PRISM
FEBRUARY ISSUE See insert
Thursday, February 28, 2019 | Vol. XCV, Issue 11 | Binghamton University | bupipedream.com
The Free Word on Campus Since 1946
Meeting lacks details on proposal progress Town-Gown Advisory Board discusses proposal updates for less than half of meeting, focuses on project presentation Valerie Puma & Stephen Anku pipe dream news
john atkinson contributing photographer Students, faculty, city officials and community members gathered in the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator on Tuesday evening for the second Town-Gown Advisory Board meeting of the year.
Students discuss concerns at Sweeps Candidates field questions on mental health, communication
Coming together for the second Town-Gown Advisory Board (TGAB) meeting of the year, city officials, community members, professors and students were met with a presentation on Binghamton University’s plans to revitalize areas of Johnson City for its health sciences campus, but learned little about the details of TGAB’s progress on proposals put forth by subcommittees in October. The meeting, held in the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator on Tuesday evening, lasted almost two hours, but board members spent about 30 minutes discussing the status of their committee proposals. Of the 33 members on the board, 25 attended the meeting. The board consists of five subcommittees, focused on student housing, safety, promoting and cultivating positive community
engagement, transportation and parking and dangerous underage drinking. Each subcommittee proposed at least one plan or project at the TGAB meeting on Sept. 21, and TGAB publicly announced five proposals that had been funded at a meeting on Oct. 24. At Tuesday’s meeting, each subcommittee described their initial proposals and said they were doing well. Only two, the underage drinking and promoting and cultivating positive community engagement subcommittees, provided a detailed update on the status of their project. The underage drinking subcommittee’s project focuses on gathering information from underage students in Binghamton in an effort to form a data-driven approach to combating dangerous drinking. The project received $20,000 in funding and is being conducted in partnership with the Binghamton Campus Community Coalition (BCCC), which aims to reduce underage drinking and substance abuse and includes representatives from the Binghamton mayor’s office, Binghamton Police Department, Broome County Health Department, local business owners and offices on campus that deal with students at risk for alcohol and drug abuse.
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EVP proposes space allocation committee SA considers redistributing office, storage spaces Phariha Rahman & Kyle Dunnigan pipe dream news
Student Association (SA) groups may see a change in how their spaces in the University Union are distributed. During an SA Congress meeting on Jan. 28, Executive Vice President Michelle Dao proposed the creation of a new SA committee that would be in charge of overseeing the space allocation
process to more than 300 student organizations. According to Dao’s report in the SA Congress minutes, the goal of the committee will be to decide who the space goes to and to revamp the space allocation process to be more fair and equitable. “There’s a lot of spaces upstairs where people have violations, so it is also a matter of encouraging organizations to clear up the spaces and to increase traction upstairs so that it will be seen as a used space instead of a storage space,” Dao said in her report. Bradley Goldman, president of Hillel,
an SA Congress representative for offcampus students and a senior majoring in accounting, said he was ambivalent about the possible changes. “I don’t really have an opinion either which way, but it’s necessary for an organization as large as the Student Association to reanalyze itself,” Goldman said. “It’s trying to make sure that is the most fair because there are over 300 different student groups.” However, Goldman said he hoped the change would not affect Hillel. “We are probably one of the most active groups in terms of lounge usage,”
Goldman said. “People are always in [and] out, it’s really a hub for so many students. I can’t imagine Hillel without that space. But at the end of the day, it’s up to the discretion of the Student Association, but I don’t see Hillel losing that space.” Space is allocated to groups who score the highest on a rubric that will be graded based on how well the organization has complied with SA policy, how the group would make use of its space, whether or not they have a large
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Nicole Kaufman
contributing writer
As SA Executive Board and Binghamton University Council candidates presented platforms and plans for the 2019-20 academic year, students voiced concerns about transparency and mental health at SA Sweeps on Wednesday night. Mental health resources on campus have been a topic of discussion for several years, particularly after the University Counseling Center (UCC) moved to a brief therapy model, which aims to help students reach personal goals and provide solution-based care. The move left students who require long-term therapy unable to access it at BU. Shannon Doherty, a sophomore majoring in history, said that sparking a discussion for mental health was a crucial issue that needed to be addressed by candidates. “The conversation needs to be out there,” Doherty said. Other students discussed the importance of transparency and communication, particularly in the aftermath of a canceled Fall Concert, when students who paid for tickets were left unsure for weeks whether the concert would be rescheduled or their money would be refunded. There have also been other issues with communication, such as when SA Congress failed to make meeting and committee minutes available for public access for the entirety of the fall semester, a situation SA Congress officials said arose from difficulties with their website. SA Sweeps, which initially began when candidates would “sweep” through
Groups discuss racism in LGBTQ community RPU, SHADES address prejudice in queer apps, spaces David Julien
contributing writer
According to a study conducted by Stonewall, an LGBTQ charity, in conjunction with YouGov, a data analytics firm, 51 percent of people of color within the LGBTQ community have said that they have experienced some type of racism within the community. In recognition of this reality, Binghamton University’s Rainbow Pride Union (RPU), in partnership with SHADES, hosted an open discussion on the issue on Monday, Feb. 25. RPU aims to promote education and awareness for the LGBTQ community and is currently the oldest gender and sexual diversity group at BU since its founding in 1971. SHADES, which was founded in 2011 at the University, specifically strives to empower LGBTQ students of color. According to Ruth Fatolitis, treasurer of RPU and a junior doublemajoring in environmental studies and French, discussion on the underrepresentation and prejudice surrounding LGBTQ people of color is
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ARTS & CULTURE
rose coschignano pipe dream photographer Rainbow Pride Union (RPU) and SHADES host a discussion titled “Racism in the Queer Community” on Monday evening in the University Union.
OPINIONS
SPORTS
Make your wardrobe stylish and sustainable with these tips,
First Friday Folk Fest showcases budding artists and encourages community gathering,
The Editorial Board scrutinizes the city of Binghamton’s blue-bag policy,
Pipe Dream Sports faces off against BU golf team,
Men’s basketball falls to Hartford,
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