Pipe Dream and the student body shares their love with ehart filled valentines. See Page 2
Shake it out The Harlem Shake...what does that even mean? See page 7
PIPE DREAM Friday, March 1, 2013 | Binghamton University | www.bupipedream.com | Vol. LXXXIII, Issue 10
Mandela Room turns "Run's House"
Michael Contegni/Staff Photographer
Joseph Simmons, known as Rev Run, of RUN-D.M.C., spoke to a packed audience Thursday evening in the Mandela Room.
Joseph “Rev. Run” Simmons left his house — Run’s house, that is — Thursday evening to come to Binghamton University, wearing his clerical collar and withholding little. Upon his entrance to the Mandela Room, Simmons was met with cheers from an ecstatic audience as he took his place in an armchair onstage. To Simmons’s right was Black Student Union Vice President Jamila Adams, who asked questions ranging from today’s hip-hop, to his home life, to the “birth of the Reverend.” “Preacher on a Sunday, rapper on a Monday, y’all do what Run say … just because Rev. Run rock a collar, don’t mean I can’t make a dolla, y’all holla,” Simmons
rapped to begin the evening. BSU brought Simmons, one of the founding members of hiphop group Run-D.M.C. and a practicing minister, to BU as their keynote speaker to round out Black History Month. Simmons offered a glimpse into his home life during the 2005 MTV reality series “Run’s House.” According to Simmons, the show displayed to viewers the truth of his transformation into a minister, allowing viewers to “see my walk, instead of hearing my talk.” Simmons said his beginnings as a minister stemmed from his entrance into fame, as the lifestyle in which he indulged came to overwhelm him. “We were creating rap music … As we was doing it, we was
Cuomo shakes hands with SUNY union
A change to the way SUNY awards financial aid could make the process of weighing college costs more transparent for prospective students in the upcoming 2013-14 academic year.
— Juliana Girard Junior majoring in sociology
SUNY announced Feb. 20 that all of its 64 campuses will implement a standard financial aid award letter to simplify financial costs and aid offerings. According to state officials, the letter will include campusspecific information detailing
Binghamton University may soon be feeling the effect of state spending cuts, albeit indirectly, as a result of a tentative deal struck between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the union that represents 35,000 SUNY employees. Under the tentative contract, the state would save $87 million in wages and $99 million by increasing employees’ health benefit contributions over the course of the deal, according to a statement by the governor. But employees represented by United University Professions would have to stomach a retroactive pay freeze from 2011 through July 2013, and minimal salary increases after that through 2016, as well as substantial increases to health care coverage costs. “[The deal is] the best we could do given the constraints that the
state put on us,” said James Dix, president of the Binghamton chapter of the UUP. UUP has been locked in negotiations with the state since their previous contract expired in July 2011. In the coming weeks SUNY professors will have the opportunity to reject or accept the proposal. Dix expects the deal to be accepted. “I have predicted that the vote will be in big favor of it,” he said. “I mean I’m convinced that we have gotten the best possible deal with the state, and if we go back we won’t get anything more.” A strange clause in the contract would reduce the wages of employees by the equivalent of nine days during the course of the contract period, and require they take a two-day unpaid leave during the same period. The remaining seven days’ salary will be repaid to the employees in the final pay periods of the contract.
For local children who may not otherwise have an opportunity to get out of the house and enjoy weekend outings in the Binghamton area, SUNY Kids provides free activities and lunch every Saturday. Last weekend, 22 children from the Binghamton area, accompanied by 13 students from Binghamton University, took a day trip to the movies
for the first SUNY Kids field trip of the semester. Most of the children come from foster homes and are appointed to the organization through the Broome County Department of Social Services. “We help provide a fun, safe environment for the children to enjoy as well as to learn,” said Yana Kryvokhyzha, SUNY Kids president and a senior double-majoring in biology and Spanish. Funded by the Student Association, the organization aims to give back to the
“The package provides a rate of compensation, when you add the furloughs, which effectively means that the faculty has a compensation rate that doesn’t keep up with the rate of inflation,” said Ricardo Laremont, a political science and sociology professor. Each university’s president would decide how his or her school would enact the furloughs. Dix said the sluggish negotiation process was partly the result of making it clear that UUP has different needs than other large state unions that have already agreed to contracts with the state. “UUP argued that its members had unique needs that were different from CSEA (Civil Service Employees Union) and PEF (Public Employees Federation),” Dix said. “It took about a year to convince the state that we were indeed different
community by keeping children off the streets and offering student role models. Between 30 and 40 children, who are between the ages of 5 and 13, attend the trip each week, accompanied by 10 to 15 BU student volunteers called “counselors.” Last weekend the counselors took the children to see the movie “Wreck-It Ralph,” which left many of the kids quoting the movie’s main character throughout lunch and during the bus ride home. “I think every trip we go
—James Dix President of the Binghamton chapter of the UUP
on is an adventure and I can’t imagine my life without SUNY Kids,” Kryvokhyzha said. “I remember there was this one boy and it was his last year because he was turning 13. He wrote us a letter saying that when he grows up, he wants to be just like us. He wants to attend BU and become one of the counselors for SUNY Kids. It was very sweet and it truly touched my heart.” Past trips included visits to Chuck E. Cheese, the Ross
Binghamton’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade will yield some changes this year — specifically, it will be shorter in length and will not feature any floats.
— Steve Moss BU sophomore
Floats will not be allowed in this year’s parade because of the newly constructed roundabout Downtown, according to News Channel 34. The full parade will also only run for an hour and a