FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS
Trick Or Treat!
Students celebrate Diwali, SEE PAGE 2
Release celebrates Halloween, SEE PAGES 12 to 14
PIPE DREAM Tuesday, October 28, 2014 | Binghamton University | www.bupipedream.com | Vol. LXXXVI, Issue 15
Activist brings college behind bars
Fernando Pico describes working with inmates in maximum security prison Madeline Mahon Contributing Writer
After being approached by two prisoners that he worked with about getting a college education, professor Fernando Pico went from being a prison chaplain to a professor. Professor Pico, a Puerto Rican writer and activist who served as the president of the Association of Caribbean Historians, spoke in the Old Union on Monday night. In 1990, he was working as the chaplain of a maximum security prison when the inmates asked him about offering college classes at the prison. “They asked me [if I] could … intervene with the corrections administration so that they could register for the university courses, and have credit for it,” Pico said. He got in contact with the Metropolitan University of Puerto Rico and they agreed to start The Prisoners University Project, which allowed inmates to enroll in college classes for credit. However, they could not get funding for the project. Pico then went to the federal court for assistance. “The federal court
Rule mandates consideration of minority, women owned businesses Zachary Wingate Contributing Writer
authorized payments from the fund, which had been made from the fines that the government of Puerto Rico for overcrowding in the prisons,” Pico said. Class size was capped at
five because larger groups of prisoners were considered unsafe. Originally, Pico only taught humanities and Spanish classes, but as the program grew, he branched out into mathematics.
Pico said he volunteered to teach the classes for free, but as the student population grew from two to 150 he felt the need for help additional help. “Obviously I couldn’t teach every single course so we
Sasha Dolgetta/Contributing Photographer Shachar Avraham, a junior majoring in management, and Zoe Liebmann, a junior majoring in political science have joined Knock Knock Give a Sock (KKGAS), a charity run by college students that collects socks for those in need.
Students work with charity to aid Binghamton's homeless Volunteers at Binghamton University are taking steps to help the local community by providing socks for those in need. This semester, BU students Shachar Avraham, a junior majoring in management and Zoe Liebmann, a junior majoring in political science, partnered with Knock Knock Give a Sock (KKGAS), a college
See PICO Page 6
See NYS Page 5
English no obstacle for Korean debater Ian Kim places among top speakers in West Point tournament Pelle Waldron
Pipe Dream News
Contributing Writer
formed a team,” Pico said. “Young graduate students, young faculty members volunteered without pay to teach at the prison and we had
As of this summer, all SUNY schools are now required to screen major purchases to make sure that minority- and womenowned businesses had an equal opportunity bid for the contract. The policy, implemented across all New York state agencies, requires that purchases over $25,000 be subject to a detailed procurement process to determine if any certified minority- and women-owned business enterprises (MWBE) could be used. Procurements above the $25,000 mark, including all kinds of commodities, services and construction contracting, must give opportunities to MWBEs to
Franz Lino/Photo Editor Professor Fernando Pico speaks in UU 111 about his work with prisoners. Dr. Pico’s talk, “Prisoners’ University Project, 1990-2002,” was about The Prisoners University Project, which allowed inmates to enroll in college classes for credit.
Volunteers plan to sock it to winter cold
Gabriella Weick
For large purchases, BU must vet vendors
student-run charity that collects socks for those in need. Avraham and Liebmann aim to collect 500 pairs of socks by December for donation to local shelters and work with organizations such as Rise-NY, Volunteers of America, YWCA and the YMCA. KKGAS was created last November by New York University student Adina Lichtman after meeting Diego, a homeless man who informed her that socks were a necessity
See SOCKS Page 6
Nothing was lost in translation last weekend, as international student Ian Kim was ranked the second-best speaker at West Point’s annual debate tournament. Kim, a junior majoring in accounting, was born in Korea. He first studied at Hult International Business School in London before transferring to Binghamton University last year after a friend recommended the University’s accounting program. When Kim joined the team, he said his teammates were immediately supportive. Anna
Pinchuk, a senior majoring in philosophy, politics and law and a Ukrainian international student, said Kim was determined to be successful. “His first tournament, he did not do well at all and he got really upset, because it’s difficult with English being your second language to succeed in an activity that requires so much knowledge and grammar,” Pinchuk said. “He put so much work in, and he was very passionate; he was very open to comments and advice, so he was good in terms of learning stuff fast and taking it in.” The team participates in Policy Debate tournaments, where teams of two argue for or against a resolution which
would call for policy change by the United States government. At the West Point Tournament last weekend, the team made it to the elimination round for the first time since Kim joined a year ago. The judges also voted Kim the second-best speaker at the event out of 92 contestants. “It was unexpected because the first and the second tournaments I didn’t even make it to the elimination round,” Kim said. “Then suddenly I’m voted the second best speaker, it’s amazing. My practice that I’ve done so far helped a lot. He discovered debate after taking a rhetoric class taught by the team’s coach, English professor Joseph Schatz. Schatz
See KIM Page 5
Tycho McManus/Asst. Photo Editor Ian Kim, a junior international student majoring in accounting, was voted the second best speaker at West Point’s annual debate tournament last weekend.
Starzak, Libous sought for debate on campus College Republicans, Democrats push for BU apperance Carla Sinclair
Assistant News Editor Though they don’t see eye to eye on public policy, the College Democrats and the College Republicans can agree on one thing: bringing candidates to campus. Incumbent State Senator
Thomas Libous (R) is vying for his 14th term as the representative for New York’s 52nd district this November, against Democrat Anndrea Starzak. Members of campus political organizations on both sides of the aisle, as well as faculty, said bringing the two to Binghamton University for a
debate would enlighten both the students and the community to issues affecting Binghamton University, Broome County and the rest of the 52nd district. “There hasn’t really been a public debate,” said Harris Weiss, president of the College Democrats and a junior majoring in political science. “People might know the
candidates, they might know the race, but they don’t know comparisons and differences between them because they’ve never shared a stage.” Starzak has responded to the request about the debate, agreeing to a date sometime next week. Neither Libous
See SEN. Page 5