Monday, October 7, 2019
Volume LXIII, Issue 7
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2019 Mental Health Issue 2019 Mental Health Issue
SBU holds memorial service for professor
Professor talks Modern Monetary Theory
By Alek Lewis
By Cindy Mizaku
Stony Brook University hosted a memorial service for the late David L. Ferguson, a former Distinguished Service Professor of Technology and Society, on Wednesday, Oct. 2. Ferguson, who was found dead on July 12 after suffering from a heart attack, was a university faculty member for 37 years. He was 69 years old. The memorial, held in the Center for Leadership and Service, brought together a crowd of around 180 people to celebrate Ferguson’s life. “For every person’s death, there are actually two moments of death,” Fotis Sotiropoulus, Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, said during the memorial. “The first is the biological death, the moment where the consciousness is no more, and the second is the moment of the permanent death, when the last person on the planet that remembers that person actually dies biologically. I think it is abundantly clear from the passion, the tears, the stories…because of the thousands and thousands of students that Dave’s
achievement as the first African American valedictorian in his Neelyville, Missouri high school, and his commitment as a student, educator, and mentor. “It did not matter whether you were from a large school, a large town, a wealthy background or poor background,” Harris said. “If you have the commitment and the dedication and the push from family you can make it, and David made it because he was determined–he was beautiful on the inside.” Among those in attendance who spoke were Interim President Michael Bernstein and former President Samuel Stanley Jr. They recognized the contribu-
Stephanie Kelton, professor of public policy and economics and economic advisor to Bernie Sanders, is a leading figure in the economic movement called Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). In challenging conventional economic schools of thought, MMT revolves around the idea that because the U.S. government issues its own currency, it can sustain large spending for policy programs, like the Green New Deal, without having to worry about taxing and borrowing. The theory shifts the focus to a money-financed fiscal policy, in which government spending does not need to depend on taxes when it can create the money it needs. “It asks us to focus on the monetary system as it is today and to recognize it affords us the opportunity to do more in terms of economic policy and to improve economic and social outcomes,” Kelton said. MMT academics study the transition of a gold standard system, in which paper money’s value is fixed by the amount of gold, to the current monetary system of modern fiat currency where floating exchange
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Contributing Writer
Assistant Opinions Editor
SAMANTHA ROBINSON / THE STATESMAN
The Marching Band walks onto the field to perform for the Homecoming pregame show. Fans watched at the Kenneth P. Lavelle Staudium on Saturday, Oct. 5. career has impacted, the moment of Dave’s permanent death is way in the future.” Ferguson directed Stony Brook’s Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, committed to promoting the values of teaching excellence, from 1998 to 2002. He also served as the Department of Technology and Society’s Chair from 2002-2017. Beginning in 2012, he acted as the Associate Provost for Diversity and Inclusion until the time of his death, where he led efforts regarding the university’s Diversity Plan, particularly in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). This position eventually led him to, among other things, help establish SUNY Korea and
its department of Technology and Society. Ferguson is also a recipient of the 1997 United States Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring for mentoring individuals in groups underrepresented in STEM. A memorial scholarship was created in Ferguson’s name by the University. It will be received by a student from a demographic who is underrepresented in the major of Technology and Society in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Ferguson’s older sister, Kathern Harris, spoke about her brother and his impact on their family. She talked about his good nature as a young boy, his
Stony Brook University scientists work on clean water initiative By Joe McQueen Contributing Writer
A team of scientists at Stony Brook University (SBU) is working to develop new technology that prevents nitrogen from entering groundwater. The project, called “10/10/30,” aims to lower nitrate levels in the water to 10 milligrams per liter. The system should cost no more than $10,000 and last at least 30 years. The initiative is being conducted by the New York State Center for Clean Water Technology, located at Stony Brook University. It was founded in 2015 through a grant awarded by the state to research and develop an affordable wastewater treatment system to help address Long Island’s ongoing problem of water pollution. “What we’re studying is meta systems that can remove nitrogen in septic tank effluent. One of the
technologies we’re investigating is called a Nitrogen Removing Biofilter (NRB),” Frank Russo, associate director for wastewater initiatives at the Center for Clean Water Technology, said. “This is a system that uses a fanbed followed by wood chips. What that does is convert nitrogen through the process of nitritation and denitritation into gas so therefore nitrogen doesn’t get received into the groundwater.” Most of the Long Island region does not have sewage systems, which causes water pollution. According to documents from the Center for Clean Water Technology, 74% of homes across Suffolk County have septic tank and cesspool systems that do not remove nitrogen from wastewater. The concentration of nitrogen in groundwater across the county has increased by 50% since 1985, according to the same documents.
Nitrogen is contaminating the groundwater by reducing the water’s oxygen levels. This has led to toxic algal blooms throughout the region that affects wetlands and depletes fish populations, including shellfish. Long Island’s source for drinking water comes entirely from groundwater aquifers. “Here we are, dumping wastewater and other household stuff into a septic tank or cesspool that eventually just perks into the groundwater and that’s not a good thing,” Russo said. Nitrogen contamination in the water has been ending up in places like the Long Island Sound and the Great South Bay, where nitrates are creating algal bloom. Due to the harmful nitrates, oxygen levels in the region’s surface waters have lowered. The Center for Clean Water Technology is also developing Permeable Reactive Barriers, or PRBs, which
intercept groundwater flow and absorb or transform contaminants. The Center for Clean Water Technology is developing this technology in hopes to remove nitrogen from groundwater across the county. “They are vertical versions of NRBs, so they just act to intercept the flow of groundwater before it reaches a vulnerable shoreline and it can convert nitrogen into gas as well,” Samantha Nyer, a graduate student at SBU’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences who is working on the project, said. PRBs are used to treat many different contaminants, including pesticides and chlorinated compounds. Nyer is focused on working with constructed wetlands, which are artificial wetlands used to treat municipal wastewater. She works to install them across Suffolk County. “We’ve also been working with the county to write a guidance docu-
ment so that installers in the county can put these systems in real easily,” Nyer said. The Center for Clean Water Technology has no clear timeline on the completion of the project. Xinwei Mao, an assistant professor of civil engineering who is also involved with the project, said this is a complicated issue that other parts of the country are battling too. “In 2018, there was a paper published that showed where studies found a lot of deoxygenated areas in coastal zones on both the east and west coasts of the United States,” Mao said. “It has been overlooked for decades.” Mao explained that the issue on Long Island is that people are still using old septic systems, which are difficult to monitor. “There’s no regulation or law telling people you cannot use those cesspools and we have to abandon them,” he said.