’s work study program. No prior experience is needed to work as an official, only somewhat of a sports background and a desire to learn more about the game.

Before every season of intramurals begins, deManincor provides some basic training to his student referees. This includes going over the logistics of how the fields and courts should be set up, reading through the rulebooks for each sport and walking through possible scenarios that could arise during play.

“I have a tremendous, tremendous staff,” he said. “They are the backbone of the program. There would be no intramurals without the student staff.” deManincor said the bulk of training ultimately comes on the job. He encourages new referees to work as many different sports as possible and will often pair up new employees with seasoned officials to learn the ropes. He does also go over how to handle confrontations with players and explains to his referees the importance of having a thick skin and maintaining professionalism.

Marissa Schmidt works as a student referee and knows the importance of this firsthand.

“Sometimes tensions will get high,” she said, “and kids will get caught up in the game, and they’ll get mad at you for a certain call or whatnot. I have never had a problem with a student, but I’ve seen kids argue with some of my co-workers and at that point we have to remind them we are the authority in the game.”

One of the challenges of maintaining that authority is the fact that both player and referee are students, at times even

Casey Meyers works as an intramural referee.

Kevin Furhmann/The Quadrangle while playing a sport they enjoy. classmates and friends.

Rob Durante is a frequent particpant in When LeBron James exchanges heated tramurals. words with a referee over a call for charg“Sometimes there are arguments in ing, he does not have to sit next to him terms of the players don’t feel that the refin class the next morning or later work erees take their job seriously enough. So together on a group presentation. But dethey like to argue. Then again, even in proManincor said the majority of intramural fessional sports players argue with referees participants will often apologize to student so it is almost part of the game,” Durante referees after the game, if a dispute does said.

“But there probably should be more arise. respect shown to the people that are makMost games pass without a problem, ing it possible for us to play sports.” serving as a chance for students to remain active and have some fun with friends

More than Just an (Intramural) Game Gabriela Badard Contributing Writer

The overwhelming sound of people shouting, sneakers screeching on the polished floors and bouncing basketballs fills the air. It’s a Thursday night, and students have gathered in Draddy Gymnasium for intramural basketball.

Each week, the three-on-three men’s and coed teams -- often consisting of two boys and one girl, meet up and play against each other. From 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., each team plays at least two games on half a court for a total of 30 minutes.

Some are fighting to make it to the championships at the end of the season, while others compete to keep their winning title.

“We haven’t lost a game in two years,” Julien Akayesu, senior finance major, said.

He is one of the few students to have been brave enough to try out as a walk on for the school’s basketball team, but although he didn’t make it, he didn’t give up on his love for the game.

After joining the intramural program in his freshman year with a couple of his new friends, Akayesu has been on a massive winning streak.

This has even included winning the five-on-five championships last spring.

Following this big win, Akayesu and his other teammates flew out to Boston University to compete in an intercollegiate intramural competition against other northeastern teams.

Intramural sports are not only a recreational way for students to play the sport

Kevin Fuhrmann/The Quadrangle they love, but also a way to make friends and engage in healthy competition. Manhattan College offers seven different intramural leagues for students who want to exert some energy in a productive way.

“This semester alone, there are over 700 students enrolled in all sports,” Kyle deManincor, the recreation coordinator, said.

The most popular options are basketball and flag football.

Some students even participate in more than one sport, like Michael Moon, an electrical engineering major who plays in three leagues: flag football, basketball and indoor soccer.

“I’ve got a lot to study for,” Moon said, “so to be able to kill an hour and just have fun is really worth it to me.”

Like Akayesu, Moon also defends a winning title, having scored the highest number of points in a single game. But the sports are not all about the points and the teams’ ranks. The intramural program grades students on their sportsmanship and those with the lowest grades risk being kicked out of the league.

“Competitiveness is good,” Moon said, “but some take it too far and get aggressive towards their teammates.”

Although sportsmanship has been good for the most part this year, the student activities staff has encountered other issues. Intramurals is often overlooked for the sake of the varsity teams. It is difficult for them to find space and time for games in Draddy and Gaelic Park. This year has also seen a higher rate of teams forfeiting

or dropping out.

However, these obstacles have not stopped the staff from staying optimistic.

Working as a team and with a limited budget, they have successfully organized a trip for the championship teams of flag football to MetLife Stadium -- home of the New York Giants and Jets.

The program is still developing and is always open to new ideas for sports, and thanks to the 35 students that are staff members and the one graduate assistant, it runs smoothly.

“My staff deserves most of the recognition,” deManincor said. “They are the backbone of the program and the engine that runs it.”

“Strictly Flair,” made up of Julien Akayesu, Cristian Martinez and Brian Vazquez won the men’s 3-on-3 basketball intramurals championship last week. “Strictly Dro,” consisting of Cristian Martinez, Brittany Perpepaj, Tristian Staniszewski and Brian Vazquez won the coed 3-on-3 championship.

sports

16

Dahrius Waldron, Manhattan defender, tries to dribble around Matt Taylor, Quinnipiac midfielder.

Kevin Fuhrmann/The Quadrangle

Final Third On The MAAC Pitch: Seeding Out Personal Goals

Jon Reyes Editor

With the MAAC regular season coming to an end, the teams with the best records are Monmouth University (clinched regular season title) Rider, Iona and Marist.

Monmouth is the defending conference champion while Quinnipiac is surprisingly not a top seed.

The former is self-explanatory, as for the latter, the simple reason is that Cesar Markovic, Siena head soccer coach, told The Quadrangle this a few weeks ago: “The MAAC is up for grabs. You have your usual suspects but you also have some teams that can surprise people from the bottom. The preseason poll is worthless, it doesn’t mean anything. The first or second conference games don’t exactly decide everything. If you check back around game five or six, that’s when you really start to see who’s shaping up and what’s happening.”

He was right. An example that backs up what he said is the as mentioned Quinnipiac. It was last year’s regular season champions. This year, it hadn’t won a game until it beat Manhattan 2-0 on Oct. 14. A position its head coach, Eric Da Costa, said it isn’t “accustomed to go through.” The last time it wasn’t one of the top seeds this far into a season was ’12 when it went 8-7-2, 1-6 MAAC. “We’ve been plugging away for a few months now, it hasn’t been easy for us,” he said. “… We’re not accustomed to go through what we’re going through. …

There’s a mixture of a few factors. We’ve been steadily having some consistent success since ’12. College soccer is cyclical.

There’s always a year or two there where you sort of have to reload and retool. And I’m not sure that’s exactly where we’re at yet, but it’s been one of those years in

terms of results. … We’ve made some uncharacteristic mistakes, and we’ve dropped games because of that. It’s a new season, year. The pressure maybe got to the boys a little bit and the anxiety of chasing that result and it not coming as soon as they’d like set in as well.”

Despite the loss to Quinnipiac and then Rider, 3-1, three days later on Oct. 17. Manhattan is a team near the bottom of the conference seeding that could’ve vied for one of the top spots, as it floated in the middle throughout most of the season. That all depended on if they were able to score enough goals, co-captain Alex Shackley said.

In Manhattan’s 13 games, it has notched 11 goals -- four by way of Shackley. What kept it in the conversation is the play of R.J. Noll, who has quietly posted a solid 1.31 goals against average.

“The past few games we’ve begun to start picking it up a little bit -- find our style of play -- but we’re lacking goals right now,” Shackley said after being shutout by Quinnipiac. “We’ve got to either change something, work harder in training on finishing or something. We can’t keep playing games without scoring goals.”

When asked about why it was such a struggle to convert on created, corner, and in box cross goal chances this season, Shackley went on and said, “To be honest, I’m not sure at the moment.” He did, however, offer two possible solutions: 1) putting someone new upfront 2) a new formation.

He amended his above statements slightly after losing to Monmouth last Wednesday, 2-1, that its goal scoring chances were what he called “half-chances,” which are now turning into “better shots on goal…so we’re improving in that stance but still a lot to work on.”

He saw something, at least for himself, because last Saturday Manhattan scored

three goals on senior day against Rider.

Two of which he placed in the back of the net. He told The Quadrangle after that game, “We finally got some goals today. … Hopefully, we’re peaking at the right time.”

When Manhattan matched up against Monmouth, it forced a double-overtime against the best team in the conference and arguably the best goalie in the league in Eric Klenofsky, who’s putting up another [insert accolade here] type of season. He has recorded a 0.84 GAA, seven shutouts, his 29th career win -- tied for third all-time in the MAAC with Iona’s Gianni Spiniello and earned three Wilson defensive player of the week honors. At the start of the season, he told The Quadrangle the following: “I was privileged to have the center backs that I did last year and my freshman year. They’re the best center backs I’ve played with. You can read into any accolades, but I highly doubt I’d get them without those two center backs. This year we have two new guys in center defense, so this year you’ll get a good gauge at how good I really am.”

When asked to respond to his own humbled answer, he remained steadfast.

“The analytics do tell a lot with my stats,” he said, “but the thing that I’m most proud of is our ability to win games. Losing two, three, four very influential seniors is very hard to come back from, especially if they’re two centerbacks. We lost two centerbacks and we’re putting in a sophomore that has never really played before and a right-back/center midfielder, who are both undersized, to be completely honest.

We might have the smallest back four in the country, and you would never because they have no idea how tall they are because they battle with the best of them. It doesn’t matter if we’re playing against a 6 foot 6 inch forward from Villanova, Jassiem [Wahtuse] and Joey [Gudzak], they have

no clue that they’re only 6 foot because they were never single headed. So I’m very privileged once again to have these two guys that mesh, compliment with each other well.”

As for the MAAC, Klenofsky and Da Costa agree that it doesn’t matter if the team on one side is the No. 1 seed, in the case of Monmouth, and on the other the bottom of the conference, in the case of Quinnipiac. The season is “unpredictable” and the matches are “an absolute fight.”

“Pretty much every game is a dogfight, doesn’t matter who you are– whether we’re playing Quinnipiac, who won their first game last week, or Marist, who’s right on our tail,” Klenofsky said. “Once you get in conference it’s just an absolute fight, it’s a battle. Every single game. And we’ve seen that when we went to Fairfield on [Oct. 17]. I thought we deserved three points, but that being said their goalie Matt Turner had an amazing day, and Fairfield was just not going to give into us that easily. They scrapped, battled and got the result. That’s what it’s like in every single MAAC game.”

“It’s been wide-open,” Da Costa said. “… Teams play with a little less inhibition and really get after it, not to say that the results don’t matter. They certainly do.

You’ve seen a lot of different results in the league this year. Some of the projected top teams losing to teams that weren’t projected to be up top. We’ve seen a lot of those games. Players are playing free, coaches are coaching with less pressure and trying out some new things. It’s been unpredictable would be a way to categorize it this year.”

For footnotes, visit MCQuad.org.