THE Volume 91, Issue 7
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UADRANGLE A Student Publication of Manhattan College Since 1924
March 3, 2015
New Assistant Director of Student Activities Is Hired Daniel Ynfante Assistant Editor
Michael Steele has been hired as the new assistant director of student activities, taking over the position that Gabrielle Occhiogrosso left behind in November 2014. A three-month hiring process that John Bennett, director of student activities, said garnered hundreds of applicants, culminated with the decision to hire Steele, formerly the director of campus life and operations at Lehman College. Steele, as are many people who begin new jobs, is full of excitement for his newest endeavor. “It’s a good challenge,” Steele said. “Coming from an urban school background from Lehman College and coming here is a different environment. So it’s a good challenge. I like that. I just look forward to working with the students and seeing what they’re all about.” Steele comes to Manhattan College with prior experience in working with students and helping with organizing events and budgeting. A graduate of the College of Mount Saint Vincent, Steele also took a class one semester at Manhattan College and knows the surrounding area well. His familiarity with the job was what made him stand out among the other applicants according to Bennett. It is something Bennett said he hopes Steele can use to pick up right where Occhiogrosso left off. “Not to skip a beat,” Bennett said about his expectations for Steele. “In terms of what would be ideal for us is that the students don’t notice any difference and that’s a seamless transition.” “It reminds me of the NBA. When you notice a referee, they’re not doing their job. When the game is over and you didn’t notice the referee, that means they did their job,” he said. “So a seamless transition to that effect.” The desire to employ someone who could step right in without much introduction was the main reason why Bennett decided to hire Steele. When Occhiogrosso stepped down in November, Bennett was left with the tough task of finding a replacement with just two months left in the fall semester. But Bennett and the rest of the student
www.mcquad.org
Free Game Room Opens in Kelly Commons Kieran Rock & Kelly Burns Editors
activities staff decided it was best to wait until the start of the spring semester to introduce a new assistant director. In an email to The Quadrangle in February, Bennett explained the reasoning behind his decision. “Our first concern and priority was the current student body,” Bennett wrote in an email. “I felt us reading resumes [and] interviewing people….could wait until winter break. We had to put the students first and if that meant working more hours, then so be it, but the office comes second after the students.” Therefore, Steele was interviewed in December—albeit in an unconventional way through Skype—and then visited the campus in January. He began on Feb. 23, so he has only been in office for a little more than a week. But with what he has seen so far, Steele thinks he made the right decision in coming to Manhattan. “It’s been good, a lot of information,”
Daniel Ynfante/The Quadrangle Steele said. “Of course, with a new job you just have to get used to the inner workings of the office because even if it’s the same field, each school might have their own system on how to do things. But it’s been great so far.” Bennett set out to hire a qualified replacement who could make Occhiogrosso’s departure less apparent. He landed his target in “The Man of Steel,” as Michael Sullivan, director of campus life and operations at Lehman College, said Steele was referred to at Lehman. “I think [Manhattan College] can expect excellence,” Sullivan said. “He’s very involved… He’s very wellliked by the students,” Sullivan said. “I would say loved by the students because of his genuine, good, sheer, deep commitment to I think higher education, and availability. He’s just an easy guy to get to know and very effective as an administrator.”
Months after its opening, the Kelly Commons has become an important fixture in campus life. Now, the building has a brand new addition--a free game room-that promises to draw more in more traffic from students. Situated on the first floor of the commons is the new game room. Inside, students can play two “Fast and Furious” racing car games, a Big Buck Hunter shooting game and the classic arcade staple, Pac Man. All games are completely free. The room also houses a jukebox stocked with current Top 100 CDs, including the latest albums from Taylor Swift and Beyonce, to name a few. The jukebox is also free for students to use. “Everything is free. Do not put a quarter in the machine,” John Bennett, director of student activities said. Bennett pointed out that the games are made for arcades and come with coin slots, but they are programmed for students to use free of charge. “For years it has been part of the architectural plans and something that was discussed,” he said. “We were hoping that it would be open when the commons was opened.” The game room opening was delayed because games were still being delivered and workers on the Kelly Commons were still utilizing the room. “For the first few months the architects and the contractors were working out of the game room. Ordering the games was a process too,” Bennett said. The addition of the game room was, as Bennett said, part of the overall architectural plan for the college. Its placement in the new building came with the planning phase of the Kelly Commons project, according to Andrew Ryan, vice president for facilities. “There were a number of student functions that were selected during the programing phase to be moved into the build-
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From Silence to Conversation: The LGBT Community on Campus Jonathan Reyes Editor
It’s 2015, and there are still people who have a problem with homosexuality. Those who have already come out of the closet as LGBT often advocate for high-school and college students struggling with their identities. They know from experience how difficult it can be when it feels as if there is no safe place to go or people to confide in. “It’s an identity,” Rebecca Kern, Ph.D. and Manhattan College associate professor of communications, said. “To me it’s an identity as much as race, ethnicity, class, gender, all of these things that are part of
people’s identities, and it needs to be discussed. I want to try to break any myths people have and to also make people not feel uncomfortable and to try to make them understand that they can ask questions, to know that asking questions is okay.” “Not only in just my everyday life, I’m not this overly political person about it at school because I don’t necessarily think that’s the way it needs to be,” she said. “It’s just for me, just like with everybody else, you have a partner, a spouse or whatever. It’s part of who I am.” Kern was married to and divorced from a man before she finally decided to be herself at 27 years old. She is now 42 years old. She reminisced about her time in high
school when she didn’t date. It was a different time than today, when society’s feelings toward homosexuality were more hostile. Besides all that, thinking back she laughed and wondered what took her so long to come out. Fast-forward to today, and she is married to her wife. She cautioned though that it didn’t go so well at first but that it got better with time. “It’s easier to come out now, but not always because we still are dealing with family issues, religion issues, there’s still cultural issues that definitely play a role,” Kern said. “It does take time and things have changed, but I don’t think it has changed for everybody equally. It’s still complicated and scary.”
“If you’re gay and you don’t fit into those neat little boxes, which then people get very confused about,” she added. “And that is kind of part of the problem. It’s getting better,” she said. “Younger generations don’t see it quite as boxed in that way. Older generations were brought up with very specific sets of beliefs and they’re trying to see beyond that. They’re learning otherwise and all they can do is you can constantly keep proving them wrong.” Kern is a professor at a Lasallian Catholic college that heavily advertises itself in those two distinct but intertwined areas of
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