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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF MANHATTAN COLLEGE | SINCE 1924
Volume CI, Issue 4
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NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 11, 2020
MC Takes Action to Fight Food Insecurity Gabriella DePinho Editor-in-Chief
Baseball Is Back! As opening day nears, final repairs to the VCP field are being made. Read more about it in Sports. BRIAN ASARE/ THE QUADRANGLE
Leo Burglaries Stopped, Suspect Arrested C. Garrett Keidel Social Media Editor
A recent string of burglaries on south campus have been stopped due to the joint efforts of the New York Police Department’s 50th Precinct and Manhattan College Public Safety. Leo Hall, which houses the School of Engineering as well as the communication department, has seen a recent string of burglary attempts on Dec. 26, 2019, Jan. 5, 2020 and Jan. 29, 2020. A suspect was arrested by the NYPD in the early morning hours of January 29th, and is currently involved in what is being described as an ongoing police investigation. According to Director of Public Safety, Peter DeCaro, the same suspect was also arrested for the burglary of Leo Hall taking place on Jan. 5th, but was released due to new NY State bail laws. The accused suspect has been linked to all three burglaries between Dec. 26, 2019 and Jan. 29, 2020. Manhattan College students did not receive a notification of the burglaries through the campus alert system. DeCaro confirmed this was because there were no students, faculty or employees in the
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building at the time and “there were no threats to students or other members of the college community”. There have been no reported lost, stolen or damaged goods at the moment. David Erosa, associate director of Public Safety, described it as an ongoing investigation. The Quad contacted the Office of the Dean for the School of Engineering for a comment regarding possible property stolen or damage, but they declined to comment, also citing the ongoing police investigation. According to DeCaro, the accused suspect is a career criminal whose motive was to enter the building and look for small items with no direct targets. “When I learned of the burglary, I immediately checked all of our facilities in Leo and confirmed that nothing was taken from our areas. The communication department has extra security features to protect our student equipment and facilities,” said Michael Grabowski, Ph.D., Chair of the communication department. Grabowski also mentioned an attention to safety of Leo with respect to the construction next door. “I am concerned about
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the security lapses caused by the construction of the STEM building next to Leo and Leo Science and Engineering renovations. Several times I have seen construction crew members prop open exterior doors that should be closed and locked,” he said. Leo Hall is currently fitted with multiple forms of security. The building gets locked by Public Safety between the hours of 11 p.m. and midni along with monitoring by security cameras, a burglar alarm, and routine round completed by public safety officers throughout the night. Grabowski hopes that efforts to restore the security of the building will soon be in place. “It is my hope that these concerns are addressed, and the completion of construction will restore a secure environment needed for the college,” said Grabowski. Public safety urges Manhattan students to stay aware of their surroundings especially while entering the ID swiping entrances of Leo Hall and RLC. When carding into the building, be conscious of who you may also be holding the door for, and allowing into the building(s).
While some students may dislike the offerings of Locke’s Loft, they are probably highly unaware of how many students may wish they had the funds to eat there. Food insecurity - the inability to consistently obtain meals and nutritious food items - is a growing issue facing college students. Students may be scraping by to pay tuition so they may not have the funds to know when or where their next meal will come from. This insecurity is not a visible one, but there are ways for others to help. After Richard Satterlee, vice president for student life, attended a conference where food insecurity was an issue that was discussed, he came back to campus and brought the issue to the attention of several administrators. Satterlee had them take a webinar by the Educational Advisory Board about a variety of insecurities that college students face but in the end, administrators agreed that food insecurity was the one they could try to tackle. Members of this ad hoc food insecurity committee include, Charles Clency, the director of Residence Life, Marilyn Carter, the director of Commuter Serves and Outreach, and Lois Harr, assistant vice president and director of Campus Ministry and Social Action, as well as representation from the Dean of Students’ office and the Multicultural Center. “This [issue] is impacting campuses all over the country, regarding [how] expensive college [is] today, but we wanted to make sure we were aware and looking into how this might be impacting students on our campus here at Manhattan College,” said Clency. The first initiative the group came up with was #JaspersFoodShare. The hashtag allows
IN A&E:
people to share, over social media, when events or club meetings have left over food. “So it was like, don’t let food go to waste - we just throw it away after a certain point - and also somebody, maybe, with a need can get a meal. That’s all good but that’s kind of like, well if you’re lucky enough to be around when we luckily happen to have some food left over, is that really a way to address food insecurity for people?” said Harr. Another initiative that popped up last spring was one to create a mini food pantry in the Multicultural Center. Non-perishable food items were collected and then made available to students who may have needed them. “I think we got off to a late start and marketing it and so on and so forth. So I had all this food and so we said okay, what are we going to do with it? We had this initiative going on, so what we ended up doing was last year, I did healthy snacks for finals week for commuters and we put out the bags [of groceries] and they went, they went immediately,” said Carter. The newest initiative was just recently announced to students. Resident students received an email from Residence Life on Jan. 31, informing them of a new initiative to “Swipe Out Hunger at MC.” Resident students now have the option to donate any amount of Jasper and Dining Dollars to help out any other MC students who may be facing food insecurity. As of right now, this program does not accept swipes into Locke’s Loft. “Food Insecurity among college students is real, and a new report from Government Accountability Office (GAO) highlights the breadth of those affected. There are potentially millions of students at risk of __________________________ CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
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