Pipe Dream Spring 2013 Issue 4

The Textbook Black Market

$23 for a burrito?

The editorial board examines Sodexo's pricing, see page 10

Release investigates the shady underworld of textbook dealing, see page 7

PIPE DREAM Friday, February 8, 2013 | Binghamton University | www.bupipedream.com | Vol. LXXXIII, Issue 4

Tom & Marty's gone forever, for an hour When Larry Shea, owner of Tom & Marty’s bar on State Street, awoke Wednesday afternoon to a closure notice from the New York State Department of Health on his bar’s front door, he was shocked in a way he could only describe as having a “heart attack.” Fortunately for Shea and his brother Michael, who co-owns

the bar, the notice was simply the result of a delayed food permit payment and only lasted about two hours.

Though he was concerned at first, Shea had a sense of humor about the short-lived closure.

“Got officially shut down for a few hours today because I owed the government $200 for my permit renewal. Thought I could run a tab. Oops,” Shea tweeted Wednesday afternoon.

After a photograph of the closure notice circulated on Facebook and Twitter Wednesday, several accompanied with the hashtags “#SaveLarry” and “#RIP,” the bar owner took to the social networks to reassure worried patrons that the bar was back open for business.

“I go on Twitter and Facebook and shit just blew up,” Shea said.

“It was remarkable the response I got from everybody, it was actually

kind of touching.”

Tom & Marty’s regulars may have overreacted to the two-hour closing, but many showed sincere concern for the bar’s well-being.

“Tom & Marty’s is the only bar in Binghamton that truly appreciates what a great time ’90s R&B is,” said Lauren D’Angelo, a junior majoring in environmental studies. “We would probably have to pool the efforts of BU students into reintroducing ‘No Diggity’ to

the mainstream. That would be my primary concern.”

Matt Gochan, a first-year graduate student studying physics, said he was devastated when he thought the bar had met its end.

“I was more heartbroken when Tom & Marty’s closed than when the world was apparently ending,” Gochan said.

To prevent future mishaps, — Matt Gochan BU Graduate Student

BU ranked eighth for "Best Value" Off Campus College Transport expanded its services this semester, adding one bus route and extending service hours to others, but many students living off campus still complain that overcrowded buses keep them from getting to class on time.

With the introduction of the the Triple Cities (TC) route, two additional buses stop at Floral and Main streets each hour on weekday mornings.

According to Student Association President and OCCT CEO Mark Soriano, the route was created to mitigate the overcrowding on Downtown buses that resulted from the student housing developments that opened this school year.

Binghamton University remains in the top 10 in the Princeton Review’s list of “Best Value Colleges for 2013,” despite dropping four spots from last year.

This marks the fifth straight year that the University has made the top 10. Binghamton University fell four spots from No. 4 in 2012 to No. 8 in 2013, but still outranked other large state schools such as the University of Michigan, which placed at No. 9.

The ranking, which compared 75 different public universities from across the nation, takes into account more than 30 data points, which include academics, cost and financial aid, according to the Princeton Review website.

The list also takes into account the quality of students the schools attract as measured by admissions credentials such as average SAT and ACT score ranges and average high school GPA of enrolled freshmen, as well as how students attending the schools rated their academic experiences and their professors on the student opinion surveys, according to a

— Samantha Ahern BU Junior

“The OCCT staff acknowledges that students wanted more runs in the morning, since at times crowded buses would make people late for class,” Soriano said. “After observing the impact that the new residential facilities Downtown had on bus routes and crowding, it was determined that new runs would help the situation.”

The changes will last through the semester, and the SA may consider further changes for next semester to better meet student needs, according to Soriano.

“It is important to realize that OCCT routes are never completely permanent, they will change semester to semester in order to

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20 Jules Forrest/Managing Editor

An OCCT bus picks up passengers at the Old University Union bus stop.

accommodate changing commute patterns,” he said.

Lina Riveros, a junior majoring in industrial and systems engineering, is one of several students who said the TC route has improved their morning commute.

“I’ve had to wait less time at the Union,” Riveros said. “I didn’t really notice the changes at first, but my commute has

been smoother.”

Chris Starace, a junior majoring in industrial engineering, said he missed the bus on Tuesday due to overcrowding, but overall his commute has been better.

“I generally don’t have to worry as much about getting to class in the morning because I know there are more options,” Starace said.

1 “Having said that though it was kind of annoying to miss the bus on Tuesday.”

But many students contend that the SA is neglecting other Downtown areas that require increased service, such as the Downtown Center Riverside (DCR) route.

“I’m not a huge fan of the

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Princeton Review press release.

The Princeton Review used information taken from institutional and student opinion surveys they conducted from fall 2011 through fall 2012 to create the ranking.

University spokesperson Ryan Yarosh wrote in an email that the ranking validates Binghamton’s efforts to be an exceptional university. He added that Binghamton only has plans to improve.

“Throughout our current Road Map strategic planning process, a dedicated, diverse group of people have shared a commitment to make Binghamton University even better,” Yarosh wrote. “We will continue striving to improve our reputation as a best value and also to set Binghamton on the path to becoming the premier public university of the 21st century.”

For some students, university rankings played a role in the college search process.

Thomas Mitchell, a junior majoring in financial engineering who started out as an out-of-state student from Maine, said that both the

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SUNY BEST calls for dialogue between BU and businesses A combination of students, Binghamton University officials and business leaders attended a presentation Thursday which showed the benefits of a strong relationship between Binghamton’s business sector, the University and the SUNY system as a whole.

More than 25 people attended the presentation, which was hosted by SUNY BEST (Business and Education Cooperation of the Southern Tier).

The guest speaker, Tom Moebus, deputy director of the SUNY Levin Institute in New York City, explained how this relationship promotes entrepreneurship and local community growth.

“The linking of the regional activities is really what I think will lead to a successful innovation economy,” Moebus said. “Organizations like SUNY BEST are really walking the walk, and I am very optimistic for the future.”

He focused on initiating a dialogue between SUNY and surrounding businesses through networking and collaboration.

“There are things you can do to move the dial,” Moebus

said. “All the regions have to be engaged, we need to liberate the brilliant young and old minds, have a culture of collaboration, maximize human capital development and leverage assets to build an innovation economy. I am big on getting New York City involved on what is going on upstate because there is potential we are not hitting on.”

But problems with funding and bureaucratic lags can stall the process, according to Moebus.

“SUNY is a big institution,” Moebus said. “It’s a bureaucracy.

There are bureaucratic challenges with motivating the kind of thing we want to see happen. We talk about doing big, bold things and growing the innovation economy, but it takes a lot of time, energy and money that is not there right now. For an innovation economy to take shape, private investment have to happen and that is going to take time to happen.”

Alfredo Hung, a senior majoring in electrical engineering, said he will use Moebus’ insights to steer his own business plans.

“I think it was really great,” Hung said. “This was my first time, and I learned a lot. I am

Daniel O'Connor/Staff Photographer

Tom Moebus, the deputy director of the SUNY Levin Institute in New York City, explains the importance of collaboration between local businesses and Binghamton University. The focus of the presentation, put on by the SUNY Business and Education Cooperation of the Southern Tier (BEST), was the promotion of entrepreneurship and growth in the local community.

personally starting a business, so I wanted to find out how my fashion business will be affected by these changes.”

Ashley Corey, a senior

majoring in English, said the event laid a framework to facilitate dialogue between the University and regions throughout Broome County.

“I think that SUNY BEST and programs such as these are not only making the University the best, but making the community the best as well,” Corey said.

“Its role is a collaboration of the students, faculty and the outside community, which is critical to overall economic development.”

Facebook bug wreaks havoc across internet

Daniel O'Connor/Staff Photographer

Greg Schulman, a senior majoring in political science, signs up for International Connection at the Cultural Fair Thursday in the Mandela Room. International Connection brings together and educates BU students from around the world about various cultures and lifestyles.

A spirit of collaboration and cooperation highlighted the Cultural Fair on Wednesday, as more than 300 students — representing 40 student groups — celebrated in the Mandela Room with music and prizes as they broadened their cultural horizons.

The event was hosted by the Multicultural Resource Center.

Mengchen Huang, a graduate assistant for MRC, said she was pleased with the turnout.

“I hope to see more students realize the different groups and multicultural resources here to help them and to see people embrace diversity,” Huang said.

The fair featured a raffle with a $200 grant as the grand prize. Each attendee also received a fortune cookie, with the chance to win t-shirts or tickets to a Binghamton men’s basketball game.

The fair allowed students to mingle with members from many of the multicultural groups on campus. Jesse Pau,

a sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering, said the fair encouraged her to look into certain groups more closely.

“I learned a lot about the different clubs we have at [Binghamton],” Pau said. “I’ll definitely consider checking out their events more.”

Alex Valera, a member of the Philippine American League, said the fair inspired an interest in other, unfamiliar cultural groups.

“There’s been a lot of different cultural exchanges

PIpe Dream SPRing gim

occurring,” said Valera, a sophomore majoring in computer science. “I think I’ll branch out to other groups now, not just my own.”

Donald Lodge, co-director of the Rainbow Pride Union, said he hopes to collaborate with other student groups this semester.

“We want to work with other groups to hold antihomophobic events in different communities,” said Lodge, a junior double-majoring in political science and Chinese.

Shannon Spearing, a member of the the African Student Organization and a junior double-majoring in Africana studies and history, said the group has benefited from collaborating with other cultural groups.

“We all have similar goals,” she said. “We want to educate the campus about diverse cultures — we just cover different topics.”

Nicole Sirju-Johnson, director of Multicultural Resource Center, said she hopes to make the fair a biannual event. “[Students attending] will receive a survey with questions about what they liked, what they didn’t like,” she said.

“That will help us do our program better.”

A software bug with Facebook caused many websites to be unreachable for millions of Internet users on Thursday evening.

Starting around 7 p.m., many visitors to various websites including the Weather Channel, CNN, the Washington Post, the Gawker network, The Huffington Post and Pipe Dream’s own website, were automatically redirected to a Facebook error page. The issue only plagued websites that allow users to log in using their Facebook identity. Users not logged into Facebook were unaffected.

Unable to access many other websites, many Binghamton University students took to complaining about the problem on Facebook itself.

“ALL YOUR WEB PAGES ARE BELONG TO FACEBOOK,” one graduate student posted.

By 7:40 p.m., the bug was fixed and students were able to go on with their normal web browsing.

Though it declined to elaborate on the specifics of the bug, Facebook acknowledged the error in a statement to the media.

“For a short period of time, there was a bug that redirected people logging in with Facebook from thirdparty sites to Facebook.com,” the statement said. “The issue was quickly resolved, and Login with Facebook is now working as usual.”

Thursday, february 14th 7 P.m. in the pipe dream office UUWB03

— Staff Reports

Pipe Line

Meet and Greek

Grammy nominee, guitarist to perform in Anderson Center The Anderson Center for the Performing Arts will be hosting 2013 Grammy nominee Luciana Souza and jazz guitarist Romero Lubambo in Brazilian Duos at 3 p.m.

Sunday in Watters Theater. Souza has been nominated for a Grammy four times for best jazz vocals. She currently has two albums nominated for a Grammy: “The Book of Chet” in the Best Jazz Vocal category and “Duos III” in the Best Latin Jazz category. Lubambo is a guitarist whose sound unites the style and rhythms of his Brazilian heritage with the American jazz tradition. Attendees can name their own price, from $1 to the regular price of $20 for general public, $15 for seniors, faculty and staff and $10 for students.

Upstate N.Y. sees 646 flood buyout With New York officials proposing to spend $400 million to buy and demolish downstate homes damaged by October’s Superstorm Sandy, 646 buyout applications have so far been approved for a similar program for upstate properties damaged in 2011 by back-to-back storms Irene and Lee, officials said Wednesday. The head of the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services told lawmakers that 60 percent of New York’s counties have rebuilt or are in the process of rebuilding following two of the most costly natural disasters on record. According to the state Office of Emergency Management, it received letters from 17 counties proposing 1,432 projects following Irene and Lee that flooded parts of the state in late summer 2011. Those included 957 proposed buyouts, most in Broome, Tioga, Delaware, Greene, Essex, Ulster, Schoharie and Orange counties. The agency said buyout applications submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency so far have been approved for just over $55 million.

Saturday mail delivery to be eliminated The Postal Service said Wednesday that it plans to cut back to five-day-a-week deliveries for everything except packages to stem its financial losses, according to Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe. Congress has voted in the past to bar the idea of eliminating Saturday delivery, and the announcement immediately drew protests from some lawmakers. The plan, which is to take effect in August, also brought vigorous objections from farmers, the letter carriers’ union and others. The Postal Service, which suffered a $15.9 billion loss in the past budget year, said it expected to save $2 billion annually with the Saturday cutback. Mail such as letters and magazines would be affected, but delivery of packages of all sizes would continue six days a week. The plan accentuates one of the agency’s strong points: Package delivery has increased by 14 percent since 2010, officials said, while the delivery of letters and other mail has plummeted. Email has decreased the mailing of paper letters, but online purchases have increased package shipping, forcing the Postal Service to adjust to customers’ new habits.

Jonathan Heisler/Photo Editor

Christian Dela Cruz, a junior double-majoring in political science and cultural anthropology, attends the Spring 2013 Professional Greek Rush event Thursday night in Old Union Hall.

Police Watch Endicott Squat THURSDAY, Jan. 31, 11:15 p.m. — Residential Life reported to University Police that a 20-year-old female had been living in Newing College’s Endicott Hall after repeated warnings that she had to leave the building, said Investigator Patrick Reilly of Binghamton’s New York State University Police. The suspect had once been a student at the University, and had been gaining entry by waiting for other people to enter the building. The suspect was located in a room the next day and was arrested for criminal trespassing.

You only lasted 20 seconds?

FRIDAY, Feb. 1, 1:27 a.m. — Officers on a community response team noticed three male students getting into an altercation in the yard near Newing College’s Delaware Hall, Reilly said. The officers observed the suspects exiting a cab and yelling at each other as they walked across the yard.

One of the suspects got into an aggressive stance and then proceeded to wrestle with one of the others as the officers approached. The fight lasted about twenty seconds before the officers broke it up, and they were released with a warning after each suspect agreed not to press charges.

Can you feel the love tonight?

Did you know...

Give your valentine a shout-out in Pipe Dream!

From now until noon Feb. 11, Pipe Dream is selling Valentines for $1 each. Valentines will be printed in our Feb. 12 issue.

Orders can be placed by emailing manager@bupipedream.com or by visiting UUW B03.

Valentines must be paid for in person

Trials with tiles SUNDAY, Feb. 3, 3:40 p.m. — Officers on patrol in Newing College’s Broome Hall noticed several ceiling tiles damaged and broken on the floor, Reilly said. This had been the second case recently where ceiling tiles had been damaged, but the officers were again unable to attain any suspects or witnesses. The officers called the maintenance staff to fix the tiles. The case is still under investigation.

Don't get high and buy MONDAY, Feb. 4, 11:45 p.m. — A 24-year-old male student reported to University Police that a person who had been staying in his room had left his room in disarray and stolen several items from it, Reilly said. The suspect, a 25-year-old male, was staying with the victim for the weekend, and while intoxicated had trashed the victim’s room, stolen some jewelry and left. The officers went in search of the suspect, who was found on East Drive with the jewelry in his possession. It was also found that he had marijuana on his person, and that he had ordered several items with a Target gift card which did not belong to him. The suspect was arrested and issued tickets for the Town of Vestal Court for petit larceny and the unlawful possession of marijuana.

Our Spring GIM will be Thursday, Feb. 14 We are looking for News, Sports, Opinion and Release writers, designers, copy editors, photographers, artists, developers, cartoonists and more!

7 P.M. Pipe Dream Office UUW B03

affordability of Binghamton University and the high national ranking of the School of Management made it an easy choice for him to attend.

“The value is definitely a reason for why I chose Binghamton,” Mitchell said.

“Even not knowing that my parents would eventually move here and I would get in-state tuition, as an out-

of-state student it was still cheaper for me than every other school I was looking at, both public and private.”

Zachary Pehel, a freshman majoring in financial economics, agreed.

“Honestly, I came here because I couldn’t afford most of the private universities I applied to,” he said. “I could practically pay for three years of college here with the money that I would spend on a single

year there. Still, [Binghamton is] an amazing university, and I have no regrets about my decision.”

Mitchell, now considered an in-state student because his parents moved to New York during his sophomore year, is also a resident assistant.

“Now it’s basically free school,” he said. “I just go to class and hardly pay a thing.”

Mitchell praised BU’s low price tag, explaining that he

has friends from out of state who can attend Binghamton and pay less than they would for their home-state schools.

He brushed off the University’s slight drop in the rankings as meaningless.

“Is there really a quantifiable difference between the fifth place and sixth place colleges in the nation?” Mitchell said. “At a certain point, it’s just a good value.”

Give your Valentine some lovin' From now until noon Feb. 11, Pipe Dream is selling Valentines for $1 each.

Valentines will be printed in our Feb. 12 issue.

Orders can be placed by emailing manager@bupipedream.com or by visiting UUW B03.

Students vie for spot on DCR bus schedule changes,” said David Pfuhler, a junior majoring in environmental studies who takes the DCR. “There hasn’t been much of an impact on my commute but I have to wake up a bit earlier [in case the bus would fill up]. I would like to see the buses run more frequently.”

Samantha Ahern, a junior double-majoring in graphic design and French, echoed Pfuhler’s sentiments.

“The bus times are inconvenient for my class schedule,” she said. “They’re always full, which isn’t fair

Shea requested that his Twitter followers help remind him to pay for his food permit by the Jan. 31 deadline.

“Next January 31st, I want everyone out there to tweet me the following message: ‘LARRY, DON’T FORGET TO RENEW YOUR FOOD PERMIT YOU MORON!!!’” Shea tweeted.

As the hysteria surrounding

because I’ve missed class because of full buses more than once. Also, if you miss one bus, you’re late for class because it’s only every half hour.”

And Heather Fennell, a junior double-majoring in psychology and human development, lamented that OCCT only stops on Leroy, a long street with a large student population, after 6 p.m. on weekdays.

“I don’t think the new bus routes have affected me,” Fennell said. “It’s just the Leroy bus only runs after 6 p.m., which is an inconvenience for those of us that live on Leroy and are trying to go to class

the brief closure blows over and the weekend begins, Shea assured students that Tom & Marty’s is going to be around for the long haul.

“In response to everybody transferring and contemplating suicide, don’t worry; we’re not going anywhere,” Shea said.

“You’re stuck with me and I’m stuck with you, at least until you graduate or flunk out.”

RELEASE DATE– Monday, March 30, 2009

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Olfactory enticement 6 Fashion show strutter 11 Chugalug’s opposite 14 65-Downstrengthening exercise 15 Online surfers, e.g.

16 Cyberaddress, briefly 17 Franklin’s almanac-writing alter ego 19 “Right to bear arms” gp.

20 Flower holder 21 Scarlett of Tara 22 Port in Yemen 23 Detroit labor org.

25 Furious 27 Young, promising fellow 32 Hosp. staffer 33 1/12 of a foot 34 Conspiring band 37 Solemn vow 39 Woman’s golf garment 42 Nevada city 43 Before surg.

45 Consider 47 Enjoy Aspen 48 Beneficent biblical traveler 52 Cocktail maker 54 Actor Affleck 55 “__ brillig, and the slithy ...”: Carroll 56 Beautiful, in Bologna 59 Business garb 63 Dine 64 F. Scott Fitzgerald title character, with “the” 66 “You __ here” 67 Paris Hilton’s sister 68 Nigeria neighbor 69 Hosp. VIPs 70 Theater employee 71 Garden shovel DOWN 1 Nile snakes

2 Civil uprising 3 Nebraska tribe 4 Cooing sound 5 Mo. when 1040s are due 6 “__ Ado About Nothing” 7 Labor Dept. arm 8 Sweetheart 9 Grocery trip, say 10 Leary’s turn-on 11 Church garb 12 Flawed, as sale mdse.

13 Hangar occupant 18 Hawkeyes, statewise 22 Clamorous 24 Sushi tuna 26 “Dancing with the Stars” network 27 Broadway disaster 28 On __ with: equal to 29 Blends together into a whole 30 “Bleah!”

31 Valerie Harper sitcom 35 “Puppy Love” singer Paul

36 Pork cut 38 Fish catchers 40 Dream state acronym 41 Pekoe packet 44 “The Raven” poet 46 Desert Storm chow, initially 49 Rubbish 50 Oration 51 Arched foot part

52 Second-string squad 53 Emmy or Oscar 57 Tahoe, for one 58 Astronomical distance meas.

60 Annapolis inst.

61 Footnote abbr.

62 Daly of “Cagney & Lacey” 64 Wildebeest 65 Tummy muscles

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

xwordeditor@aol.com

By Donna S. Levin (c)2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

03/30/09

03/30/09

long and don’t make yourself obvious. You don’t want other people taking your customers.

As Biggie said, “Never sell no shit where you rest at.”

6. “How much did you use this?”: When someone asks you if you used your textbook during the class, the answer is always yes. If your teacher told you the book would only be used once during the semester, the answer yes. If you never picked up the book, the answer is still yes. Most importantly, let them know that you’ve been using books for 13 years, and this is the best you’ve ever had.

Kathryn Shafsky | Release Selling things can be hard, and selling textbooks can be particularly rough. With so many people in the market, it can be a struggle to make yourself known. Prove that you’re reliable and have quality products and you may be in the market for a long time.

1. Establish Yourself: Make your presence known. Post on all the Facebook groups you can, and let people know you’re selling. People want cheap textbooks, and they may even want them from you. At the same time, you want to keep it on the down low so the man doesn’t try to bust you.

Jonathan Heisler/Photo Editor

Count your money right there, because students are on a college budget and might try to slip you some ones instead of fives. No payment plans allowed.

buying and selling posts and find people who are searching for your books. Let them know it doesn’t matter if it’s three in the morning and you don’t take holidays off. Message them, but 3. Reach Out: Just because don’t be too pushy. If they want 2. No Payment Plans: Make you post on Facebook doesn’t what you’re selling, they’ll bite. sure you get your money up mean you’re the only one. front before the exchange. Search through all of the 4. Have Backups: If you’re

lucky, a bunch of people will want to buy your books.

Unfortunately, sometimes you won’t have everything in stock.

Try to find friends with the same books as you, and use them as backups if you’re waiting on an answer from more than one person. Referring buyers helps your friends and helps you keep

a good reputation.

5. Find A Meeting Place: Never let the customer come to you. Find a spot that is somewhat private, and arrive five minutes late. You never want to be early for a deal, and you always want to be able to keep walking. Don’t talk too

7. Let Them Smell It: When you’re making the exchange, let your customer get a thorough look at the book. Have them turn the pages, check for tears and even give it a good sniff.

You’re selling some high quality textbooks, so let them know what they’re in for.

8. Straight From California: Well, maybe your textbooks aren’t straight from California, but they might be straight from Mandos.

Remember, don’t get too attached to your books, and never stop hustling. Work hard, sell smart and you’ll never have too many textbooks.

BU nightlife app burns our eyes Jacob Shamsian | Assistant Release Editor BU Nightlife, a new app for both iPhone and Android, aims to be a Swiss army knife for students going Downtown, the be-all and end-all for everything you need to know about nightlife in Binghamton.

Upon opening the app, two rows of five icons appear on the bottom of the screen, offering a myriad of options. The first thing you notice isn’t the buttons, though, but an EDM track that plays when the app is opened, as if the app were a shitty 10-year-old Myspace page. Strangely, the fullscreen button on the music player actually minimizes it.

The most frustrating things about the app are the boneheaded design decisions.

The app is obviously going for utility, but falls immensely

short. It offers nothing truly useful that cannot be done from any smartphone browser.

For instance, the Cab+Bus page seems like it’s supposed to offer the bus schedule and a list of phone numbers for cabs. It does do that, but in a poorly conceived way. Instead of having an informational table of each cab company and a respective phone number, there are instead a series of links to more pages in the app for each cab company. Each of those pages offers merely the cab companies’ names and phone numbers. As for the buses, there is simply a hyperlink to the OCCT website where a bus schedule can be found. Of the Vestal city buses there is no mention.

The designers of the app are obviously striving for function and originality.

A photo submission page allows users to

submit pictures of themselves going out, which would later be posted to a separate gallery page, as if Facebook isn’t enough to show everyone that you drank and danced over the weekend. However, the autoplaying music strikes again — it’s impossible to go to those pages without being followed by the music.

— Everyone Everyone

part of the app where people can talk about what parties are going on and which are the best.

It’s a hub that the app makers intend to be “the pulse of the night.” The app requires you to sign in through Facebook to use it, reminding you that you can just message your friends through Facebook anyway. Or, you know, just text someone.

The app is definitely a work in progress. There are many bugs that still need to be worked out, and the sheer amount and significance of those bugs show just how lazy and half-baked the app is. The “Nightlife” and “Campus” buttons, for example, promptly crash the app instead of opening their respective pages, reminding me of how much I didn’t need the app in the first place.

Also struggling for usefulness is the Chat page, an unintuitive and nearly illegible

Graphic Designers Wanted

Email Design@bupipedream.com for more information

The most anticipated movies of 2013

At the beginning of each year, the film industry takes their vacation. With the Oscar contenders being rolled out one after the other in the late months of the past year, filmmakers resort to the movies that will critically bomb and commercially do fine at best. “Movie 43,” “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters” and “Warm Bodies” aren’t exactly memorable works of art. Yet, for movie buffs, there is no need to get discouraged, as the future of 2013 looks promising. With an emphasis on box office success, Hollywood has created a mix of big budget action adventures, edgeof-your-seat thrillers and hilarious comedies. As we begin to approach the spring, audiences should be excited for the great number of

crowd-pleasing films to come. Thus, in the spirit of optimism, here is a list of some of the most anticipated movies of 2013: “Oz the Great and Powerful” (March 8) Set before “The Wizard of Oz,” this film tells the story of Oscar Diggs (James Franco) and how he transformed from a struggling magician from Kansas to the Wonderful Wizard. (Side note: Forget everything you know if you have seen the musical “Wicked,” as this film tells quite a different story.)

“Iron Man 3” (May 3) In the third installment of the “Iron Man” trilogy, Tony Stark is pitted against Mandarin, a villain who attempts to destroy Tony’s world from the inside out. Throughout Tony’s quest for justice, he will finally answer the question, does the suit make the man or does the man make the suit?

“The Great Gatsby” (May 10) From Baz Luhrmann, director

of “Moulin Rouge!” and “Romeo + Juliet,” comes this exuberant and fast-paced retelling of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel.

The film, like the novel, tells the story of eccentric millionaire Jay Gatsby and his love of a married woman, as seen through the eyes of his neighbor, Nick Carraway.

“Star Trek Into Darkness” (May 17) With the return of the 2009 original cast, unreal special effects and a nearly indestructible force trying to destroy earth and the Enterprise, Trekkies and non-Trekkies alike will not be disappointed.

“After Earth” (June 7) A general (Will Smith) and his son (Jaden Smith) crash land on Earth 1,000 years after the apocalypse caused the abandonment of the planet. With the goal of returning to their planet, the father-and-son team must defeat aliens, along with

many other perplexing obstacles.

“This is the End” (June 14) In this film, the Judd Apatow crew, including Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride and Craig Robinson, play fictionalized versions of themselves. Better yet, they are faced with cataclysmic events leading toward the end of the world.

“Man of Steel” (June 14) In the past few years, Hollywood has obsessed over superhero reboots that tell grittier origin stories, such as Batman, Spiderman and Wolverine. This year, the tradition continues with Superman. With audiences still mourning over 2006’s disappointing “Superman Returns,” this film has a lot to prove.

“World War Z” (June 21) Brad Pitt? Check. Zombies? Check.

Enough said.

“Monsters University” (June

21) While creating a prequel to an animated film seems like a daunting task, I have faith that Pixar will triumph. With the premise depicting how Mike and Sulley of “Monsters, Inc.” went from rivals to best buds in college, how could they not?

“The World’s End” (Oct. 25) The team that gave us “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz” returns for their typical hilarity. This time, the English buddies follow an apocalyptic theme, but in this version, belligerent bar crawling is the perfect way to celebrate their last night.

“The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” (Nov. 22) Last year, “The Hunger Games” proved to be one of the most successful book

adaptations of all time, earning the third-largest domestic gross of 2012.

This year, the highly anticipated sequel will focus on Katniss as she travels on the victory tour from her first Hunger Games win. But danger is lurking as rebellion begins to form, and a Quarter Quell Hunger Games will require past victors to return to the arena.

“Anchorman: The Legend Continues” (Dec. 20) In December of 2013, all of America will be staying classy. While little to nothing about the plot has been released, what we do know is that the entire original cast is returning. I think there is no question that this movie will be even better than “Pleasure Town.”

Prabal Gurung x Target Gabby Tilevitz | Release On Feb. 10, Target will release a new fashion line in collaboration with Prabal Gurung, one of the major fashion designers of the day. After their highly anticipated collaboration with Missoni in 2011, followed by Jason Wu in 2012, Target had a high standard for the next luxury designer. Considering Prabal Gurung’s growing popularity among celebrities like Michelle Obama and Lady Gaga, it is no surprise to fashionistas everywhere that the Nepalese designer would be Target’s next choice.

“His design philosophy is characterized by a mixture of modern luxury, indelible style and an astute sense of glamour,” according to Target.com. And even though this collection is created for the masses, it seems as though Gurung, since launching his own line in 2009, has not put any less effort into endowing this collection with his signature design tactic.

Just in time for the Valentine season, Prabal Gurung’s collection

is inspired by “love” and “a woman’s journey through it.” This is most noticeably expressed through the print names — “Floral Crush,” “First Date” and “Meet the Parents” — which make appearances on tops, dresses and cardigans throughout the collection. His color scheme follows suit in a seductive, yet modest use of apple red.

“I like my collections to have femininity with just a little bit of bite,” Prabal Gurung said in a behind the scenes video of his look book. So while most pieces in the collection are totally appropriate for meeting your boyfriend’s parents for the first time, lace-up pumps and kaleidoscopic floral prints give the collection its edge, consistent with his reputation for bold prints.

Prices range from $19.99 to $199.99 for apparel, the most expensive piece being a blue leather jacket. Accessories go for $39.99 or less. And luckily for Binghamton University students, this collection will be coming to the Target on

Vestal Parkway.

“We always get every collection,” said Lisa, a softlines sales floor team member. “But there’s no telling which items we will be getting.”

The collection will also be available online.

Though Prabal Gurung for Target is only the most recent in a long history of mass market luxury brand collaborations over the last 10 years, Target seems to have taken greater pains in their advertising campaign to warm up the majority of its customers who are not familiar with the designer.

A movie trailer-esque television commercial featuring Olivia Thirlby and a quiz on Target.com called “What’s Your Love Style?” emphasize that Target also wants us to know that this collection was created for YOU (whoever you are).

To the majority of Target’s consumers, Prabal Gurung will go unnoticed for what it is, but for the Prabal Gurung enthusiast, this collection is another answered prayer for the brand whore on a budget.

Dorothy Farrell | Release It starts simply with a thread.

Add a pair of needles, a bit of creativity and the unceasing motion of two willing hands. The needle goes through the loop, the yarn wraps around the needle, the needle pulls down through the thread and the completed stitch slides off. Simple enough, now repeat again, again and thousands of times again. After hours of wrist-twisting, finger-weaving and palm-sweating, the yarn will pull through the final stitch, marking the birth of a homemade garment.

For generations, the popularity of knitting has fluctuated. In recent years, however, knitting has been making another comeback.

There is an abundance of resources which cater to new knitters, old knitters and everyone in between.

A great place to start is with videos on YouTube. The channel Knit Picks offers hundreds of videos with different stitches, patterns and interviews. With nearly 20,000 subscribers, the channel is a testament to knitting’s popularity.

Ravelry is another way knitters can connect. Members can exchange yarns, patterns and pictures of finished products. It’s an excellent tool for seeking inspiration.

Another resource, the magazine Vogue Knitting, produces five issues per year with expert advice.

Even a local book store is bound to have a section dedicated to yarn crafts.

The best place to start a project, though, is at your local yarn store.

Spin a Yarn, located on Mitchell Avenue in Binghamton, carries a vast array of yarns. The store also offers classes, ranging from learning simply how to crochet to constructing a baby sweater.

Cornucopia Yarn Shop, located

in Endwell, is another local store to help initiate a knitting project.

Like any yarn store, the variety of available fibers, colors and weights represent an enticing realm of creative possibilities.

Of course, yarn is yarn, but its manifestation is so much more.

It is the perpetuation of a thread that loops through itself again and again. The integration of a diversity of stitches can turn the typical watchman’s cap into a piece of art.

Concisely said, knitting is nothing more than a bit of time, thought and compulsion.

If a homemade garment embodies love and tenderness, then this contrasts starkly with the average garment on the market today. Most clothing in the United States is produced in oversea factories. When thousands of the same cookie-cutter garment are churned out, the garment is stripped of its intimacy in catering to your warmth. Those who wrap themselves in meaningless garb are unaware of the lavish alternatives.

Knitting is not just a grandmotherly sport, as the students in Binghamton University’s KnitWits club already know.

“Knitting is a means of transcending the mundane weather of Binghamton,”

David Katz/Staff Photographer

said Timothy Kohler, a senior double-majoring in physics and mechanical engineering and prospective member of KnitWits.

If your mind runs wild with creative flow, if your fingers twitch with untamed energy, if you have the commitment of a monk on hunger strike, if you want to wrap someone with the product of your affection, if you want to face the winter with integrity, then there may be nothing more natural than finding yourself knitting.

Winter is among us, as are our sweaters, gloves, hats and scarves.

Like cocoons, they wrap us snugly, preserve our body heat and protect us from the elements. Although these layers of bulk may seem like a hassle, their existence is what gets us through Februaries as cold as Binghamton’s. And if you’re one of the lucky recipients of a handmade sweater, hat, scarf, etc., you know that it’s more than just a garment.

Nothing compares to the luxury of handmade apparel. Someone toiled for hours making it especially for you. A handmade garment symbolizes a timely commitment, a dedication to comfort and a deep affection toward the recipient.

At NPR's StoryCorps, every voice matters Darian Lusk | Release Editor When was the last time you sat down with the person you love most, looked them in the eyes and asked them, “Tell me your story?”

Every day, StoryCorps begs ordinary Americans to ask this very question.

Since 2003, the public radio show has been collecting, sharing and preserving people’s stories. StoryCorps is one of the fastest-growing non-profits in the country and one of the most ambitious oral history projects to date. Millions of Americans tune into their broadcasts daily on NPR’s Morning Edition and listen to interviews online.

I spent a day at the StoryCorps headquarters in Brooklyn over winter break and sat down with Krisi Packer, who serves as Associate Manager of Marketing and Communications. As she led me around the bustling office, I began to understand how different and important the StoryCorps mission is.

“StoryCorps’ mission is to provide people of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of their lives,” Packer said.

At StoryCorps, every voice matters. Recording booths travel from coast to coast and you can make an appointment for you and a loved one to come for a session. Once in a booth, it’s you and your guest, a facilitator in the corner, two CD burners and 40 minutes. The

rest is up to you.

“Anyone can come in and tell their story,” Packer said. “We travel across the country, from small, rural towns to bustling metropolitan cities, providing the opportunity for anyone to tell their story for future generations.”

After the interview, you go home with one CD and the other goes to the American Folklife Center.

There’s something profoundly lasting about that, because so much of ordinary history is simply forgotten. I always wanted to sit down with my grandmother and interview her, but now she’s gone. It’s history beyond the textbooks, for the rest of us, about the rest of us, for generations to come.

“StoryCorps is a breath of fresh air in our celebrityobsessed culture,” Packer said.

“It’s a reminder that everyone, no matter who you are or where you come from, has a story.”

Where other NPR shows revolve around the experts, StoryCorps listens to the voice of the people. Anyone with a story is encouraged to share it, and as one can gather from the 40,000+ interviews recorded from over 90,000 participants, there is something extraordinary in the ordinary.

Many of the stories recorded in the booths are turned into web shorts and broadcasted on NPR for millions of viewers to enjoy. As StoryCorps founder Dave Isay puts it, the program

is “poetry beyond the margins.”

Storycorps is a journalistic departure not only in function but in form. Public radio interviews classically consist of reporter and subject — interviewer and interviewee.

By allowing two participants to interview each other in conversation, or sometimes just one participant, without an active host, StoryCorps reinvents the formula.

“This interview model is the heart of StoryCorps — a conversation between two people who know and care about each other,” Packer said.

“I think this allows folks to be comfortable with the interview process, and more willing to open up about a wide variety of subjects.”

Stories range from joyous to shocking, from devastating to inspiring, from falling in love to fighting in war, and

from growing up to growing old. Crying is common. Bryan Wilmoth tells his younger brother, Michael, about being kicked out of the house for being gay. Brooklynite Richard Pecorella remembers the love of his life, his fiancée Karen Juday, who was killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. Reginald Mason remembers growing up in Harlem with his mother during the 1970s. Big-rig driver Boyd Applegate tells his sister, Rhonda Dixon, about being a real-beard Santa Claus.

“We just released a brand new animated short, ‘Eyes on the Stars,’ that tells the story of Dr. Ronald E. McNair, who was the second African American to enter space,” Packer said.

“But first, he was a kid with big dreams in Lake City, South Carolina.”

StoryCorps is 10 years old this year, and the project is only

growing as a radio show and oral history anthology.

“Our work is far from over,” Packer said. “We are looking to build StoryCorps into an enduring institution that will touch the lives of every family across the nation.”

We live in a society where, as college students, it’s nearly impossible to turn everything off and look a loved one in the eye and for 40 minutes, ask them life’s most important questions.

What was the happiest moment of your life? What was your most terrifying? What’s your earliest memory? Who in your life do you love most?

What’s a secret no one knows?

So next Thanksgiving, important Holiday or large family gathering, try interviewing a family member yourself. As the StoryCorps staff will assure you, listening

is one of the greatest ways to honor someone. It could be a wise grandfather, an aunt who’s way too into cooking, an emo cousin or even that random guy you don’t think you’re actually related to. The next time you have the opportunity, sit down and press record. You never know the incredible stories that are just waiting to be told.

Here are the links to “Eyes on the Stars” and the other stories mentioned. Check them out! http://storycorps.org/ animation/eyes-on-the-stars/ http://storycorps.org/listen/ bryan-and-michael-wilmoth/ http://storycorps.org/listen/ reginald-mason/ http://storycorps.org/listen/ boyd- appl egat e- and- rhondadixon-2/ http://storycorps.org/ animation/she-was-the-one/

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On-campus students pay $1,314 every semester simply to have dining halls. According to Sodexo’s website, that money goes toward “expenses to keep our facilities open,” including utilities, labor and supplies. On top of that, students must also add a minimum of $449 of “spending money” to their meal plans.

When most restaurants calculate the amount they charge for something on their menu, they take into account the amount it costs them to keep their doors open. Since Sodexo already charges students for those non-food expenses, the amount they charge for food should correlate with ingredient costs, right?

In some cases it adds up — a slice of pizza is under 50 cents. Other times, it seems like Sodexo is just stealing our money.

Take salmon. At Wegmans, the price of salmon is $6.99 per pound. But at the dining hall? Over $15 per pound. A large beef burrito at Chipotle costs $6.85. At the College-in-the-Woods Dining Hall?

Actually, about the same.

Chipotle manages to pay their rent, utilities, labor and supply costs — plus the cost of the ingredients — with that $6.85 and still turn a profit, yet Sodexo says they charge that solely for the ingredients. Something doesn’t sound right.

So what’s the real cost to students for that Sodexo burrito? Around $15 — we did the math — assuming that students maximize their meal plan by actually spending every cent, every semester and only to buy “resident priced” items. (Nite Owl items cost more because the operations fee doesn’t support them.)

It gets worse. Students who don’t spend all of their money can buy a smaller meal plan, but they still pay the same $1,314 for operating expenses.

That $15 burrito on the smallest meal plan costs over $23. For $23, that burrito better be made out of gold.

The burrito actually costs less for people without meal plans, including non-students (we did the math again). For those people, Sodexo tacks on an extra 80 percent to the posted price, making a burrito cost about $12. Compare that to the extra 149 percent they get from students on the average meal plan, and the whopping 290 percent extra that students on the smallest meal plan are paying, when you consider the operating expense and ingredient costs.

According to Sodexo, the price they charge for food is determined by the total cost of the ingredients — including portions that they are unable to sell. For example, if a portion of pasta

costs $1, and Sodexo discovers that for every 10 portions of pasta they sell, they throw away one portion, the new cost to Sodexo — the price they pass along to students — is now closer to $1.10.

This is something that most eateries factor into their prices. But for Sodexo, it’s different. Sodexo has a captive audience, and Sodexo already has their profit before a single customer steps foot into one of their facilities, mainly from the operating fees you give them. They don’t care if it costs them $1 to produce a portion of pasta or $5. No matter what, students have to pay it. If a normal restaurant discovered that they had to charge unusually high prices to remain in business, they would closely reexamine all of their costs or cheaper eateries would drive them out of business. Sodexo has no such incentive. They don’t have to reduce waste or increase efficiency to turn a profit. They just pass their costs onto students.

Sodexo has two options. They can eliminate the “operating expenses” and charge for food the same way every other eatery does, or they should be more transparent in calculating food costs. Either way, it is unlikely that they would be able to get away with charging $15 for a burrito.

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Last week while perusing Pipe Dream, many readers no doubt came across a column titled “Opposite sides of history combined, poorly,” by Madison Ball, that talked about the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the celebration of Robert E. Lee’s birthday being combined into a one-day celebration. Gasp! Apparently this is appalling to some.

While the one-day celebration could be considered somewhat controversial, it is not racist, nor is it combining the celebration of men with ideals completely at odds.

Everyone can agree that slavery was a very dark time in America’s history, but it is unfair to accuse all Southerners, even Confederate generals, of perpetuating “mass genocide,” which

slavery, for all its horrors, was not.

It is easy to celebrate the work of Dr. King, but what we must realize is that Lee was not some villain or an “American traitor.” He fought on the side of his state as a Confederate but constantly advocated for the preservation of the Union.

Furthermore, Lee is suggested to have been decidedly anti-slavery. He supported his wife and daughters in their work to liberate and fund slaves moving to Liberia, and they later set up an illegal school for slaves at their Arlington plantation.

Lee himself freed the slaves that had come to him through marriage in 1862, well before the Emancipation Proclamation. It was Lee who in 1864 began to petition slaveholders to allow their slaves to volunteer for the army and, after service, be granted their freedom.

The column’s likening of General Lee to the criminals tried at Nuremberg is the real atrocity of the column.

If we liken everything disturbing in our past to the Holocaust it not only sensationalizes our own history but

lessens the atrocities committed during World War II. As for Southerners “flaunting their racism proudly”? Well, that is one dangerous statement. Confederate flags are not, for the most part, about racism, but rather about the romanticism of a lost rebellious cause that is seductive to many cultures. Or maybe they just like “The Dukes of Hazzard.” Don’t judge.

We Yankees need to remember that we are not better, more intellectual or any less guilty of our past.

would be an astounding generalization and just blatantly false.” Well, at least that part is true. We cannot have so little regard for the customs and commemorations of our compatriots south of the Mason-Dixon line.

While we may all agree that slavery was a terrible point in our history, it is also important to remember that it served an economic purpose in the South that the industrial North cannot fully understand.

The Civil War was more about states’ rights than any issue of slavery, and the Union’s goals were not so high-minded, with Lincoln’s initial goal being to maintain the Union and only later to emancipate the African American population. Maybe it’s the Yankees who are now discriminating against Southerners, and maybe that’s the issue that we should be talking about, not how a few states choose to commemorate two important historical figures, on the same day or not.

Ball states in her conclusion that — Shelby Wilson is “stereotyping all people in the southern majoring in anthropology.

United States as racist and outdated

a

senior

Obama's Israel visit holds promise The scariest part about graduation is not the dreaded prospect of life after Binghamton, but rather the disappointing acknowledgement of what we failed to do during our time here. No one with reasonable expectations can claim to have accomplished all they set out to do during the disproportionally small fraction of life that college consists of.

But this is no reason not to try.

Fortunately, there is a very simple and easy way to turn all these dreams into goals and these goals into plans.

It is called a bucket list.

The purpose of having a bucket list is the same, regardless of whether you are a first semester transfer student or a graduating senior with 15 weeks to live. It serves as a tangible reminder of achievements to be realized, a codified conglomeration of fears to be overcome, mountains to be climbed and finish lines to be triumphantly crossed.

There is no greater feeling than calling your shot, then hitting it.

Between Joe Namath guaranteeing victory in Super Bowl III and Muhammad Ali shouting “I am the greatest!” before his world heavyweight title in 1964, history is littered with those who named greatness, then claimed it.

It is precisely this act that makes a bucket list so special. By writing down, printing out and hanging these goals where they can be read each and every day, they become the claim to your own personal greatness.

This all presupposes that the crazy idiosyncrasies of your bucket list are, in fact, great. In truth, it does not matter what is actually on the list, so long as it is nigh impossible to cross everything off during the desired time frame. Anything less effectually turns it into a to-do list where the ambition of setting goals is replaced

by the monotony of doing chores. So aim high, or don’t bother shooting.

After all, the satisfaction gained from stamping down that check mark is reflective of what an accomplishment means to you.

Something so trivial to one person may be truly extraordinary in the eyes of another. Can a comparison really be made between the kid with asthma running a 5K and the shy guy asking the pretty girl to dance?

That is a matter of opinion, but what is not up to interpretation is that the purpose of a bucket list is personal gratification and there can be only one judge of that.

But the best part of carrying out what is on your list is that you do not have to do it alone. That is what roommates, suite-mates, floormates and housemates are for. Odds are, something on your list overlaps with that of a similarly interested friend, and if you are serious about finishing this thing, motivation, encouragement and even coercion should be utilized fully. We all have that fantastic story of when our best friend made us try something we secretly always wanted to do, but just needed an extra push to do it. Perhaps it is time to return the favor.

There is even medical evidence to support the benefits of creating a bucket list. In the wise words of the one of the world’s finest doctors, “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.

You’re off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting.

So get on your way!”

This week, President Obama announced he would be traveling to Israel in the spring, the first such visit of his second term. The nexus of international events and Israeli politics seems primed to favor both Obama and the peace process — if Obama properly leverages the elements before him.

Since the Palestinian Authority’s bid to have the U.N. recognize the existence of a nominal Palestinian state was successful in November of last year, a couple of things have happened: One, the Israeli prime minister, bowing to pressure from his conservative-controlled coalition, announced the construction of thousands of new homes deep in the West Bank. The move seemed designed to bolster Netanyahu’s profile as a hard-line, no-compromise politician — a profile that, at least partially, has obstructed efforts to restart IsraeliPalestinian peace talks — ahead of the elections.

The second thing that happened was that the creation of a Palestinian state, however territorially manifest, gave the Palestinian people a number of diplomatic resources, like the

ability to go to the International Criminal Court, that were previously unavailable to them.

As the Algerian rebels did in the French-Algerian War, and the Tunisian rebels did before them, the Palestinian leadership made a shrewd diplomatic maneuver that, while not handing them any direct political, military or territorial control, forced the international community to sit up and recognize, perhaps, the inevitability of a Palestinian state.

What makes the timing of Obama’s visit so opportune, though, is the coupling of the recently recognized Palestinian state with the surprising —shocking, even — outcome of the

governing coalition being controlled by hawkish, rightist factions, it wil include a sizable dose of moderation.

More than that, the fact that a moderate party had such strong electoral gains signals an error on the part of Israeli and American pollsters, who saw the Israeli electorate as surging rightward.

If the public instead voted to put into office a formidable, if not majority, moderate party, and moderation in Israeli politics is equatable to flexibility in negotiations with the Palestinians, that says a lot about the resilience of peace in the Israeli public’s mind.

Despite everything — the most recent flare-up in Gaza especially — Israelis are still looking to negotiate. Clearly, though Netanyahu maintains a strong hold on Israeli politics, the deadlocked peace talks have not reflected kindly on him.

When Obama takes the trip to Israel next month, then, he should have his eye on the hope the Israeli public still possesses. Netanyahu can no longer claim that, politically, he could not afford renewed negotiations.

Israeli elections in January.

If anything, the recent election was In that election, Netanyahu’s Likud a litmus test, and the results were, if party was expected to win handily. the right continues to hold the hard While it did win, another party, Yesh line it has, that it may well soon by Atid, a middle-of-the-road party supplanted by more moderate factions headed by a former television host, in the Israeli political arena.

Yair Lapid, came in a close second, gaining 19 seats against Likud’s 31, — Ezra Shapiro is a junior doubleout of 120 seats total. majoring in history and political This means that, rather than the science.

— Zachary Greenberg is a senior majoring in philosophy, politics and law.

Not just one amendment under siege Last week, Wayne LaPierre, the head of the NRA and the face of the movement against any form of gun control, testified at the Senate Judiciary Committee on the subject of gun control following the horrors at Newtown, Connecticut.

leads to — from which our Founding Fathers fled and most feared and tried to prevent from ever returning to America by writing our Constitution and our Bill of Rights. That’s what I mean when I say ‘all or nothing.’

This year’s election will literally be a struggle for the survival of freedom in America.”

Beyond the unsubtle nature of LaPierre calling the democratically elected president a tyrant that the country’s Founding Fathers would have fled or rose up against, you must also wonder what LaPierre feels is a greater threat to liberty: the inability Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) to take on the world’s most powerful questioned LaPierre with the army with a semi-assault rifle, or the following: “unchecked power” of the executive “Mr. LaPierre, I run into some of branch to order the execution of an your members in Illinois and here’s American citizen via drone without what they tell me, ‘Senator, you don’t being charged with a crime or being get the Second Amendment.’ Your found guilty of said crime.

NRA members say, ‘You just don’t get This comes from a White Paper it. It’s not just about hunting. It’s not from the Department of Justice just about sports. It’s not just about leaked on Monday night that shows shooting targets. It’s not just about the legal framework for the executive defending ourselves from criminals.’ branch’s interpretation of the As Ms. Trotter testified, ‘We need the Founders’ constitution, giving the firepower and the ability to protect president the legal standing to order ourselves from our government — the execution of an American citizen from our government, from the police without charging or trying a target.

— if they knock on our doors and we need to fight back.’ Do you agree with that point of view?”

LaPierre responded, “Senator, I think without any doubt, if you look at why our Founding Fathers put [the Second Amendment] there, they had lived under the tyranny of King George and they wanted to make sure that these free people in this new country would never be subjugated again and have to live under tyranny.”

This line by LaPierre is interesting enough, but is compounded by an article he published in the February The leaked paper shows that 2012 issue of the NRA magazine, in order for the president to kill saying, “Obama is leading our an American citizen who is not country straight to the dependence, convicted or tried for any crime, in lawlessness, unchecked government vague terms, the executive branch power — and the tyranny it invariably must simply show that the target is

Why is the NRA silent on the government's use of extrajudicial killings?

an imminent threat and capture of the target is infeasible, and the strike must be conducted according to law of war principles.

The legal justification to execute our own citizens with drones despite the lack of any legal charge against them is undoubtedly a greater tool for a despotic tyrant running the government than his ability to take away an individual’s AR-15.

If the NRA isn’t simply a tool of the gun industry and instead is a widely misguided but nonetheless principled organization, why is it silent now as it was in the Bush years on the government’s use of extrajudicial killings?

The NRA and LaPierre himself have certainly been vocal on issues other than guns, such as election fraud, immigration and freedom of speech.

The executions via drone have killed two American citizens and according to the New York University School of Law and Stanford Law School, “from June 2004 through mid-September 2012, available data indicate that drone strikes killed 2,562 to 3,325 people in Pakistan, of whom 474 to 881 were civilians, including 176 children.”

This is a program liberals were outspoken against during the Bush years, but they seem to have shied away from direct criticism during Obama’s presidency, even falling inward and rationalizing their team’s hypocrisy. An organization with the money and sway of the NRA could find itself in a position of not only reputable intellectual consistency, but political gain, leading congressional Republicans against the Brennan nomination for CIA director and in the process leaving a black mark on the legacy of the Democratic president.

— Geoffrey Weinberg is a senior double-majoring in history and political science.

Letter to the editor To the editor: As students empty out their checking accounts on a semester’s worth of textbooks, we are reminded that access to affordable higher education is under attack. Since 2008, higher education in New York state has been cut by $1.7 billion, consequently driving up the cost of a college degree and pricing out many students, including New York’s undocumented youth.

The situation facing the 4,550 undocumented students who graduate from New York high schools each year is even more daunting. New York state has already demonstrated our willingness and commitment to undocumented youth over a decade ago by granting access to instate tuition rates. However, these fellow New Yorkers are still ineligible for any financial aid, such as the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP).

The comprehensive New York DREAM Act, introduced this session by Assemblyman Moya and Senator Peralta, will ensure that undocumented students have access to an affordable higher education by extending TAP and other publicly funded grants and scholarships to

them. Other states have adopted similar reforms, and New York should not lag behind Texas, New Mexico, California or any other state when it comes to promoting social justice and economic opportunity.

New York in particular has always been reliant upon the vitality of its immigrant population. In light of this long-standing and mutually beneficial relationship, it is time for New York to join other states by further extending a helping hand to immigrant children who arrived in New York through circumstances beyond their control yet share the same hopes, aspirations and potential as their citizen counterparts.

Although federal comprehensive immigration reform is on the horizon, state-level DREAM legislation would still be necessary to ensure these students can access financial aid programs such as TAP. Binghamton University students can make instrumental strides toward educational equity right here in New York state.

Emily Skydel Binghamton University Senior NYPIRG Intern

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Commentary

July is the one month on the sports calendar in which baseball is granted the national spotlight by the only sports media corporation that seems to matter in America — ESPN.

SUBLETTER NEEDED FOR UNIVERSITY PLAZA FALL 2013 Bedroom available in UP townhouse style apartment for the Fall 2013 semester, good for those graduating early or studying aboard in the spring email jforres1@binghamton.edu for more info

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The network’s focus is temporarily shifted away from the NFL, albeit on an ephemeral basis until the following month when the football season unofficially commences once again. By Independence Day, the NBA and NHL seasons will have reached their respective completions. Even a lockoutprolonged schedule will not push the Stanley Cup Finals past the last week of June.

There’s a reason that two of the most celebrated events in the marathon that is the Major League Baseball regular season take place over the span of one month.

July presents the best opportunity to host the

Midsummer Classic and the Home Run Derby. It’s also the perfect time to stage a weekend-long event aimed at celebrating the game and enshrining baseball’s all-time best into the most historic sports museum in America, which happens to be located within driving distance of Binghamton University in the genial village of Cooperstown, N.Y. The 2013 Baseball Hall of Fame induction weekend figures to be conspicuously less blithe and populated than any in recent memory. The balloting conducted this past January was the first in nearly 20 years in which no eligible candidate received enough votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America to earn election. This is the eighth time in the history of BBWAA balloting that the Hall of Fame voting process has resulted in a shutout.

But the result cannot be considered a victory for the writers in condemning the actions of some of baseball’s most memorable players over the last 30 years, many of whom have been deplored as dopers, liars and cowards.

It’s more of a no-decision.

The baseball writers who intended to send a message to steroid users succeeded in doing so, but who benefits?

Certainly not a humble town in rural upstate New York that depends on the economic activity of such an eventful weekend. The fans gain nothing from denying the biggest names in baseball entry into the HOF. The sport is spared no additional embarrassment or bad press.

The problem is that the ballot is currently divided between writers primarily concerned with the performances of players in strict comparison to their contemporaries, and writers who feel that electing any steroid users would be an integral compromise of what the Hall of Fame stands for.

Still, it’s perplexing that a player such as Craig Biggio, who fits the description of a Hall of Famer statistically, and has never been suspected of steroid use, fell short of the 75 percent minimum. Many members of the BBWAA openly oppose plebiscitary balloting under these circumstances, suggesting that a bureaucracy

supplants the current method which inhibits cohesion among voters.

By now, the debate has become platitudinous.

It’s hard to justify the interdiction of many of the best players in the history of the sport simply because of the era in which they played. It’s also difficult to bestow the greatest honor of a sport to liars and cheaters.

The ballot prefaced an investigation by baseball which remains in its nascent stages and concerns the relationship between Anthony Bosch, the founder of a Miami-based clinic linked to performanceenhancing drugs, and several of Major League Baseball’s most illustrious athletes. The list includes Ryan Braun, Gio Gonzalez, Melky Cabrera and, most notably, Alex Rodriguez.

At this point, it’s clear that drug use is still an issue in the sport, and with many more steroid-infected HOF ballots to be decided in years to come, the disease that the steroid culture has infected baseball with will not easily be remedied.

BEARCAT BRIEFS

Pipe Dream Business

Baseball slated to finish third in conference preseason poll

By Megan Brockett | Sports Editor Set to return eight of its starting position players from last year’s squad, the Binghamton baseball team has been selected to finish third in this year’s America East Preseason Coaches’ Poll.

The Bearcats received 18 total points in the poll, including one first-place vote, landing them behind Stony Brook (23 points) and Maine (19 points). Albany (13), Hartford (12) and UMBC (5) rounded out the poll.

After third-place finishes in both the regular season standings and the conference championship last year, Binghamton is expected to return three starting pitchers to this year’s team in addition to the eight starting positional players.

Highlighting Binghamton’s list of returners are junior corner infielder Brian Ruby, a 2012 America East All-Rookie Team selection, and junior infielder Daniel Nevares, a 2012 AllConference Second Team selection. The duo combined to make up Binghamton’s top two hitters last season, with Ruby leading the team with a .371 average and Nevares posting a .343 clip.

Head coach Tim Sinicki will look to replace No. 1 starter Mike Augliera and relief pitcher Lee Sosa, who were selected in the MLB draft at the end of last season. Former first baseman Dave Ciocchi, who ranks among the program’s top-five in several alltime categories, also played his last season for the Bearcats in 2012.

After construction forced the Bearcats to play all of their games on the road last season, Binghamton is set to open play at the new Varsity Field on March 23 against Stony Brook. Prior to that, the Bearcats are scheduled to open the 2013 season on Feb. 22 at James Madison.

AE preseason poll pegs women's lacrosse to finish last

By Megan Brockett | Sports Editor After going 0-6 in conference play last season, the Binghamton women’s lacrosse team has been selected to finish last in the 2013 America East Preseason Coaches’ Poll.

Last year’s conference championship runner-up, Stony Brook, garnered the top spot with 33 points and three firstplace votes. Albany, which received two first-place votes, and Boston University, which received one, tied for second in the poll with 29 points apiece. UMBC grabbed the final firstplace nod and landed at fourth with 19 points. Vermont and New Hampshire, with 17 and 13 points respectively, rounded out the poll, just ahead of the Bearcats.

Binghamton will have a new head coach this season following Tony Zostant’s resignation late last month after five seasons in the leading role. Lead assistant Stephanie Allen, who has been with the team since 2008, has taken over as interim coach.

Despite losing three starters to graduation last spring, the Bearcats are set to return their four leading scorers from last year’s squad in senior attack Kimberly McGeever, senior midfield Katherine Hunsberger, senior defense Kristen Stone and senior midfield Casey Bulman.

Binghamton is scheduled to kick off its season on Feb. 23 at St. Francis (Pa.).

Weekend Sports Schedule

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FEB

Men's tennis

12 p.m. vs. Dartmouth College @ Dartmouth

9

FEB

Men's tennis

12 p.m. vs. BC @ Dartmouth

Women's tennis 5 p.m. vs. FDU @ Binghamton Tennis Center

Men's Basketball 7 p.m. vs. Boston U @ Events Center

Women's Basketball 2:30 p.m. vs. Boston U @ Events Center

10 Wrestling

2 p.m. vs. Hofstra @ West Gym

FEB

After disappointing finish in '12, BU optimstic about title chances

A year after missing the America East tournament, the Binghamton softball team set lofty expectations for itself.

“Our goal this year is to actually win the America East tournament,” said Jessica Phillips, senior outfielder and former America East Co-Player of the Year. “We have set very high standards for ourselves this year, and we are working really hard both physically, mentally — in every aspect of the game — to achieve those goals. We have the new stadium. We’re hoping to host [the championship].”

The Bearcats, who posted a 7-11 conference mark last year, were picked by America East coaches to finish fourth in 2013, according to Monday’s preseason poll. That standing would earn Binghamton a spot in the fourteam conference tournament — even the fifth-place team can potentially reach the postseason this year, as the conference banned Boston University from its tournament — but to play host, the Bearcats would need to be the highest remaining seed.

Despite last year’s results, head coach Michelle Burrell was confident that her team will make the NCAA tournament at Tuesday’s media day. The Bearcats returned a solid core, including Phillips, junior third baseman Mikala King and junior shortstop Jessica Bump, and Burrell added seven freshmen to the mix this offseason.

Burrell said she expects freshmen Tiffany McIntosh and Lisa Cadogan to hit in the middle of the lineup, which will

afford her more flexibility with Phillips’ spot in the order. After sharing the conference’s Player of the Year award as a sophomore, Phillips found opposing pitchers prudently locating their pitches last season, and her production dropped.

“I felt like I did not get pitched to as much as I would have liked,” Phillips said. “I had to adjust and try to find when the pitchers missed their pitches, or when I was in deeper counts, I had to work to keep battling to find a good one … It was a little bit different, and I just had to relax a little bit more.”

Burrell frequently shifted Phillips between the No. 1 and No. 3 holes in the lineup, but with the arrivals of McIntosh and Cadogan, she said she would consider hitting Phillips later to provide more run-producing atbats. If McIntosh and Cadogan reach base, pitchers won’t pitch around Phillips as frequently.

“I think offensively we’re a lot stronger than we have been, and I think that [says] a lot about our freshman class, too,” King said. “I think we have a really deep team, and anybody has the opportunity to be a hero in a game.”

Last year, Binghamton had a penchant for falling behind early — opponents outscored the Bearcats 50-19 in the first inning — and never won in 22 tries when trailing after the sixth inning. The defense broke down in several instances, allowing opponents to add to leads, while the offense couldn’t string together enough hits in other instances.

Burrell frequently said last year that her players

File Photo

Senior outfielder Jessica Phillips, who led Binghamton in nearly every major statistical category last year, said the Bearcats have set their sights on hosting the America East Softball Championship in 2013.

put pressure on themselves, something she thinks stemmed from expectations of returning to the conference tournament.

“I think one of the things we came across last year was we were playing with expectations to get back,” she said. “We’re looking to stay relaxed this year and really just treat every game like it’s a conference game. That way when we start to get into the conference we’ll be a little better prepared at staying nice and relaxed.”

Before conference play

begins on March 30, however, the Bearcats are scheduled to participate in five tournaments in states ranging from Florida to Arizona to Virginia. They’re set to open their season Feb. 15 against UConn at Florida International’s Blue and Gold Felsberg Memorial Tournament.

For the Bearcats, playing in the warm southern weather provides an opportunity to see live action for the first time, as they have been confined to the Events Center and West Gym due to Binghamton’s frigid

temperatures. offseason of construction.

“I’m excited to get out of First pitch of Binghamton’s the snow,” King said. “It’s hard season is set for at 11 a.m. on when we’re [in Binghamton] Feb. 15 at Florida International. because we obviously have that beautiful field out there and we can’t play on it because it’s covered in snow … I think we have a huge advantage by having Date: Feb. 15 the resources to go play in those preseason tournaments, and I’m Location: Florida confident they’ll prepare us for International the America East.”

Time: 11 a.m.

Binghamton will be playing its home games on a brand new field this year following an

BU vs. UConn

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SPORTS

BU sets bar high for 2013 See page 13

Friday, February 8, 2013

Despite brief success with new offensive scheme, BU falters late

Though head coach Tommy Dempsey’s newly implemented uptempo offensive style paid dividends early on, it ultimately led to the demise of the Binghamton men’s basketball team on Wednesday night. The Bearcats (3-20, 1-9 America East) could not sustain the run-and-gun style of play through the second half and fell to Hartford, 76-62, at the Events Center.

After dropping their last three games and failing to reach the 60-point mark in each of their previous seven contests, the Bearcats came out of the gates aggressively on Wednesday and scored 24 points in the first 10 minutes of action against the Hawks (13-10, 6-4 America East).

“I just thought we needed a shot in the arm,” Dempsey said. “Not only offensively, just with our style in general. We’ve been trying to slow the games down in an effort to stay in games, but we just aren’t scoring … I thought the quicker tempo might give us a chance to put the ball in the basket.”

BU junior forward Brian Freeman, who has now played 30-plus minutes in back-to-back games, scored 10 of his 12 points in the first half to lead the Bearcats into halftime down by just a basket,

38-36.

The fast-paced approach continued to work at the beginning of the second half, as Binghamton remained resilient in keeping up with the Hawks. Senior forward Taylor Johnston converted a layup and drained consecutive 3-pointers to give BU its first eight points of the period.

But with the score knotted at 46 and 16:02 left to play, Hartford went on a decisive 17-4 run as fatigue began to set in for the Bearcats.

“We had a stretch in the second half where we struggled to score for awhile,” Dempsey said. “It was a little bit of a different pace for us tonight, and I didn’t think we were able to sustain it for 40 minutes.”

Binghamton was plagued by 16 turnovers on the night, but lost possessions are to be expected in a hurry-up style offense. What hurt the Bearcats the most was a poor shooting performance in the second half. BU netted only 8-of-22 shots from the field in the second half, compared to a 14-of-27 clip in the first. Freshman guard Jordan Reed attributed it to a decline in energy.

“When we turned the ball over we didn’t get back,” he said. “That comes along with that style of play, and I just think we need a little bit more energy.”

Despite the loss, Reed put together another well-rounded

Men's basketball vs. Hartford

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game with 17 points, nine rebounds and five assists.

“It just seemed like our energy dipped, and that’s when they started to go on their scoring run, and then we were just overwhelmed,” he said.

Dempsey, who has utilized the high-tempo offense throughout his career, said he decided to go back to his “roots” to try and jump-start his team’s offense.

“It’s something you have to be very committed to,” Dempsey said. “It’s something you have to do every day. And we’ve [only] done it for a couple of days, so I think we were fatigued.”

Binghamton senior guard Jimmy Gray, who shot 7-of-8 from the field to match a career-high 24 points in BU’s last matchup against Hartford on Jan. 2, converted only one of his 11 shots on Wednesday and committed nine turnovers.

With 2:24 left in the first half, Gray briefly left the court with back spasms but returned shortly thereafter.

“He’s been struggling with some back issues all year,” Dempsey said.

“Some days it’s worse than others.

It was really tight today … I know he had a rough night, but he knows we need him. I think a lot of guys would have taken tonight off, but that’s just not the way he’s wired.”

Hartford sophomore forward Mark Nwakamma posted a gamehigh 22 points, while graduate student and forward John Peterson netted a season-high 16.

The Bearcats will look to rebound on Saturday when they are set to host Boston University.

The Terriers have won four of their last five games, including a 79-72 victory against Maine last Tuesday.

Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Events Center.

Daniel O'Connor/Staff Photographer

In a new fast-paced offense, freshman guard Jordan Reed posted 17 points, nine rebounds and five assists in BU’s loss to Hartford.

lead before registering 12 of the game’s final 16 points.

Jonathan Heisler/Photo Editor

Junior guard Vaneeshia Paulk keyed a 9-0 first-half run to give Binghamton a brief lead, but Hartford ultimately pulled away for a 65-50 win on Wednesday night.

Senior forward Nikkia Smith led all scorers with 14 points as Hartford downed the Binghamton women’s basketball team, 65-50, on Wednesday night.

The Hawks (15-8, 6-4 America East) jumped out early, going on a 5-0 run in the opening 2:27, with Hartford sophomore guard Amber Bepko nailing the first of her two threes.

Binghamton (4-19, 3-7 American East) responded with a 9-0 run later in the half, jumping out to an 11-8 lead. Junior guard Vaneeshia Paulk, who finished with nine points and four rebounds, highlighted the streak with a jumper from behind the arc.

Things were all tied up at 14 when Hartford moved ahead of the Bearcats permanently, closing out the final 4:48 with a 12-5 run and entering the break up, 26-19. Smith catalyzed the run with four points and one assist. Hartford sophomore forward Cherelle Moore contributed three points and two assists in the stretch. Moore finished with nine points.

“We were remaining close, kind of within reach, but we could never get to that point where we could get stops,” Binghamton head coach Nicole Scholl said.

The second half did not fare much better for the away side, as Hartford stretched its lead to 12 with just over nine minutes remaining in the game. But BU senior guard Mallory Lawes buried a three and Paulk scored off a turnover to cut the deficit to seven just over a minute later.

Hartford responded, however, with a 6-0 run, regaining a comfortable 50-38

— Nicole Scholl BU head coach

Binghamton aided the Hawks by turning the ball over 22 times on the night, and Hartford produced 22 points off the Bearcats’ miscues.

“The second half we turned the ball over and they made some convenient layups,” Scholl said. “We just could never pull within reach again.”

Binghamton also had trouble on the glass, managing just 26 rebounds compared to Hartford’s 41.

“I just thought they were more aggressive to the boards tonight then we were,” Scholl said. “They just played a

little bit harder.”

Eighteen of Hartford’s 41 rebounds were offensive, leading to 15 secondchance points.

Lawes finished with a team-high 10 points and four boards for the Bearcats, while junior guard Jasbriell Swain added eight points and a team-high eight rebounds.

Paulk and Smith were named America East players of the game.

“We just [have] to get back in the gym again and move our focus on to Boston [University],” Scholl said. “You know, we played them very close up at their place.

We just [have] to keep getting better.”

The Bearcats have won just one regular-season game at the Events Center this year, but Scholl said she hopes her team can get on a roll against Boston University (19-4, 9-1 America East) on Saturday in a matchup that will commence a three-game homestand for Binghamton.

“It’ll be nice to get back on our own home court again,” Scholl said. “Hopefully we can get a couple wins here.”

Tipoff against the Terriers is set for 2:30 p.m.

Women's basketball vs. UMBC

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