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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF MANHATTAN COLLEGE | SINCE 1924
Volume XCVIX, Issue 3
FREE
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 5, 2019
Halal and Kosher Options on Campus August Kissel Web Editor
Polar Vortex Hits Riverdale Students forced to brave wind chill temperatures of below 0 heading to classes throughout the week.
BRIAN ASARE/ THE QUADRANGLE
Lack of Heat, No Gas at Popular Off-Campus Housing Location Living in the Bronx can come with challenges, and for residents of 3804 Greystone Avenue, the challenges are especially daunting. The building is home to not just Manhattan College students, but also families with young children and elderly residents, who collectively have been living without cooking gas or stable heat. According to residents, these issues have persisted since September. “It has been four months, since September, I remember it was a Friday that it started,” said Linda Waldstein, a 40-year resident of 3804 Greystone. “We know the building is about 100 years old so we know the building hasn’t been attended to, that just makes sense.” As a response to this issue, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz paired with Council Member Andrew Cohen on Thursday, Jan. 31. to “bring attention to the fact that residents have been without cooking gas since September of 2018,” according
to the press conference’s official notice. “It’s really cold out, and actually it’s cold inside as well,” said Dinowitz in his opening statement. “We’re really angry that this building has not had cooking gas since September [and] it’s not likely that they’re going to have it in the immediate future. We think some work has finally been done but in the meanwhile, the people that live here have had to live in substandard conditions. Not only the gas by the way, they’ve had inadequate heat.” Reaching the landlord has brought uncertainty for some. “[When we complain] the landlord says, ‘I know,’ ‘we’re taking care of it,’ but that’s it. You never get anything that definitive,” said Waldstein. And for others, it’s simply been unpleasant. “I have reached out to the landlord once and he was not very nice. I told him about all of our issues and he did not seem like he cared. I told him that if nothing got fixed then we would refuse to pay rent. He then told me that he would take us to court. I have not reached out to him since that phone
IN NEWS:
IN FEATURES:
Jack Melanson Senior Writer
Outtakes CStore: Convenience or Location on p.4
HerCampus Relaunches at MC on p.7
call,” said Sydney Mattera, a resident and Manhattan College student. “I saw a letter posted in the lobby how an Assemblyman from NYC was trying to come in contact with [the landlord], but he was ignoring his phone calls and emails.” Cohen confirmed Mattera’s statement. “The landlord doesn’t respond, the managing people, they do not respond and it’s outrageous,” said Cohen. This is increasingly troublesome for Waldstein. “I don’t think this landlord is very responsive. [Especially] if he’s not even calling the assembly people and congressional people back,” she said. The families of 3804 Greystone may have it the hardest. “I’m one individual, I can get by, but I see my neighbors look at the children, the infants - they have to cook, they have to make a meal,” said Waldstein. “You can’t make a meal on a small little hot plate or you’re __________________________ CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
Manhattan College is a private Lasallian Catholic Institution and as follows, a majority of its students identify as Christian. To accomodate all of its students the college provides worship options for as many of its students as possible, one by offering to bring the community of Jewish students to a local synagogue, as well as having a Muslim Chaplain on campus with office hours and weekly Jummah Prayer offered in the Horan Hall Meditation room. In the past few years the student body has been calling for more dining options on campus to accommodate the dietary law that may accompany practicing a religion. The two dietary laws that the students called for were Halal and Kosher options. According to BBC News, to follow the Halal dietary law means the process of preparing the meat includes the care of the animal before it is killed and that it must be a healthy animal. The animal is then killed in a particular way and with the proper sharpened tools to alleviate animal suffering. Lastly, the meat is killed in name of Allah so that the killing of the animal has a purpose. Sophomore Fatoumata Saho has been one of the key advocates for Halal and Kosher options for commuter and resident students. “As a Muslim student and a person who lives on campus, it is so hard to find Halal options on campus and around campus, and if the school had the ability to provide the right foods for the students then the students would not have to go all the way out of their way to find Halal food, where it is more likely to be expensive, it would be more beneficial for those students to have the food here on campus,” said Saho Saho is one of the student representatives for the Food
IN A&E: Coffee House Kicks Off for the Semester on p.5
Service Committee, which is a group that works with head of Gourmet Dining, Nick Valinotti, and the team to provide dining options for the variety of students on campus. “When the students talk we listen. We really concentrated on reinventing the center circle of Locke’s to make it more friendly for all when it comes to dietary restrictions,” said Valinotti. Saho and Valinotti met and worked together to create accessible options to the resident and the commuter population. For Saho, this meant meeting with both Valinotti and Brittany Trainor, the registered dietician on campus to discuss the breakdowns of what she felt was best for the MC community. “Just this past semester, we have added gluten free, vegan and Halal options in retail because commuters voiced their preferences when it came to this during our Food Service Committee meetings led by Fatoumata Saho,” added Valinotti. These options are located in Locke’s Loft, Cafe 1853, and Kelly Commons to residents and commuters. As a former commuter herself, Saho was aware of student demographics and wanted to be sure that the options were available to resident and commuter students equally. “I used to be a commuter, as a commuter there are days where you don’t have time to pack up your food for the day, and a lot of commuters are Muslim students, so having the food available for the students to be able to grab and eat it is so much easier to be on campus and so I just thought ‘hey, let’s get some Halal options,” said Saho. In Cafe 1853 the Halal options are located with the prepackaged meals that are for sale in the refrigerator. In Kelly Commons, there is also a re__________________________ CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
IN SPORTS:
Aaron Boone Visits Campus to Talk Leadership p.11