Finding Beauty in the abandoned See Page 5
Tuesday, September 22, 2015 | Vol. LXXXVIII, Issue 6 | Binghamton University | bupipedream.com
The Free Word on Campus Since 1946
BU ranked 35 in NY Times College Access Index
UP's promise of Downtown bus remains unfulfilled
Data-driven report looks to Pell Grants, grad. rates to track economic diversity
New managament yet to provide private shuttle from complex to State St.
Alexandra Mackof
Haley Silverstein
News Editor
Staff Writer
Binghamton University was ranked 35th on the New York Times’ College Access Index, a measure of how universities around the country support economic diversity within their institutions. Last year, The Upshot — which is the Times’ data analytics newsletter — only included institutions that could boast a graduation rate of 75 percent or higher in four years on the list. According to the article published with the report, this limited that list to about 100 schools. Only two public universities made the list in 2014: College of William and Mary and University of Virginia, ranked 71 and 48, respectively. For the 2015 list, The Upshot opened up its rankings to schools that reported a graduation rate of at least 75 percent over five years, with a focus on the graduation rates of students who receive the Pell Grant. Pell Grants are generally awarded to students who fall in the lower 40 percent of national income distribution. The second annual list now has 179 schools ranked, with better representation of public universities.
SINA'S SEASON IS OVER Star sophomore guard Jasmine Sina to miss year after injuring knee. See page 10 for full story.
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Emily Earl/Assistant Photography Editor
As the new semester begins, students living in University Plaza (UP) at Metroplex are still waiting for management to fulfill its promise of a direct shuttle to and from Downtown Binghamton. Last year, students were promised a host of new services and amenities when signing their leases, including new renovations and a Downtown shuttle. While updates including new floors, countertops and carpeting were completed in time for move-in, students have yet to see the shuttle that was promised. Max Bartell, a senior doublemajoring in political science and philosophy, politics and law said he frequently needs transportation to weeknight trivia at the bars and to grab dinner at restaurants Downtown. Bartell said he would like to see UP provide a bus and apologize for the misunderstanding. “UP has failed to honor one of the things that was promised to a lot of its residents,” Bartell said. “And if they continue to do this, they will
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Revamped myBinghamton centralizes BU sites
ITS updates homepage to consolidate unread B-mail, frequently used links in one location
Alexis Hatcher Staff Writer
On Thursday morning, Binghamton University’s Information Technology Services (ITS) unveiled an updated myBinghamton homepage with a variety of new features. Located at my.binghamton.edu, the new myBinghamton portal grants students a snapshot of their important information, like calendar events and unread emails, and automatically connects them to their individual BU BRAIN, B-mail and Blackboard. It also allows students quick access to their class schedules, hireBING and comes equipped with other new, requested features. These include mechanisms to check Pods availability, a GPS map of campus and the availability of washers and dryers within a student’s residential building. After a year in the development process, the new portal was created entirely by BU employees in collaboration with ITS staff, students
and faculty. According to ITS Assistant Director Tim Cortesi, doing the project in-house was also cheaper than paying an outside company to run the site. “We thought we could do a better job,” Cortesi said. “We don’t necessarily have to be paying another company a fair amount of money to be hosting this project.” By completing the project in-house, the revamped portal is customized more toward specific campus needs. Students can minimize sections and sites they do not typically use and then save these changes. Kathleen Kittell, a junior double-majoring in environmental studies and geography, said the change makes student life easier. “I enjoy the layout a lot more,” she said. “The change looks nicer and is definitely more helpful. Things like seeing my emails and B-Line right there is really convenient, and I don’t have to click through websites.” The targeted nature of the new portal is one of the bigger changes that have been made. The site has different
sections geared toward the specific individual logging in, such as students and faculty. Faculty logging on will see different information than the students and vice versa. The portal also has the ability to have new groups added by ITS. Another new feature on the site was requested not by students, but professors. Faculty are now able to see a class roster complete with pictures of their students in order to learn their students’ faces easily. With strictly BU employees behind the creation of the portal, including ITS employees and students, the new site is an ongoing project aiming to continue to meet campus needs. “This means that if students, staff or faculty come up with good ideas for things to be included in the portal, we’ve got a team that can make it happen,” Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Enrollment Donald Loewen wrote in an email. “I think that over time the portal will help each of us to make our online university interactions better.”
Ignite brings hands-on twist to the conventional career fair Sixth annual competition matches recruiters to hopeful hires in professional 'dating game' Stacey Schimmel Pipe Dream News
Representatives from 15 firms joined Binghamton University School of Management (SOM) students to help them showcase skills in a unique way during the sixth annual Ignite Competition. The Ignite Committee, composed of 18 School of Management (SOM) students, organized the event, which took place in the Mandela Room on Thursday night. Out of 248 applicants, only 120 were selected to network with professionals and recruiters in an environment that highlighted hands-on skills. Those who were selected had a GPA of 3.5 or higher, as well as no established summer internship plans. The participants were divided into tables of four students with one to two professionals. Students swapped tables and completed 20-to-30-minute logic challenges in front of recruiters, including building a cube by completing riddles and a decoding challenge. The recruiters scored participants on both team and individual performance. The decoding challenge entailed teams using a series of coded hints to write a message in a secret code to protect confidential information for a made-up company. They had to decipher the hints
and use the same code to write a message as a group. For the cube challenge, teams had to create a six-faced, nine-tiled cube based on clues. There were four viewing areas where, for 15 seconds, teams were able to see a correct completed cube and were able to buy additional clues with the 11 coins they were given. For both challenges, teams had to negotiate because only one submission was allowed. Brandon Hohenberg, the co-director of the Ignite Student Committee and a junior double-majoring in accounting and business administration, said that the competition strove to differentiate itself from other recruiting events by preselecting students and firms. “In a lot of recruiting events people talk about their experience, what they did in the past,” Hohenberg said. “At Ignite, they get to see their skill set, teamwork, creativity and different attributes that firms are looking for in action; that’s our core value.” The firms included Deloitte, PwC, Friedman LLP, Macy’s, Goldman Sachs and Geico. The competition was not focused on winning, but on giving students a chance to learn about firms in a relaxed setting while firms could observe students in a working environment. The firms were selected after surveying participants with “matching questions,”
including preferred management structure and qualities in a boss, making the competition similar to a dating service.
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Jonathan Bluvstein/Contributing Photographer Students collaborate in the Mandela Room during the sixth annual Ignite Competition. The Ignite Committee, composed of 18 School of Management students, organized the event and hosted representatives from 15 firms.
Neil Seejoor/Contributing Photographer Students and brothers of Tau Alpha Upsilon fraternity walked across campus to raise money and awareness for RISE, an organization in Endicott providing services to victims of domestic violence.
Fraternity brothers march in heels to fund domestic violence shelter Tau Alpha Upsilon leads 70 students to 'Walk A Mile In Her Shoes' around campus, raises $600 for RISE Michelle Kraidman Staff Writer
Donning pink heels for a new perspective, a group of fraternity brothers and students walked across campus to support a local shelter for domestic violence victims. To raise money and awareness for gender violence, Tau Alpha Upsilon Fraternity (TAU) hosted “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes.” The walk raised $600 for RISE, an organization located in Endicott, which provides services for those enduring domestic violence. RISE supports women and children threatened with domestic violence with immediate protection and long-term planning. “Walk A Mile in Her Shoes” is a national organization that sells the rights to their name to organizers in order to raise money in support of domestic violence victims. The fraternity raised money by charging participants and receiving donations from alumni, parents of fraternity brothers and a grant from the Intrafraternity Council (IFC). Each participant paid $5 to march and $10 to buy a t-shirt. Brian McAllister, the philanthropy chair of Tau Alpha Upsilon and a junior majoring in business administration, ran and organized the event. He said that since the goal of the event was to support women who have faced abuse, RISE seemed like the perfect organization to fundraise for. “It’s a march to stop sexual assault, rape and gender violence, and we figured
RISE, which is a battered women’s shelter, paralleled the spirit of the event enough that we decided that’s where we wanted to donate the money to,” McAllister said. However, the event was cut short due to inclement weather and a lower turnout than expected. McAllister said other Greek organizations were the primary attendees. “This was really targeted to be an event for everybody, not just a Greek life thing, so when people didn’t really come through, we decided to cut it short,” McAllister said. TAU president Ryan Mirchin, a junior majoring in integrative neuroscience, said that it is important for fraternities to face these issues head-on. “It was a lot of Greek, which I think is fantastic because the issues of rape, sexual assault and gender violence are issues that plague the Greek community all across the nation,” Mirchin said. “That’s not what Greek life is about, and that’s what we wanted to show: that we are aware and we promote anything against those issues.” According to Ryan Meehan, a senior majoring in human development, his fraternity learned of the importance of RISE and what they are doing for women. RISE offers a safe, undisclosed location for those trying to escape domestic violence. “There’s no address, so women can’t be traced down by their attackers or their abusers and they need a place to go, and that’s what RISE supplies them with,” Meehan said.