the Racquette
SUNY Potsdam’s Student-run Newspaper since 1927
Bicentennial Memories Made
Potsdam Celebrates Quality Research Marcus Wolf Editor
The Research and Sponsored Programs Office will host their Learning and Research Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, April 6, in the Barrington Student Union MPR to celebrate the comaraderie between teacher and student research partnerships and the success of intensive research. An award ceremony will follow at 2 p.m. The fair will have posters made by student and faculty partnerships from a variety of departments, including anthropology, biology, chemistry, the college libraries, community health, the Crane School of Music, economics, English and communication, geology, modern languages, physics, sociology, technology services
and theater and dance. Kathleen Chapman, the associate director of the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, said that all students who take on research projects are allowed to participate in the fair, as long as they complete the necessary paperwork on time. The three categories of awards to be presented at the reception are the Frederick Kilmer Student Research Award, the Ram Chugh North Country Service & Research Award and the Outstanding Faculty Mentor award. Frederick Kilmer Awards will be presented to students who are Frederick Kilmer apprentices in the fields of science, arts & humanities and social sciences. Ram Chugh Awards will be presented to students whose projects focus on North Country issues. This year, 13
projects are qualified for the Frederick Kilmer Award and nine projects are qualified for the Ram Chugh Award. “We have a lot of qualified applicants and a lot qualified posters this year,” said Annie Butterfield, secretary of the Center for Applied Learning. Graduate students are now eligible for participation, Butterfield said, which was a new inclusion in this year’s fair. Butterfield also said that applications for the Frederick Kilmer Award for the upcoming summer and fall semester will be offered during the event. Snacks will be provided by PACES Dining Services, Chapman said. “We are all very excited about this year’s fair,” Butterfield said. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend.
Potsdam Fosters Gender Inclusivity Alexis Donnelly Staff Writer
Photos by Kirsten Meehan
(Top) From left: David Magowan, Liz Mortati, President Kristen Esterberg, Max C. Bear, Sekayi Williams, Peter Guidash and Mike Rosenberg celebrate the Bicentennial Birthday Bash. (Center) From left: Professors Oscar Sarmiento, Stephen Farina and Beth Robinson of the Carmelo Trio celebrate the Bicentennial Birthday Bash by playing Latin music for the partygoers. (Bottom) PACES employees serve up a de-towered Satterlee Hallshaped cake to the hundreds of party attendees.
Over the past few years, there have been evident and essential changes to SUNY Potsdam’s campus in order to make it a more gender- inclusive space for students, faculty and staff. While these changes affect everyone, they most directly relate to the individuals of the LGBTQ+ community. Joshua McLear, the associate director of Residence Life, said that three years ago, members of what is now the Gender & Sexuality Alliance approached Residence Life with the request for a gender-inclusive space. As a result of this request, Residence Life allotted two floors of Draime Extension for gender-inclusive dorms. SUNY
Potsdam’s website defines gender inclusive housing as a place where “students can live in the same room with each other, regardless of biological sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation.” SUNY Potsdam is not the first school to create genderinclusive living areas. Many colleges and universities across the country have made the effort to provide similar housing options. Some of these schools are even in the SUNY system, such as SUNY Albany, SUNY Cortland, SUNY Purchase and Stony Brook University. However, a handful of these academic institutions have restrictions, such as age or number of credits, that determine who can live in these areas.
According to the official “Theme Area Housing Instructions” from SUNY Potsdam’s Residence Life office, individuals who want to live in gender inclusive housing must attend an information session the semester prior to their residence in the area and sign an additional agreement that promotes respect and outlines the general goals of the floor. The gender-inclusive housing has been the only place on campus to offer double rooms in which two individuals of different genders can live, McLear said. Therefore, many couples who wanted to live in co-ed housing, but not in a suite, chose to live in the genderinclusive area. — Continued on page 2 —
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