PIPE DREAM’S COVERAGE OF TEDx: from quitting porn to the future of food, check out the 'Ideas worth Spreading' SEE PAGES 7-10
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Tuesday, March 17, 2015 | Vol. LXXXVII, Issue 15 | Binghamton University | bupipedream.com
Construction workers protest non-union labor on campus Picketers demand contractor use local laborers for Lecture Hall demolition, asbestos abatement Carla Sinclair
Assistant News Editor
Franz Lino/Photo Editor
Zephyr Teachout, former New York state gubernatorial candidate, speaks about “chickenization” and resulting corruption in politics and industry. Teachout, a lawyer, writer and anti-corruption activist, spoke at TEDxBinghamtonUniversity in the Osterhout Concert Theater.
TEDx lights up BU's Osterhout Theater
Zephyr Teachout, Sunny Hostin take over center stage with 'Ideas Worth Spreading' Nicholas Vega
address a crowd of students and faculty eager to hear new ideas. But she wasn’t kick-starting a new political campaign; TEDxBinghamtonUniversity 2015 was Zephyr Teachout took the stage underway. in the Osterhout Concert Theater to The fifth annual event featured seven News Editor
speakers from around the world, from Dubai to Amsterdam and New York City to Binghamton. Intermission entertainment was provided by the Latin dance troupe
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Walking or driving past Lecture Hall last week, students were greeted by an uncommon sight for the Brain — a giant, inflatable rat. The inflatable rat, or “union rat,” is used by protesting or striking trade unions against their employers or companies using non-union labor. According to David Marsh, the business manager for construction union Laborers Local 785, that is the situation for construction on Lecture Hall. “We’re protesting the contractor out of Syracuse that’s using out-of-town labor,” Marsh said. “We tried to work with them, and they won’t hire any local labor on this job. Here in Broome County we have 40 people out of work, so we really want to get a piece of it. It’s a big project, $12 million, and their portion of the project is 16 weeks of work. So it would really help our folks.” Laborers Local 785 is a union that encompasses Broome, Tioga and Chemung counties, and parts of nine more in the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes. Members picketed in front of the construction site on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, holding up signs and handing out literature to passersby.
Loyola prof. breaks down treatment, roles of women through world history
News Intern
For centuries, intellectuals around the world have protested the distorted standards between men and women. To address those inequalities, though, Catherine Wessinger, a professor at Loyola University in New Orleans, broke down the historical roots. Wessinger discussed the context, issues and cultural progress in “Theory of Women in Religions,” as part of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) lecture series. Growing up in what she described as a conservative family setting in South
Duncan McInnes/Pipe Dream Staff Photographer
Catherine Wessinger, a professor at Loyola University in New Orleans, discusses connections between religion, food, sex and culture. On Monday in Library North, she gave a talk about the history, issues and cultural progress in “Theory of Women in Religions.”
Carolina, Wessinger said her feminist attitude began because of the second wave of feminism in the late 1960s to early 1970s and the academic research she pursued herself. “I’m a woman who is interested in religion — that’s why I study women in religion,” Wessinger said. “It’s part of my feminism, wanting to make an academic contribution toward women’s equality to understand the factors that promote women’s equality.” Wessinger said that the connection between religion and patriarchy depends on the nuances of a society’s culture. “Religion is expressed through culture, and culture consists of all the products of human creativity,” Wessinger said. “Women in patriarchal societies, in general, will be subordinate to males in their own class.” According to Wessinger, patriarchy commonly includes male inheritance, control of female sexuality by male family members and a preference for sons over daughters, which can lead to female infanticide, or the killing of female babies. Making a point to distinguish that not all religions and cultures will oppress and subordinate women, she said inequality was more common among the malefocused religions. “Dominant religious traditions were formed in classical patriarchal society, but religious traditions are internally diverse,” Wessinger said. “In patriarchal religions women have frequently been defined as less than a man.” Wessinger also discussed different origins of patriarchy, such as how economics influence gender norms. She linked both patriarchy and matriarchy back to the division of labor and the support of
See WOMEN Page 2
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Student Association talks increase of student activity fee
Catherine Wessinger talks patriarachy in religion, evolution of feminist movements Zachary Wingate
JAG Environmental, a non-union contractor based in Syracuse, is conducting the Lecture Hall asbestos abatement and demolition work. Ryan Yarosh, director of media and public relations at Binghamton University, said the contractor was chosen by the State University Construction Fund which is controlled by SUNY, not BU. He said the construction contract is legally mandated to be awarded to the least expensive qualified bidder, regardless of union membership. “While the asbestos contractor for the Lecture Hall Classroom Wing project may be using non-union labor, many other contractors for this project will involve union labor,” Yarosh wrote in an email. “It’s important to note too that in some instances, the local union hall may not have workers that have a certain skill set or are certified to perform certain work.” However, Marsh said his members were qualified, and stressed the importance of using local labor, and that it is commonplace for them to work with state colleges. Cornell, he said, has signed an agreement to use as much as legally possible, though it operates under different rules as it is a private college. He also said JAG had initially promised to work with 785 when they began the
The possible $3.50 price change to fund OCCT, Harpur's Ferry growth Chloe Rehfield Staff Writer
Jonathan Bluvstein/Contributing Photographer
The American Kurdish Council organizes a commemoration for the Halabja Genocide of 1988. Students and Kurds from the local Binghamton community came together on Monday evening in the Mandela Room for the 27th anniversary of the chemical attack on the Kurdish city of Halabja.
On 27th anniversary of attacks, BU reflects on Halabja Genocide American Kurdish Association hosts memorial service, raises money for Kurdish refugees targetted by ISIS Haley Silverstein Staff Writer
During a moment of silence, students and Kurds from the local Binghamton community reflected on the Halabja Genocide of 1988. Monday evening marked the 27th anniversary of chemical attack on the Kurdish city of Halabja by the Iraqi government, which killed thousands. The attack was led by Saddam Hussein as part of a larger genocide on the religious minority. The commemoration was organized by the American Kurdish Council (AKC), which added a fundraising component to help Kurdish refugees who are targeted by ISIS today. “We’re drawing parallels between the Kurds in the past and present,” said
Hooman Ibrahim, a junior majoring in business and the president of AKC. Isaac Kfir, a visiting professor of international affairs and law at Syracuse University, said the international community has a responsibility to help the victims. According to Kfir, one of the most important elements in helping a community recover from a tragedy is reconciliation. “Communities have to come together,” Kfir said. “This is why I think it is so important to hold these kinds of events: to remind future generations as to what has transpired.” Karwan Zebari, the director of political and diplomatic affairs at the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in the United States, addressed the crowd via Skype. He
The Student Congress held its meeting Monday night to discuss new budget plans for the upcoming year. Alexander Liu, the Student Association (SA) president, announced that major SA institutions such as the Student Association Programming Board (SAPB), Harpur’s Ferry and Off Campus College Transport (OCCT) have been operating with budget deficiencies for the past several years. OCCT and Harpur’s Ferry are also planning to expand, and the growth of these groups will require more funding. To remedy this, Liu, a senior majoring in philosophy, politics and law, introduced a two-part legislation to restructure the SA budget and improve spending. The first part of the legislation is an activity fee referendum, which would raise the fee by $3.50. Three dollars would fund OCCT expansion and compensate for the rise in minimum wage, while the other 50 cents would help pay for equipment for a third Harpur’s Ferry ambulance. The entire undergraduate student body must vote to increase the student fee. Members of Congress were confident
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From Wall Street to non-profit, author shares professional transformation
Kunal Mehta gives advice on the virtues, challenges of leading charitable organizations as independent entrenpeneur Michelle Kraidman Staff Writer
Students interested in entrepreneurship crowded the Innovative Technologies Complex (ITC) to learn firsthand that their dreams are not out of reach. On Friday, Kunal Mehta gave the keynote speech at the Fleishman Center for Career and Professional Development’s Friday event “Exploring Entrepreneurship” in the ITC. The event was also sponsored
by the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Partnerships and the College of Community and Public Affairs (CCPA) Office for Career and International Programs. Mehta’s talk, “The Disruptors: Entrepreneurs and Their Escape from Corporate America,” was based around the experiences detailed in his book of the same name. He explained how he quit his job as a Wall Street investment banker and moved into nonprofit work that fulfilled him more. “One thing that I regret is staying as
long as I did knowing that I was unhappy,” Mehta said. “I think that’s something that a lot of people will say over and over again. When you realize this isn’t the place you want to be, pull out.” He said the transition was not easy, and that at first he felt lost and scared. He spent years investing in real estate and looking for investors for his own ventures. Eventually he became a finance associate at Charity: Water, a nonprofit organization that brings healthy drinking water to developing countries. Then he founded
OutPatient, a company that attempts to connect patients to physicians through videoconferencing. He said that he is not against corporate America, he just does not want others to be too scared to quit and try something else. “We’re working for the next 60 years,” Mehta said. “The retirement age is going up, so if you take some time to explore new things it gives you a chance to explore what you want to do and that’s important for
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Neil Seejoor/Contributing Photographer
Alexander Liu, president of the Student Association, discusses new budget plans for the upcoming year in anticipation of the expected campus growth. Liu introduced a two-part piece of legislation to allow for restructuring of the SA budget and improved spending.
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bupipedream.com | March 17, 2015
Student Congress pushes for increased student activity fee SA continued from Page 1
Emily Olander/Contributing Photographer
Late Nite Binghamton hosts its third annual Drag Competition with professional drag queens from Rochester’s Tilt Nightclub. Contestants, who competed for the $200 grand prize, each had to perform three dances, comedy and a poetry reading.
Undergrounds heats up at Late Nite Drag Competition Professional drag queens host, judge as five contestants test gender barriers Zuzu Boomer-Knapp Staff Writer
A half hour before the show, a line of students was already waiting in front of the Undergrounds and up the Old University Union staircase to get spots for Friday’s performance. As it started, the room was packed with students crowding the seats and sitting on the floor. Late Nite Binghamton’s third annual Drag Competition had begun. DeeDee Dubois and Vanity Faire, professional drag queens from Rochester’s Tilt Nightclub, took over the basement of the Old Union to lead a night of dancing, shaking, poetry and gender fluidity to entertain guests and crown a new top drag performer of the student body. Dubois, who hosted the show, introduced the five contestants one
by one as they strutted on stage and got the competition going with different challenges of mental and physical prowess. Contestants, competing for the $200 grand prize, each had to perform three dances, comedy and a poetry reading. Performers earned cheers for their vibrant outfits, curly and colorful wigs, and tiny dresses, but Desborne Villaruel, whose stage name was Dahshawnnaray, stole the spotlight. As he moved in sync in front of two backup dancers, Dahshawnnaray incorporated a plastic sword into his moves. Dahshawnnaray’s performances earned loud cheers from the crowd as students clapped along and cheered him on to win the drag title. “Honestly, it’s an amazing thing,” said Villaruel, a sophomore double-majoring in management and accounting. “I had the two
past winners help me with my own performance so it was like a collaboration. I had a phenomenal time and the host was hilarious. I won’t see myself doing this again because after you win, you should let someone else come after you.” Caleb Valentin, a fifth-year senior double-majoring in human development and theater, went by the stage name Ginger Lacquer. According to him, the Q-and-A portion of the competition was intimidating at first, but he thought he did well. “It’s okay to be who you are,” Valentin said. “Drag is the freedom of expression, it’s the challenging of gender norms. I think it’s important to showcase people’s talents and their bravery to go up on stage even though they’ve never done this before, like me.” Following the questionnaire, judges Ann Merriwether, a
Binghamton University psychology and human development professor; Alexandrea Roland, a second-year graduate student studying student affairs administration; and Faire calculated the results. While the audience waited, Faire and Dubois could not resist the stage and donned glittery outfits to show off some of their own moves to songs like Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off” and Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda.” Kyrie Kirn, a second-year graduate student studying student affairs administration and the Undergrounds programming adviser, said that they put on the event to raise awareness for the drag community and because of past success of the event. But Dubois explained it much more bluntly to those in the audience. “I’m a man in a dress,” Dubois said. “I don’t care.”
Visiting prof. looks to history to explain patriarchy WOMEN continued from Page 1 the family in different societies. She explained that anthropologists have found that in some foraging societies, including the San people of Southern Africa, 60-80 percent of the food is procured by women. Because women provide sustenance, they are more likely to be valued in society. This differs from more intensive agricultural
societies, which lead to patriarchy. “Because women are not producing economic primary resources men don’t see them as economically productive,” Wessinger said. But Wessinger said she sees a change in the current cultural and religious patriarchies in many Western countries. These changes are due in part to the traditional division of labor, economics,
technological advancements and education. Sarah Ann King, an undeclared freshman, said she found how religion influences society interesting. “I learned more in depth about gender dynamics and about the role that religion plays in society’s view,” King said. As a feminist, Wessinger said she will always support women
it would be approved, but will meet next week to approve a ballot initiative for the campus. The second part of the legislation would give money to the SAPB and Student Group Allocations for largescale concerts and performances. Three dollars of every student’s fees will be reallocated from the housing community portion of the student activities fee for this purpose to keep the fund increase relatively low. The SAPB would get $1.50 and another $1.50 would go to Student Group Allocations. Chris Zamlout, the SA executive vice president and a senior majoring in philosophy, politics and law, said this change will not affect community traditions or events, but will limit the giveaways that are currently funded through their budgets.
According to Liu, the number of student groups on campus is rising, and more funding is necessary. “We’ve been taking the same amount of money and dividing it up over a larger number of groups,” Liu said. “Each of these groups will need more money.” Liu said this extra money would allow each club to grow to their maximum potentials. He also said that the board does not rely solely on student fees; SAPB also reaches out to other organizations like the Financial Committee to ask for funding. According to Liu, the revised financial constitution requires only a slight change in the student activity fee to preserve spending efficiency. “We don’t want to increase the fee too much if we don’t need that much money,” he said. “We value efficient spending.”
Along the Brain, workers demand jobs for local union UNION continued from Page 1 project. Marsh said the job could provide Broome County residents with anywhere from 15 to 50 jobs, which was important in light of a recent dry spell of work. “I just hope people value the need to use local labor,” Marsh said. “The University is the largest employer in the community, and should value the use of local labor, and try to do their best to make sure that happens. The University can really apply influence here and make sure the projects are under labor agreements.” Pipe Dream reached out to JAG Environmental for comment, but did not receive a response. James Weyrauch, executive board member of Laborers Local 785 and a labor steward, said using local unions for construction was not only important because it sets precedent for future projects, but also because of how it impacts the
local economy. “When local people go to work, they spend money locally,” Weyrauch said. “When non-union guys come in here, from out of area, they take it back home and spend money in their area. It’s extremely common for state schools to use union contractors, here and all over the country. But more frequently contractors are bringing non-labor workers and we want to prevent that.” Marsh said feedback from students and faculty has been positive so far. Rachel Lecker, a junior majoring in graphic design, said she hoped to see the laborers put back into work. “I was so confused when I saw these people out here, but I’m glad they are,” Lecker said. “The University is such a huge part of the community, I think it’s only fair we try to include them when we do big projects like this. We take so much from the community, we should give back any way we can.”
who struggle with oppression but warned against making broad-based assumptions about religious beliefs. “I’m always rooting for women who are struggling for equality in a religious tradition,” Wessinger said. “It’s not for white feminists in America to dictate to women, in a whole variety in religions around the world, the choices they make about their lives.”
With hula hoops and foreign oil, TEDxBU shines in spotlight TEDX continued from Page 1 Quimbamba. The theme of the event was “Walk the Talk;” all of the speakers have done some sort of work to back up the ideas that they were presenting to the packed house. Audience members saw Adam Eskin, founder of the Dig Inn Seasonal Market; Sunny Hostin, a BU alumna and journalist at CNN; Zephyr Teachout, a former New York gubernatorial candidate; Christopher Fix, a BU alumnus and CEO of the Dubai Mercantile Exchange; Jack Fischer, a sophomore and winner of the contest to be the TEDx student speaker; Maria Santelli, executive director of the Center on Conscience & War; and Lisa Lottie, a world-renowned hula-hoop artist. According to co-director Stephen Prosperi, one of the most difficult parts of putting on the
event was getting the speakers to Binghamton from all over the world — Fix lives in Dubai and Lottie is from the Netherlands. “Any time you’re dealing with that many variables, it’s easy for things to tank quickly,” said Prosperi, a senior in the individualized major program studying finance and marketing of new media. “But we were lucky they all arrived on time and safe, and in my opinion all gave pretty awesome talks, definitely diverse.” Topics varied greatly, with Eskin discussing the changes in the restaurant food landscape in the United States and Santelli describing her experiences with conscientious objection in the American military. One of the afternoon’s biggest draws was Fischer, who was chosen to be the event’s first-ever student speaker. In his talk, he discussed the potential perils of internet
pornography, and spoke about an internet community — NoFap — dedicated to helping users quit the habit. Prosperi said that seeing Fischer on the stage was a satisfying experience. “We got to see the entire evolution of his talk, and I was just really impressed by the final product,” he said. Stephanie Izquieta, also a codirector, said she was excited by the positive response to Fischer’s speech. “As much as it was a firsttime experience for Jack, it was also the first time we hosted an undergraduate student speaker,” said Izquieta, a senior majoring in philosophy, politics and law. “It was a risk we took, but it totally paid off.” Lottie, the final speaker of the night, took the crowd by surprise when the theater lights were
dimmed and she emerged holding LED-lit hula-hoops. Her acrobatic performance was followed by a talk explaining her nontraditional career path. Lakhan Kumar, a junior doublemajoring in psychology and economics, said that Lottie’s was his favorite talk of the night. “I give all the props to Lisa for dropping out of school and chasing her dreams,” he said. “It must have been really tough to do that, and I give her the utmost respect for that.” However, not everyone got the most out of the talks. “Truth be told, as a director, I don’t really get to see the show,” Izquieta said. “I was running around backstage making sure nothing goes wrong. I managed to catch the beginning of Lisa Lottie’s talk and I really enjoyed the bit I saw. I’ll just have to watch them online.”
In memorial, a push to prevent future Kurdish struggle HALABJA continued from Page 1 spoke about the enduring effects of the chemical weapons used in the genocide. In an environment poisoned by chemicals, the Kurds of Iraq face high rates of cancers and other illnesses. Zebari also described the KRG’s efforts to clean up the environment, rebuild infrastructure and cater to the needs of the Kurdish people. Sandra Kahlil, a senior doublemajoring in political science and Arabic, said it was worthwhile to hear from informed speakers. “It’s good to see that intellectual people are on the case
working and really dedicated to the cause in Washington,” she said. ISIS has not only taken siege in Syria, but in the Iraqi cities of Kobanê and Shangal as well, according to Ibrahim, and thousands have been displaced and are in desperate need of food, water and clothing. “They’re really strained for resources and they’re running out of the necessities so we have to do what we can,” Ibrahim said. The AKC raised $700 over the past few weeks with bake sales. Food was served at the memorial with a suggested donation of $5
and, according to Ibrahim, the event raised $1,450. Yael David, a junior majoring Judaic studies, said she believed that it was important for students to learn about the struggles of the Kurdish people. “The cause of the Kurdish people isn’t so well known, and I think that’s one of the points of this program,” she said. “As someone who isn’t Kurdish, I think it’s important for more who are outside of the Kurdish community to come to these types of events and learn about the cause and the history, and just the state of the Kurds right now.”
Education and remembrance, Ibrahim said, were important to him as well. He emphasized the importance in continuing to commemorate the Halabja Genocide. “Just because something happened 27 years ago, doesn’t mean it’s not important,” he said. “We live in a society dominated by social media and things have expiration dates. One minute it’s cool to be an advocate for this, and the next minute it’s not. This event is kind of here to say that this still matters and we’re not going to let these events become yesterday’s news.”
Franz Lino/Photo Editor
Glenn Marsh, a Binghamton resident and member of Laborers Local 785, protests outside the Lecture Hall with a sign around his neck that reads, “Local Labor for Local Project.” Laborers Local 785, a union that includes the Broome, Tioga and Chemung counties, and parts of nine other counties in the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes, protested JAG Environmental, a non-union contractor based in Syracuse.
Former banker draws local entrepreneurs to career panel JOB continued from Page 1 college students.” Mehta also led a discussion in which attendees asked him for career and professional advice. Jonathan Sabin, a junior majoring in industrial and systems engineering, said afterward that he was debating exploring entrepreneurial ventures in the future. “I’ve been thinking about jumping straight into it,” Sabin said. “This eased a lot of my worries about doing that and cleared up a lot of details about how to do that because starting out is so hard.” Dara Riegel, an internship and career consultant at the Fleishman Center, said she was approached by Mehta about speaking about his book and professional experience. Riegel said she jumped on the opportunity and created an entrepreneurial event around Mehta’s speech, which included a panel of local business owners and a networking event afterward. The members of the panel introduced themselves and answered questions about challenges building their companies. Riegel said that she was extremely impressed by the turnout of about 50 students and their
interest in what speakers had to say. Mehta said that although the switch had been right for him, students and graduates needed passion to truly be a successful entrepreneur. “Entrepreneurship is more about men and women living life on their own terms and building ventures that they care about and dedicated themselves too,” Riegel said. “They’re the ones that are having lasting impacts.”
Franz Lino/Photo Editor
Kunal Mehta, a finance associate at Charity: Water talks about entrepreneurship. Students gathered in the Innovative Technologies Complex on Friday to ask questions about the challenge of building companies.
PAGE III Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Address: University Union WB03 4400 Vestal Parkway E. Binghamton, N.Y. 13902 Phone: 607-777-2515 FAx: 607-777-2600
Pipe Line STATE NEWS
That's A Lot Of Chicken
NY lawmakers back police training on the mentally ill Budget proposals from New York’s Assembly and Senate contain additional funding for more pilot programs to train police officers in dealing with the mentally ill. The current state budget contains $400,000 for the training to help officers assess and de-escalate confrontations when called to incidents involving psychologically troubled people. It was used for training police in Auburn, Binghamton, Clarkstown, Hempstead, Newburgh, Syracuse, Utica and St. Lawrence County. The Mental Health Association for the State of New York says the Assembly’s budget proposal contains $1 million for socalled crisis intervention team training, while the Senate has proposed $400,000. This money would expand the list of jurisdictions where police get the training, intended to ensure connections between police, families and people in crisis and keeping them out of the criminal justice system. NYC man charged with pointing laser at aircraft The lawyer for a man arrested Monday on a federal charge that he knowingly directed a laser at aircraft says his client came to him last week saying his conscience was bothering him because someone else had been arrested for something he did. Balaguer was charged alone in federal court after pilots of three passenger planes and a police helicopter told authorities they suffered eye injuries when a green light beam was pointed at them as they flew near LaGuardia Airport on the evening of March 9. Some of the pilots were treated at hospitals. Federal authorities said pilots on board a New York Police Department helicopter managed to pinpoint a particular Bronx apartment where they believed the laser had originated. They said Balaguer and others were in the apartment when police investigators went there and that Balaguer admitted that he owned the laser pointer but denied knowing who pointed it at passing airplanes. Balaguer’s bail conditions called for him to continue to receive drug and mental health treatment.
Oklahoma incident spotlights race problems at fraternities Their reputations sullied by race-tainted incidents, many colleges are clamping down on campus fraternities. Despite some swift and tough actions by schools — and in some cases, public humiliation — episodes such as the racist chants by members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter at the University of Oklahoma keep surfacing. In recent years, numerous other fraternities have been suspended and students expelled from school for racially tinged parties or behavior, such as hanging nooses or shouting racial profanities. Many incidents come to light after the students themselves post pictures or videos online, drawing public attention; others are reported by onlookers or whistleblowers. For example, Sigma Alpha Epsilon suspended all activity at Clemson University in South Carolina in December after white students dressed as gang members at a “Cripmas” party. That same month Phi Delta Theta halted its chapter at the University of Pennsylvania for issuing a holiday card with members posing with what it called a Beyonce sex doll.
This Day in History March 17, 1992 A referendum to end apartheid in South Africa is passed 68.7 percent to 31.3 percent.
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Led by the Rohr Chabad Center for Jewish Student Life and co-sponsored by many campus clubs and organizations, Binghamton celebrates Shabbat 1,500 on Friday in the Events Center. 1,500 students, faculty and staff participated in Shabbat traditions such as Kiddush, the Hamotzi, grace after meals and special Shabbat songs.
Police Watch
Yak of the Week
A lighter take on campus crime Aaron Berkowitz | Police Correspondent
Go Phish THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1:53 p.m. — A 22-yearold male opened an email that in turn sent an email to all of his contacts, said Investigator Patrick Reilly of Binghamton’s New York State University Police. The victim contacted UPD, who then contacted the computer center. The center told the victim to change the password to his email and to check to see if certain settings on his computer were altered since he may have been hacked. They also advised the victim to email his contact list to tell them not to open the prior email. The victim declined any criminal prosecution and instead chose to contact the Office of Student Conduct.
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Katy Perry Would Be Proud SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 3:58 a.m. — Officers on patrol on Connector Road heard what sounded like a firework go off in the parking lot near Cascade and Windham halls in Mountainview College, Reilly said. The officers saw a firework go off but saw no one in the area. The officers remembered seeing a male jogging from the area 15 minutes prior and went to find him. They found him and questioned him about the fireworks. He said that he was jogging away because he saw three males in plaid pajama bottoms set off the fireworks. The officers eventually located the suspects, a 20-year-old male and two 19-year-old males, in a room in Cascade and questioned them. They said that they were drunk and thought that it would be fun to set off fireworks. They admitted that in hindsight it was not a smart thing to do. Due to their cooperation, the officers referred the suspects to the Office of Student Conduct in lieu of criminal prosecution.
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NATIONAL UNIVERSITY NEWS New Jersey colleges struggle to deal with issue of rape Legislators and universities in New Jersey are changing the way rapes are dealt with on campus following two explosive incidents at local colleges and several high-profile cases that have brought national attention to the epidemic of sexual assault among students. But universities have struggled to investigate claims that are often difficult to prove — consent sometimes comes down to a matter of perspective, especially in young adults, and in most incidents there are no witnesses and memory is impaired by trauma, alcohol or drug use. The task is all the more complicated by the need to preserve the rights of the accused. And increasingly, more young men are suing their schools — three have filed notice of intent to sue William Paterson — saying their lives have forever been altered by accusations that are unfounded and cases that were mishandled. The proposed reforms seek nothing less than a cultural change — and it’s roiling campuses and statehouses.
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Arts & Entertainment
The newest March music releases
Looking for a new indie band? San Cisco's sophomore album offers high school memories James Sereno | Staff Writer
The 8-year traffic jam is over Modest Mouse keeps its bragging rights with new album James Sereno | Staff Writer “We’re lucky that, we’re lucky that we slept. Didn’t seem like we realized we’d be stuck in traffic.” These are the first lyrics sung off of Modest Mouse’s new album, “Strangers to Ourselves” — and they’re completely appropriate given that, as any Modest Mouse fan knows, this album has been stuck in traffic for eight years. “Strangers to Ourselves” is the sixth studio album from the indie behemoth Modest Mouse, which hasn’t released a studio album since “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank” in 2007. Led by front man Isaac Brock, Modest Mouse has been through an
evolutionary journey since its early 1990’s debut. It’s seen its fair share of members leave and join. The album opens with a track that shares the album’s name. Its slow start fills the mind with the nostalgia of Modest Mouse’s 20-year history. The soothing sound is everything you’d expect from a slow Modest Mouse song — in the best way — but it doesn’t last long. The next track, “Lampshades on Fire,” brings the upbeat sound with Brock’s lyrics over his own ba-ba-bass. This track is the most powerful off of the album and stands on its own against the bands most popular songs. Some songs appear to stand
'Wicked Campaign' stands out as one of the more powerful ballads
out much more than others throughout this 15-track album, but each brings its own unique experience to the table. “Wicked Campaign” stands out as one of the more powerful ballads, with lyrics to match. “Of Course We Know,” the closing track, feels similar to the opening song but adds a little more zeal. While some of the music displays deep and intricate emotions, they also seem to not be taking themselves as seriously as you’d think. Their shortest track on the album, clocking in at one minute and 17 seconds, is titled “God is an Indian and You’re an Asshole.” This catchy folk tune’s lyrics are simply “God is an Indian and you’re an asshole, get on your horse and ride,” repeated throughout its short duration. Fans will be happy to know that they will not have to wait another eight years for another album from the band. Brock recently said that he was far into working on a companion album to this one that he hopes to release as soon as possible. If one thing is for sure, Modest Mouse has returned, and it’s not going away again any time soon.
This time of year, everyone’s looking for new music to play with the car windows down. If you want to expand your indie collection, look no further than San Cisco. The four-piece Australian band consists of Jordi Davieson (guitar, lead vocals), Josh Biondillo (guitar, vocals), Nick Gardner (bass) and Scarlett Stevens (drums, vocals). This ensemble of twentysomething year-olds released its debut self-titled album “San Cisco” in 2012 under Fat Possum Records. This week marks the release of their sophomore album “Gracetown.” “Gracetown” possesses a more mature sound compared to the first album, but doesn’t forgo the upbeat tunes that brought the band its initial success. Lyrically, the 12 tracks are about relationships: from high school love, to jealousy, to personal space issues. The first track and single “RUN” brings a psychedelic feeling to listeners, with a trippy music video to match. “Too Much Time Together,” the next track and second
'Froot' showcases more personality and more flavor Ariel Taub | Contributing Writer Since October, Marina and the Diamonds fans have been plucking the morsels of Marina’s juicy, monthly ripened tracks on Spotify. Yesterday, however, the album was released in full, and people are now able to fully indulge in the forbidden “Froot.” The album was co-produced with David Kosten, but written solely by Marina. “I’m always really fascinated with single release strategies because everyone wants to go for the big pop banger first, but sometimes that’s not the right thing to do, because for an artist, the most important thing is that people understand who you are,”
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Marina said about her distribution model to Spin magazine. The Welsh singer, who’s real name is Marina Lambrini Diamandis, released her second album, “Electra Heart,” in 2012, and left fans hankering for another taste of her music. “Electra Heart” was based around the idea of having many characters, somewhat like a soap opera. During this time, Marina never strayed from her wig and the heart on her cheek. Now she is breaking away from this style: Her 2015 releases are written from the perspective of someone who has gone through a breakup. The spin is that it’s from the viewpoint of the heartbreaker, and yet there is just as much as emotion as if it had been from the point of view of the heartbroken. Each song on the album, titled “Froot,” offers a new color, or mood. “Froot,” the album’s namesake, is upbeat, quirky and empowering with lyrics like, “Good things come to those who wait but I ain’t in a patient phase,” while still being ominous. Other songs on the album, like “I’m a Ruin” and “Happy” are a bit darker and more reflective on relationships; the most important
of these being the relationship you have with yourself. “I’m a Ruin” is about loving yourself selfishly while “Happy” has deep yet hopeful vocals with sweet piano accompaniment about coming into whom you are. Overall, it shows Marina as an artist who’s reflective and selfaware. But not every song is a hit. One main complaint of the album so far is the song, “Forget.” This one lives up to its name, coming across as repetitive, forgettable and somewhat of a filler. Another song, “Immortal,” has a similar feel but is trance-like. It discusses the difficulties of wanting to mean something to people and make connections while knowing nothing is permanent, especially human experiences and life. Marina has chronicled events as a writer: “If you just take away the industry aspect of it, I see albums being a chapter of your life,” she told Spin. As a pop star, she’s able to reach out to a lot of people, which is, “satisfying for a songwriter because really all you want as a human … you want to know that you relate to people and you’re not the only one feeling those things.”
Lyrically, the 12 tracks are about relationships single, moves to an upbeat rhythm. It’s about the band spending so much time together touring since its first album’s release. The third track, titled “Magic” is one of more interesting songs on “Gracetown.” Unlike the band’s other songs, Stevens does the vocals. She’s previously performed duets with the lead singer, Davieson, but she doesn’t disappoint when she flies solo. While these first three songs on “Gracetown” comprise a powerhouse of indie pop, the rest of the album also shows San Cisco’s talent. “Jealousy” is a suave ballad that has individual verses by both Davieson and Stevens. The acoustic
melody titled “Skool” takes the listener to days of high school love. It’s a light and adorable song that can take you through a stroll down memory lane. After becoming a successful name in Australia, San Cisco will be making the push to be heard throughout the United States. Following their performances this week at SXSW, they will be performing in Brooklyn as well as the Mercury Lounge. For any lover of indie music, “Gracetown” — as well as its predecessor, “San Cisco” — are albums that deserve some space on your playlist.
Good kid, great new album Kendrick's surprise record is an unsurprising success Samuel Titus | Contributing Writer
Photo Provided
Marina's latest release is a gem
Photo Provided
“All my life I want money and power, respect my mind or die from lead shower.” Purposefully sardonic, this line from Kendrick Lamar’s last album embodies the ambitious yet painfully ignorant mentality that much of this nation’s youth have in the face of racial and economic struggle. On his third studio album, “To Pimp a Butterfly,” Lamar channels these familiar themes on a grander scale, sporting an incredible new palate of jazz and funk influence. Conceptually poignant as always, Lamar tackles reinvigorated racial concerns like those most recently publicized in Ferguson, preaching that the only way to break the cycle of violence and exploitation is to emerge from your cocoon as an enlightened butterfly. After 2012’s “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City,” to say that there were high expectations for Lamar’s follow-up album is an understatement. “To Pimp a Butterfly” lives up to the hype, though it’s undoubtedly polarizing. Lamar radically expands his sound, while varying the storytelling format of his previous album. Whereas “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City” is an autobiographical account of his teenage years, “To Pimp a Butterfly” is the story of his people and how fame has forced Lamar to be a role model. It’s natural to think that a young man at the height of his career would be happy with where he was, thrilled even. But breaking
out of the oppressive cocoon of Compton only seemed to create more problems for Lamar. A music career meant leaving people behind. When his friend was shot, Lamar was on tour and could only FaceTime him. Old friends from home pestered him about how he had changed, how he was no longer one of them. As if that wasn’t enough, he found out that his younger sister was pregnant, and Lamar felt like he was selfishly failing those around him. If he was failing those he cared about most, was he also failing the youth who looked up to him? Survivor’s guilt and the onus to enact change are just two of the LP’s major themes. Lyrics aside, these types of concerns are also expressed in short pieces of dialogue throughout the album. The listener is largely unaware of what they mean at that particular moment; however, each time the dialogue appears, another short line from Lamar has been added to the end. The albums last song, “Mortal Man,” reveals that the dialogue is between him and Tupac, a symbolic moment which sheds light on what it means to be a black youth and the contradiction that is fighting for your rights while promoting nonviolence. The track almost sends shivers down your spine upon first listen. It’s surprising, it’s cathartic, but most of all, it’s empowering. With a conceptually mature artist like Kendrick Lamar, listening to isolated tracks doesn’t do justice to the greater work.
“To Pimp a Butterfly” has a wider breadth than anything he has released up until this point. The songs are decontextualized if not listened to as a cohesive group. That being said, some of the most memorable tracks include “U,” “Alright,” “Hood Politics,” “How Much a Dollar Cost,” “The Blacker the Berry,” and “I.” In this moment, it’s impossible to say whether or not “To Pimp a Butterfly” will be as beloved as its predecessor, but it certainly tackles institutional racism headon with staggering word play and conscious activism, summarizing delicate racial issues with tact. Lamar prompts listeners to become a butterfly that betters themselves and those around them, not a “pimped” butterfly that perpetuates ignorance in order to please others. With his third studio release, Lamar retains his crown as king of the West Coast, surprising fans with an unexpected musical shift. At its core, the album is about respecting one another through recognition of each other’s struggle, and it arrives at this conclusion in a way that only Kendrick Lamar could pull off.
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RELEASE
March 17, 2015 | www.bupipedream.com
The magazine making a comeback is...
Franz Lino/Photo Editor
After a brief pause in operations, Ellipses literary magazine is returning to Binghamton Anna Szilagyi | Staff Writer Of the many publications on Binghamton University’s campus, Ellipsis — the University’s only undergraduate literary magazine — might be the most elusive. After disbanding due to the board members’ inability to maintain the publication — with some studying abroad and others losing interest — Ellipsis’ presence disappeared from campus two years ago. This semester, though, Tommy Stella, a junior majoring in English, is reviving Ellipsis along with a new magazine staff. After transferring to Binghamton, Stella searched for a
publication to get involved with on campus. He found a description of Ellipsis on the University’s website that said that the magazine was inactive, but could be restored by a passionate student. Stella, now the president of Ellipsis, took on this project and assembled a group of fellow literature lovers to bring the magazine back to Binghamton. “We believe that it is incredibly important for a student body to have a creative outlet for the things that they write,�� Stella wrote in an email. “A literary magazine is a crucial part to a college experience.� The current staff hopes to modernize the magazine by introducing an online component.
The website is a work in progress, and Stella says it will be “Reddit meets Facebook for writers.� Students will upload their writing to the website, which can be viewed by anyone, and others will be able to vote on pieces they feel should be published in print. “We believe this voting system will make Ellipsis a much more friendly and welcoming environment as opposed to an evil faceless group of editors that people unfortunately view magazines as sometimes,� Stella wrote. Ellipsis’ staff plans to involve students in more ways than just submitting their work. They have an international poetry reading with creative writing professor
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things may have to be adapted and we are excited for those challenges,� Stella wrote. Ellipsis will be published once a semester, with the potential for publication twice a semester with enough support. Although a submission deadline will be determined during the fall 2015 semester, students can begin submitting their creative work to bingellipsis@gmail.com now. Submissions will be archived to be posted on Ellipsis’ website, and printed copies of the magazine will be distributed for free around campus. Copy Editor Colleen Curry did not contribute reporting to this story.
Stella took on this project and assembled a group of fellow literature lovers to bring the magazine back to Binghamton
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Joe Weil, bake sales and visits to other schools in the surrounding area on their agenda. Outreach on campus is a priority for the staff, and Ellipsis hopes to reach not only creative writing students, but literature lovers from all majors. “One thing that I have learned from this reviving process is that even though the magazine ended, the interest in a literary magazine stayed alive,� Stella wrote. Ellipsis fills a void in the ranks of campus publications, providing an outlet for student writers to submit poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction to be shared with the BU community. “Since this is a new experience for the school, we are aware that
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RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Working on, as homework 6 44th president 11 Actress Gardner 14 The blahs 15 Rice dish 16 “Big” London clock 17 Astound 19 Sob 20 Pickle holder 21 Oater actor Jack 22 “It’s a Wonderful Life” director Frank 24 Cyclotron particle 26 Chain known for breakfasts 28 Breathing organ 30 Litter cries 32 “Married ... With Children” dad 35 One hanging around 38 Suffix with web 39 Gossipy types 42 Letter after sigma 43 Refined grace 44 Kate of “The Reader” 46 Sarge’s order 50 “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz” brand word 51 Hard to recall 54 “Don’t __ me, bro!” 55 “That rings a bell” 58 Darn with thread 60 Encountered 61 Saturn SUV 62 Classic baking powder brand 65 __ loss: puzzled 66 Hang in midair 67 Kate’s sitcom pal 68 ’60s “trip” drug 69 33-Down’s field 70 Like really old bread DOWN 1 Hip-hop record label 2 Airing after midnight, say 3 Way to organize all your ducks? 4 Pencil remnant 5 Scoff at
6 Talk’s Winfrey 7 USS Missouri nickname 8 __ mode 9 Fem.’s opposite 10 Aptly named shaving lotion 11 Six-pack enhancer? 12 Open porches 13 “Pick a card, __ card” 18 Qualified 23 Like “algae” or “termini”: Abbr. 25 Uris’s “__ 18” 27 Italian cheese city 29 Class with showers 31 Prize founder 33 Price known for Verdi roles 34 “How to Talk Dirty and Influence People” author Lenny 36 Canines and molars 37 Bit of work 39 Large-scale financial rescues 40 Bozo
41 Revival structure 42 “Up, up and away” defunct flier 45 Declare 47 Skating gold medalist Dorothy 48 Log-in requirement 49 Lipton rival 52 “Waves of grain” color
53 Striped equine 56 Sound rebound 57 Porker’s dinner 59 Apothecary’s weight 61 Batman portrayer Kilmer 63 N.Y.’s Fifth, for one 64 Mop & __: floor cleaner
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
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By Don Gagliardo (c)2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
04/07/09
04/07/09
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TEDX SPECIAL COVERAGE
March 13, 2015 | bupipedream.com
PORN & HULA HOOPS:
A BU '15 A LOOK LOOK AT AT TEDx TEDxBU
Designed by Emma C Siegel/Design Manager, Photos by Franz Lino/Photo Editor and Klara Rusinko/Assistant Photo Editor
LISA LOTTIE
SEE BUPIPEDREAM.COM FOR FULL INTERVIEWS. HULA HOOP: MY WEAPON OF CHOICE
CIRCUS ARTIST MAKES STOP AT BU NICOLAS VEGA NEWS EDITOR
Q: A:
What does hula-hooping mean to you? I think it's an incredible tool to start playing around with even if you can't do anything, even if you're not a physical person and have no coordination. It's so easy for everyone to pick it up and just try it.
When she was attending high school in the Netherlands, Lisa Lottie was made to take a computerized test to find out what kind of profession she should pursue as an adult. The results were straightforward: She would be pastry chef, a baker or a jam-maker. On Sunday afternoon, in the Osterhout Concert Theater at Binghamton University, Lottie took to the stage with four colorchanging LED hula-hoops and put on a performance that had the crowd on its feet. Her path from the school just outside Amsterdam to stages and street corners around the world where she performs with her hula-hoops, was the center of her TEDx presentation, entitled “My Weapon of Choice.” “I didn’t want to dedicate my school years to the preservation of fruit,” she said. “And I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I really felt like that should be okay.” However, when she failed to choose a vocation, Lottie was placed in classes that were not yet full. “I spent my days behind my desk being bored, uninterested and completely under stimulated,” she said. “And it wasn’t more than just a couple of years after that that I left school unimpressed, pretty uneducated — and also — without graduating.” Lottie said she felt like there was nothing in her life that she was good at — by the time she was 20 years old, she had held at least 12 different jobs. She decided that it was time to find
something she was passionate about and pursue it. It turned out to be easier said than done. She felt that her perceived lack of talent was always hovering over her. “I was really good at folding towels, I was really good at screwing caps onto tubes of tooth paste, but I kinda didn’t feel like those skills were going to help me find a job that I was going to jump out of bed for in the morning,” Lottie said. But when she turned 21, a friend handed Lottie a green, adult-sized hula-hoop. She wasn’t very good at first — having no natural sense of coordination or balance — but when she was hooping, she found that there was “nothing else in the world that [she] felt like [she] should be doing.” Soon after, Lottie quit her job to join the circus. “I went from selling soap in a cosmetic shop full time to sleeping two tents away from the elephants and performing 21 shows a week under a 5,000-seater big top in India,” she said. “I got paid almost no money, I hula-hooped my way through countless episodes of dysentery, but I loved to perform and I loved India and I ended up staying in India for 2 years.” After India, Lottie elected to take her talents back to Europe. But she found that in order to be able to keep up with other professional circus performers — and also put food on the table — she would have to hone her skills on the streets. “I had to convince every single person walking by that they should stop and watch my act,” she explained. “I’d give them my best tricks, try to win them over and I’d try to do everything I could to make sure they gave me
some money before they left.” She said that the experience of starting with nothing and ending up with a group of people clapping and cheering was extremely special. “To successfully pull off a street show, it felt like pure magic,” Lottie said. However, there were difficulties, too. Lottie recounted competing with other performers for space, meeting and hanging out with drug addicts and the homeless as well as an incident in which she witnessed one human statue performer throw a brick at another performer who had the same costume as him — the victim later died. But Lottie had discovered her passion and would not be deterred. “I found a type of freedom in my work which motivated me more than anything,” she said. “I would jump out of bed in the morning not because I had to, but because I wanted to.” Lottie was quick to insist that it was hard work, not raw talent, that has contributed to her successful hula hooping career — her YouTube videos have millions of views and she is an in-demand performer at venues all over the world. Instead, Lottie implored the audience to search for their passions and work to give them meaning. “In the end, does it matter if you make money doing the thing you love or if you make money so that you can do the thing you love?” she asked. “It’s a personal preference, but what I think matters the most is that we find the thing that we love the most and that we give ourselves a purpose in life by being captivated by these passions — whatever they may be.”
8
TEDX SPECIAL COVERAGE
ZEPHYR TEACHOUT
bupipedream.com | March 13, 2015
CHICKENIZATION
FORMER GOV. CANDIDATE TALKS BIG BUSINESS RACHEL BLUTH EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Evil corporations aren’t just charging too much for their products, they are actually undermining the very fabric of our democracy. At least that is the picture that Zephyr Teachout painted in her TEDx presentation. Teachout, who ran against Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the 2014 Democratic primary, has made a name for herself as a lawyer and anti-corruption activist and writer. Her talk Sunday described a process she calls the “chickenization” of certain industries. Using Tyson Foods as a model, she said that when corporations get too big, they begin to dictate terms to their suppliers, denying them the ability to make their own business decisions. According to Teachout, Tyson tells chicken farmers exactly what kinds of chicks, feed and water to use. She says it turns farmers into “serfs for Tyson.” “They can’t drop out because Tyson and a few other processors own so much of the market that, if they drop out, there is no one else they can sell to,” Teachout said. Once a corporation gets big enough, Teachout said they can start dictating terms the way Tyson does with its chicken
A: A POSSIBILITY MODEL
CNN REPORTER OUTLINES LIFE'S STAGES ALEXANDRA MACKOF ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
For students who are searching for direction in their lives, the process may seem unclear or daunting. Sunny Hostin, a journalist and Binghamton University alumna, shared the stages of finding one’s purpose in life through her talk, “A Possibility Model,” at TEDxBinghamton on Sunday. Hostin, who graduated from Binghamton University in 1990 with a degree in English, currently works for CNN as a legal analyst and columnist. She started her career as a prosecutor, but after the birth of her children she decided to make a career switch. Inspired by Mark Twain’s quote, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why,” Hostin told students to also look out for the day they find out who they will not be. She said there are three life stages: day one, the day a person is born; day two, the day a person finds out who they do not want to be; and day three, the day a person finds their purpose. Hostin said that everyone should
Q: A:
realize that day one does not have to set a precedent for the course of one’s life. Born to teenage parents in the South Bronx in New York City, she said she was always consciously looking to excel. “My message to you is your day one is behind you,” Hostin said. “Do not let it define you. Had I let my day one define me, I would have been a statistic.” Her day two came when she was 6 years old. Hostin recalled her uncle lying on the floor, bleeding from stab wounds. In that moment, Hostin said, she recognized the course she would not allow her life to take. “I remember thinking ‘I’m not going to live with this. I’m not going to become this,’” Hostin said. “‘I’m not going to live a life of violence, I’m not going to have my children see this. This is not who I will be.’” Her day three occurred when she was covering the Trayvon Martin case in Sanford, Florida. She said she stopped mimicking others’ career moves and became more comfortable with her own potential. “When you find your day three, it is so empowering,” Hostin said. “You are being so authentic that you do not care what anybody thinks. You are using your authentic voice.
suppliers. She said Wal-Mart is such a powerful market force that it can tell Levi’s what kind of cotton to use in its jeans and tell Coca-Cola what kinds of sweeteners to put in its sodas. Companies are forced to comply or lose their business at Wal-Mart. Teachout compared modern-day CEOs to the robber barons of the 20th century. Amazon, whose CEO and founder Jeff Bezos also owns the Washington Post, had a contract dispute with Hachette publishing this summer and made it harder for consumers to get books from Hachette. She said that this was an example of how corporations could use their power to disrupt democracy. “This might seem like a small fight, but if you think about the ‘ingredients’ which are in books — ideas — it becomes something more dangerous,” Teachout said. “They have a power over ideas. Even if Amazon isn’t using that power now… we are giving it the power to control which ideas come to us.” According to Teachout, it isn’t just retail companies that experience a “chickenized” industry. She said that concentration exists in the banking and cable industries and that companies with too much of the market have the power to control the content of what is on television. “This kind of control in the marketplace bleeds over to control in our political sphere as well,” Teachout said.
Q:
She said that chicken farmers were afraid to speak out against Tyson’s practices because the company could retaliate by giving them worse chicken feed or more restrictive contracts. She also said that writers and publishers were hesitant to protest Amazon’s policies out of fear that their books would never reach consumers and their ideas would never be heard. “We not only don’t have the competitive, thriving small business economy that we want, but we also don’t have the competitive, thriving idea economy in democracy,” Teachout said. Teachout asserted that when the Reagan administration rewrote anti-trust laws in the 1980s, it laid the groundwork for companies like Tyson to integrate vertically and take hold of the market. She advocated breaking up banks and large corporations and insisted on “neutrality” for companies like Amazon, which would force them to treat each publishing house equally. “I believe everybody already knows this,” Teachout said. “I believe people already feel a sense of powerlessness, the sense of a lost way in terms of our American entrepreneurial spirit and democracy. There is a sleeping giant out there in the country of people who want to take on these monopolists who are not acting as market actors, but as political actors.”
I'm sure you've been waiting to speak with the Binghamton University student newspaper to announce any further candidacy, so what's next for you? Do you plan on seeking office again?
I'd love to. Of course it will be a lot easier if there is public financing for elections, but I don't have any particular plans yet. So we'll see. I loved it. . . I just want to see a bigger range of people come out to run for office
SUNNY HOSTIN
Hostin said she knew she found her niche when reflecting on her father’s advice to follow her passions. She said that even if she were to win the lottery, she would still show up to work every day to share people’s stories. “My father always said that if you follow your dreams, your passions, and use that to do your life’s work, you’ll never feel like you’re working,” Hostin said. “Do something that you would do for free.” When covering current events, like protests in Ferguson, Missouri, Hostin said she noticed young activists going through stages of her possibility model. According to her, the country should take notice of their protests. “People are finding their paths, finding their voices, speaking up for other people,” Hostin said. Hostin left the audience with words she said she aims to live her life by. “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, ensure justice for those who are crushed,” Hostin said. “Try to live a perfect day doing something for someone who can’t say anything.”
Who has influenced you the most in your life? In my life, my parents. My parents lived this dream deferred, and they certainly sacrificed a lot for me. They've been my inspiration. In my career, Oprah . . . she has never been afraid to be authentic in front of people while helping others find their own authentic voice.
March 13, 2015 | bupipedream.com
TEDX SPECIAL COVERAGE
MIDDLE EASTERN OIL AND WHAT IT MEANS TO THE WORLD
CHRISTOPHER FIX
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JETSETTING CEO EXPOSES WORLDWIDE MARKETS JOSEPH HAWTHORNE ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Christopher Fix regularly spends his time meeting oil ministers in Dubai and jetting off to Shanghai to practice his Mandarin with businessmen and factory owners. But he took a few hours from his breakneck schedule to return to his alma mater and talk about his observations as a businessman on the move across Asia. Fix, the CEO of the Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) and an alumnus of the class of ‘86, deals primarily with the pricing and trading of oil throughout South Asia. To him, the oil market is only a fraction of the region’s potential. “There’s a middle class that’s growing by the hundreds of millions,” Fix said. “It is
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staggering to think about how these people are incrementally earning more money and they are deploying it in many different ways.” Fix described the amenities that Dubai alone had. He displayed pictures of skyscrapers, man-made islands and the landmarks that he says define the city. According to him, the city is also the largest transportation hub in the world. “Within four hours flight radius of Dubai is half the world’s population and with eight hours it’s two-thirds,” Fix said. “This is an extremely important place to see this economic activity growth.” After his graduation, Fix left Binghamton to travel to Beijing in one of the first United StatesChina teacher exchanges since trade had reopened between the two countries. He said the
immersion into a new language and culture transformed him. “When I go to Chicago and I talk about China, they know I speak Chinese and they know I just came from Beijing,” Fix said. “They listen to me.” Traveling and working in another country offered immense opportunity for personal growth, Fix said. “When you are there and among exposed cultures that have been around for 6,000 years, and you are talking to people in these markets, you just might find something of yourself,” Fix said. He urged students in the audience to follow his path and spend time working abroad. Nevertheless, he said, succeeding in Asia was difficult and required hard work. “This is a competitive market and they do understand what the best ideas are,” Fix said. “It is
better for you to be building your relationships and developing your value propositions.” Personal relationships, Fix highlighted, were a critical aspect of business in China. From personal experience, he said, it was important to make conversation and casual time for customers outside of the professional environment. “It takes years to build solid foundations for business in this region,” Fix said. Despite the difficulties, Fix said, international businesses wanted all the professional travelers they could find. “I’m hoping that some of you might take the same path and start thinking outside the U.S.,” Fix said. “We have lots of people depending on jobs in this country for goods and services that we are selling overseas. And these markets really need you.”
How do you see this [oil price] volatility affecting people around the world? I think there's a lot of elements to it . . . This is a good thing for the global economy, and for the US manufacturing base., it is a very good thing as well because now the price of energy difference comes off. There are many positive drivers around it, so for me I hope the global economy can benefit from lower energy prices.
MARIA SANTELLI
SEE BUPIPEDREAM.COM FOR FULL INTERVIEWS. WITNESSING THE POWER OF CONSCIENCE
PEACE ADVOCATE CHARTS PATH TO ENDING WAR CARLA SINCLAIR
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
There are many reasons someone may join the military: for pride, for money or to defend their country. But what concerned TEDx speaker Maria Santelli was what happens when they realize they’ve made a mistake. Santelli is the director for the Center on Conscience and War (CCW). The center works with servicemen and women who, after voluntarily enlisting in the military, found that killing violates their conscience and are applying for discharge as a “conscientious objector.” “When I talk with conscientious objectors every day, I hear that sense of relief expressed over and over,” she said. “Even if they
haven’t been discharged yet, if no action has been taken yet, that simple act of declaring themselves conscientious objectors, that brief act of reclaiming their conscience, gives them a sense of relief.” Santelli explained that the culture of war and violence in the United States masks the true horrors of war. She argued that society compels its citizens to join the army for money, access to education or service to the community, but national leaders have neglected to illustrate the personal consequences of killing. “Our government, our media schools and even our churches take great pains to obscure the reality of war and military service,” she said. “So sometimes people don’t know what they’re getting themselves into. And they find themselves in a crisis of conscience.” This “crisis of conscience” is the realization that their actions are in opposition to their
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moral and ethical beliefs, or the conscience. In the military a crisis of conscience means that a service member faces the choice of either violating orders or violating their conscience by killing. “This type of trauma, this wound to the soul, is not characterized by fear for one’s life,” Santelli said. “It’s characterized by inner conflict, moral injury. A natural response to a very unnatural experience.” The CCW walks the prospective conscientious objector through the official application to request a discharge from the military on grounds of moral and ethical beliefs. Santelli said it is this process, along with counseling, that provided her with a new perspective on the military, one that shows trends of nonviolence and cooperation instead of war. “Their application compels a discussion of the morality of war,” she said. “It teaches us about our true nature, the default
position for humanity is that of a conscientious objector. One percent of us have volunteered; the other 99 percent have said no. We have a choice, and we’ve made it. We said we’d rather not be involved.” This ability to be discharged on grounds of conscientious objection has come about through many years of court cases, protests and work by the CCW and other organizations, through years of mandatory drafts and religious persecution, she said. But Santelli ended by saying that society is on the right track to leaving war in the past. “Conscience is the law inscribed on the human heart,” she said. “When we follow the counsel of the conscience, we make good decisions. And when it comes to war and violence, the vast majority of us have already decided. Being a conscientious objector is what it means to be human.”
What exactly is a "crisis of conscience?" Though it's different for everyone, I think it's when you feel like what you're doing is in opposition to your conscience. Something is wrong, you're being asked to do something or being prevented from doing something, and your conscience is telling you that that's wrong. And when you're in the military, that puts them in a very difficult position, because you're faced with the biggest ill: taking a human life.
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JACK FISCHER
TEDX SPECIAL COVERAGE
bupipedream.com | March 13, 2015
PORN: THE NEW TOBACCO
STUDENT WARNS OF PERILS IN PORN MOLLY MCGRATH OPINION EDITOR
In the same way tobacco reshapes people’s neural pathways, internet pornography is changing human sexuality. In his talk, “Porn: The New Tobacco,” student speaker Jack Fischer warned of porn’s harmful effects on the human psyche. “Porn appeared in an evolutionary blink of an eye, and thus overloads this mechanism in a way that our ancestors never even close to experienced,” Fischer said. “The overload of porn becomes ‘normal’ to the brain.” Fischer, a sophomore majoring in computer science, spoke to an auditorium filled largely with fellow college students, a group targeted by the $97 billion per year industry he sharply criticized. “It’s been shown to increase acceptance of violence against women, and while clearly everyone who views porn is definitely not a rapist, porn consumption has also been shown as a predictor of rape on college campuses,” he said. According to Fischer, regular porn consumption disrupts long-
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term relationships and marriages. He explained that repeated exposure to the extreme sexual stimuli makes it impossible to maintain an attraction to a single partner. On a larger scale, this phenomenon leads to higher rates of infidelity and divorce. Keeping with TEDxBinghamton’s theme, “Walk the Talk,” Fischer argued that despite pornography’s addictive nature, it is possible to kick the habit once and for all. He told the story of his own involvement in “NoFap,” a growing internet community founded with the goal of helping users refrain from selfpleasure. “NoFap is secular, although all beliefs are welcome, and serves to provide peer support for those trying to ‘reboot’ their sexuality by going long periods of time, often months, abstaining from porn and masturbation,” Fischer said. Fischer said he was raised in a Christian household and that he never struggled with porn addiction. But when he discovered the “NoFap,” community, he created a “panic button” to help others resist temptation. Users can click the panic button whenever they’re tempted to visit a porn
website and it will link them to a series of inspiring messages and images encouraging them not to give in. “When NoFap put the button up, around 3,000 people used it on the first day,” Fischer said. “Today, the panic button is used millions of times a year by people around the world trying to kick their porn habits.” Not only do “NoFap” users experience healthier relationships, Fischer said, but many users also reported increased personal success after joining the community. “Abstaining from ejaculation for about seven days has been shown to increase testosterone in men by about 45 percent,” he said. “Young men everywhere are actually avoiding the numbing effects of porn not simply for sexual and ethical reasons, but to gain an edge in their careers and everyday lives.” Fischer ended his speech on a hopeful note. He expressed his strong belief that porn addiction and its harms are reversible with support from others. “Despite the doom and gloom,” Fischer said, “I actually see this as a really positive story showing how the human spirit is alive and well.”
How does porn prevent people from reaching their human potential?
We are not biologically equipped to deal with this fundamentally new thing, artificial sex. It overloads the same neural reward pathways that traditional drugs do. When you take cocaine it messes with your brain. Your brain adjusts to the point where it's normal . . . It's the same way with porn.
SEE BUPIPEDREAM.COM FOR FULL INTERVIEWS. THE FAST FOOD REVOLUTION
ADAM ESKIN
RESTAURANTEUR REDEFINES THE QUICK MEAL JACOB SHAMSIAN RELEASE EDITOR
Adam Eskin runs a few restaurants in Manhattan. And with them, he’s a tastemaker for the entire industry. As CEO and founder of Dig Inn, he’s leading the charge of a food revolution that he believes is changing the way we think about food. Recovering from laryngitis, he gave his TEDx talk, “The Fast Food Revolution.” In it, he discussed how growing awareness about good and healthy food — through entertainment, media and ubiquitous statistics about the obesity epidemic — has led to a revolution in the food industry. Before now, consumers largely chose the speed, convenience and price of fast food over expensive, healthy and wholesome. Now, technology has advanced sufficiently for restaurants to provide those healthy and wholesome meals with near the speed, convenience and price of fast food places. The biggest example of how this works is Chipotle — it’s a massive
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chain, but it still tastes good, Eskin said. The popularity of Chipotle founder Steve Ells’ “food with integrity” program demonstrates that people care about where their food comes from. “What Steve Ells did in 1990 is say you don’t have to sacrifice on quality of the food; you can still deliver accessibility, you can still deliver affordability,” Eskin said. In the past few decades, Americans has become increasingly concerned with what goes into their food, how their food is made, and how that all relates to their health. There are dozens of celebrity chefs, Michelle Obama had her “Let’s Move” campaign, and Beyonce wore a sweatshirt that read “Kale.” “I don’t think that [McDonald’s founder] Ray Kroc was malicious. There was no intent to say, ‘Okay, let me break the food system,’” Eskin said. Eskin speculated that Kroc merely wanted to make food fast and cheap, unaware that he started a company that later became a symbol for the obesity epidemic. With his restaurants at Dig Inn, Eskin develops direct relationships with local farmers, cutting out the
middlemen. It suits his seasonally rotating menus, and it ensures the food is delivered faster, remains fresher and cuts margins. Eskin thinks it’s only a matter of time before McDonald’s and restaurant chains like it either disappear, shrink or change radically. “The exciting part about the size of the industry is that in invites capitalism,” Eskin said. “It invites capital. It says, ‘Hey, this is a big, broken industry. There’s an opportunity to make money here.’” And while McDonald’s market cap comes out to around $2.5 million per restaurant on average, Chipotle’s market cap comes out to around $12 million per location, and Shake Shack is at around $25 million. Eskin said this means that the market validates the healthy food movement. Eskin started in finance and fell into the food business eight years ago. And the way Eskin sees it, it’s the food business — not just the restaurant business. To him, farming, restaurant and all the middlemen are part of one big industry. The lines have blurred between food
served fine and food served fast. Drones and vertical farming are new technologies that change the way we get our food. Eskin ended his talk with a recruiting pitch: The restaurant industry has changed, he says, and now there’s real opportunity to change the way Americans eat food. The food movement is understaffed with people who’ve studied food sustainability, and it’s seeking its next batch of leaders. “You can have social impact,” he said. “You can make a difference. You can go home every day and feel fucking good about what you do. But you don’t have to starve, either. And actually make money and economic prosperity and be successful.”
You said you're a capitalist, right? But it seems to me that to offer high quality, local, organic food at a relatively low price compared to a "fancy" restuarant, let's say, is hard to make profitable as a business. A couple of things. One, we don't draw a line in the sand and say everything has to be organic . . . we're taking a very honest, transparent and pragmatic approach to the way people eat. We don't want this to be a movement of exclusivity.
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John Babich/Pipe Dream Photographer
Ah, spring has arrived! The snow is melting, the wind is dying down and the temperature is normally above 40 degrees. Finally, you can swap the winter coats, long pants and long sleeves for those cute crop tops and manly tanks. And huzzah! You can gloriously return to Downtown for the first time ‌ since last week.
OPINION Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Why I wove the Palestinian flag
Ignoring others involved in the conflict is an obstacle to peace Raghav Goyal
Guest Columnist
Students, Speak O
n Sunday, sophomore Jack Fischer took the Anderson Center stage as the first TEDxBinghamtonUniversity student speaker.
The TEDx organizers took a risk in inviting a student to take the platform among notable, highly successful speakers. It shows that Binghamton students are capable of significant accomplishments in their undergraduate years, and we’d like to see more opportunities for students to share their ideas. In the past, the only opportunity for students to speak to a large number of their peers is at commencement. Any student can apply to speak at commencement, but a commencement speech is necessarily limited in its scope. Fischer couldn’t have spoken about the harms of internet
pornography, the topic of his TEDx talk on Sunday, in the context of a graduation speech. While commencement speeches are a great opportunity to speak about the specifics of one’s experiences at Binghamton, the TEDxBinghamton organizers broke ground in inviting a student to present on Sunday, and we hope to see more such opportunities arise in the future. TED’s slogan, “Ideas worth spreading,” is necessarily vague. It’s not constricted to “scientific” or “artistic” ideas worth spreading, because TED provides a platform for many types of narratives to be told. Here at Binghamton,
there are students with ideas worth spreading. They may be idiosyncratic ideas, but that’s all the better to get the conversation flowing on campus. That’s the point of these talks, to incite new conversations and get the brain juices flowing. Students’ perspectives are equally as likely to elicit this reaction as anyone else’s. And on a more pragmatic note, a student speaker certainly costs less than a professional speaker or any of the academics Binghamton might otherwise invite to speak. It’s inspiring that so many students tried out to speak at TED. More than 70 students took the time to prepare a speech they
felt a large portion of the student body needed to hear. And the TEDx organizers expressed that a number of these finalists could have done a competent job, though only one could take the stage on Sunday. With the TEDx E-Board’s decision to make this student speaker a tradition, we hope that more students apply and that the field becomes more competitive. Speaking before such a large crowd and among such impressive company is an incredible opportunity for students, and we look forward to seeing what ideas they produce in the future.
Views expressed in the opinion pages represent the opinions of the columnists. The only piece which represents the views of the Pipe Dream Editorial Board is the Staff Editorial, above. The Editorial Board is composed of the Editor-in-Chief, News Editor, Opinion Editor, Sports Editor, and Release Editor.
I got really angry last week. Angrier than I’ve been in a long time. It came when I counted 16 Israeli flags waving for “Israel Peace Week” in the New University Union. My anger caused me to ask a simple question: How can you wave 16 Israeli flags in the name of peace, but not a single Palestinian flag? How can you negotiate peace between two countries while trying to pretend that one of them doesn’t exist? The Israel Peace Week that I saw, that many students saw, was not about peace. It was about trying to convince people that Israel isn’t wrong and has never done anything wrong. So, for one hour last Friday, I held up a small homemade Palestinian flag outside of the campus event Shabbat 1500. The experience was transformative in a way I didn’t expect. I went to the Events Center with a dissonant mission, a series of echoing emotions in my heart, memories of seeing olive trees burn, old men being spit on, teaching 18-year-old students who had just returned from childhoods spent in prison and exile. But when I held up my flag and people started calling me “faggot” and “homo” and “dipshit” and “jackass” and “terrorist,” I remembered an obvious lesson that I’d forgotten since I’ve been back from Palestine: Anger is destructive. Holding up my small flag, my anger disappeared — all that was left was a complete desire for there to be, for just one hour, a Palestinian flag on campus where I thought lots of young Jewish people would see it. Holding up my small flag, my heart was light, and I heard two arguments that I’d like to respond to here. 1. “You are being disrespectful. This is a Jewish event, and the flag you’re holding has nothing to do with Israel.”
This is an idea I have heard many, many times before. My response is that treating Israel, Palestine, Islam, Judaism and Christianity as separable in the conflict is a red herring and is a means of disempowering the conversation about the conflict by accusing the participants of being racist. My reason for being at Shabbat 1500 was not to stop people celebrating their religion, but to share my very person, my experiences, with people I predicted haven’t seen what I have seen. My action came out of confusion and anger, but once I saw those things reflected back at me, I saw how destructive they really are. I saw how easy it is to lose sight of the other people involved in the conflict because of the ideologies we’re taught. I held up a flag to air out a part of my life that I love. 2. “You hurt the cause of Palestine because people will see you here and conflate pro-Palestine with anti-semitic.” I heard this a lot. It took me a while to make sense of it. This is an admission of guilt. The problem in the conflict is that both sides look to the actions of individuals and, without talking to those individuals, use what they see as evidence for what they already believe. My message was not anti-semitic. My message was a personal testament to the beautiful memories I have of Palestine I wanted to share. That so many people saw my action as hateful or angry says nothing about me or Palestine, but a great deal about some people in the Jewish community’s tendency to see every action about peace in the Middle East as an attack on them personally. It’s this latter point that I, personally, believe to be the greatest obstacle to peace. Both sides need to stop disengaging from dialogue and hiding behind what they already believe. We need to start seeing people who bear flags as opportunities to bring us all closer, not to push us all further apart. — Raghav Goyal is a senior majoring in biology
Clinton email controversy highlights need for transparency
If the government can trace citizen's emails, government officials should be held to same standard David Forrest
Columnist
Hillary Clinton has dominated the news recently as her email scandal, and her subsequent attempt to explain it, angered both her critics and potential supporters. Clinton first came under fire when it was revealed that she used her private email address to conduct government business while serving as secretary of state.
While much of the outrage over the scandal seems nitpicky and should be dismissed as political theater, some of the criticisms against Clinton do hold water. One criticism of Clinton’s email management regards security. Conducting official government business using a personal network makes it nearly impossible to ensure the security of the information. Because she operated her own server, Clinton also put herself at risk because she would have been responsible for any breech in security. Though security is important, the strongest criticism against
Clinton’s handling of her email is that her own staff decided which of her personal emails to publish. When she first began to face this controversy, Clinton agreed to turn over thousands of emails after she deleted those that she deemed “personal.” While it is certainly possible that the emails were personal, her statement would have been more credible if a neutral party had determined which emails to delete instead of her own staff. Ironically, there was one benefit of Clinton’s email snafu; it focused the public’s attention on the transparency of their elected
officials, which has exposed other high-profile politicians. It turns out that Jeb Bush, who recently tweeted “transparency matters” in response to the Clinton email scandal, failed to comply with a Florida law that required state officials to turn over records at the end of his term. In fact, Bush, who is the Republican Party’s frontrunner for the 2016 presidential election, delivered his latest batch of 25,000 emails last year, a full seven and half years after he was required to do so by law. Like Clinton, Bush also used a private email address during his tenure as governor.
However, the scandals do not stop there. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s staff is in full damage control mode after his administration’s policy of deleting state workers’ emails after 90 days became public. Cuomo, who has already suffered from increased scrutiny this year due to the high profile corruption cases in Albany, has offered no rationale for his policy, sparking anger in Albany. The fact is, deleting government emails completely undermines the ideal of a transparent government. Citizens that want to monitor their government should have access to information that would
allow them to do so. Candidates that are trying to earn the public’s trust should be publishing emails, not deleting them. As we move further into the digital age, more government communications will be conducted electronically. Since the government has demonstrated that it has the capacity to store unfathomably large amounts of regular citizens’ data through the NSA’s programs, it is time to apply that capability to hold politicians accountable for their actions. — David Forrest is a senior majoring in political science
Learn to appreciate all the Binghamton community has to offer To bridge the disconnect between students and locals, more than mere tolerance is necessary Skylin Baestlein
Contributing Columnist
Students don’t appreciate local members of the Binghamton community. It’s disrespectful and of poor character to disregard a community one ought to participate in and be a part of. Perhaps the disconnect between locals and students is due to the physical separation of Downtown and the campus. Maybe it can be attributed to the stigma of an
“upstate vs. downstate” mentality. Maybe this attitude is due to misinformation. Whatever the cause, local disrespect can indeed be rectified. In 2013, Pipe Dream columnist Anita Raychawdhuri wrote a column, “Who you calling townie? Students are too rough on locals.” She argued that the community benefits the student body by providing us with access to employment and internship opportunities. But the community offers us so much more than that. The community offers a sense of place, a home, a place to create a home, to create a family or a life.
Raychawdhuri further explained that students should not feel entitled simply because we “fund the town.” It’s important to understand that the town also funds the students in many distinctive ways. All of the charms of Binghamton, from Tom & Marty’s and the Belmar to the Phelps Mansion Museum or the Barber Shop on Main Street, add to the social capital and cultural richness of our experience here as students. If you look at the statistics of where Binghamton University alumni reside, 9,299 live in Broome County. That’s more than any other
county in the nation, with the the second-highest alumni population in Nassau County. Ten percent of the population of Broome County graduated from BU. It’s obvious that disrespectful behavior toward locals is inappropriate, but more importantly it’s based on misunderstanding and a distinct sense of separation. If we want to eliminate this sense of separateness, it will require more than refraining from mocking “townies.” It requires University students to develop an intimate appreciation for the small city of Binghamton.
If you search “Binghamton” on Urban Dictionary, one of the top posts, written by a Binghamton resident, described, “all the stuck up long island[ers] … that go to BU and do nothing but [complain] about how bad binghamton is” as the worst part of living in Binghamton. This poster urges these students to transfer if they don’t like it. This is not advice I would give. I would rather encourage the student body to do more than tolerate “townies.” Learn to appreciate the “townie” and local culture. Embrace it! Binghamton is not at all a bad place to go to school, nor are the
local people “dirty” or “uneducated hillbillies.” Professors, high school teachers, alumni, BU students, business owners, accountants, barbers, Sodexo employees, bar regulars, bartenders and homeless people all live here. It’s a community and it’s beautifully located between two noteworthy and free-flowing rivers. Sure, the city needs work, but even now, it has so much to offer us. It would have more to offer visits if we bothered to investigate and understand it more fully. — Skylin Baestlein is a senior majoring in environmental studies
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SPORTS
bupipedream.com | March 17, 2015
Bearcats' comeback effort falls short Tennis teams find split success BU rally too little too late in 11-9 loss to Red Foxes
Men's tennis falls to No. 50 Cornell, 7-0, at home
Matt Pilotti
Nicholas Waldron
Coming off of a big loss at Cornell on Wednesday, the Binghamton women’s lacrosse team looked for a glimmer of light on Saturday against Marist. Unfortunately, rain was in the forecast, as the Bearcats (3-3) fell, 11-9, to the Red Foxes (3-2). A frustrating first half produced few offensive chances for Binghamton against a skilled Marist defense. Marist controlled the pace early on, holding the Bearcats to no shots through the first five minutes of play. Any time an opening could be found in the middle, the defense swarmed to the ball, preventing many good scoring opportunities. This strong play coupled with eight turnovers limited BU to only seven shots — four on goal — and two goals in the first half. Marist jumped out to an early 1-0 lead after just two minutes of play. But BU freshman midfielder Tiffany Ryan soon answered, netting her sixth goal of the season to tie the game. This was the closest that Binghamton got in the game, however, as Marist created a lead that it wouldn’t relinquish. In fact, the Bearcat offense disappeared for nearly 20 minutes following Ryan’s goal, until sophomore attack Brianne Arthur hit a shot to cut the deficit to 4-2. Although Arthur’s goal generated some buzz with the home crowd and team, momentum did not remain in Binghamton’s favor for very long. Marist responded just seconds later and closed the half with two straight goals to lead, 6-2. Despite trailing, Binghamton junior goalie Erin McNulty kept the game close with four saves. Regarding her team’s slow play in the first half, Binghamton head coach Stephanie Allen said she believed the score was a reflection of
The Binghamton men’s tennis team (2-10, 0-2 Mid-American Conference) failed to put an end to its losing skid on Saturday, dropping all seven points to 50th-ranked Cornell (6-5) at the Binghamton Tennis Center. The Bearcats have now lost 10 consecutive matches and have not won since Jan. 24, when they defeated Marist and Bryant. During the stretch, BU has faced seven ranked opponents, capturing just eigh t total points against top talent. Despite these negative results, BU head coach Nick Zieziula remains positive in his first year at the helm of the program. “We’ve got to work to remain positive, staying focused on what we can do in the present tense and not worry about the outcome,” Zieziula said according to a press release on bubearcats.com.
Contributing Writer
Contributing Writer
Caroline Sardella/Contributing Photographer
Sophomore midfielder Callon Williams earned three goals on Saturday as BU fell, 11-9, to Marist.
her players’ inabilities to make good choices and be patient. “We put ourselves in that hole early on in the game,” Allen said. “It wasn’t necessarily things Marist was doing, or plays that Marist was creating. It was really unforced errors and some bad choices with the ball for Binghamton today.” The Bearcats showcased their resilience in the second half, outscoring the Red Foxes, 7-5. If urgency was the difference that the Binghamton was looking for, the team responded well. Good ball control finally led to successful penetration of the defense by Arthur, who notched her second goal of the game on a free-position attempt. The goal kickstarted a series of solid possessions by the Binghamton offense in which it was in control for the first 10 minutes of the second stanza. BU’s defense also held its ground, preventing Marist from getting good shot chances. Sophomore midfielder Callon Williams followed Arthur’s goal with one of her own to make it a two-goal game, at 6-4. Through the rest of the period, Williams continued to head the Binghamton offense, and she finished with a hat-trick. Binghamton had caught fire and
the brewing comeback prompted a Marist timeout. However, the ensuing draw control win by Marist set the stage for another goal, once again widening the gap to 7-5 and putting a damper on BU’s momentum. The Bearcats continued to convert Marist mishaps into goals, with another successful free-position attempt coming from senior midfielder Renee Kiviat. But the Bearcats’ strong play simply wasn’t enough to snuff out the Red Foxes. Even with three goals in the final three minutes of the game, Marist did not falter. Instead of winding down the clock and diminishing any attempt at Binghamton chipping into its lead, Marist fired away at the net. BU scored one last goal with 16 seconds remaining to make it 119, but Marist closed out the game playing keep-away. “If we had played offensively the way that we did in the last 15 minutes of the game, I think it would have been a different outcome,” Allen said. The Bearcats are scheduled to return to action at home today against Siena. First draw control is set for 3 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.
THE 2015 SUNY LEGAL FELLOWSHIP AT ALBANY LAW SCHOOL
In their first home match of the season on Saturday, the Bearcats could not get anything started. They dropped two doubles points before losing all six singles matches. The duo of junior Sid Hazarika and senior Ismael Dinia, the MAC Doubles Team of the Week earlier this month, was unable to set the tone for the Bearcats in the first doubles match, dropping the set, 6-4. Only two Bearcats were able to win a set on Saturday. Dinia won his first set after 13 games, taking the first, 7-6, before dropping the next two, 6-1, (13-11), to take the loss. Sophomore Frenk Kote won his first set as well, 6-3, before losing the next two 6-1, 6-3. This was a familiar result for Kote, who won the first 10 games of his match against Princeton last week before dropping the last two sets. Sophomore Thomas Caputo, who sat out last week’s singles match with an ankle injury,
remained sidelined against the Big Red. Sophomore Douglas Notaris — who filled in for Caputo — lost his match 6-0, 6-4. “We came ready to compete today but we missed some key deuce points and break opportunities and then we didn’t do a good enough job of responding to that adversity,” Zieziula said, according to bubearcats.com. The Bearcats are searching to get their groove back in time for their fast-approaching MAC schedule. Despite the down start to the season, Binghamton is far from out. The MAC tournament includes the top four members of the conference, with BU currently sitting in sixth place. And with three MAC matches left on the schedule, Binghamton has time to improve its standing. Binghamton is set to travel to Queens on Friday to take on St. John’s at noon from the USTA National Tennis Center.
Women's tennis dominates Marist with 5-2 win Staff Reports Despite dropping the opening doubles point, the Binghamton women’s tennis team dominated the singles portion of play to secure a 5-2 victory over Marist on Friday. The Bearcats (6-5) pair of junior Agatha Ambrozy and senior Katherine Medianik dropped its doubles match from the first position, 6-2, to Marist’s
tandem of junior Karly Pang and freshman Claire Schminz. After BU duo sophomore Annie DiMuro and junior Sara Kohtz edged its Marist opponents, 6-3, junior Shea Brodsky and freshman Olga Ostrovetsky fell to Marist’s junior pair of Katie Seitz and Nikki Rohan, 6-4, to give the Red Foxes the doubles point. However, BU responded with five consecutive singles victories. Medianik defeated Pang, 6-4, 3-6, 12-10, to open the singles scoring
for the Bearcats. Kohtz, Brodsky, DiMuro and Ambrozy then each followed with straight set sweeps of their Marist opponents to clinch a 5-2 match win for Binghamton. Marist’s lone singles victory came from Rohan, who earned a 6-3, 3-6, 10-8 victory from the sixth position. Binghamton is set to return to action on Saturday at Cornell. First serve is scheduled for 10 a.m. from the Reis Tennis Center in Ithaca, New York.
Interested in covering Binghamton University sports? Email Ashley Purdy at sports@bupipedream.com
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March 17, 2015 | bupipedream.com
15
SPORTS
Bearcats drop two of three to Stony Brook in AE opener After falling in both games of Sunday doubleheader, BU responds with 13-2 victory on Monday
Photo Provided
Senior pitcher Greg Ostner threw five innings while giving up just two runs in Binghamton’s 13-2 victory over Stony Brook on Monday.
Noah Bressner
Contributing Writer A rocky start gave way to a strong finish for the Binghamton baseball team this weekend, opening America East play in a three-game series at Stony Brook. After taking two of three from VMI last weekend, the Bearcats (4-8, 1-2 AE) were unable to carry the momentum into Sunday’s doubleheader. Binghamton dropped the first two games of the series against Stony Brook (6-9,
2-1 AE), 8-3 and 6-3, respectively, before roaring back to defeat the Seawolves, 13-2, in Monday’s finale. The series was originally scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, with two games to be played on Saturday. However, the opening doubleheader was postponed to Sunday due to rain, while the final game was then rescheduled for Monday. The Bearcats got off to a fast start offensively on Monday. Junior second baseman Reed Gamache tripled to center field
with runners on second and third to drive in two runs. Later in the first inning, sophomore first baseman Brendan Skidmore delivered with a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Gamache to put the score at 3-0. While Stony Brook was able to reduce the lead to two runs in the bottom of the second, the offensive effort proved to be too little. Binghamton junior third baseman David Schanz hit an infield single to begin what would become a 10-run rally. The Bearcats took advantage of a slew of errors and
poor pitching from Stony Brook junior starter Tim Knesnik, who was replaced after just 2.2 innings pitched. The remainder of the game was quiet offensively with both Binghamton and Stony Brook bullpens allowing no earned runs. The Bearcat winning pitcher, senior Greg Ostner, pitched five innings and allowed just two earned runs en route to BU’s 13-2 victory. The opener of Sunday’s doubleheader featured a duel between Binghamton ace junior
Rob Hardy and Stony Brook junior southpaw Tyler Honahan. Both teams were held scoreless until the Seawolves broke through in the bottom of the fifth, at which point junior outfielder Jack Parenty singled to left, driving in runs from second and third base to give the Seawolves a two-run advantage. After the fifth, fatal errors and inferior pitching doomed the Bearcats, who allowed a total of four unearned runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Stony Brook was able to tally eight runs with
just eight hits to defeat BU, 8-3. Game two of Sunday’s doubleheader saw Binghamton take an early 1-0 lead with a triple from senior center fielder Zach Blanden followed by a Gamache RBI single up the middle. Binghamton’s lead expired at the bottom of the second, however. Consecutive triples from Stony Brook freshman designated hitter Bobby Honeyman — who scored runners from second and third — and sophomore shortstop Jeremy Giles, gave Stony Brook a 3-1 lead. Binghamton scored one run in both the fourth and fifth innings featuring a second RBI from Gamache. With the game tied at three, BU junior pitcher Mike Bunal struggled his way through three batters, committing an error that allowed Giles to reach scoring position. Sophomore reliever Nick Liegi took over for Bunal and gave up five runs on four hits. Stony Brook was able to capitalize on the error, driving in Giles and two more, to gain the lead, 6-3. Despite scoring chances in the sixth and seventh innings, Binghamton couldn’t capitalize. The Bearcats left four runners on base, three of whom were in scoring position. Despite falling, 6-3, the Bearcats out-hit the Seawolves by a 10-6 margin. Additionally, Gamache went 3-for-4 with two RBIs in the game, while batting 7 for 13 with six RBIs in the series. Next up for the Bearcats is a three-game series against Villanova, with single games scheduled from Friday through Sunday. Opening pitch of Friday’s contest is set for 3:15 p.m with the following two games each beginning at 1:15 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. All games will take place at the Villanova Ballpark at Plymouth in Plymouth Township, Pennsylvania.
Harbaugh's late grand slam helps BU avoid weekend sweep
Bearcats drop opening three at N.C. State Tournament, but rally to secure 7-5 win in finale E.Jay Zarett
Assistant Sports Editor Despite blasting seven extra base hits — including four home runs — through three and a half games at the North Carolina State Hyatt Place Invitational, the Binghamton softball team had yet to see a winning result heading into its final matchup. The Bearcats (9-9) dropped their first three games of the weekend and faced the possibility of falling a fourth time when they were trailing Lipscomb, 5-3, in the top of the seventh inning. But that all changed when junior outfielder Sydney Harbaugh belted a grand slam to secure a 7-5 victory for BU and avoid a sweep. “I thought it was good on Sunday to be able to come out and finish that game,” BU head coach Michelle Burrell said. “I think the girls know at any point in time, any person in our lineup can start [a rally]. The positive thing is that they feed off of each other in a good way and that is kind of what they did on Sunday.” Lipscomb (9-14) plated three runs in the bottom of the first in Sunday’s finale, but Binghamton demonstrated its power in the
bottom of the fourth. Junior catcher Lisa Cadogan drilled a two-run homer over the rightcenter field fence. Two batters later, freshman outfielder Jessica Rutherford delivered a gametying double to right field. However, Lipscomb responded with two runs of its own in the bottom half of the frame to up the score to 5-3. But, after a scoreless sixth, the Bearcats loaded the bases off a walk, a single and a hit-by-pitch to set the stage for Harbaugh’s grand slam and the 7-5 victory. “I think [the win] gave the girls a lot of confidence,” Burrell said. “Whether we are behind or up, I feel like they don’t let up. It was good to see them come out and finish the game and use all seven innings and use every atbat. It was good for the team … We finished on a good note.” The Bearcats found themselves in position to be swept after dropping games to Longwood and Fordham on Friday. BU led, 4-2, in both games thanks to two-run home runs by Cadogan and junior first baseman Taylor Chaffee against Longwood (4-12) and a three-run homer by freshman infielder Kate Richard in the matchup with Fordham (10-8). But BU could not hold onto the
Whether we are behind or up, I feel like they don't let up. It was good to see them come out and finish the game — Michelle Burrell BU Head Coach Photo Provided
Junior outfielder Sydney Harbaugh belted a game-winning grand slam in BU’s win over Lipscomb on Sunday.
lead in either game, committing seven total errors on the day while allowing four sixth-inning runs in both contests to fall, 8-4, to Longwood and 6-4, to Fordham. “We didn’t finish the plays defensively,” Burrell said. “It was a combination of not being able to make the plays defensively early on that resulted in them getting another at-bat. We really
have to try to limit that as much as possible.” Binghamton also fell Saturday to No. 25 N.C. State. The Wolfpack (13-8) plated five runs in the game’s first three innings. BU recorded just one hit in the game, a double by Cadogan, and didn’t score a single run in the contest en route to a 7-0 defeat. “Whether it was just consistent
at-bats or defensively, we made some mistakes that we want to clean up going into conference,” Burrell said of her team’s overall performance at the tournament. “I felt like we had a hard time putting everything together this weekend. I thought there were times we were good and times we let up. We are going to work to stay more consistent.”
BU is set to return to action this weekend, opening America East play at Hartford with a three-game series. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, with a second game following directly after. The series finale is set for noon on Sunday. All games will take place at the University of Hartford Softball Field in West Hartford, Connecticut.
Conference aimed to transform Events Center for true tournament atmosphere These studentathletes...deserve to feel special in their tournament
TOURNEY continued from Page 16
that more tournament feel and environment to it.” All of the weekend’s events were a culmination of the AE’s schools’ athletics directors’ vote from last March. One of four AE institutions to submit a bid to host the tournament through 2015 and 2016, Binghamton was selected not only for quantitative — Patrick Elliott considerations — the schools BU Director of Athletics have to propose a budget that documents all the anticipated expenses — but for qualitative
ones as well. According to Elliott and Brown, the most important factor taken into account is the student-athlete experience. While facility, fan capacity, staffing, ability to accommodate signage and branding as well as video boards and ESPN3 broadcasters all factored into the decision, student-athlete experience was at the core of it all. “It’s more than just the basketball going up in the air and the games happening around it,” Brown said. “It’s the environment,
it’s the feel, it’s the band, it’s the support, it’s people coming out from the community and buying tickets and supporting the event.” As far as costs were concerned, Brown said that the AE has “99 percent of the time covered 100 percent of the expenses.” The budget included in the proposal is funded by the conference, while anything over the approved expenditure falls on the host university. Additionally, the university covers the costs of its staff and normal operations. The weekend marked the first
time the Bearcats played host since 2007 but certainly not the last, as Binghamton is set to welcome back its competition to the Events Center in 2016. Come next March, however, the coaches will be able to reconsider the tournament formats. While this was the first year that the women’s and men’s programs played different postseason structures, they may be able to get on the same wavelength yet again, if they so decide. “I think what we want to do is, how best as a conference
can we position and brand women’s basketball and men’s basketball?” Elliott said. “And I think ultimately that will be the decision.” “These student-athletes work hard, and they deserve to feel special in their tournament,” Elliott added. “And I think that the central tournament allows that to happen. But at the same time you could argue that if you’re on your home court and you’ve got 5,000 screaming fans, you know, that makes you feel pretty special, too.”
BASEBALL
BU rallies for 13-2 victory in series finale with SBU See page 15 Tuesday, March 17, 2015
The hosts with the most
Binghamton avenges 2014 quarterfinal loss in AE opener
Behind BU's preparation hosting first two rounds of AE tourney
Jeff Twitty
Assistant Sports Editor
Ashley Purdy Sports Editor
Through the weekend of March 7, Binghamton University hosted the first two rounds of the America East women’s basketball tournament. The two-day event featured a field of eight teams playing six games on just one court. Four quarterfinal games were played through 11 hours on Saturday, and four teams returned to the Events Center for two semifinal match-ups on Sunday. As one might imagine, that required a good deal of planning. According to Shonna Brown, senior associate commissioner of the America East and tournament director, it was four pages worth. “I think there’s a checklist of about four pages long,” Brown said. “But we go through everything. What’s the route for the busses to take onto campus? … We worked on credentials — how many participant passes, how many event staff, how many all-access for administrators? We worked with our television partners to make sure that we’re getting the windows that we need in order to have the game times set.” The list went on. In conjunction with Binghamton University’s administration — mostly Director of Athletics Patrick Elliott and Associate Director of Athletics of Internal Operations and Events Leigh Ann Savidge-Morris — Brown planned everything from putting all seven visiting teams up in the DoubleTree by Hilton Binghamton in Downtown Binghamton to measuring every inch of the arena, including its chair backs, to appropriate it for America East signage and branding. “We were just trying to figure out, when the student-athletes and the fans come to the Events Center, how do we make it feel
Emily Earl/Pipe Dream Photographer
2015 AE Rookie of the Year Jasmine Sina played in the first quarterfinal game of the America East tournament, hosted by Binghamton.
like they’re not just showing up for another basketball game?” Brown said. Between a video board suspended from the ceiling on the far side of the arena playing highlight clips of the players and teams to blue and white America East logos printed on nearly everything in sight, that was successful enough for one visiting team. “One of the teams did come up afterwards and say, ‘You know, it felt like we were at an NCAA tournament. It really felt different than when we showed up at Binghamton for our regular season game,’” Brown said. “And that’s what we really try to
accomplish.” It’s that sort of atmosphere that made the women’s basketball coaches vote to retain the central tournament structure while the men’s coaches opted for the higher seed format. While the higher seed style surely has its advantages — ensuring that deserving teams play behind a home-court advantage, increasing fan attendance and allowing more flexibility in scheduling being just a few of them — it has the potential to just feel like any other game. On the other hand, bringing all the teams together at one venue and putting them up at the same hotel cultivated a unique
tournament experience. Unlike the men’s side, it additionally allowed the women’s programs to congregate the Friday before the tournament for the awards banquet. After sharing a dinner, the womens’ coaches, players and personnel received their awards and were recognized in front of their peers before going head-tohead the following day. “That’s just a really great opportunity for us to celebrate women’s basketball,” Brown said. “I think our women’s basketball players and coaches both really like coming together and having
Senior's stellar indoor season comes to an end after a false start
Photo Provided
Star senior middle-distance runner Jesse Garn false started at the NCAA championships on Friday, cutting his tournament run short.
Pipe Dream Sports
It was over before it had even begun. Taking off just a fraction of a second before the starting pistol sounded, senior middle-distance runner Jesse Garn was disqualified from the qualifying round of the men’s 800-meter race at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas Friday night. “It’s kind of heartbreaking, having worked so hard to get up to this point and having it taken
away from you just like that,” Garn said. Garn, who was set to compete in the first of two preliminary heats, entered the event ranked sixth out of the 16 runners after qualifying with a time of 1:46.98 at the Iowa State Classic on Feb. 14. He was only the fourth Binghamton track and field athlete to travel to the NCAA Championships. “It’s very frustrating and disappointing for me because I was very excited to take on a real competitive field,” Garn said. “I know I belong at this level of competition, and it was just a
shame that with the sxnap of a finger, it was over, just like that.” When the official called him for his false start, a practice which is uncommon in an 800-meter race, Garn reacted professionally, stepping off the track without questioning the decision. Despite his unfortunate result, the magnitude of what he had accomplished just by attending the event was not lost on Garn. “I know that I can still carry this as a tremendous success in itself just by qualifying and being able to go through the whole process of getting ready for the race and understanding what that kind of stress at this level is like, as well as just being exposed to this level of competition,” Garn said. Garn is coming off of the most successful indoor season of his collegiate career. He garnered numerous accolades, including the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Northeast Region Men’s Indoor Track Athlete of the Year and the Men’s Most Outstanding Track Athlete at the America East Indoor Championships. This season alone, he has broken the program record in the 800 twice.
After a historic run last season in America East play, the Binghamton men’s lacrosse team saw its playoff hopes dashed in the quarterfinal round of the AE playoff. The executioner? UMBC — ending 2014 for BU, 16-10. So it would only make sense that the Bearcats (2-3, 1-0 AE) started conference play against the very team that knocked them out last spring. And Binghamton dominated in the grudge match, downing the Retrievers (2-4, 0-1 AE), 13-4. In BU’s second consecutive road game, the hosts got off to a hot start. UMBC took a 2-0 lead just over five minutes in courtesy of a string of BU turnovers and penalties. But minutes later — in the quickest game on two feet — the tide quickly changed in favor of the Bearcats. Following a missed attempt by senior midfielder J.T. Hauck, sophomore midfielder Tyler Deluca finished the job, putting BU on the board, 2-1. After winning the ensuing face-off, senior attack Paul O’Donnell evened the score for his ninth goal of the season. Taking a second straight faceoff, senior attack Tucker Nelson found the back of the net for Binghamton’s go-ahead goal, and BU went from trailing by two to leading by one in 47 seconds. Not looking back, Binghamton got off two more shots by the end of the first quarter, but earned its fourth goal just over three minutes into the second. Deluca, who ended the day with a game-high four goals, kept the Bearcats’ run alive with his second goal of the day. Less than four
minutes later, after a barrage of shots at the UMBC cage, redshirt freshman attack Sean Gilroy found the back of the net to put BU further up, 5-2. The shootout for the Bearcat offense continued through the second 15, as they outshot the Retrievers, 17-3. On the final shot of the half, junior midfielder George Deignan scored the first goal of his career, allowing BU to take a dominant 6-2 lead into the half. With the rout already on, the second half was more of the same for the Bearcats. Hauck put in his second of the game after a feed from Gilroy to open up scoring in the third quarter. The Retrievers tried to get back in the game with a goal of their own to balance the contest, 7-3, but a Bearcat scoring frenzy extinguished the effort. In less than 30 seconds, Deluca scored back-to-back goals to put BU up by six heading into the final quarter. Completing a successful possession by Binghamton, junior midfielder Mitchell Rick scored his first of the game to put BU into double-digits. In the only quarter in which Binghamton was outshot by UMBC, 11-10, the Bearcats poured on three more goals after Rick’s — including two by O’Donnell to complete his hat trick. UMBC managed just one more goal in the quarter on its way to its loss, 13-4. Along with the huge win, Binghamton outshot its host, 42-23, while holding an advantage in ground balls (3121) and faceoffs (14-6). Taking a break from conference play, the Bearcats are set to return home to face Towson on Saturday. Faceoff is set for 1 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.
BU @ UMBC
See TOURNEY Page 15
Garn disqualified at NCAA Championships
Orlaith McCaffrey
Men's lacrosse ousts UMBC, 13-4
In January, he raced against some of the best collegiate and postcollegiate milers from around the world at the New York City Armory Invitational. In addition to these accomplishments, Garn has received a tremendous amount of support as he has qualified to higher levels of competition. “[That support] is really just a dream for me,” Garn said. “It’s really exciting. I’ve just gathered so much support from the school, from friends, from teammates and from family. It’s unparalleled for me, and I really appreciate that.” Although a disqualification is certainly not the manner in which Garn had wished to cap off an otherwise outstanding indoor campaign, he refuses to let this disappointment change his mentality moving forward. “I have already begun to put it behind me,” Garn said. “It’s always a learning experience, and there are good things to take away from it. I know that I can carry those things, and I know that I’m fit right now. I still have a few more chances left, and I will take advantage of those opportunities. I’m very confident that I can do well in the future and can carry my momentum into outdoor.”
13 - 4
Emily Earl/Pipe Dream Photographer
Sophomore midfielder Tyler Deluca tallied a game-high four goals in BU’s win against UMBC on Saturday.