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Tuesday, September 4, 2018 | Vol. XCIV, Issue 4 | Binghamton University | bupipedream.com
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Researchers wait on lab equipment Pharmacy School encounters delays in switching laboratories Jacob Kerr News Intern
Annabeth Sloan Editorial Artist
Binghamton University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (SOPPS) began classes in its new Johnson City location last week, but not everything has made the transition. Most of the school’s research laboratory equipment is still being housed in the Innovative Technologies Complex (ITC) despite pharmaceutical studies beginning at the health sciences campus. After construction on the SOPPS building finished this summer, faculty and staff started moving in on July 16. Equipment also started making the move, but not everything arrived before the start of the semester. Now, students have to travel between the Johnson City and Vestal campuses to attend traditional classes and conduct research. The two campuses are approximately three miles away from each other, but without a car, getting from one to the other can be difficult. Currently, one Off Campus College Transport (OCCT) route stops near the Johnson City
campus: the Leroy Southside, which stops once every hour on weekdays from 5 p.m. to midnight. Students who wish to travel from Johnson City to the ITC outside those hours are forced to rely on personal vehicles, Broome County Transit buses and ride-share services. According to Gloria Meredith, founding dean of SOPPS, it will take four to six months to complete the move to the health sciences campus. She said everything should be set up by Christmas. “Our researchers are moving large, delicate pieces of equipment,” Meredith wrote in an email. “They need the company that supplied the instruments to be involved with dismantling and re-setting up each instrument. This takes a lot of time.” Experiments and research will eventually need to temporarily stop in order to make the move. Nevertheless, the research will continue until the equipment move begins, according to Jacqueline Haugen, a research assistant at SOPPS and a first-year graduate student studying biomedical engineering. “While it’s definitely not ideal to have to put a halt on all of our experiments, it’s something that everyone has been preparing for and we plan to handle it in a very organized fashion,” Haugen wrote.
Although research will have to momentarily cease to complete the move, Haugen wrote that the new laboratories at the health sciences campus will allow students and faculty to conduct experiments more efficiently. “We’re really excited about the move because our current lab space in the ITC is kind of cramped and the new lab space is amazing,” Haugen wrote. “Currently we all just share one lab space. There are two floors in the pharmacy building that have individual rooms for different types of shared equipment and several individual rooms of lab space that’s split between two professors each.” Not all students are directly affected by the late move. First-year pharmacy students do not take lab or research courses during their first semester. Other students haven’t started their research for the semester. Lamiyah Kamal, a second-year graduate student studying pharmaceutical sciences, is planning to begin her research on colon and rectum cancer cells later in the year. “In terms of research, it hasn’t really affected much yet since it’s the beginning of the semester,” Kamal said. “However, I’m not too concerned with it being a hassle since the labs should be on track to be finished by the end of the semester.”
Truth Pharm talks Nonprofit works to BU corpse drug policy, overdoses fight homelessness flower declared deceased Nonprofit uses performance art to raise awareness Amy Donovan
Assistant News Editor
Chalk outlines covered the sidewalk outside Government Plaza in Downtown Binghamton as Truth Pharm hosted “Trail of Truth.” The event, an effort to memorialize those who have died due to substance use, is held every fall by the advocacy group, which was founded by Alexis Pleus after she lost her son to a heroin overdose in August 2014. While trying to combat the stigma associated with her son’s death, Pleus started creating videos to raise awareness
about substance use and treatment. The attention attracted by the videos would eventually lead her to create Truth Pharm. “I started creating little videos used to raise awareness and reduce the stigma of addiction and substance use,” Pleus wrote in an email. “The videos were getting thousands of views, but more importantly, families were so grateful for the work and I realized I had to do more.” The organization started with just a Facebook page, but has since turned into a national nonprofit with four branch locations, including one in Binghamton. According to the New York State County Opioid
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Alumni teach professional skills at Lazarus Rising Yuri Lee
Assistant News Editor
In order to give those in need a second chance, Binghamton University alumni at Lazarus Rising are helping homeless people write résumés. With a personal mission to combat homelessness through professional encouragement, the nonprofit organization offers résumé-building sessions and mock interviews in an effort to prepare homeless individuals for the job search. The ultimate goal is to help homeless populations find employment.
According to CEO Danny Graziosi, ’18, the organization was created as a long-term solution to tackling homelessness, as opposed to offering more short-term solutions such as food and shelter. “Giving people food and having shelter is really important — that’s a huge step of them rebuilding their lives and they need that support,” Graziosi said. “But I always thought that the problem with that is like, ‘Give a man a piece of bread and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.’ This is a very similar idea where if we personally teach them how to make a résumé and we curate a résumé for them — that’s something
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Gillian Kenah
Assistant News Editor
Theo Mason Pipe Dream Photographer Visions Federal Credit Union officially replaced M&T Bank as the on-campus bank in July. M&T served Binghamton University for over 20 years.
ARTS & CULTURE
opt to open an account at the branch, online or at campus events, according to Roberts. “Freshmen are more likely to have opened an account because the Visions team made it convenient for them by attending the freshmen orientation events,” Roberts wrote in an email. “It was easy for freshmen to open
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accounts at these events because the Visions team was prepared to complete the application process on-site as they moved through orientation. Visions was also available during transfer and international student sessions and were able to assist those interested with
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Visions gains more than 1,000 new accounts on campus
For newcomers to the University, Visions seems to be a popular choice. According to Maria Roberts, the associate director of Auxiliary Services, the on-campus Visions location has opened more than 1,000 new accounts, most of which were for freshmen. The on-campus Visions branch officially opened on July 5, and students could
Lia Berger
After 11 years of pollinations, dormancies and inflorescences, Binghamton University’s first corpse flower, Metis, was declared deceased in April. The once 90-pound, 87-inch flower was dormant in 2016 and eventually became overrun by pathogens, making it impossible to save its final corm, a vital part of the plant that stores nutrients in times of dormancy. The Amorphophallus titanum, or titan arum, is nicknamed the “corpse flower” because of the deathly smell it exudes when it inflorescences, or fully buds. Metis inflorescenced in 2010, 2013 and 2015. During each inflorescence, pollen was collected, which produced hundreds of seeds used to pollinate titan arums at the University of Hawaii, Ohio State University and Cornell University, according to Metis’ obituary on the E.W. Heier Teaching Greenhouse’s Facebook page. The plant was donated in 2007 by John Kawamoto at the request of BU alumnus Werner Stiegler, ‘09. Kawamoto won three titan arum seeds in 2005 at an auction in Bali, Indonesia, which he then grew for two years before donating one to BU. Metis was the most mature of the three at the time. Stiegler nicknamed the plant after the Greek titan known in mythology for being wise and cunning. Metis continued to grow within the E.W. Heier Teaching Greenhouse, where it grew from 4 to 40 pounds within a year. Its weight and the height of its flowers continuously fluctuated depending on how close it was to dormancy, which was logged throughout its lifetime. After being dormant for two months, Metis inflorescenced in July 2015 for the third time, when it grew to its maximum
Returning students face bank decisions
Binghamton University officially replaced M&T Bank with Visions Federal Credit Union on July 1, leaving many returning students with an important decision to make about keeping or closing their account with M&T, the oncampus bank for over two decades. The Binghamton Auxiliary Services Corporation, a board of University administrators and students, unanimously awarded Visions the oncampus bank and ATM services contract last semester. The decision came after a five-month series of meetings analyzing student surveys and other bank proposals.
Metis died in April after pathogens attacked its corm
OPINIONS
SPORTS
Trucks on the Tracks combines local cuisine and local history,
Transition your summer skin care routine to fall with these four products,
Columnist Emily Houston discusses the benefits of lecturers,
Binghamton golf struggled in its fall opener,
BU athletics combine for zero wins in six games over the weekend,
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