Fall 2013 - Issue 1

PIPE DREAM Monday, August 26, 2013 | Binghamton University | www.bupipedream.com | Vol. LXXXIV, Issue 1

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Obama's visit in photos Pipe Dream has full coverage on the presidential visit See page 2

PIPE DREAM Monday, August 26, 2013 | Binghamton University | www.bupipedream.com | Vol. LXXXIV, Issue 1

here

Photos by Kendall Loh/Photo Editor

President Barack Obama holds a town hall-style meeting in the Old Union Friday. He took questions from students, faculty and staff, offering details of his plan to keep college affordable.

President visits BU in upstate tour Obama participates in town hall meeting in the Mandela Room

Obama unveils plan to cut college costs Rachel Bluth

Rachel Bluth News Editor

In response to a climbing national student debt paired with a discrepancy between college loans and postgraduate income, President Barack Obama developed a proposal to better align college costs with how much students will make after graduation, which he debuted during a bus tour of upstate New York and northeastern Pennsylvania.

Before holding a town hallstyle event at Binghamton University, Obama traveled to the University at Buffalo and Henninger High School in Syracuse to announce and discuss his plan. But the president’s remarks at BU differed from his addresses at the other schools on the bus

tour: Rather than delivering a speech to a packed event center, Obama spoke briefly to a few hundred guests in the Mandela Room in the Old University Union before he opened the floor to questions from the audience.

He began his address by promising to try a spiedie and, on a more serious note, explaining his new plan to increase college affordability, which he unveiled at the University at Buffalo the day before. The proposal includes plans for a college ranking system based on factors like retention rate and student debt as well as plans to expand the Pay As You Earn program, where student loan payments for eligible graduates are capped at 10 percent of their monthly income. President Obama also mentioned plans

to meaningful debate and conversation.

“His introductory remarks were brief, he didn’t go into a lot of details about his proposals,” Stenger said.

“What was great about his visit was that he stood there, he looked into the crowd and he chose people at random. Every question was on a germane, appropriate topic, it was well stated, and he was impressed by the questions.”

President Obama took questions from several students, including Donald Lodge, director of the Rainbow Pride Union and a senior double-majoring in Chinese — Harry Catalani and political science. Lodge Undeclared freshman asked the president if any funds would be available BU President Harvey for LGBT students who lose Stenger said he found the town hall-style format conducive See TOUR Page 5 to encourage colleges and universities to find ways to save students money by reducing classroom time, either with online classes, dual degree programs or programs that enable students to earn college credit in high school.

“It was ... my second day of college. I got to sit behind the President and be on TV”

News Editor During his two-day bus trip around upstate New York and northern Pennsylvania last week, which included a town hall-style event at Binghamton University, President Barack Obama unveiled a new plan to lower the cost of higher education as part of a broader effort to increase access to the middle class.

The plan — unveiled in an address at the University at Buffalo on Thursday, Aug. 22 — is composed of three parts aimed not only at getting the cost of college down to a more affordable price range for middle-income families, but also at creating more efficient uses for funds for higher education.

“The fact is, college has never been more necessary,

but it’s also never been more expensive,” the president said. “Think about this: Over the past three decades, the average tuition at a four-year public college has risen by more than 250 percent. The typical family income has gone up 16 percent … And families are making bigger and bigger sacrifices — including a lot of parents who are putting off their own retirement, their own savings, because they’re trying to help their kids afford a college education.”

The largest and most potentially controversial aspect of the plan is a new rating system for colleges and universities. The rating system, the details of which still need to be planned and formalized, would ultimately require congressional

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www.bupipedream.com | August 26, 2013

Obama's Old Union Address

Commander-in-Chief fields questions from students, faculty in the Mandela Room

August 26, 2013 | www.bupipedream.com

Pipe Line Local

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Dance your heart out

Upstate N.Y. mom charged after child crashes car Police say a woman from Union, N.Y. is facing felony charges after her 12-year-old daughter crashed a car, injuring the girl and two other children. The Broome County Sheriff’s Office reported that the girl was at the wheel when the car ran out of control in a parking lot, hit an embankment and rolled twice before landing upright. Investigators say 37-year-old Michelle Lynn Hill of Union told them she was showing the children the car’s safety features when it started to move. The girl and two children were taken to a hospital for injuries deputies described as slight. Hill was released after being arraigned Saturday on three counts of first-degree reckless endangerment.

Pro-, anti-fracking sides turn out in N.Y. for Obama More than 500 chanting and sign-toting supporters and opponents of natural gas drilling through hydrofracking demonstrated on Friday along President Barack Obama’s bus tour route into the Southern Tier, where the debate over whether the state should expand fracking is hottest. Gov. Andrew Cuomo was not in attendance for Obama’s visit to Binghamton University.

Although a decision on the dicey political issue has been promised for months, Cuomo says he awaits a public health study by his administration before he makes a determination about allowing hydrofracking in New York. Cuomo met Obama in Buffalo Thursday but didn’t join him in stops through Central New York.

Among the crowd were members of New Yorkers Against Fracking, who aimed to sway Obama’s pro-fracking position and influence Cuomo’s decision. Members of the organization argue that the process of hydrofracking — which involves injecting water, sand and chemicals deep underground to unlock gas deposits — is a threat to the environment and public health.

Janine Furtado, Assistant Photo Editor

Binghamton University students dance at the 2013 Downtown Student Kickoff, where over 50 local businesses gave away free products to students returning to BU for the start of the fall semester.

National Universities FIU frat suspended over Facebook posts Florida International University officials have suspended the school’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity chapter following a series of Facebook posts. An anonymous email recently sent to local media and members of the FIU community included screenshots of Facebook posts that appeared to show fraternity members discussing the hazing of new members, which is prohibited by university policy. The Miami Herald reports that posts also refer to drug use and make offers to sell drugs. Several posts were of half-nude women who had apparently dated fraternity members.

FIU said in a statement Wednesday that it is investigating possible violations of the University’s code of student conduct, and the police are involved as well. The Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity’s national headquarters in Tennessee says the FIU chapter would fully comply with the temporary suspension and subsequent investigation.

WSU tries new tactics against booze Washington State University will take new steps to try to reduce binge drinking and drug use by students, including scheduling more Friday morning classes and notifying parents if an underage student is caught drinking or using drugs, university officials announced Aug. 12. The school started examining ways to address drug and alcohol use by students after a student died of alcohol poisoning in October. Among the proposed changes, WSU officials will notify parents the first time an underage student violates alcohol and drug policies. WSU also plans to seek approval from the Faculty Senate to schedule more classes on Friday mornings to combat alcohol-fueled, three-day weekends. A 2007 study by the University of Missouri found that students were more likely to binge on Thursday nights if they didn’t have classes on Friday.

Wright chaired a task force convened by WSU President Elson S. Floyd after the student died last October. The task force, made up of faculty, staff, students and community representatives, presented recommendations to reduce drug and alcohol abuse on campus.

WORDontheSTREET If you could have asked President Obama a question, what would you have asked?

“In the Central Appalachia region of the United States the coal industry is such a huge system but it’s starting slowly to die out … how does he plan to keep people financially secure?"

Annie Smith, is a senior in the Decker School of Nursing

“What’s the status on loan forgiveness, as far as the reality of it? Is he being a politician, or is that really gonna happen?”

Eddie Torres is a graduate student

“If you could go back to college and do anything that you missed out on, what would it be?”

Maura Meehan is a sophomore majoring in accounting

State Comptroller says N.Y. restores jobs lost in downturn The state Comptroller’s Office reports New York has more than restored the jobs lost in the recession, including the 110,000 added since last June. The report Friday shows 7.34 million private sector jobs statewide in 2012, up 1.5 percent from 2007, the year before the downturn. Net job losses in manufacturing, construction, information and financial services and government were offset by gains in education, health, leisure and hospitality. Based on federal data, it shows New York personal income per capita was $52,095 last year, compared to $42,693 nationally. Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says New York’s job growth rate slowed to 1.8 percent last year, trailing the national average of 2.2 percent. While New York City and the Ithaca, Albany and Buffalo-Niagara regions added private sector jobs, Binghamton, Kingston, Utica, Syracuse and Elmira showed declines.

Small quake shakes Adirondacks near Lake George A small earthquake has shaken homes in the Adirondacks region near Lake George. United States Geological Survey monitors say the magnitude 2.7 quake happened at a depth of just more than six miles near the Warren County town of Warrensburg at about 9:30 a.m. Sunday. Local emergency centers got calls reporting shaking and a rumbling sound, but no damage. The USGS says N.Y.’s Adirondacks region is among the most seismically active in the Northeast because it contains a number of faults in the bedrock.

Small quakes happen every three or four years, with damaging generally separated by decades. The most recent damaging quake registered magnitude 5.0 near Plattsburgh in April 2002.

Warrensburg is 53 miles north of Albany and just west of Lake George.

stabilizing: sex jokes

“What do you think of my schedule?

“Would you encourage Malia and Sasha to go to Binghamton?”

“Would you ever let your kids go to a public school?”

Ilan Kokotek is a junior majoring in biology

Jacqueline Robins is an undeclared sophomore

Evan Grunder is a freshman majoring in biology

In other words “I wondered back then if the mindset of the nation would change. I think it did, for a while, but the pace has slowed considerably” — Daniel R. Smith Participant in the March on Washington, August 28, 1963, in regards to the upcoming 50th anniversary of the event miley cyrus :destabilizing

www.bupipedream.com | August 26, 2013

NEWS

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Obama's proposal includes rating system, loan reform

Kendall Loh/Photo Editor

President Barack Obama speaks about his plan for affordable college education in the Old Union Hall. The Mandela Room was transformed by White House staff to host a town hall-style meeting on campus.

PLAN continued from Page 1 authorization.

The goal of the rating system would be to pick up where commercial systems, like Forbes or U.S. News & World Report, leave off.

According to Obama, commercial systems rank schools based upon factors like how exclusive they are, how few students they admit, how expensive they are and

how nice their facilities may be. The newly proposed system would incorporate factors more relevant to selecting a cost-effective option for higher education.

The president mentioned incorporating metrics like graduation rates, retention rates, the amount of debt students leave with and if they can find jobs after graduation that will enable them to pay off that debt.

“We want to create better

incentives for colleges to do more with less and to deliver better value for our students and their families,” Obama said.

President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have both announced plans to travel the country over the next year in order to speak with educators, students and administrators about the proposed plan in order to gain input and suggestions before

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the plan is premiered for the the 2015 school year, pending congressional approval.

Ultimately, the goal will be to attach the rating system to the amount of aid schools receive from the federal government.

Higher-rated schools, or schools that show improvement in areas of increased competency or lower costs, will get more federal aid dollars than expensive schools whose graduates are weighed

down with years of debt and no way to pay it back. The system would also provide incentives for schools that perform well in other areas — for instance, not only accepting Pell Grant recipients, but graduating them as well.

“There are schools out there who are terrific values.

But there are also schools out there that have higher default rates than graduation rates.

And taxpayers shouldn’t be subsidizing students to go to schools where the kids aren’t graduating,” Obama said. “That doesn’t do anybody any good.”

The rating system is only one part of the proposed plan. In his opening remarks at BU on Friday, Aug. 23, Obama mentioned that he will be putting pressure on state legislatures to restore funding to public universities and stop slashing budgets and raising tuition as a way to fund improvements, which he said thereby passes the costs on to students and taxpayers.

“Legislative priorities have shifted all across the country — more money into prisons, less money into schools. That means that costs are passed on to students in the form of higher tuition. So we’ve got to do something about that,” Obama said.

Obama also mentioned several ideas to ease the burden of one trillion dollars in outstanding student loan debt.

Under his new plan, students will not be allowed to take out more loans or receive more grants until they finish the

credits they are working on, thereby preventing situations in which students take on large amounts of debt without ever graduating.

“Nobody wants to take on debt,” he said, “but even if we do a good job controlling tuition costs, some young people are still going to have to take out some loans. But we think of that as a good investment because it pays off in time — as long as it stays manageable, as long as you can pay it back.”

Another aspect of the proposed higher education reforms will be to work with colleges and universities to come up with ways for students to graduate in less time to save money. Obama suggested wider spread implementation of online classes, dual degree programs and programs that enable high school students to earn credit before they get to college, shortening the time they have to pay for their degrees.

The final portion of the president’s plan involves expanding a program that is already in place. The Pay As You Earn program caps the loan repayments of recent graduates at 10 percent of their monthly disposable income.

“We already have that program in place, but it’s not as widely known as it needs to be, and not as many young people are eligible for it as we want them to be. So we’re going to work to improve on that front,” he explained.

August 26, 2013 | www.bupipedream.com

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Alumn's music recognized POTUS visits BU, BU grad places third in chorale competition hosts town hall forum TOUR continued from Page 1 funding for college after they come out to their parents.

“The programs that we have in place don’t discriminate and shouldn’t discriminate.

And the good news is I think the phenomenon that you just described is likely to happen less and less and less with each successive year,” said President Obama. “So I don’t suspect that we’ll have special laws pertaining to young people who are cut off from support by their parents … but we are going to make sure that all young people get the support that they need so that if their parents aren’t willing to provide them support, and they’re functionally independent, that they’re able to still go to college and succeed.”

Lodge said he wasn’t disappointed with the answer, but would like to see improvements in the future.

“I kind of figured he was going to respond that way, because I knew there wasn’t going to be any funding for anything LGBT directly, but

I was hoping maybe in the future, either he or the next president to spend a little bit more money on a scholarship for people who lose their homes or lose their funding for college because they came out to their parents,” Lodge said.

“Every question was on a germane, appropriate topic. It was well stated, and he was impressed by the questions” — Harvey Stenger BU President

Lodge called the experience of speaking directly to the President of the United States “surreal.”

“I was really nervous,” he said. “As he was talking I listened and was like, ‘Wow, he’s responding to my question, but I don’t remember what I asked.’”

Lodge was one of around 50 students that was selected for special seating right behind the president. Harry Catalani, an undeclared freshman who had been on campus all of two days before the presidential visit, was also selected for special seating.

“It was definitely a memorable experience, my second day of college I got to sit behind the president and be on TV,” he said. “I’m just really grateful that I even had the opportunity.”

Obama also took questions about the future of Head Start programs around the country, funding for forprofit schools, green energy and instances of institutional racism in education.

The town hall meeting was attended by several hundred students, faculty and staff chosen at random from a lottery.

Pipe Dream GIM September 10th&11th 7 pm in UUWB003 Email manager@bupipedream for more information

Tania Rahman Contributing Writer

After studying music his whole life, Binghamton University graduate Christian Martin is reaping the benefits of his lifelong passion.

Martin, who graduated from BU in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in music and is currently studying for a master’s in music composition, entered his piece “The Three Ravens” in the competition held by Corpus Christi Chorale of Texas A&M University.

Upon hearing the news that he had won third place in the competition, Martin said his heart skipped a beat.

“My wife was in the room and when I looked up at her I think she almost knew,” Martin said.

Composing a musical piece can be a very long process.

According to Martin, one must first find a suitable text, a melody and then a harmony.

Martin explained that the melody and texts were captured from a 16th-century Elizabethan folksong.

The composition involves a soft melody, piano chords in the style of a lute in both fast and slow paces. The piano music

disappears and is replaced by the choir three-quarters through the songs, and then the piece ends in a calm, reserved manner by piano. “‘The Three Ravens’ describes the characters in the piece, and through their eyes a number of sad scenes are played out,” he said.

Martin previously placed second in the 2010 Edwin Fissinger competition for his piece “Walls of Glass” and also placed second at a competition in San Jose.

Martin comes from a musically talented family and has been involved with music for as long as he can remember.

He started taking piano lessons when he was five, and he sang in his elementary school choir.

He later attended the Arizona School for the Arts, where students were mandated to play at least two instruments and sing in the choir.

“There were no sports, because no one had time to play them,” he said.

Throughout high school, Martin was a part of a series of different choir groups. He now plays guitar, bass guitar and drums in addition to piano and singing.

At BU, Martin was involved in a number of music groups,

including the Harpur Chorale, University Chorus, Madrigal Choir of Binghamton and the Canterbury Choir.

“I believe that my experience singing in all of these ensembles has helped to develop a strong ‘mind’s ear’ for choral music,” Martin said.

He is inspired to write music by a number of events.

“When I was choosing a text to set for ‘Walls of Glass’ my grandmother was in hospice,” he said. “I came across ‘Sonnet No. 5’ and knew it was the one because of its poetic comparison of the cyclical seasons and the linear human life. I dedicated that piece to her.”

Outside of creating music, Martin also enjoys listening to it. His favorite genres in particular range from bluegrass, such as Nickel Creek, to easy listening by artists like John Mayer and Nora Jones, to classical music.

Martin’s piece will premiere at Texas A&M on Oct. 15th. He will be attending the show with his wife.

“I can’t wait for that beautiful moment when for the first time I hear human voices and breaths in place of harsh, electronically generated ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs,’” Martin said. “It always gives me chills.”

NEWS

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www.bupipedream.com | August 26, 2013

BU celebrates 20th University Fest Festivities return to the "Brain," students disappointed by large crowds, lack of free books

Photos by Franz Lino/Staff Photographer and Kendall Loh/Photo Editor

Thousands of students across campus made their way to the Engineering Building Courtyard on Saturday afternoon, where the 20th annual University Fest was held. Over 200 student clubs were on site, tabling and recruiting new members.

Hayley Shapiro Contributing Writer Students packed into the Lois B. DeFleur Walkway on Saturday to usher in the new school year at Binghamton University’s 20th annual University Fest.

This year’s events included “Shindig at the Fountain” on the Hinman Quad, where there were carnival rides as well as a free concert featuring the band Wild Nothing.

“I like the idea that you can see all the different student organizations,” said Milton Chester, associate dean of students. “It’s a fun festival, the people are happy and the day is gorgeous.”

Student groups tabled between the Student Services

Wing and the New University Union.

University Fest made its return to the Hinman Quad and Lois B. DeFleur Walkway after last year’s event was moved to the East Gym parking lot due to construction. Ian Amman-Rao, a sophomore double-majoring in history and economics, said he is glad it was moved back, but the new location did have some problems.

“It’s a better spot and way more crowded than last year,” Amman-Rao said.

Denise Erani, a senior majoring in business management, agreed that the festival was tightly packed this year.

“I think it would have been better to have the tables spread out a little more so students

could have more space while walking,” Erani said. “But overall it was a good turnout.”

Rachel Laines, a junior majoring in anthropology, said University Fest is a good opportunity for incoming freshmen to find their niche and make new friends.

“It’s a great way for new students to get to know the campus and be involved with clubs, and it’s also a great opportunity to meet people and get more active in the school,” Laines said.

While student organizations and vendors tabled, the new additions to this year’s events included a water park area, giant tricycle rides and a display of over a thousand cupcakes.

Absent from this year’s

festivities was the free book tent, a popular attraction missing from the 20th anniversary celebration.

Andrew Kim, a freshman majoring in engineering, said he enjoyed the large variety of groups and organizations tabling at University Fest.

“What was cool was how diverse it was,” Kim said.

“There were so many options, and in high school you don’t see that.”

Many students said they attended University Fest to take advantage of the weather or those tents designated to giving away free popcorn or cotton candy.

“I came today for free soda and to get out and enjoy the nice weather before we start classes,” said Audrey Russo,

a sophomore majoring in English.

Other students who went to the event were returning attendees.

“It’s my junior year and it has almost become a tradition to go to University Fest,” said Rachel Samuels, a junior majoring in human development.

“It’s weird seeing all of the freshmen, but it’s nice that everyone comes together.”

University Fest even offered a taste of campus life to international students. KeHan Zhu, a freshman majoring in graphic design, smiled as she held up her pixie stick and free water bottle.

“It’s more fun than Chinese universities,” Zhu said.

“It's a great opportunity to meet people and get more active in the school” — Rachel Laines BU junior

Laura Bronstein takes over as interim dean of the CCPA Professor plans to implement changes, quell HDev student dissatisfaction Geoffrey Wilson Assistant News Editor Following Patricia Ingraham’s retirement in June, professor Laura Bronstein has taken over as the interim dean of the College of Community and Public Affairs (CCPA).

Bronstein, formerly the associate dean of CCPA and the current director of the Institute for Intergenerational Studies, came to Binghamton University in 1999 as a human

development professor and helped found BU’s social work program.

She received her Ph.D. in social work from Barry University.

Bronstein said she is optimistic that the skills students gain through CCPA will help them in examining various social problems.

“I look forward to expanding our ability to address social problems that impact our world by maximizing the expertise

of students and professionals coming together from diverse backgrounds, educations, cultures and experiences,” Bronstein wrote in an email.

Bronstein expressed hopes to improve the program using staff input.

“This summer I began meeting individually with faculty and staff to hear their ideas about how to continue the College’s positive growth and potential for new areas of development,” she wrote.

In response to the negative results of a student satisfaction survey conducted last year by students in the human development program, Bronstein said the faculty is introducing changes to improve results.

“The [human development] faculty met last academic year and made several changes to increase course offerings in the senior year, including improving scheduling to better meet student demand and

assigning faculty advisers to all [human development] majors,” Bronstein said.

Changes include the addition of introductory level courses, which are in the planning stage, according to Bronstein.

As interim dean, Bronstein said she hopes to remain receptive to any issues students may find with the program.

“Being responsive to students and valuing continuous improvement is critical to CCPA’s efforts to

give all of our students the best possible experience,” Bronstein wrote.

Bronstein mentioned that she welcomes CCPA students to meet with her and discuss their concerns about the program.

“I am very much an ‘open door’ dean and invite you to come by my office, introduce yourself, let me know what’s going well and where we need to do better to give you the best college experience possible,” Bronstein said.

RELEASE Arts & Entertainment

Four video games for students on the go As busy college students, it's tough to get some gaming in. These games make it possible.

Cameron Wade | Release With the day divided up between classes, homework, jobs and drinking, getting some free time to play a game becomes pretty difficult — especially difficult if that game has complex controls and systems and requires hours of play to make significant progress. When you’ve only got a few minutes between classes or before work, playing those kind of games might not be the best way to spend them.

To help maximize your limited amount of time, here are four great (and cheap) games that are easy to play and make progress in with just a few minutes.

“Rogue Legacy” (PC, 2013) An indie game homage to classic action platformers, “Rogue Legacy” has you play as a knight trying to traverse four unique, interconnected areas, defeat the boss located in each and then take on the big baddie at the end of the castle. The catch is that you are guaranteed to die — a lot. While your character’s death is permanent, their stats, money, weapons and armor are passed onto an heir, who you choose from a randomly generated set of three. You can use any money you collected in your previous life to permanently level up your stats, weapons and armor and then take another run at the castle. It’s “Mega Man” by way of “Infinity Blade.”

The castle’s layout is randomly generated each time you start a new character, so the game’s environments never get old. The simple controls (you basically need three buttons: jump, attack and magic) and constant character progression keep the game from getting frustrating, and

because of the game’s difficulty, most characters won’t live past 15 minutes, making “Rogue Legacy” perfect in short bursts.

“Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time” (iOS, 2013) The original “Plants vs. Zombies,” with its simple-to-learn, hard-tomaster tower defense gameplay, is back with three new worlds, more plant types and a whole host of mini games and bonus challenges. While the game is free to download, some of the plants from the original game are blocked behind a pay wall, and real money can be used to buy in-game coins.

As a horde of zombies approaches, you must use a variety of weaponized plants to take them out. Sunflowers absorb the Sun’s energy so you can buy more plants, cabbage-pults hurl cabbages at zombies, and bok choy punch anything that gets too close.

There’s no tedious management of resources, and the sheer variety in the plant and zombie types allows for a number of different strategies.

The game’s three worlds (Ancient Egypt, Pirate Seas and Wild West) each contain 10 campaign missions and a litany of unlockable optional missions. Whether you win or lose, none of the levels last longer than a few minutes, so it’s easy to make multiple attempts at a level in just a short amount of time.

“Super Meat Boy” (PC, Xbox 360, 2010) This 2D platformer is almost legendary for its difficulty. Death comes frequently and quickly, and the game knows it too. Once you finally beat a level, the game replays all of your previous attempts and deaths at the same time so you can see just how

badly and how often you failed. But the precise controls may be the best in the genre, and the gameplay is as simple as it gets.

But it’s “Super Meat Boy’s” difficulty that makes it perfect for squeezing in a level or two when you’ve got the chance (especially during the easier, early stages of the game). Time-wise, most levels are extremely short. Meat Boy doesn’t have very far to go to rescue his damsel in distress. If you do know how to get through a level without being splattered, most levels would take less than a minute. On the other hand, if you find yourself dying over and over, you won’t spend most of your time playing just looking at a respawn screen. The game instantly restarts the level the second you die, so you can make multiple attempts in just a short amount of time.

“Mirror’s Edge” (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, iOS, 2008) While the other games on this list are smaller games, Mirror’s Edge is a full-blown AAA title. Set in a future dystopian city where all electronic communication is monitored by the government — what a far fetched setup — an underground resistance movement uses “runners” to relay messages the old-fashioned way.

The story in “Mirror’s Edge” isn’t that important. It’s a first-person parkour/action game where you run across rooftops, leap between buildings and use wall runs to evade the police and reach your destination.

The feeling of speed and movement is incredible. Thanks to a unique and surprisingly intuitive control scheme (L1/LB jumps and L2/LT slides), being able to maneuver through an environment with ease is incredibly satisfying in first-person.

Take Writing 111 ourages and enc y it v ti a cre ke it. quashes g 111 s hy you should ta says: personal, in it r W : w es It’s true ing. But here’s f three ’ll have posed o ter, you rit s m w e o c m ic e s la y u ll e itations. sica form end of th luding c ss is ba The cla esearch. By the writing, not inc e “joint” Gen siv s of and r g the elu nd oral ced page opinion uble-spa ticket to fulfillin composition a o d 0 2 t abou both your unts for o ages are Those p ment, which co d this to ldn’t fin ire d u u a o q M h e s r f o e d r e E gam on. ut the te ti o a a r ic ts o n b n n e u la a d tu an e nces d comm anities s feel like in sente ll fi the to The hum lass will often need k to do ere you t of wor ticularly . The c h lo lt w u a c ic e fi r k if b d r ta ru ’t be pa de and . It can sed on a shouldn of words ra Libs, ba g it d a t A te u g s b in in , g y hs sa -han w lo e n’t mean paragrap earch for an es s th e o lass d d take s c n e a r o nt , tr r k e r in p o o n pr is a g assista the w r teachin , believe ause this . Put in c u e o b Y t . s g ju difficult d in it o, an n Ed. Als ything about wr umanities field n you do. joint Ge h a an a th n e r m c a o n le fr ie ’t e nt exper g in you won e a Ph.D. stude , with th it d r n w a more elpful d ly b e h e n v a k a e li b h n l r n ly il a a w certain iting c y to le r l it il w n w tu to r t, h o o it or n are opp approac r it. o-basics ou’ll have the r nd get credit fo midated.

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Kendall Loh/Photo Editor

Since the game’s emphasis is on the real fun is trying to complete the speed, it’s a natural fit for short game levels in the shortest amount of time sessions. The first time through the possible. game, each level is about 45 minutes long, not counting cutscenes, but

Fresh Shouldman Point / Count you w erpoin rite of t: f Writi ng 111?

vs

Don't Take Writing 111 Writing is important. Being able to write well is essential regardless of your major, so yeah, we should all be required to take a writing class. That being said, Writing 111 is not that class. Writing 111 is a good idea in theory; it’s a great way to meet freshmen, and it’s still better than other undergraduate courses.

But Writing 111 has some serious flaws. First, students can just reuse their college admission essays. A ton of my friends did it, and they were the ones who did the best in the class. Also, your final portfolio — the three pieces you choose to be graded — is assessed by a group of Writing 111 teachers, not just your teacher.

So there’s a good chance that your teacher could be an easy grader, giving As for your pieces individually, but when your final portfolio is graded by the collective, you may be in for a shock. And on the subject of instructors, you could be assigned literally anyone for Writing 111, from associate professor Al Vos to a graduate student with no teaching experience. It’s an unpredictable class, and during such an impressionable time as freshman year, it’s a flawed course.

Darian Lusk | Release

8

The first weekend has come and gone. You’ve familiarized yourself with Downtown Bingh reputation (it’s fine. We’re all embarrassed for you). Enjoy cringing as you flash

hamton (the floor of the Rat), you’ve made new “friends” and you already have an exciting h back during syllabus week, get your shit together and do better next weekend.

9

Photos by Kendall Loh, Photo Editor

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OPINION

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Dear Mr. President,

F

ollowing the example of our university president, Harvey Stenger, we chose to frame our editorial in response to your visit as a letter.

As the fanfare and euphoria subside following your town hall meeting in the Mandela Room, we are left with several tough questions in response to your plan for affordable education.

We think it’s great that you’re focusing on higher education’s importance and needs. It’s even more meaningful that you chose Binghamton University to call for student and faculty input on your plan for improving affordability.

But we have serious apprehensions about your plan for the future of higher education.

What we love and believe in about Binghamton, and the university as an entity, is that it encourages thought, creativity and academic exploration. Your plan, as we understand it, would compile a ranking of universities based on graduation rates, retention rates, affordability and hire-ability, among other factors. As Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stated, graduation rates are your “North Star” for this plan, given the importance of a college education for young people. But pushing students toward online learning and fast degrees risks jeopardizing

classical liberal arts values and calls into question what the real role of an institution of higher education should be.

President Stenger expressed similar apprehension about a rating system centered around dry, quantifiable measurements. His analogy, with which we wholeheartedly agree, uses the labels on food.

“In the grocery store, the candy bars are labeled and the frozen peas are labeled,” Stenger explained in an interview. “They use the same measurements and the same techniques to measure calories and nutrients, but they don’t tell you which is good and which is bad.”

While making a university’s “nutrition facts” accessible to students is important, a student’s decision about where to attend college should be based on more than just an arbitrary ranked list.

Learning for the sake of learning, personal growth and intellectual expansion are the hallmarks of the ideal liberal arts experience.

These are values you cannot quantify, measure or detect in any university’s stats. More so, we are not confident greater governmental involvement

in the world of academia, outside of a funding framework, is what we want.

Graduation rates and hire-ability are admittedly serious concerns, especially given our extant economic climate. Still, we ought to be wary of letting post-recession employment and economic anxieties dilute the core of our identity as a liberal arts institution.

In a lot of ways, Binghamton exemplifies the cause of public education. And we’ve been doing pretty well when it comes to dealing with the tension between cherishing liberal arts values and grasping economic reality. We fear that standardizing expectations for universities will turn Binghamton, and other public universities like ours, into degree-granting factories.

We’re honored that you came here and listened to what we had to say. Now, we have faith that you’ll take these suggestions to heart as you finalize your plan.

Good luck to you, Mr. President, and thanks for coming in.

Sincerely, The Editorial Board

Views expressed in the opinion pages represent the opinions of the columnists.

The only piece which represents the views of the Pipe Dream Editorial Board is the Staff Editorial, above. The Editorial Board is composed of the Editor-in-Chief, News Editor, Opinion Editor, Sports Editor, and Release Editor.

College Relationships 101: dating, doing and ditching Single or taken, interested or not, six pieces of advice for students new and old College isn’t a movie. You might not know what to expect from relationships in college, but don’t look to movies for realistic examples.

Honestly, I don’t think anyone could pull off being Elle Woods or Van Wilder and expect to get away with it.

Jake Lewis Sex Columnist

To make it a little easier in the beginning of college, I have a list of suggestions regarding how to deal with potential love interests, even if they end up lasting for only a night.

Whether or not you choose to follow these recommendations is up to you.

1) Zero Expectation Principle: Seriously, have zero expectations.

Your siblings, friends, even your

parents (sorry Mom and Dad) may talk about college as the best time of their lives. They might speak of all their hook-ups, about meeting their true love there; I’ve heard the full gambit.

The thing to remember is that they aren’t you and you aren’t them. You’re not going to have their experience, you’re going to have your own. Don’t think you have to find someone or hook up by a certain time. This is your journey; don’t let someone else pave the way.

2) Cast a Wide Net: Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. I know a surprising amount of people who want to be married by 22, and thus put unnecessary pressure on themselves to find someone and stick with them right from the get-go. That’s a mistake. College campuses don’t encompass the entire population, so if you can’t find someone in four years, who cares?

3) Friendship ≠ Relationship: On the same token, don’t let

relationships run your life, especially if you’re coming into college with an established relationship. Make your friends separate from that significant other; it doesn’t mean they’re any less important to you. You’re an individual, and you should be treated by them, others and yourself as such.

4) Distance Decision: Can you handle being with someone who lives far away? This sounds crazy if you don’t want a relationship but I think it’s something that’s easy to do and have in your back pocket. With technology ever improving, people start long-distance relationships more and more. One of my best friends is dating someone who lives in Florida while she lives in New York. Some people can handle it and some people can’t. Instead of letting yourself flipflop over it, decide for yourself if it’s something you could handle so you know if it’s OK to pursue or not.

5) Safety First: Sorry to any parents who read this, but I have to

say it, even if only for my conscience.

No matter what you do, make sure you do it safely. I shouldn’t need to get into semantics much because I’m sure you’ve heard it all, but if not: safe sex is great sex, better wear a latex because you don’t want a late text.

Nobody wants the “I’m late” text.

6) Your #1 Relationship: Time for me to wrap up in a way that will make you want to crown me Miss America.

Your numero uno in college and in life should always be yourself. Seriously.

Everyone else will come and go but at the end of the day the one person you will always fall asleep with is you. The best advice I can give is to use college as a time to develop that relationship.

Buy yourself a couple of drinks and really get to know yourself. It’ll be worth it.

— Jake Lewis is a senior majoring in English.

August 26, 2013 | www.bupipedream.com

OPINION

Information violations and personal freedom Distrust governmental privacy invasions in the name of security Since the advent of communications technology, elite groups have manipulated the system to their advantage. For instance, in ancient Egypt, the entire system of writing was developed in hierarchical fashion so that only highly educated priests could understand it. In medieval Europe, the Holy Gospel itself was not fit for mass consumption, and only the ordained were allowed to study and interpret it for the common people.

Even the printing press facilitated a standardization of ideas, validating only the “printed word.” In the 21st century, the Internet is under attack. Knowledge is once again vulnerable to monopolization by the powerful.

Molly McGrath Columnist

On Aug. 19, U.K. intelligence officials raided the offices of The Guardian newspaper in London, destroying documents provided by former National Security Agency official Edward Snowden.

The reasoning of the intelligence officials who destroyed the materials was that The Guardian “had its debate and it was time to stop.” The partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald was unlawfully held and questioned for hours in connection to the

recent stream of articles.

Throughout the summer, the United States government worked tirelessly to paint Edward Snowden as an opportunist and a traitor who put the security of our country in jeopardy. Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority approved the use of domestic drones for aerial surveillance, and Congress rejected limits on National Security Agency data mining. The imbalance of knowledge between citizens and U.S. intelligence agencies is startling. At this rate, we will soon be living in a police state in which the government has access to all of our personal information, while we aren’t entitled to a debate about abuses of power.

This monopolization of information is characteristic of a fascist state, not a thriving democracy.

Given recent developments, we must reconsider the concept of “security.”

Whose security are we really preserving through domestic drone surveillance? It’s certainly not the security of the average American, if a suspicious Internet search leads to a suspension of rights guaranteed by the Constitution, a reasonable expectation of privacy. Almost any Internet activity can be monitored under the NSA PRISM program. This method of information hoarding doesn’t protect civilians; it protects the Pentagon. We must strike a balance between “protection” and silencing of dissident voices.

The Internet isn’t merely a source of hilarious cat videos, it’s a leveling force. As

people around the world learn how to use the technology, it becomes more difficult for those in power to maintain control.

In order to prevent the dissemination of truth, governments are claiming a monopoly of information and telling us it is for our own good. Transparency is spun as “traitorous.” In addition, four companies (Google, Apple, Microsoft and Yahoo) control how we use the Internet and don’t advocate for protection of our privacy, selling our information to private marketers.

This monopolization of information is characteristic of a facist state While the Internet gives us great access to knowledge, our personal information is offered to both private and government organizations on a silver platter. We cannot sit back idly and allow the most revolutionary communications technology in history to be usurped by those who do not have our interests in mind.

— Molly McGrath is a junior doublemajoring in history and political science.

Drone warfare's ethical and legal dangers Military might as moral right, Syria, drones and beyond

On Aug. 21, it was reported that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces may have used chemical weapons in Damascus, killing 1,300 people, many of whom were civilians. The death of so many all at once, even in a war that according to the U.N. has killed at least 90,000, is as tragic as it is repulsive to our sense of justice: How could a man whose titular mandate is to protect his country slaughter his own people with such impunity?

Ezra Shapiro Columnist

On Aug. 18, reports came out of Yemen that Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), or drones, have killed 40 people in the country in the past three weeks. In the wake of President Barack Obama’s recent speech, which claims that his administration would be more discriminating when carrying out drone strikes, doesn’t the death of 40 people in three weeks prove that his rhetoric of restraint was an empty promise?

More worryingly, don’t the deaths of Anwar al-Awlaki and his son (both of whom were American citizens) set a dangerous precedent? Could drones be obliterating Americans on American soil before receiving their Fourth Amendmentmandated day in court? Drones, it seems, are an affront to our sense of patriotism and our sense of honor. They are maybe even counterproductive to the prosecution of the War on Terror; drone strikes reportedly provide fodder for those looking to recruit for al-Qaida and other

terrorist organizations.

In both cases, as is so often true, dichotomy is dangerous. The use of UAVs has been subject to a more nuanced debate than has al-Assad, though revelations of the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance may make us yet more wary about the government’s potential to abuse power, lethal or nonlethal. Assad, though, has been cast as a monster. And it’s true: The man, like his father, is a ruthless autocrat committed to preserving his power at any cost. To do that, he has killed tens of thousands and should be condemned for doing so.

But in both cases, insufficient attention has been paid to the other side.

Assad is not a good man, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that the opposition is not some paragon of democracy. The al-Nusra Front, now the most powerful rebel faction, flies the Islamic flag and has pledged its allegiance to al-Qaida.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), another powerful rebel faction, is also committed to al-Qaida and the implementation of Sharia Law in Syria.

Even the Free Syrian Army, a group that started out as secular, is now dominated by fundamentalists.

Does a drone do a better job, all things considered, than a ground invasion would?

Say what you will about Assad, but under him Shiites, Muslims and Christians lived side by side in relative peace. So too, women enjoyed rights

Get your voice heard.

afforded to them precious elsewhere in the Middle East. Assad was no liberal, and the rights he doled out were nothing more than largesse to buy acquiescence, but next to al-Nusra and ISIS he seems almost tolerant. Looking at Libya, Egypt or Iraq, it should be obvious that punting one bad man out of power is hardly a panacea, and in fact more die in the ensuing chaos than under dictatorial rule.

Turning back to UAVs, what should be at the forefront of our minds is not whether drones will start raining down missiles in New York or Boston. Instead, what we should be asking ourselves is: Does a drone do a better job, all things considered, than a ground invasion in Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia or Afghanistan would? The answer is an obvious, resounding “yes.” Drones cost nothing compared to fighter jets, tanks and troops.

In human costs, both civilian deaths and the deaths of our own soldiers are far lower than they would be in a ground invasion.

And regardless of whether the drone is a useful symbol of American imperialism for terrorist recruiters, you’d better believe that there is no shortage of people in the world who hate America and want to harm it. Drones’ efficacy for recruiting is marginal — what’s 100 more recruits to a cause that already has hundreds of thousands?

It is, of course, impossible to know the counterfactual. But looking at the Middle Eastern countries now absent of any rule, and looking at the toll a decade of war took on American lives, it’s safe to take a guess.

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From your mistakes shall you grow Lessons from transferring out before coming right back home Coming to college from high school, I had no idea what I was doing. I chose Binghamton University because it was really green; my standards for schools were pretty high back then.

I also chose an out-of-state college because no one from my high school was going there. I come from a small town outside of Philadelphia, and I was so glad to leave the state … or so I thought.

Jess Connor Contributing Columnist

Freshman year was awesome, but I was so lost. Everything was so new and thrust upon me. How was I going to finish 20-page papers for classes like “Latinos in the United States” and “Asian-American Studies”?

How come everyone at home looked like they were having way more fun than me? How was I supposed to know if my major was the right one for me?

I quickly changed my major to education and told all of my friends I was coming back to Philadelphia and headed to Temple University.

Though I do not regret my fall sophomore semester at Temple, I quickly learned that Temple and I did not agree. I didn’t really enjoy the feeling of a possible mugging at 10 p.m. while walking home from the library — and who really does? So, for the second time in less than a year, I called up my mom and dad to tell them that I wanted to transfer. Again. While I could just hear them rolling their eyes over the phone,

my loving parents OK’d the transfer back to Binghamton, but not without the heaviest of parental sighs.

Though it took a while, in my junior year I finally figured out what I want out of college and out of my life. It took trying out different friends, classes, majors and even universities for me to finally figure out what I want to do. This clarity and direction is the relief I had been looking for since freshman year.

In the end, I think that is what college is all about. It’s about finding out that there are other people (like you) who have no idea what they want out of life. There are freshmen who don’t know, and there are seniors and super seniors who still have no idea what they are doing. It is going to be OK. You could be like me and transfer in and out of schools and still have no idea! We all screw up, but the best part is, we learn from screwing up.

This applies to everyone of every age. It often takes getting out of your comfort zone to realize what you are good at. If you think taking “Humans vs.

Zombies” sounds fun, do it! If you think you could be decent at acting, try out for the play!

If you want to change your life plans three times, go for it. What’s the worst that could happen? Growing up is about getting out of your comfort zone and realizing that you can do things by yourself and not screw up. Let college be your safety net for growing up.

Then, sit back, be yourself and the rest will come in time.

— Jess Connor is a senior double-majoring in creative writing and global culture.

PIPE DREAM

GENERAL INTEREST MEETING Pipe Dream Office WB03 September 10th & 11th @ 7PM

— Ezra Shapiro is a senior doublemajoring in history and political science.

The Opinion section is seeking witty, creative and dedicated writers to join the ranks of storied columnists at Pipe Dream. We're looking for your take on issues that concern our school, our society, and our world. This is your opportunity to reach thousands of people — why not take it?

Join the conversation Come to our GIM or contact Opinion Editor Michael Snow at opinion@bupipedream.com for more information!

www.bupipedream.com | August 26, 2013

SPORTS

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Dettmann, Vickers ready to help Binghamton defend title Despite winning 2012 America East championship, Bearcats picked second in preseason coaches poll Ari Kramer Sports Editor Despite returning several players from last year’s America East championship squad, the Binghamton volleyball team finds itself in an underdog role.

The Bearcats, who finished the 2012 season with a 13-18 record, were tabbed at No. 2 in the America East preseason poll behind University at Albany.

“It doesn’t really matter what we start as, it’s how we finish,” said Amanda Dettman, junior setter. “So it’s just a little extra fire under us now and we’re just ready to do it again.”

Dettmann, who earned America East Co-Setter of the Year honors as a sophomore, led the league with 1,099 assists and helped Binghamton to a conference-best .255 hitting percentage. With five freshmen on this year’s roster, she and the other upperclassmen will be asked for a different kind of assist.

“They’ve sort of taken [the freshmen] under their wing and have been very helpful in trying to teach them our systems and our defense,” head coach Glenn Kiriyama said.

“The returners are really experienced, and we’re hoping they’ll provide the leadership throughout the year for us.”

Kiriyama said that hitters Bianca Anderson and Allison Hovie have been the most impressive freshmen thus far. He said that he has never

weeks leading up to the America East slate. Binghamton struggled to a 3-12 mark in non-conference play last year.

This time around, Kiriyama’s squad tips off the season against St. John’s University on Aug. 30 at the Colgate Classic. Binghamton will also compete in tournaments at North Carolina State University and Columbia University before hosting Siena College on Sept.

17. The Bearcats, who will conclude non-conference play at Kent State University’s Golden Flashes Classic Sept. 20-21, will visit Albany on Sept.

29 for the conference opener and a rematch of last year’s America East championship.

The Bearcats swept the Great Danes to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament, where they fell to volleyball powerhouse Penn State University in straight sets.

But before they can return to the NCAAs, the defending conference champions need to capture the America East title.

“Obviously our goal is to make — Amanda Dettmann Junior setter the conference tournament and once we’re there, we reevaluate our goals,” Vickers said. “Everyone wants to win Senior middle hitter and captain but I think that it’s a good mentality.

Grace Vickers is one of those It’s a thing that we take by the horns returners. A 2012 all-conference first and just go for it and do our best every team selection, Vickers finished third day.”

Binghamton’s season opener on the team with 283 kills. Junior outside hitter Kristin Hovie recorded against St. John’s is set for 1 p.m.

351 kills last year, a team-high among on Aug. 30 at Cotterell Court in Hamilton, N.Y. returning players.

As they did last season, the Bearcats will play in several tournaments in the recruited a player with Anderson’s level of athleticism to Binghamton, while Hovie has displayed an allaround skill set.

Early on, though, Kiriyama will need to find the right mix.

“I think my biggest worry is actually the newcomers and where they’re going to fit in and what sort of role they’re going to play,” the twotime America East Coach of the Year said. “The returners we sort of know, but I think there might be a couple of changes here and there and we’re still working it out.”

“It doesn’t really matter what we start as, it’s how we finish”

Photo Provided

Junior setter Amanda Dettmann led the America East in assists in 2012 en route to earning Co-Setter of the Year honors.

X-country gears up for 2013 season Bearcats set to host seasonopening pre-conference meet Erik Bacharach Assistant Sports Editor In order to capitalize on hosting the America East championship this year, the Binghamton men’s cross country team will have to rely upon its veterans for leadership, while the women’s squad will have to depend on its youthful energy.

The nine-team championship meet is scheduled to take place on Nov. 2 on BU’s home course, which starts and finishes behind the East Gym and includes much of the Binghamton Nature Preserve.

The Bearcats have not hosted the event since 2005.

Last season, Stony Brook University and University of New Hampshire finished first and second, respectively, in the conference in both men’s and women’s.

“We’re certainly excited for the season this year,” Binghamton head coach Annette Acuff said.

“We’re hosting the America East championships, so that’s exciting for both of our programs.”

The men’s team includes 13 upperclassmen, providing the Bearcats with an abundance of experienced runners. Acuff believes that her team’s depth will be a crucial factor in the Bearcats’ goal of finishing in the top three in the conference after a slew of injuries led to a sixth-place finish in 2012.

“I think with the men’s team, our goals this year are to try and place ourselves back into the top three in the conference,” Acuff said. “I think we’ve got a good opportunity to be able to do that.”

A few of Binghamton’s top returners include senior Vasili Papastrat, graduate student Jeff Martinez and juniors Cal

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Michaels, Jesse Garn and Matt Johnson.

“We’d just like to reestablish ourselves in the conference,” Papastrat said. “We’re not looking to go out there and just blow everyone away and take the title at home. Of course, that’d be great. But we’re looking to get like top three and just be pretty modest with our goals.”

On the women’s side, eight underclassmen and only three upperclassmen make up a Bearcats team on the rise.

“We’ve got a really young team but a lot of maturity, I think, and a lot of the girls have had a good summer,” Acuff said. “We’re looking forward to improving upon how we did last year.”

After a fifth-place result last season, the Bearcats, armed with a bunch of new, fresh legs, are poised to better that in 2013. “[Last year] was a little bit of an improvement for us,” Acuff said. “We’ve got a real strong newcomer, Eileen O’Hara, who was one of the top high school seniors from last year in New York state. So I think you’ll see her in our top five for sure, if we can keep her healthy.”

Injuries, according to Acuff, were the team’s Achilles’ heel in 2012.

“We struggled for whatever reasons last year with some injuries,” Acuff said. “That’s been the number one goal … is just to try and keep everyone healthy. I think we’ll do the best job that we can and just make sure that we can train smart and that we’re doing the right things day in and day out and taking it one day at a time.”

The 2013 season is set to kick off at 11 a.m. on Sept. 7 when Binghamton hosts the America East Pre-Conference Meet.

August 26, 2013 | www.bupipedream.com

SPORTS

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AE coaches have low expectations for Keegan-less BU Moon: "One player is not going to magically start producing goals...It's going to be a total team effort" Ashley Purdy Assistant Sports Editor A year removed from a sixth-place finish and a heartwrenching quarterfinals loss, the Binghamton men’s soccer team placed seventh in the America East preseason poll. University of Maryland, Baltimore County, which has won two of the last three conference titles, snagged first as the unanimous favorite in the preseason poll.

The Bearcats graduated several key players last spring, most notably Jake Keegan, who scored 11 of Binghamton’s 24 goals, tallied a team-high 57 shots and notched four assists before being drafted by the Philadelphia Union in the Major League Soccer Supplemental Draft in January.

Other graduated starters include Adam Whitehead, who recorded three goals and a team-high seven assists during his senior year, and Trey Jasenski.

“We certainly graduated a few great players,” Binghamton head coach Paul Marco said. “Replacing Jake Keegan will be very difficult.

I don’t think you can do that in one player, certainly not one new

BU vs.

Virginia Tech DATE

Aug. 30 LOCATION

University Park TIME

5:00 p.m.

freshman.”

Still, the team will return 13 letter winners and five starters, including senior back Robbie Hughes, senior midfielder Tommy Moon and junior forward Steven Celeste. Hughes recorded two goals and two assists last year, and Marco listed him along with Moon, junior midfielder Ben Nicholson and a few others as an emerging leader on the team.

Moon, described as “terrific”

by Marco, played in all 18 games and notched three assists and one goal. Celeste put away three goals, coming in a tie for second after Keegan’s 11.

These veterans, as well as the rest of the team, will have to pull together to fill Keegan’s void if the team wants to prove the preseason poll wrong. “[Scoring is] not going to come from one player,” Moon said. “One player is not going to magically start producing goals.

It’s going to be bits and pieces from here and there, it’s going to be a total team effort, and I think if everybody can help out, it’ll be huge.”

In order to achieve such a goal, the more experienced players will have to guide the team’s newest recruits — all nine of them.

Despite a roster largely filled by freshmen, Marco claims that nothing has changed in terms of the team’s goals.

“Every year at Binghamton we try to play in championships and this is no exception,” he said. “I know that everyone outside our circle will ask us how will you do that with such a young team and inexperience even with the returning players and the lack of

minutes that they’ve played, but I really think that this group can go far.”

Marco also intimated that this particular group is the closest that he has had in a very long time.

Nicholson echoed the sentiment and added that the quick bonding bodes well for the future.

Looking forward, the team has begun to string itself together, having worked on its attack and finding ways to penetrate its opponents during the spring and now drilling its defense during training camp.

Additionally, with AE allrookie selection Stefano Frantellizzi returning in goal and the addition of Robert Moewes, goalkeeping also looks sharp.

Meanwhile, Hughes credited the freshmen for their tenacity and skill and said that he believes the strength will be up the middle, between the center backs and center midfielders.

Whatever they may be, the Bearcats will be able to put these strengths to the test in their first game, set for Friday against Virginia Tech as part of the James Madison University Tournament.

The team will continue in nonconference play in the George Mason University Tournament at George Mason Stadium, through Sept.

6-8.

Non-conference matches will culminate on Oct. 1 against Syracuse University at SU Soccer Stadium. Conference matches will start up against University of Vermont on Oct. 5 and continue until Nov. 6.

Binghamton’s season opener against Virginia Tech is set for 5 p.m Friday at JMU’s University Park.

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Senior midfielder Tommy Moon looks to be a key player in Binghamton’s first season out of the Jake Keegan era.

Inexperienced Bearcats look for return to AE tournament Picked seventh in preseason poll, Binghamton approaches season with expectation to win Erik Bacharach and Ashley Purdy Assistant Sports Editors

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On a young team, senior midfielder Emma Kurth’s leadership will be crucial to the Bearcats’ success.

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Most teams that lose seven starters enter a rebuilding phase. Binghamton women’s soccer head coach Sarah McClellan, however, thinks her young and inexperienced squad has the pieces to compete for a postseason spot a year after the Bearcats fell short of the conference tournament.

“We do have a very young squad and that’s an exciting thing because there’s a lot of energy there,” she said.

“The players are sponges, they want to try to implement to their game all our tactics and it does take a little bit of time so we have to stay positive and not get frustrated with any mistakes and not be afraid to make mistakes while we continue to progress.”

Co-captains junior Connie Gormley and senior Emma Kurth return to anchor the middle, while seniors Carrie Martin and Stephanie Speirs return in goal.

According to Gormley, this year’s team will need to spread the ball as much as possible if they want to be successful.

“We’re such a big team so we like to play the ball around,” Gormley said. “We don’t really try and focus on one player.

It’s more everybody gets in and out, we like to sub-in and get as many people onto the ball as we can and have as many people do as much as they can.”

Kurth is joined in the middle by junior Emily Nuss and sophomore Rebecca Raber, whose significant playing time last season could pay dividends

this year.

All three forward starters from last season have graduated, creating larger roles for sophomore Katherine Corcoran and seniors Kaitlyn Martin and Conor O’Brien, who will fill their spots.

“I feel very confident in our team’s abilities,” Martin said. “Even though they’re young, they’re very willing to learn, very excited to learn; and so taking that, they’re willing to learning and the learning curve that they have, I think that’s going to take us very far.

In the coaches preseason poll, Hartford University, which finished 11-53 last season, was picked as the favorite.

Stony Brook University, the reigning conference champion, was tabbed to finish second. After falling one game short of the America East tournament with a 2-5-1 conference record in 2012, Binghamton placed seventh in the poll.

“We obviously know. We see it and it’s in the back of our minds,” Kurth said about the preseason poll. “But at the same time, it’s not going to affect how we think. We’re going into the season with the expectation to win and where people put us isn’t going to change that.”

The Bearcats began their 17-game slate at 1 p.m. on Sunday against Siena College at Siena Field in one of three consecutive away games. Siena forward Andrea Pereira netted the game-winner in the 70th minute, leading the Saints (2-0) to a 2-1 win over Binghamton (0-1).

The Saints scored first, just nine minutes into the game, after midfielder Kayla Mancusi broke free down the

middle and got the ball to forward Taylor D’Alfonso, who found the net inside the far right post.

Binghamton answered 13 minutes later with a goal of its own, delivered by Martin, with Kurth and freshman back Allison Mack assisting. The Bearcats won possession in tight defense after an airborne ball sailed down the field.

Martin then popped the ball over the goalkeeper for Binghamton’s lone point.

FINAL SCORE

1

2 Siena narrowly outshot Binghamton, 11-10, and BU junior Gaby Gold collected five saves in the second half alone. Siena accumulated five saves in all.

The Bearcats now look forward to nine non-conference contests before heading into eight America East matchups beginning at New Hampshire on Sept. 29.

Binghamton is set to return to action at Manhattan College. Play is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Friday at Gaelic Park in Bronx, N.Y.

Or better yet, Come to our GIMs Tuesday, September 10th and Wednesday, September 11th 7 pm UUWB003

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Bearcats determined to defend title Page 14

August 26, 2013

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Jake Keegan, who graduated as Binghamton’s most decorated soccer player since the program transitioned to Division I, spent last season playing professionally overseas.

KEEGAN chasing DREAM Keegan set for season in Germany, still hopes for shot at MLS Erik Bacharach Assistant Sports Editor In his first eight months after graduating from Binghamton, Jake Keegan has already played with professional soccer teams in Israel, Austria and Germany.

He’s still fighting to live out his childhood dream, but the experiences he’s encountered in his pursuit of it have made that journey seem more like a ride.

“Growing up, my dream was not to play for some big team in Europe or anything like that. That just seemed too far away at the time,” Keegan said.

“My dream was to play in Major League Soccer.”

After an historic collegiate career at Binghamton University that concluded with 28 goals and 69 points, both records for the program’s 12year Division I era, Keegan was selected in the third round of the 2013 MLS Supplemental Draft by the Philadelphia Union. In doing so, he became the first Bearcat ever to be drafted by a Major League Soccer club.

But when the excitement of being drafted into MLS settled and Keegan reevaluated

his options, he chose to go overseas. Putting his dream on the back burner wasn’t a decision that came easily, but Keegan said the opportunity to try out for Maccabi Haifa F.C., one of the biggest teams in Israel’s top soccer league, was “just too good to pass up.”

“I really enjoyed my time in Israel,” Keegan said. “Everyone within the city lived and breathed Maccabi Haifa.”

While Maccabi Haifa didn’t offer him a contract, Keegan was exposed to a higher level of play in Israel and was able to improve his game.

From there, Keegan trained with FC Lustenau, a team in Austria’s lower league, before returning to the United States to play with Jersey Express S.C. over the summer. The Newarkbased amateur team is part of the Premier Development League, the top-level amateur soccer competition in the United States.

Now, Keegan is signed with FCA Darmstadt in Germany.

“From a soccer standpoint, I enjoy the style of play [in Germany] more than in Israel,” Keegan said. “In Israel, the game was slower and much more possession-based.

Here, the game is faster and

more direct while at the same time valuing possession. As a striker, I like when the game is played at a fast pace. It wears the defenders down and allows for more chances and hopefully more goals.”

At 5 feet 9 inches and 150 lbs., Keegan has never been one of the biggest players on any roster, and yet he’s always a major threat to the defense whenever he steps on the pitch.

In lieu of his size, Keegan has used his soccer instincts and his anticipation skills to be at the right place at the right time as often as possible.

“I am not necessarily the biggest or strongest player on the field, but I feel my biggest strength on the field is my movement,” Keegan said. “I have a good sense on where to move next on the field in order to create a chance on goal.”

Binghamton soccer head coach Paul Marco, who recruited Keegan to BU while he was a student at John Jay High School in Stormville, N.Y., attributed Keegan’s success to his relentless work ethic and his “knack for finding the back of the net.”

“The honors and awards that [Keegan] won last year were great and it came directly

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from who he was throughout his time with us,” Marco said.

“But more importantly, during matches, he was a guy we could rely on to get goals … For Jake, we’re delighted. We’re very impressed with all he’s accomplished and he still has a lot to do.”

Still less than a year removed from Binghamton, Keegan recalls his time in the green and white as the most important period in his soccer career. While Marco recruited Keegan out of high school based on his raw talent, Keegan found his identity as a player while at Binghamton and proved he was capable of leading a team.

“My career at Binghamton helped me grow both as a player and a person,” Keegan said. “I cannot thank Coach Marco enough for the belief he had in me. From day one as a freshman he had 100 percent belief in my abilities as a player. This did wonders for my belief in myself, which is vital in the professional game where each day your self-belief is put to the test.”

While Keegan still has a long way to go to realize his childhood dream of breaking into MLS, many of

his travel experiences keep him reminiscing of when he was younger and an aspiring professional soccer player.

“At Maccabi Haifa I had the opportunity to train with a player who walked out as the opposite captain to Steven Gerrard in the Champions League,” Keegan said. “I also had the chance to watch Borussia Dortmund [Germany] play and was 10 feet away from Robert Lewandowski and Marco Reus.”

Still, Keegan realizes it’s important to distinguish his childhood dreams from his current goals. The allure of one day playing in MLS remains “a special opportunity” in Keegan’s eyes, but for now, he’s taking it one step at a time and getting the most out of each stop along the way.

“My goal has always been to improve each day and do everything I can to reach my potential as a player,” Keegan said. “In that sense, I have accomplished my goals. With that being said, there are also goals that I made for myself that I did not accomplish in the past eight months. The good news is there is still time left in my career to make up for it.”

"There are also

goals that I made for myself that I did not accomplish in the past eight months. The good news is there is still time left in my career to make up for it" - Jake Keegan Former BU soccer player

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