A3 Glimmerglass Gym opens for fall with fresh renovations
Friday, Sept. 9, 2016 VOLUME LXXXIV ISSUE I SINCE 1935 www.oswegonian.com
Tyler Hall reopens to students
Fine arts building reveals renovations and welcomes students for first time since 2014
Oswego State celebrates most diverse class ever Tara O’Donovan Contributing Writer news@oswegonian.com
Criselda Mapoy | The Oswegonian Tyler Hall has finished its first renovation phase and will move on to phase II, which is projected to be completed in 2020. The total cost of the updates will be $27 million, some of which was contributed by a state capital appropriation.
JoAnn DeLauter Editor-in-Chief jdelauter@oswegonian.com Tyler Hall has reopened its doors after three years of renovations, but construction continues as the fine arts building is the first in Oswego State history to continue phase II of the project without vacancy. “I think there is a lot more potential in this building for people to come and en-
joy it,” Associate Vice President of Facilities Services Mitch Fields said. The completed $22.2 million phase includes a lobby lounge area, a few finished classrooms, a new art gallery with movable walls, the Waterman Theatre with handicap accessibility, up-to-date bathrooms and, as of Sept. 15, an instrumental rehearsal room with built-in acoustics and a recording studio. With the help of a state capital appropriation of $18 million last spring, the proj-
ect was extended to include the construction plans of phase II. With the hopes of re-opening the building last January, Fields admitted to being behind schedule for phase I, but now they are about 18 months ahead of schedule for phase II, which would have held the project off until about 2022. According to Fields, the projected date for the fully completed project is 2020, at a total cost of $27 million.
The reason facilities decided to open now, even though the building wasn’t completed, is because if they waited, current students would not be able to benefit from any renovations. “It is a better strategy to implement and move forward as much as we can with the money we have and the year we have it so that our students actually get
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The SUNY system recognizes diversity as a major stepping stone to academic excellence. The fall of 2016 marks the most diverse incoming student population Oswego State has ever seen since joining the State University of New York system in 1948. “I am from Portville, New York, and just about everyone in my school and town is white,” freshman Taylor Edwards said. “When I came to Oswego I was not expecting to see so many people of different ethnicities and cultures, I was surprised.” Oswego State’s class profile from 2011 to 2015 reveals that the Caucasian percentage of undergraduate students has decreased from 82.9 percent to 75.2 percent. “Bay Shore is one of the most welcoming and diverse towns on Long Island,” freshman Erika Dollmann, said. “When I decided on Oswego, I honestly thought it was going to be a majority white population since it’s so far upstate for me, but as I walk around campus I am noticing people from different cultural backgrounds or countries. It feels like Bay Shore in a way.” From 2011 to 2015 the percentage of black students rose from 4.7 percent to 7.2 percent, the Hispanic percentage rose from 6.4 percent to 10.3 percent; the Asian/Pacific Islander percentage from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent. However, the American Indian percentage decreased from 0.3 percent to 0.1 percent in 2015, according to Oswego State class profiles.
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Oswego State Student Association elects temporary vice president Dalton Flint SA senators anticipate upcoming meeting to officially choose new executive branch officer for the fall semester Lydia Goerner News Editor lgoerner@oswegonian.com
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Oswego State’s Student Association is about to elect their third vice president in three semesters. This summer former vice president Shelby Gallaro was replaced with an interim vice president, Dalton Flint. Flint is a sophomore who served last year as a senator, the chair of the election sub-committee and a member of the intercollegiate athletic board. This summer SA President Emily Nassir appointed Flint as interim vice president. “This is more like a temporary fix,” Nassir said. The senate will vote on Sept. 13 on whether Flint should continue serving as vice president. Gallaro was elected as vice president in
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March 2016. She will no longer hold the office due to “personal reasons,” Nassir said. Gallaro declined to comment. Typically, when there is a vacancy in an SA office, the senate would elect someone, Nassir said. According to the SA Constitution, when there is a vacancy in the senate, “it shall immediately be filled by the Executive Authorities of the population affected, through a special election.” The constitution also states that a president pro tempore should serve in the absence of the vice president. Nassir said Flint’s election was an exceptional case. “The problem is that the senate is active by academic year, so there was no active senate in the summer,” Nassir said. Nassir said she chose Flint because he is
“very passionate and it’s just very obvious that he’s someone who wants to grow in the organization and do a lot for the organization.” Flint said he was “very honored and surprised” to be asked to serve as the vice president. “I felt like as a sophomore, it’s such a big deal,” Flint said. He felt “duty-bound” to accept when Nassir asked him to consider taking the position. Currently, many seniors serve in SA positions, which Nassir wanted to change with Flint. “I really want to start focusing on building the foundation so that it can keep going successfully,” Nassir said. “I thought Dalton [Flint] was the perfect person to start bringing in to see how things work so that there’s someone who knows how this all works for
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when we’re gone.” The vice president of SA acts as the president of the senate. They run weekly meetings, recruit and train senators, make an agenda for SA meetings, lead the meetings and assist with projects of the executive branch of SA. Flint said he does not think the frequent change in SA vice presidents is something to worry about. “Things happen and it’s a case-by-case basis,” Flint said. “Usually the overall theme is either something gets in the way or people realize it’s not for them and they don’t want to slow the organization down…I don’t think it’s a concern because we’ve been able to move forward so far and everything’s been able to go very smoothly.” Flint said he hopes to be elected as the next official vice president on Tuesday.
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Criselda Mapoy | The Oswegonian Flint is serving as vice president until the official election.
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