the
Q&A
March 3, 2011 | Issue #232
y o u r. i n d y @ g m a i l . c o m
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
editor-in-chief: Ri l ey Ken ny s mith
The rain this past week has me feeling like I’ll wake up to springtime any day now, and I can’t help but be excited. And, of course, a little overwhelmed... graduating off-semester makes this my last Spring semester on campus, so everything feels like a last-chance moment. Zombie Prom! What am I going to wear? How many people are going to dress up as SkeleGaga a la Born This Way? Culture Shock! What’s the lineup? Will I have friends visiting? Where will they stay? Graduation! I’m going to miss all my senior friends! Housing! How do I not have anyone to live with next year? Senior project work! Why are so many articles I need not online at my fingertips? But as we all know, spring is always a great time at Purchase. We may not get our beloved hammocks back, and oh, how we will miss them, but the warm weather brings out a certain attitude in Purchase students. Very soon we’ll be enjoying meals outside, wandering campus with iced Starbucks drinks and basking on blankets on the lawns, enjoying the warm weather that makes Friday nights so much more exciting because everyone is outside and no one has to regret leaving their jackets at home. As soon as the cold fronts disappear we’ll take to the bricks, and it’s going to be fantastic. I sincerely cannot wait, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
layout editor: Ta r a C on n elly copy editors: Reb ecca K ap lan A l ex Pros cia writers: H ei d i Du f f y Cl éa G ran d its G a by F iore-Bolan d Reb ecca K ap lan A l i McG h ee To ny Pon tiu s N i ch o las Sh ap iro Ki m Wh iteh ead M a da me Q u er y print managers: Ro byn Wilk in s To ny Pon tiu s cover photo by: K a ro l Wer n ek artwork by: Su za n n e Bon an n o The Purchase Independent is a non-profit news magazine, paid for by the Mandatory Student Activity fee. We welcome and encourage submissions from readers. The Indy is a forum for campus issues and events, to give students the voice they deserve. Letters, articles, comics, ads, event photography and event listings are welcomed. The deadline for submissions is every Friday before midnight, and accepted pieces will be published the following Thursday. Publication of submissions is not guaranteed, but subject to the discretion of the editors. No anonymous submissions will be considered, but we will accept use of pseudonyms on a case-bycase basis. Send all submissions and inquiries to your.indy@gmail.com. Send questions to Madame Query at formspring.me/ madamequery. Back page quotes can be submitted to formspring.me/indybackpage or put in the Back Page Box that hangs on the office door. Our office is located on the first floor of Campus Center North, room 1011. Staff meetings are held in the office every Monday night at 9:30; anyone is welcome to join.
2
GET WELL SOON, SUZANNE!
AT LEAST STITCHES MAKE COOL SCARS.
TECH NOLOGY
STAY SAFE:RAVE WITH UPD BY HEIDI DUFFY When walking around campus at night, especially while drunk, it’s advised that students walk in a group, or at least with another person. But what about those nights when you have no other choice but to walk across campus by yourself ? UPD will walk home any student who calls and asks, but most students don’t feel comfortable asking for an officer to escort them back to their room. For students who might still want to be cautious when walking alone, Purchase has enacted a new security system called RaveGuardian Mobile Safety to help combat this problem discreetly. Students have two options using this system once they have signed up, providing as much— or as little—personal information as they choose. First, if a students needs to speak with an officer immediately they dial UPD and all their provided information shows on the computer. Instead of only the number showing up on caller ID, now the officers may see whatever information the student gave, such as: a picture, their physical description, where they live, a description of their car, their emergency and alternative contacts numbers, their class schedule. This allows the officer to easily identify students when they are in need of help. The class schedule may seem a little bit overboard and kind of creepy. But what if, knock on wood, you were in class and someone had a gun? It seems unlikely that Purchase would expericence an event like the Virgina Tech massacre, but if it were to happen you would be able to more easily alert UPD. But, maybe you just want some security without
actually being accompanied by an officer. The other option that students have is to set a timer on their phone for the duration of their walk. Here’s how it works, as explained by Officer Donelle Charles: 1. The student dials the RaveGuardian/UPD number and inputs verbally and through the keypad how many minutes it’ll take to get home. 2. The student walks home and once there, deactivates the timer with their pin. 3. If the student doesn’t deactivate the timer by the time it runs out, an alarm goes off at UPD. The student’s phone then appears on a map with GPS coordinates, and the student’s information becomes available to the officers working. 4. UPD calls the student and asks if everything is okay. If the student does not answer or gives the wrong pin, an officer is dispatched to the student’s location to ensure that student’s safety.
As Officer Charles noted, “We don’t have your information until we need it. We have no way to access it until that alarm becomes active.” As with UPD’s system for walking students home, officers will not question students as to their age or sobriety—the students’ safety is the priority. Purchase is such a small college that it’s easy to feel comfortable and safe, even when drunkenly traipsing all over campus. That said, it is nice to know that there are precautionary measures to ensure our safety if we do have to stumble back to our dorm or apartment alone.
3
GENDER NEUTRAL? BY CLÉA GRANDITS Thanks to new changes made by the Department of Residential Life, all Purchase students have been given the option of living with members of the opposite sex next semester, regardless of their gender identity or expression or sexual orientation. Students must apply in groups of four to fill a four-person apartment in either Alumni or The New. Since students of different genders are still not allowed to share rooms; the groups must consist of two boys and two girls in case they should be forced to live in the New, which only offers doubles. According to Emily Balcom, the Associate Director of Residence Life, gender neutral housing is not yet offered in the dorms. They wish to take it one step at a time instead of immediately asking for all residential housing to be gender neutral. At the general interest meeting, she expressed her hope for expansion in the future if all works out well next semester. Students who were interested in applying for gender neutral housing were asked to attend one of two general interest meetings where Emily Balcom and Megan Shankey explained the application process, which includes finding a group of four and filling out an online application. Students who applied are now waiting to find out if their groups were accepted. “Purchase is taking a step forward by offering gender neutral housing,” said Eliza Berse, a junior arts management major. “It sounds like a great opportunity, I wish they started earlier.”
4
However, not everyone is ready to try gender neutral housing yet. “I think it’s a great option, but it’s not for me,” said Marina Margulis, a junior. “Just because I’m kind of a neat freak, hygiene freak and I get grossed out pretty easily. It would have to be someone that I’m extremely close with, like a brother type.” A big question is whether or not couples will leap at the opportunity to live with each other. “Joe and Mary super couples are going to get so amped and live with each other once these new options settle in,” noted Josh Mackler, a junior new media major. “Then, two weeks in, they’re going to realize they hate each other and Joe’s going have to listen to Mary making love to his best friend, recipe for disaster. These rosters need to be 1000% platonic, or else they are signing up for an awkward semester.” Maxwell Freed Alper, a sophomore who plans on living in Alumni with two girls and a male friend is excited that this option is finally being offered. “I wanted to do it because most dudes just don’t know how to clean up their fucking space. I don’t mind living in dorms with all dudes, but I wanted to share an apartment with both genders because it will be less of a shit hole, and the two girls I’m living with have been my friends all of college.”
C A M PUS
THE SCOOP ON RECYCLING BY REBECCA KAPLAN With the addition of three recycling machines at the More Store in the summer of 2009, Joseph Tripodi, the director of the Office of Sustainability at Purchase, hopes that students are more encouraged to recycle. The machines pays back the five cent deposit for empty plastic and glass bottles and aluminum cans. Tripodi views the machines as just one of many efforts to combat apathy and indifference, which he views as the biggest obstacles to recycling at SUNY Purchase. The Purchase College Association leases the machines for approximately $500 a month apiece. They get about a penny and a half for every bottle that gets recycled. “That means if they want to break even every month, a lot of bottles need to be recycled,” says Tripodi. “You really see that Purchase is into the green scene,” says Carlos Salcedo, a worker at the More Store. “The machines are very popular. I’ve seen people come in here with $35 dollars worth of bottles. You do the math.” “The money is a really good motivator,” said an anonymous student who uses the machines regularly. Recently, use of the machines increased. “We believe that this school year students came in with a higher awareness that they’re there,” Tripodi says. The 30-day period between November and December, as well as the two 30-day periods from September to October and October to November, have been the highest yet for the machines, with an average of 15,552 bottles returned each
month. Before then, the average number of bottles recycled each month at the More Store was only 3,483. However, the numbers are not as high as Tripodi wants them to be. “I want that to be more like 45,000,” he says. Many students still aren’t recycling because they lack the motivation. One student says he doesn’t use the machines because “they’re on the complete opposite side of campus.” Students are unwilling to cut into their leisure time to recycle. “The recycling bin [in my dorm] is all the way downstairs, the trash is right across the hall,” says freshman Kyle Ferguson. “I’m not gonna walk all the way downstairs when the trash is right across the hall.” There are also “technicalities” that may be keeping some students from recycling, Tripodi says. “It’s my understanding that if a student has a party and there are a lot of empties in his room, and he’s under 21, he legally can’t bring those bottles to the More Store to recycle them. It’s similar to having empty bottles in your car.” Although Tripodi wants to maximize the number of bottles that make it into the recycling stream and don’t end up in landfills, he would also like to remind students that though recycling is important, it is just a small part of what we can do to save the planet. “It’s important to reduce, reuse and recycle,” he says.
5
HOMEWORK AND YOU BY NICHOLAS SHAPIRO
I’m the kind of guy who likes to settle in on a Saturday night, roast up a few piglets in a blanket while snuggling up to a fat blunt rolled from a Bible. North Korea is my favorite country because they’re silly and I think Guy Fieri can have sex with whoever he wants because this is America and anything can happen if you stay true to yourself. If there’s one thing I truly believe in this world though, it’s that homework is the most important aspect of your natural life. If you haven’t already crumpled up this article and stored it up your cornhole, let me outline why homework is the only thing that really, really matters in our day-to-day human happenings. First, the only people who don’t do their homework are first or second (but never third) degree murderers, terrorists, no-good hood rats, every conspiracy theorist ever, the guy who green-lit all the Garfield movies, the seemingly endless ocean of the lowest common denominator. There’s a special circle in hell for scum like these loser idiots and they deserve to rot like the worst of ‘em. In fact, the Internet states that 100% of all relationships will never work because one or possibly both partners refuse to hand in homework on time. They’ll end up cheating on each other forever and never amount to anything; this is how most of America’s broken households are born. Yet, homework doesn’t have to be the burden popular culture makes it seem. If you sit down and spend a few minutes masturbating your brain, you’ll smart-cum something so fresh and
6
profound the world will get down on its knees, relax its throat and gladly down your spunk of genius for free. It’s fun, it’s easy, you can even do it drunk like I usually do. Don’t even think about anything else until you got all the notes in perfect order. Tell your boyfriend or your girlfriend or your side-bitch or your butt buddy that “it can wait” because you gotta log into Word and bang out that research paper like your libido depends on it. I can’t even build any sex drive in real life until all my H.W. is totally C.U.M.P.L.E.T.E., and only then do I give myself permission to go to town. If you don’t need prodding to do assignments on time, you have my word that the outer rings of Homework Heaven have a paradise ready and waiting for you to dip your pencil tip in. So please, do your homework. You need it as much as it needs you. Don’t die wondering what if. In the end, it’s not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many assignments took your breath away. Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter, and those who don’t matter don’t do their homework. When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life you have a thousand reasons to do homework. Feelings change—homework don’t. You can close your eyes to things you don’t want to see, but you can’t close your homework to the things you don’t want to feel. You’ve got to take the good with the bad, smile with the sad, love what you’ve got, and remember what you had. Always forgive, but never forget. Learn from homework, but never regret. Smoke every day, and God bless America.
your.indy@gm ai l.com
THE OSCARS BY ALI MCGHEE This past Sunday, the stars walked the red carpet, veterans and newcomers, gracing the television screen for Hollywood’s biggest night—the Oscars! Ryan Seacrest’s kiss-ass charm enlightened viewers at home with secrets of the stars, such as how Mila Kunis lost 20 lbs for her role in Black Swan. In case you want to know, it is eating only 1,200 calories a day and dancing five hours a day, seven days a week (I don’t encourage this). After all the posing and glamcam shots E! had to offer, we finally made it to the big shabam! This year, the Oscars aimed for a younger demographic with Anne Hathaway and James Franco hosting. The opening sequence had a hysterical shot of Alec Baldwin sipping an Ambian juice box, but the “Brown Duck” parody, they didn’t attack it! and it must have been all that pressure! I will say that after seeing James Franco in white spandex, I was reminded why my screen name in middle school was JamesFrancosGurl. Hathaway a little more enthused than Franco, but Franco more entertaining for being less enthused, made for an interesting match. Of course they performed in drag, so no expectations were lost. The winners of the night were pretty much what everyone had expected. Notably for Purchase College, alumna Melissa Leo won Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Fighter. Her costar Christian Bale won for Best Supporting Actor. Representing Purchase again for filming in the basement of the Performing Arts Center (let’s be honest, it is one of the prettier spots on campus) was Natalie Portman’s win for Best Actress in Black
Swan. Of course, reigning on top was The King’s Speech, with wins for Colin Firth for Best Actor, Best Director and Best Picture. Now we should go back to where the Oscar coverage began and watch reruns on E! of Oscar Fashion Police with Joan Rivers for the next two weeks.
OEDIPUS COMPLEX
BY TONY PONTIUS
When it comes to incest, betrayal, and the hands of fate, no story embodies these themes like Sophocles’ tragedy Oedipus Rex. The ancient play is arguably the most famous of the Greeks, and the themes behind Oedipus Rex have become so axiomatic that psychologist Sigmund Freud used them as a foundation for his stages of psychosexual development. Oedipus’ unconscious destiny of murdering his father and marrying his mother has been revitalized on campus thanks to the idea of one student and the help of the Drama Studies department. Senior Josh Hernandez gives Oedipus a chance at overturning his fate in his play The Oedipus Complex. Set in modern times, Oedipus and his wife/mom Jocasta are caught in the same situation they were in 2500 years ago, only this time they’re a superhero crime-fighting duo. “The most mythic figures we have in our world today are superheroes,” Hernandez said. Their story unfolds flanked between two Greek gods, Aries and Athena. Representing wisdom and war respectively, Athena has staged a rematch betting Aries that this time, the superheroes will (continued on page 11)
7
WHAT THE TRENTA?
BY GABY FIORE-BOLAND
Purchase students may need to add another Italian word to their repertoire as the ‘Trenta’ size, meaning 30, is introduced to Starbucks across the country. But not so fast – Jamie Mcowan, Purchase Starbucks manager, said that they’re not offering the Trenta yet. “I don’t know if we will,” he said. “They haven’t said anything to us about it.” Although New York isn’t among the 14 states that are already offering the size, according to a press release all American Starbucks will have the new size by May 3rd. But for those who love their chai lattes, sorry – the 31-ounce cup will only be available for three iced drinks: coffee, tea, and tea lemonades. Comments have been exploding about the supersize option that’s reminiscent of fast food eateries like McDonalds. Online there have been graphs comparing its content to the average size of the human stomach, and a photo showing that it can contain an entire bottle of wine. Gwyneth Mackenzie, a freshman dance major, said she wished Purchase’s Starbucks was already carrying the Trenta. “I just want a drink that lasts forever,” she said with a laugh. The Trenta stacks up to other drinks like 7-Eleven’s Big Gulp and Dunkin Donut’s large Coolatta, which both hold 32 ounces. There is a question of whether bigger is really better, especially at a time when First Lady Michelle Obama is launching efforts to combat obesity and when, according to the Center for Disease Control, 68% of adult Americans are
8
either obese or overweight. Sophomore Kerry Mcgrath called the new size “ridiculous”. She added, “No one should drink that much coffee.” According to the Starbucks online nutrition calculator, a Trenta shaken iced tea lemonade will have 230 calories. A Trenta iced coffee with 2% milk has 220 calories and 195 miligrams of caffeine. By comparison, large Coolatta ranges from 420 calories (coffee flavor with skim milk) to 860 (vanilla bean flavor). Sophomore Molly Shatzkin said, “That’s more caffeine than anyone should have in one sitting.” The Mayo Clinic, a not-for-profit practice of over 50,000 doctors of all different specialties, reports that most people can safely tolerate 200 to 300 milligrams of caffeine. But some students hit Starbucks more than once a day, and since caffeine’s already in foods like chocolate and soda, having the Trenta may push people to their limit. The Mayo Clinic warns that too much caffeine can cause problems like irritability, headaches, and anxiety. Shatzkin also questioned whether people would even be able to finish their drinks. “It’s a waste because people are going to end up throwing out a large portion of their drinks,” she said. This article is published courtesy of Her Campus. http:/hercampus.com/purchase
H ER CA M PUS
HOMELESS FOR A WEEK BY KIM WHITEHEAD
For the rest of the week, his life is literally in your hands. Purchase student James O’Keefe has set up a temporary home in the installation space on the first floor of Fort Awesome. You may have seen the room, just next to the More Store, which has been used for a few installation pieces by VA students, but none have been quite as radical as this one. O’Keefe has brought nothing but the clothes on his back and a large blue tarp into the room. He will, for one week, live solely on the kindness of strangers and the things they bring him. Scattered over the dirty tarp are the meager bits and pieces visitors have brought him. “I thought I was going to be in here not eating for a few days,” says O’Keefe, a junior sculpture major, gesturing to the hot tea, cereal, and water bottle he received when the Her Campus staff dropped in. He also has the remains of a Starbucks meal someone was kind enough to buy him. He has been surprised with the kindness the Purchase community has offered him. “This project is an exploration of generosity,” he says. He has previously done two other demonstrative installation pieces at Purchase, and talks about famous pieces in history. Joseph Beuys, in 1974 performance piece called “I Like America and America Likes Me,” spent eight hours over three days in a room with a wild coyote. In 1996, Tracey Emin lived in a locked room in a gallery for fourteen days, with nothing but a lot of empty canvases and art materials. In light of these being a “reconciliation with nature,” and a
“reconciliation with painting,” O’Keefe considers this project his “reconciliation with people.” O’Keefe describes himself as a cynic and says that this project has made him incapable of “being selfish at all.” As he risks his well-being, O’Keefe says he will find out if he can trust people, and that this will be a serious learning experience for him. “Nothing interesting happens unless someone goes and does something,” says O’Keefe. He began his project this Tuesday, and will be out by Monday. He still has to be a student, go to classes and do his homework. But most of the time, he is in the freezing cold, unfinished room, which is where University Police officers found him after reading the sign he posted on the glass of the exposed wall. O’Keefe says he carefully worded his sign, to say he is “practically living” there. UPD wanted to know if he was sleeping there. He said, of course, that he wasn’t, because that would be a violation of zoning rules. The truth? O’Keefe sleeps behind the hanging portion of his tarp that serves as a backdrop for his small living space. “If nobody sees it, it doesn’t happen,” he says with a smirk. The rain brought his steady line of visitors to halt, he says. O’Keefe has also discovered that it is not hunger, but boredom, that is his main enemy. He has his fingers crossed that when the rain lets up, the donations and company will return. We’ll check back at the end of the week! This article is published courtesy of Her Campus. http:/hercampus.com/purchase
9
MADAME QUERY
HAS YOUR REMEDY
My girlfriend hates my ex for no reason
Along with my 5 classes and a part-time
—we didn’t even date long and we didn’t
job, I am also in a relationship. While I
do ANYTHING physically. We’ve been
don’t have time for it, I think I’m in love...
friends for the last five years, but my
shouldn’t I know, though?
girlfriend doesn’t want me talking to her.
What should I do?
Some of us girls have issues, but your girlfriend is just acting plain psychotic. Yes, of course, Madame has caught herself acting the part of Erika Christensen’s character in Swimfan, but she was easily able to snap out of it before tying her female opponent to a chair and throwing her in the deep end of a pool. Like many women I know, your girlfriend probably has insecurities that make her come across as crazy. We all have our flip outs, that is something you signed up for, but you don’t deserved to be deprived of your friend. If she is understanding and you explain what happened in your brief relationship (or, ahem, what didn’t happen in your relationship) then maybe she will let loose. If you have explained this to her, maybe she thinks you talk about your friend too much, which causes her insecurities to flare up. But for her to go so far as to say “don’t talk to her,” then there are much bigger problems at hand than a little insecurity. It does not sound like a healthy relationship when your partner tries to control who your friends are. It could be that she said that and she totally regrets it, but you’re not going to know unless you talk to her. And even then she could still revert back to telling you what to do. For now ask her why she has a problem with your friend. If she can’t hear you out, she has trust issues to work through, as single.
10
You don’t have to know now. Love at first sight isn’t necessarily true, in fact it’s kind of overrated and pathetic. Maybe Madame is speaking from the experience of never having that experience. However, when Madame ever did think she was falling in love at first sight, she found out approximately five minutes later what a d-bag the guy was. As college students, a lot of us are busy and of course driving ourselves crazy with trying to keep the balance of jobs, internships, partying and the copious amount of homework that invades our breathing space. You are not alone, buddy! So when someone special comes knocking on your door, sometimes it can be a good thing. In all the chaos of our lives, it’s sometimes good to have someone on standby to bang. Or more seriously, someone there for you to cuddle and confide in ... and bang. Here’s what I think: if this person is good to you and you’re keeping up with your work, why end it? Whether this is love, or will develop into love, or you guys are together because it is fun, don’t knock it.
SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS
TO MADAME QUERY http://www.formspring.me/madamequery
A DV I C E My friend keeps sending me porn pictures throughout the day. I told him kindly to stop, but he still does. How do I get him to stop sending me pictures?
Text messaging and picture messages have been around for a while now, why is this suddenly a new hot way to prank people? In this situation you have two options, log onto 4chan, find your selection of nastiest picture and send it right back to him. Option two, the less fun option: ignore everything. It all depends on how you feel about what his idea of “funny” is. Obviously, I can tell you’re not happy with what is going on. You seem upset so let’s get to the real solution to this problem. You can go with option two and ignore his texts and keep asking him kindly to stop, but he’ll probably keep going because that is what a lot of these people like to do. What you should do is call him right after he sends these discouraging photos and tell him that he really needs to stop. Not kindly, but seriously, with authority. If the little twerp doesn’t listen to you, then ignore him all together. Stop all communication. Even if it is a nice question like “How are you?” your answer is “Not good, my friend is an asshole.” By not actually saying this, you’re still sending that exact message telekinetically. So eventually he’ll stop and realize he’s losing a friend over these text messages and leave you alone to bother your other, less assuming friends.
(continued from page 7) escape their fates through the power of their own free will. The Oedipus Complex deals with what would happen if classic tragic characters like Oedipus had a second chance in modern society, and how it would reflect the decisions they make and ultimately where they end up. “Are people still exactly the same as they were, with fate dragging them down, or can they overcome something like that?” Hernandez’s rendition asks. Hernandez said he had the idea of creating an adaptation of Oedipus Rex after seeing the production again last spring. After several rewrites, his idea has culminated into an hour and ten minute-long dramatic comedy. The play takes advantage of the fact that most viewers are familiar with what happens in the Oedipus story. Its well-timed quips and sarcasm revolve around the audience’s assumption of what’s about to happen next. The Oedipus Complex pokes fun at the original production’s well established motifs while at the same time remaining true to the story. The play complements Oedipus Rex’s original ideas as well as bringing up ideas that seem to have been forgotten after countless renditions. The Oedipus Complex will be running this Thursday and Friday at 8 pm and Saturday at 2 and 8 pm in the Humanities Theater. Tickets are $4 with your More Card and $5 general admission. The show is part of a weekly series showcasing Drama Studies senior projects and other student works at the Humanities Theater. If the story of Oedipus ever stirred your interest when you learned about him in your freshman intro classes, then The Oedipus Complex is definitely a show worth checking out.
11
SUBMIT BACK PAGE QUOTES VIA THE BOX OUTSIDE CCN 1011 OR ON THE WEB AT: HTTP://FORMSPRING.ME/INDYBACKPAGE
12
*some quotes have been rewritten for legibility or to preserve the anonymity of the submitter