Restaurant Week Spring 2019
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Thursday, March 28, 2019 | Vol. XCV, Issue 16 | Binghamton University | bupipedream.com
The Free Word on Campus Since 1946
Students see delivery delays Students experience small package delivery problems with UPS Leora Schwadron pipe dream news
In the past week, students at Binghamton University have been experiencing issues receiving small deliveries from UPS. As Physical Facilities and UPS have encountered delivery issues, some students have received messages that packages have been returned to the sender and marked as “customer refused delivery/did not want,” even when proper addressing guidelines for packages are being followed. In a statement sent to the Physical Facilities Listserv on Thursday, March 21, officials wrote that Central Receiving, the department of Physical Facilities that receives and distributes packages to University mailboxes, was not refusing packages, and that packages weren’t being delivered because UPS was not following the department’s new smallpackage delivery procedures. According to the Physical Facilities webpage, mail package delivery procedures were changed late last year in response to budget reductions and staffing changes. “Physical Facilities worked for many months, with all the carriers, prior to changing small-package delivery procedures,” the statement read. “Our efforts included piloting the program in certain areas, creating training manuals for carriers and walking them through the process. We secured full agreement with this change in delivery procedures from all the carriers. It is only in the last couple of weeks that UPS has not been following the new procedure while other
tyler gorman staff photogrpaher For the past week, student groups and students living on campus have been experiencing difficulties receiving small packages sent via UPS.
carriers are.” But Kevin Darrell, Student Association (SA) vice president for finance and a senior double-majoring in accounting and mathematics, and Matt Johnson, assistant director of the SA, wrote in an email that when the SA attempted to track down packages that had been returned without arriving at the SA office, a UPS representative told them the error had likely occurred at Central Receiving. “When Matt called and spoke with UPS’s customer service about the matter, the customer service representative was confused when he said that our
office had no record of an attempt ever being made, much less that we refused any packages,” Darrell wrote. “On further investigation, the UPS representative stated that this should not be happening and the only explanation would be that ‘Someone at the facility’s receiving dock must be refusing delivery.’” Darrell wrote that the issues surrounding smallpackage delivery only arose after Physical Facilities changed their small-package policy. “There were definitely some contrary statements being made by the two parties — UPS is saying deliveries were refused or undelivered, yet Central
Receiving is saying that they did not refuse any packages,” Darrell wrote. “Given that this issue arose following Central Receiving’s change in protocol, it makes sense to conclude that Central Receiving has been in some way not accepting packages under that size — even if they’re not outright refusing them.” Despite this, Darrell wrote that the main concern is making sure students are receiving their packages. “Ultimately, and we cannot stress this enough, we did not care whose ‘fault’ it was, we just wanted to stop having our packages, and those of all the student organizations planning events, returned to sender,” Darrell wrote. Although some students and student groups have experienced issues receiving their deliveries, not all students have been affected. Jonah Maryles, a sophomore majoring in human development, said he hasn’t noticed a problem. “I received a package from UPS the other day and had no problem picking it up,” Maryles said. In a recent statement posted to B-Line, Physical Facilities officials wrote that packages are now beginning to be delivered, although they continue to monitor the situation. “Physical Facilities assures the campus community that it continues to work with the UPS corporate office in Syracuse to resolve issues with the activities of the local UPS office regarding smallpackage delivery service to buildings,” the statement read. “The local UPS is now following proper procedures and deliveries are being made to many buildings including the science buildings, ITC and Physical Facilities.” Physical Facilities could not be reached for comment for this story, and UPS representatives declined to comment, citing company policies.
SA pilots menstrual care initiative BU considers building
secondary data center
Two-phase program aims to increase access to free products Gillian Kenah
Center would be funded through proposed technology fee increase
assistant news editor
Following the Binghamton University Faculty Senate’s unanimous vote to pass a resolution to distribute free menstrual care products to students, the University, in partnership with the Student Association (SA), has launched the first phase of the pilot program. The initiative garnered BU Faculty Senate support in October to promote student economic equity, inclusion and access to products that help ensure student health. The original resolution had been passed in October 2017 by the State University of New York (SUNY) University Faculty Senate as a proposal by the SUNY Diversity and Inclusion Committee, according to a joint statement by Johann Fiore-Conte, assistant vice president for health and wellness, JoAnn Navarro, vice president for operations at BU and Katie Ellis, senior director of BU communications and marketing. According to the statement, the purpose of the program is to aid students in economic need. “We recognize that students often need to make difficult financial choices,”
Kyle Dunnigan
contributing writer
anastasia figuera staff photographer The menstrual products will be available for pickup for off-campus students, and in a variety of bathrooms and offices on campus, including the Bare Necessities Food Pantry.
the statement read. “Some students may need to decide whether to buy a menstrual care product or purchase food. Other students who can’t afford products might miss class. We didn’t want students’ success at school impeded by whether or not they could afford to buy a menstrual care product.”
The first phase, which began after spring break, allows students to fill out an online form to request the pads, tampons or liners in packages of 12 to be delivered to their on-campus mailboxes or for pickup at the Real Education
see initiative page 3
As Binghamton University considers raising its technology fee by $10.50 for the 2019-20 academic year, BU’s Information Technology Services is beginning to plan a number of projects that could be funded by the increase, including the construction of a secondary data center at the health sciences campus in Johnson City. According to Niyazi Bodur, associate vice president and chief information officer at the University, BU has data centers in multiple locations, including the Engineering Building on the main campus and in the Innovative Technologies Complex. The centers house the University’s computer systems, including servers and networks that help run and transmit programs such as Blackboard and the BU website. “A data center is a space that houses the server and network equipment that stores, processes and transmits data,” Bodur wrote in an email. “This can be
institutional systems such as Banner, Blackboard, University websites, research data and other institutional data, as well as file storage for faculty, staff and students.” The new data center would serve the Johnson City campus as a primary data center and the main University campus as a secondary data center. “It will be the primary data center for the Health Sciences campus, housing computational and network equipment for the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Decker School of Nursing,” Bodur wrote. According to Bodur, the construction of a new data center would help maintain the reliability of the University’s primary data center servers through “clustering,” a practice that backs up data on two separate servers so that programs can still operate if one server fails. “Clustering is having two different servers, which are sometimes geographically distant, perform the same function and run the same system and data,” Bodur wrote. “By way of an example, Banner system and data will be clustered in both primary and secondary data servers. This will further increase
see data page 2
Athletics to host eighth annual St. Baldrick’s fundraiser Event aims to raise money for childhood cancer research Laura D’Angelo news intern
This Thursday, Binghamton University students and local community members will be shaving their heads to support kids with cancer. Partnering with Dapper Rascal Studio, a barber lounge located on 60 Court St. that opened in July, Binghamton University Athletics will host their
eighth annual St. Baldrick’s Foundation fundraiser and head-shaving event. The event, which will take place from noon to 2 p.m. in Old Union Hall, aims to raise money to fund childhood cancer research in the region and across the nation. Eva Duarte, ‘15, owner and co-founder of Dapper Rascal, said she’d known about the St. Baldrick’s event prior to opening her barber lounge. “I knew about the St. Baldrick’s event since my days as a student at BU, so I knew it would be an event our studio would love to participate in, and maybe we put that energy in the universe,
ARTS & CULTURE
because I received an email a few weeks ago asking us if we would be a part of it,” Duarte said. “Of course, I jumped right in without hesitation, volunteering four of us to lend our services to the charity event. We look forward to working with organizations that directly benefit the Binghamton community and that encourage social change and uplift self-esteem.” Duarte also said her experience of losing someone close to cervical cancer impacted her decision to volunteer. “People need to know how to sense if something is going wrong in their body
and how to go about getting the help they need,” Duarte said. “But for a child, I can’t even imagine what they endure once diagnosed. We just want to help in any way possible. They need to see that they are beautiful no matter what happens — hair or no hair, let that inner light shine.” According to the St. Baldrick’s Foundation website, a child is diagnosed with some form of cancer every two minutes worldwide. The organization, founded in 1999, raises money online through its website, where individuals or teams can register to shave their heads
OPINIONS
in advance of shaving events and solicit donations from friends, families and community members. Since 2012, BU has raised more than $90,000 and aims to raise $7,500 this year. Linda Reynolds, assistant athletic director for student-athlete development and co-organizer of St. Baldrick’s at BU, said some of the funds raised from the event will go toward research at the Upstate Cancer Center in Syracuse, New York. “Every person has been impacted by
see fundraiser page 3
SPORTS
Logic releases soundtrack to go with new novel, “Supermarket,”
Alpha Delta Phi hosts fifth annual Art Awakening show,
The Editorial Board questions the low voter turnout in the recent Student Association elections,
Baseball falls in close game to Penn State,
Softball sweeps Cornell in homeopening doubleheader,
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