School of Business opens Trading Room, strives to expand student resources

Geneseo’s Trading Room in South Hall had its grand opening on Friday Oct. 14. Finance, accounting and economic majors will use this room to carry out simulation labs for real-time and simulated trading. The renovation of the Trading Room from a computer lab this summer was funded by donations. Work on the Trading Room began late in the spring semester and was completed owver the summer. While the grand opening was Friday Oct. 14, the Trading Room has been open since the beginning of the fall 2016 semester.

The Trading Room is to act in the same function for finance, accounting and economics majors that a laboratory would for a science major, Dean of the School of Business Denise Rotondo said. Even though this Trading Room is new to Geneseo, Trading Rooms are commonly found in the business schools of larger institutions, according to Rotondo.

“While the room looks beautiful, the most important value to the students is the access to the data that they get through Bloomberg and through the market walls that are in there,” Rotondo said.

The Trading Room contains three Bloomberg Terminals and will provide students with a Bloomberg certification that will be useful as students matriculate into the sphere of real world business, Rotondo said.

The Bloomberg terminals are some of the most useful tools in examining how a stock has performed throughout the history of a company, according to Rotondo. The terminals help students to track stocks on their own and also to choose where to invest the Student Managed Investment Fund—a small amount of the school’s endowment that students choose to invest in different stocks and assets, Rotondo said.

President of the Student Managed Investment Fund senior Nelson Scott said the Trading Room also serves as a social environment for students interested in business.

“Along with providing us with Bloomberg and the ability to rip data into Excel to track our investments, the Trading Room provides a place for likeminded students to gather and talk about finance,” he said.

Vice President of the Student Managed Investment Fund junior Jonathan Drabek praised the Trading Room’s technology for allowing a more streamlined way to access data on stocks without having to open a lot of tabs in a browser.

While the trading room can hold classes, the layout of the room is designed to mimic the layout of a real world Trading Room—the room is designed with tables in the center so students can discuss their ideas.

“We wanted the room to be more of a collaborative space than a classroom and to give the old computer lab a different functionality,” Rotondo said.

The Trading Room adds the ability for finance, economics and accounting majors to conduct research for their classes and for their outside interests, as well.

Rotondo believes that the Trading Room will serve to strengthen the academic backing of the Student Managed Investment Fund, which will strengthen the college’s business program.

“The Trading Room gives some instant legitimacy that students can come to Geneseo and get the same amount of things out of Geneseo that they might at Binghamton or any number of other institutions,” she said.

Geneseo implements SUNY Sexual Violence Prevention Survey

Geneseo is one of nine SUNY schools piloting a new Sexual Assault Climate Survey. The survey opened on Oct. 9 and will run for three weeks, ending on Nov. 1. The survey will run every two years. There are two different surveys being administered—one for students to take and another for faculty. The surveys are relatively short and shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes, according to Director of Student Care Services and Title IX Coordinator for Students Tamara Kenney and Title IX Coordinator and Assistant to the President for Diversity & Equity/Director of Affirmative Action Adrienne Collier.

The two surveys have different aims. The survey for students is geared more toward student experience with sexual assault, and the survey for faculty focuses on the faculty familiarity with procedures and if they are aware of resources, according to Kenney and Collier.

The Sexual Assault Climate Survey is being conducted by a third party company—Campus Labs—and will return data without names attached so that responses remain anonymous.

The survey is independent of events that may have happened on or around campus recently, but it is a part of a requirement of Educational Amendment 129B—or as it is often called, “Enough is Enough,—” which was signed into law in July 2015, Kenney said.

“Enough is Enough” was signed into law to be “the most aggressive policy in the nation to fight against sexual assault on college campuses,” according to New York State’s government website.

Along with the SUNY-wide survey, “Enough is Enough” legislation requires higher education institutions to select an assortment of complete procedures and guidelines, incorporate a definition of what is consent and the state’s amnesty approach and increase contact with law enforcement.

Geneseo has also set up a wiki in order to measure feedback for the survey. The wiki is a public document, and Kenney advised people not to post any details that they would not want shared with the world.

In order to create incentive for students to take the survey, every student who participates will be entered into the drawing for one of three $25 gift cards. The cards are to Wegmans, Amazon and iTunes, Kenney said.

After students complete the survey, the college will gain a sense of where to make changes in policy, Kenney said.

“After this survey gauges the climate of the campus and all the other campuses, I think we’ll be able to see which guidelines work best and see which ones we can adopt and alter,” she said.

“While this survey is not mandatory, it is highly recommended,” Collier added.

Kenney and Collier both strongly encouraged everyone to take the survey because it is not time consuming and it can benefit the campus community.

As of Tuesday Oct. 18, there have been 278 employee responses and 746 student responses to the survey, according to Collier.

“We would like to encourage everyone to have a voice in this survey,” Kenney said. “We’re hoping to see, ‘Are there services that we’re missing? Are there resources that we’re missing? What else should we be doing on campus to address this issue?’ We’re hoping for some good feedback and good suggestions there.”

Geneseo Gives Back program raises money for InterFaith Center, local charities

The 11th annual Geneseo Gives Back program raised over $8,000 for the InterFaith Center and other local charity organizations by collecting donated items from students and hosting a tag sale. As part of the program, students donated clothes and non-perishable food items in bins set up throughout residence halls and around the Geneseo campus. The donation drive ran from mid-April to the end of the academic year. The total food donated this year weighed 1,170.25 lbs, according to Coordinator of the Geneseo Gives Back program Sarah McLean.

McLean and her volunteers picked up the donations from residence halls and brought them to the InterFaith Center. After commencement this year, some student volunteers stayed on campus and helped load the food and other goods onto buses so that the donations could be sent to the other charity organizations.

“The students were helpful not only in donating this year, but also in helping load the bus so we could get the food back to the pantry,” sub-coordinator of the Geneseo-Groveland Emergency Food Pantry Elizabeth Hoey said.

The Geneseo-Groveland Emergency Food Pantry has been serving the east side of Conesus Lake for 18 years and welcomed the large donation, Hoey said.

“The Geneseo community is really good to us; I think we got more from students this year than we have in years past,” she said.

In addition to the collaboration between the Geneseo-Groveland Emergency Food Pantry and Geneseo, the organization also sets up drives at post offices where people can donate food, Hoey said. The food pantry will be moving to the Central Presbyterian Church on Second and Center Street by Nov. 1, with the new hours being 10-2 p.m. on Tuesdays and 4-6:30 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Geneseo Gives Back also sent donations to the Backpack Program, the Geneseo Parish Outreach Center and Teresa House hospice.

Teresa House is a hospice located on Highland Road in Geneseo and serves two residents at a time—both of whom have received a diagnosis of three months or less to live.

Teresa House wants their residents to feel as if they are at home and to be as comfortable as possible, Teresa House Executive Director Linda Simmons said.

“We put out our wish list of needs—bottled water, soda, fruit cups, toilet paper, paper towels—and were very happy to have our needs met … We run almost entirely on donations and receive no government reimbursement,” Simmons said.

Aside from donating food, Geneseo Gives Back program also focuses on raising money to fund the IFC. In order to generate such funds, Geneseo Gives Back hosted its annual tag sale on move-in day weekend. The tag sale provided an opportunity for students to purchase furniture for lower prices. This event allowed the IFC to raise money for its operating budget and to renovate its roof.

“We had a huge increase of first year students at the tag sale this year, which is great because it introduces them to the whole idea of the Geneseo Gives Back recycling program,” McLean said. “People constantly say, ‘Oh I can’t believe the students threw this away’ and I’ll say, ‘They didn’t throw it away, they donated it.’”

Decontamination station to protect Conesus Lake from invasive species

In an effort to combat the issue of invasive species in Conesus Lake, the Conesus Lake Association installed a boat decontamination station in Aug. 2016 at the public launch. The boat decontamination station includes a high pressure, hot water boat washer that heats water to 140 degrees farenheint. When the water is pumped into the throat of the engine, the bilge and livewell are sprayed on the outside of the boat for 10 seconds. Then the boat is sterilized and the invasive species are killed, thus preventing water contamination.

One of the invasive species the decontamination station is designed to defend against is hydrilla. Per the New York State Invasive species website, hydrilla is a submersed perennial herb that can grow up to 25 feet long. The CLA is concerned that the hydrilla will infect Conesus’ waters because it has been found in Cayuga Lake and Tonawanda Creek, both of which are located near Conesus Lake.

The decontamination station comes as the third step in a four-step process to prevent the introduction of new invasive species to Conesus Lake. The first step was education, the second step was inspection and the fourth will be regulation.

The first step began in 2012 when funding from the Hobart and William Smith Finger Lakes Institute allowed the CLA to create its Watercraft Steward Program. The stewards’ original focus was to educate boaters on the havoc an invasive specie could wreak on an ecosystem such as Conesus Lake. In addition, the stewards focused on inspecting the boats for traces of invasive species. Until the decontamination station was established, however, there was no surefire way of knowing if a boat was truly clean of invasive species.

The Watercraft Stewards ask each boater where his boat has been in the last two weeks and collect data on tablets. The data shows that in the last year, Conesus Lake was the busiest single launch throughout the Finger Lakes—launching 5,000 boats—and had more than 200 lakes visit, leading to a high percentage of contamination.

CLA director and Project Lead Scott Proctor announced the decontamination station as the last line of defense Conesus Lake has against harmful invasive species. While Proctor is more than happy to keep the lake clean, he does not want the public launch at Conesus to become a boat wash.

“The focus of our stewards is to make sure boats are clean when they arrive and when they leave,” he said. “But our main focus as a whole is to make sure you’re clean for our lake.”

In addition to using the decontamination station, Proctor said CLA also asks boaters to wait until their boats have been dry for five days before using them in the water.

Since starting the program, over 80 percent of boaters launching from Conesus have spoken with the stewards. Many are beginning to follow the Clean, Drain and Dry Initiative. Proctor attributed this snowball effect to the program’s emphasis on outreach and education.

“The first key to defense against invasive species is education,” he said. “Someone who doesn’t even know about invasive species is likely to be the first one to bring it into our lake. We had over 200 lakes visit us last year, and it’s going to take a while before we reach all of them.”

President of Geneseo Crew and international relations and French double major senior Justin Ziobrowski said that when the crew team begins to practice at Conesus Lake, it will look into using the decontamination station.

In the past, the crew team has washed its boats down after regattas with soap and sponges in order to prevent the spread of invasive species. Ziobrowski said he feels that the new high-pressure technology will benefit Conesus Lake.

“It’s supposed to be able to reduce the amount of invasive species in the lake and it’s better for the environment, especially with all the towns around it getting the drinking water from there,” he said. “I think it’s a good initiative.”u

News editor Annie Renaud contributed reporting to this article.

Departments merge to promote residential education

The Department of Residence Life and the Department of Student Life merged for the fall 2016 semester into the Department of Student Life. The Department of Student Life now oversees Campus Living—formerly Residence Life—the MacVittie College Union and specific co-curricular educational and assessment initiatives. Director of Student Life Charles Matthews is now also the head of Campus Living, taking over for Celia Easton. In this new position, Matthews hopes continue to develop a residential education program.

“SUNY is really looking to push applied learning, and we want to make sure what we’re doing outside of the classroom and around campus really provides students with an experience that incorporates what they’re learning in the classroom and gives them some practical implication,” Matthews said.

By bringing these high impact practices into the residence halls, Matthews said he aims to fulfill the school’s mission of creating a learning-centered environment. Matthews plans to achieve this goal by connecting the activities that Student Life and the MacVittie College Union have with the residence halls, all while keeping in mind the goal of making programs—such as internships—more accessible.

“Part of what is happening with residence education is making the programs more cohesive with what’s going on around campus,” assistant residence director in Erie Hall junior Shauna Ricketts said. “I think the purpose of this is to build a sense of community and to try and help students push themselves forward.”

Matthews also plans to improve the aesthetics and appeal of residence halls and to instill a sense of pride in students around campus. In order to accomplish this, a workout center may be installed on South Side in Suffolk Hall and furniture improvements are to be made in the residence hall lounges.

These new changes have brought some friction, however, particularly with the implementation of 24-hour duty on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for residence assistants. This policy requires an RA to be on call for a full day during the weekend with limited time allotted to leave their hall.

“The issue we had in mind was if something happens on a Saturday at 10 p.m. in a residence hall, who does a student go to for help if the Area Coordinator isn’t in their office?” Matthews said. “If an RA is on-duty, then we can help get somebody assistance in a quicker fashion.”

RAs are allowed to leave for a limited amount of time while on 24-hour duty due to the nature of the Wi-Fi-enabled on-duty phones. Matthews said the Department of Student Life is working to solve this problem by purchasing cellphones as replacements so an on duty RA can leave the residence hall.

Townhouse community organizer and former RA senior Ash Dean said that he does not think that the 24-hour on-duty cycle is an aftereffect of the Department of Student Life taking over Campus Living, but rather a step in the direction Campus Living was headed.

“I lived in Onondaga Hall for three years—being an RA for two of them—and I remember freshman year being locked out or someone needing help and not having anyone to go to, so I completely understand why they added the 24-hour duty,” Dean said.

According to Ricketts, some RAs are upset because they cannot leave the building while on 24-hour duty. These RAs are also worried about the compensation for working the extended hours.

Ricketts, however, was pleased with how Matthews and the Department of Student Life have been handling the controversy.

“They really are working with us to reach a solution,” she said. “We’ve had meetings where people can voice their concerns, and we’re hopeful as a group that everything will get better."

MyCourses to be replaced with Canvas

Geneseo is piloting a new Learning Management System to replace Angel—the site that powers myCourses—called Canvas this semester. Thirty-two faculty members will use Canvas to teach a total of 46 classes this fall. This project began in late April 2016 and was the first major revamp of the Geneseo website since 2008. There was a training session allotted for the faculty who volunteered to pilot Canvas in early August. Nine hundred and seventy nine students enrolled in these 46 classes—approximately a quarter of the student population.

According to Assistant Director and Manager for Educational Technology and the leader of the Canvas Implementation Team Laurie Fox, the decision to explore options to replace Angel—Geneseo’s LMS since 2007—was made two years ago. Fox and her team put out a request for a proposal in January 2016.

The transition was influenced by Blackboard’s acquisition of Angel and Blackboard’s subsequent decision to discontinue the development of the Angel software.

“We had four companies come in and give demonstrations for faculty, staff and students and [we] allowed people to evaluate which system they liked the best,” Fox said.

Fox said that students also enjoyed specific features that Canvas offers.

“One of the features that students really loved about it was the mobile app,” she said. “With your phone, you can do everything that you would be able to do on the desktop.”

According to assistant professor in the school of education Kelly Keegan—who is one of the professors piloting Canvas—the technologically-upgraded Canvas will make life much easier for students and faculty alike.

“The grade book on Canvas is much more accessible to not only faculty, but students, and it’s quicker as well,” Keegan said. “Through Canvas, on the speed grader, I can now make comments and corrections on the submission instead of having to put it into a word document and track changes.”

With the growing desire for a mobile friendly LMS that can interface with smartphones and tablets at Geneseo, there is a continued increase in popularity among students and faculty for this software. This software—and the fact that it allows for mobile usage, unlike Angel software—was the type Fox and her group were looking for and found in Canvas.

This move to a more tech-savvy LMS comes on the heels of a project by the College Communications Department and Computing and Information Technology that focused on boosting the efficiency of Geneseo’s home website by making it more mobile friendly.

“With everybody having a phone they can use to access the Internet wherever they go, or even people converting to tablets, it is going to be much easier to access,” Keegan said.

Cook second African American elected in Livingston County

Since Livingston County was established in 1821, two African Americans have been elected to public office. Sworn in on April 4, Geneseo Village Trustee junior Matthew Cook became the second. Cook stated that he was unaware while running that one other African American had served as an elected official. “We weren’t trying to prove a point or anything; we were just trying to help the students,” Cook said.

While his election was of note—both as being the second African American and as one of the first two Geneseo students to hold office—race was never on Cook’s mind. “I didn’t set out to make history, but it’s definitely a pride thing. I ran to give a voice to those who don’t have one,” he said. “The students here are really underrepresented. I was surprised when I found out, but it’s just something I’ll smile to myself about.”

Cook said that members of the board have been welcoming as he takes on this new position. According to Cook, Mayor Richard Hatheway, Deputy Mayor Sandra Brennan and fellow Trustee Margaret Duff have been helping him learn the ropes.

From Rochester, Cook will be able to maintain his duties as a council member. Cook has already attended two council meetings, which take place every first and third Monday of every month.

The first female mayor, Ann Duff, was elected in 1974, while the first African American Village Trustee Dale Griffin was elected in 1978 in a Democratic sweep of a traditionally Republican town.

Like Cook, Griffin never considered race while running for office, either. According to an article from the Mt. Morris Enterprise from March of 1978, Griffin did not know he was the first African American Village trustee.

Griffin was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and served in the Navy for 14 years until 1966  and is a Korean War veteran. Griffin moved to Geneseo in 1959 and was a lieutenant of the Geneseo Fire Department prior to his election as a Village Trustee. Griffin was also an electrician and a member of the Geneseo Kiwanis Club.

Similar to Cook, Griffin had a connection to the college. Although Griffin did not attend Geneseo, his wife worked in the Educational Opportunities Office.

Griffin died on March 20, 2014, inhibiting the possibility of the first two African Americans elected to Livingston County Public office to meet. As of 2014, 3 percent of Livingston County’s population is African American.

While in office, Cook hopes to bridge the divide between students and the Village. “In the three years that I’ve been here, I saw a big disconnect between the students and the Village from both sides,” he said. “I thought being both a student and a citizen from the Village that I could do a lot to help mitigate that. Students seem to be very underrepresented in the Village. I just wanted to help them out, give them a voice and a forum to voice their opinions.”

Club generates discussion on local migrant workers

A new club geared toward bridging the gap between the Geneseo student population and migrant workers on nearby farms hosted a movie and discussion forum on Thursday March 31 in Newton 204. Senior Ariana Lippi arranged the viewing in order to garner attention for the club.

The event featured a showing of the 2014 documentary Cesar’s Last Fast—which chronicles the events of Cesar Chavez’s 36-day water-only hunger strike in 1988—and two migrant farm workers—both of whom work on farms in the area—as guest speakers. Chavez was a farm worker turned advocate and leader of the National Farm Workers Association.

The film highlighted issues that farm workers typically face, including underpayment, poor living conditions and the fact that farm workers are one of only two labor groups who do not have the right to collectively bargain.

After the film, the event became an open forum for students to ask José and Victor—who asked that their last names be omitted—questions about their work experiences. The two men spoke only Spanish and an interpreter translated their answers to the audience.

“It’s very nice to see so many young people here. You guys are the future. I think it is very important that we need to start valuing the people who bring us our food—everybody has to eat,” José said. “Before the job I have now, I worked on a farm where I wasn’t getting paid for my hours. They would demand more and more work and pay me an amount that had nothing to do with how many hours I worked.” José is originally from Mexico and came to the United States to find work.

Hailing from Guatemala, Victor is a former dairy farm worker and has lived in the U.S. for 10 years. According to Victor, the abuse of farm workers—as seen in the film—is not an issue of the past.

“A lot of things we saw happening in the film are happening on dairy farms today. Many times, farm owners don’t respect it when workers call in sick,” Victor said. “We came here to work and sometimes people are forced to work so hard, they lose their lives.”

Lippi noted that she was pleasantly surprised by the student turnout. An international relations and Spanish double major, Lippi was able to organize the event through her internship at the Worker Justice Center of New York. The WJCNY is an organization that advocates for the rights of farm workers and other low-wage workers who are often denied liberties.

“Part of my internship is to work with the Geneseo community, with the main goal being to make what goes on in the farms in the surrounding areas like Mount Morris and Perry—which are only 10 minutes away—apparent,” Lippi said. “Issues these farm workers face are even closer because they pick a lot of the food that gets sold on campus. Just go into Fusion Market and you’ll see signs for products from Upstate Farms—a lot of that stuff comes from right around here.”

Political science major junior Danny Ruiz found out about the new club—which he tentatively referred to as the Geneseo Coalition for Migrant Workers—via one of the “WhatsUp Digest” emails. Ruiz emphasized that migrant worker issues hit home with him.

“I’ve grown up with all the issues of migrant workers; my parents were migrant workers,” Ruiz said. “As soon as I saw this in the email, I contacted Ariana [Lippi] right away … Our main goal is to create awareness for the issues migrant workers face—like the working and living conditions—and to get students involved.”

International relations major junior Anna Biuso also got involved when she saw the email. At her Campus Auxiliary Services job, Biuso explained that she is constantly around the merchandise displayed as products of Upstate New York.

“As a CAS worker, I’m always seeing the Upstate Farms posters, which show a white male as the dairy worker. Once I saw the emails, I started to wonder if the advertisements really show who the dairy workers are,” Biuso said. “I felt that it was a problem and immediately wanted to get involved.”

The club is still in its developing stages. According to Biuso, the next step for the club to take is to work on its organizational structure.

“At our meeting next week, we’re going to discuss what to do for next year,” Lippi said. “I think a club like this and the internship I currently have are important because I think it’s important for students to be able to have a leadership role and make a difference.”

Geneseo elects SA e-board for 2016-17 school year

Voting to select the new members of the 2016-17 Student Association Executive Committee ended on Sunday March 27. One SA committee member will be staying on the Executive Committee with six new additional members elected this year.

Junior Michael Baranowski will serve as SA Executive Committee President. Baranowski is the only remaining committee member and served as the Vice President for the 2015-16 school year.

Newly elected committee members include Vice President junior Ashley Buttice, Director of Student Affairs sophomore Marina Kawarazaki, Director of Student Programming junior Molly Downey, Director of Academic Affairs sophomore Alyssa Forbes, Director of Inter-Residence Affairs sophomore Kaitlin Pfundstein and Director of Business Affairs junior Patricia Galan.

Baranowski, who ran unopposed, said his aim for the SA Executive Committee is to return SA to a more engaging and accessible student government.

“I think it’s important for the SA to be more of a student government in order for it to provide a voice for the students,” he said. “We have a real need for some type of forums around school so the SA can help get the issues out in the open and find a solution to them.”

One of the ideas Baranowski is eager to put into action is a Concussion Policy, which would excuse students from tests, papers and other assignments when they are dealing with concussion symptoms.

“We’re starting to see these implemented more and more often in sports, but if a student-athlete cannot compete in sports, than how would he or she be able to complete school work?” Baranowski asked.

Buttice acted as a Student Senator in the Faculty Affairs Committee this year and was also a part of the Student Senate Caucus. Buttice also ran unopposed and shared a similar view to Baranowski’s for what SA should focus on next year.

“Michael and I have spoken about what we would like to do for next year, and our main focus is to run the SA more like a government,” she said. “It’s very important to the both of us that our fellow students know there is someone advocating for them.”

Being an international student from Japan, Kawarazaki stated that she ran for Director of Student Affairs because she values diversity on the Geneseo campus.

“I wanted to be the next Director of Student Affairs because one of the responsibilities they have is to act as a liaison between the multicultural organizations and the Executive Committee and I think diversity is a very important part of student life for everyone,” she said. “Being an international student, I think I could do a lot of good in this position.”

Kawarazaki’s responsibilities as Director of Student Affairs include representing Geneseo at lobbying events in Albany on behalf of students’ issues, coordinating voter registration efforts for students and coordinating the annual Intercultural Dinner. In addition, Kawarazaki will serve as a liaison between multicultural organizations and special interest organizations, serve as a voting member on the Geneseo First Response Board of Directors and serve as the Chair of the Alliance for Community Enrichment.

Downey, who also ran unchallenged, believes that her experience has prepared her for the position of Director of Student Programming. “I’ve been working toward being the Director of Student Programming for the last three years. In my freshman year I joined GCAB and during the last two years—as the Special Events Chair—I feel I’ve learned a lot,” she said. “These last few years have almost been like an internship.”

Downey explained that the goals of the Director of Student Programming are to improve the Geneseo Activity Commission Board and to ensure that all of the students are enjoying planned events.

Prior to serving as Director of Academic Affairs, Forbes has served as a peer advisement coordinator for the Academic Affairs Committee and has been involved with SA since her freshman year.

“I think the AAC—and the SA in general—needs to be built up more, and be more student run,” Forbes said. “It is my hope that I will be a good advocate for students when I’m work with Provost [Carol] Long.”

Pfundstein noted that she feels that becoming the Director of Inter-Residence Affairs will allow her to watch the people around her grow as she holds her position. “I see this job as being the voice for the on-campus students,” Pfundstein said. “As the Director of Inter-Residence Affairs, next year, I’ll be advocating for on campus issues and taking control of them.”

Galan’s past experience includes serving as Director of Business Affairs and working on the budget review committee for the last three years. Galan will oversee the Finance Committee—a new responsibility for this position.

“Next year, I’ll be going over and revising the financial policy of the SA and ultimately deciding how the budget will chang,” she said. “I think this will be a good experience.”

The newly elected SA Director of Public Relations—junior Thomas Magnus—did not respond to The Lamron’s interview request.

CAS to implement changes following forums

Partnering with Campus Auxiliary Services, Student Association held forums in order to address the student criticism of CAS practices beginning in early February. These forums were maintained in order to create a platform for CAS to address issues that were raised on social media rather than complaints brought straight to management. Despite a relatively low student turn out—approximately 22 students, according to SA Director of Inter-Residence Affairs and forum moderator senior Tyler Sherman—the forums were apparently successful in initiating changes.

The biggest changes brought about by the forums are healthier “grab-and-go” options, increased value offerings and bundles, a renewed focus on “Priority #1” for employees, the establishment of a new position—operations excellence specialist—more off-campus meal plan offerings and a re-established student advisory board.

The changes that CAS is making regarding food and food choice are expanding by the creation of healthier foods for the “grab-and-go” and “heat-and-eat” options. The other food-related target is to bring value offers and bundles to the forefront.

“A question parents often ask me during orientation is if the meal plan will last the student through the year. The way our meal plan is set up ensures it will,” CAS marketing manager Becky Stewart ‘04 said. “There aren’t limits on the time when you can use your meal plan or any on-campus restaurant restrictions, so it really falls on the students to budget their money. We hope bringing the value offers and bundles at Southside Café and Max Market will help students do just that.”

To address the concerns of students who fear the food may be ill prepared, CAS has renewed a focus on what they call “Priority #1.” Priority #1 is the duty that CAS has to “provide safe food for every occasion.” It is posted on fliers and posters all over CAS kitchens in order to ensure that neither full time workers, nor part-time students, forget it.

The position of Operations Excellence Specialist has been created to ensure that the food is prepared safely and procedures are followed correctly. While the position is a new one, it does not use new money. Instead, the money the person occupying the position will make was at one time allotted for different positions.

“One complaint we received at the forum was about the off-campus meal plans CAS offers,” Stewart said. “The off-campus express meal plan—our lowest offer—is about $250. One student felt that was too much, so we’re looking to create newer options with that one being the midpoint.”

In order to get pertinent feedback more quickly, CAS and the Inter-Residence Council are preparing to re-establish a student advisory board that will have student representatives—from each residence hall and a representative of off-campus students—giving CAS feedback.

“When one-fourth of your customers leave every year and a new group comes in with different tastes, feedback is very important,” Stewart said.

“When I asked how many meals CAS serves Monday through Friday, they said it was around 9,000 and there are only five–10 issues a day. I really think that speaks to the efficiency of CAS, but if you have an issue, confront them about it,” Sherman added. “It may be uncomfortable, but that’s the only way it’s going to change.”

Geneseo has third snow day in 21 years

Geneseo experienced a partial snow day on Tuesday Feb. 16—the first since March 12, 2014—and the third in the last 21 years. With snowfall totaling over 18 inches, conditions became unsafe for faculty, administration, clerical staff, commuter students and others traveling to Geneseo for work or study. Students received an email from the University Police Department at approximately 8:42 a.m. which reported the Livingston County Sheriff Department’s travel advisory warning and recommended that, “If you have already traveled to Geneseo, and have arrived safely, it is our suggestion that you remain in place until the travel advisory is lifted and weather conditions improve.”

Dean of Students and Director of Center for Community Leonard Sancilio sent out an email at 11:26 a.m. informing students that classes would be canceled beginning at 1 p.m. that day. By this time, many professors had individually cancelled classes due to hazardous road conditions or other obstacles due to the snow.

Professor of geography Darrell Norris suffered from these conditions during his drive to campus on I-390 South.

“I had a 10 a.m. class and—knowing that the storm was getting worse—I left my home in Rochester at 7 a.m. since there was no notification of cancelation or delay. Having done that journey thousands of times, I—arrogantly I might say—went on my way,” Norris said. “I made it one mile from the [Geneseo] exit, found myself being pushed off the road by the traffic going past me and ended up in the right shoulder, stuck in one or two feet of snow. This was around 8 a.m. and I missed my class because I was stuck for two and a half [to] three hours. I called AAA and they dug me out. I couldn’t even make a left at the exit to go north on 390.”

Norris, who has taught at Geneseo for 35 years, was surprised morning classes were not cancelled.

“I had heard that it was well-established at the national level that the Rochester-Geneseo corridor would be getting 12–18 inches, but the school delayed canceling classes because they were somehow only expecting three to five.”

“With a storm of this magnitude, canceling would’ve been a good idea,” professor of English Caroline Woidat said. Woidat recounted that she not only got her car stuck on I-390, but also got snowed into the parking lot once she finally got to campus.

“For the first time in my life, I threw a shovel in the back of my car—which turned out to be fortunate,” Woidat said. “I was at a stop sign and a huge semi-truck was behind me. I kept backing up and couldn’t get traction. [The driver] came to my car to help … He then shoveled out a path onto 20-A and, finally, I was able to get off the exit with a push on his instruction. He was definitely the hero that day because it’s a long walk from the 390 to campus.”

The late announcement of the snow day raised questions about the logistics behind class cancellations. Contrary to common belief, the school does not need the approval of the governor to cancel classes.

“We [the College President and the UPD] can decide to cancel classes on our own, but state operations must stay in effect until the governor says otherwise,” Chief of University Police Thomas Kilcullen said. “One way around that is to give liberal leave—allowing employees to leave at a designated time without penalty.”

One of Kilcullen’s jobs as Chief of University Police is to monitor the weather—specifically in these occasions. “When we began to monitor this storm, I looked at the snowfall totals map on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from the last storm and Geneseo had nothing, especially in comparison with Warsaw to the west and Rochester to the north,” he said. “It’s the topography of the valley that makes it so Geneseo doesn’t get as much snow. At 4 a.m., I got up and checked the storm tracker on the NOAA website and it said Geneseo was supposed to end up with seven or eight inches. I called and reached out to secondary schools in the area and the Livingston County and New York State Departments of Transportation to see what was closed and there was only one secondary school in the area that was.” Snowfall totals were as high as NOAA had predicted by 6 a.m.

According to Kilcullen, his main goal was to ensure everyone’s safety on a day when conditions were bad and getting worse by the hour. His reasoning behind the school’s decision to cancel classes past 1 p.m. was to give those who had to commute ample time to get home before the 5 p.m. rush hour. It also gave commuters time to leave in case traveling conditions became even worse, forcing a travel ban.

“I think there’s a certain amount of legal and ethical liability for making your employees travel in that weather that the college had to take on,” Norris said. “Missing morning classes for that day because a professor was either stuck or didn’t think it was worth it doesn’t even count as an excused absence.”

Kelly’s Saloon to reopen on Main Street after reconstruction

The process of rebuilding has begun at 71 Main St.—formally the site of Kelly’s Saloon—after a fire left the street-level bar charred to the ground on July 29, 2015. 

Since its establishment in the late 1970s, Kelly’s had become a staple of Geneseo nightlife known for patronizing students and locals alike. It served as a stop on senior bar crawl and a location for the Geneseo senior tradition the Tom Collins Challenge, where seniors would attempt to drink one Tom Collins a day from the day after spring break to the end of the semester. 

Owners Mike and Kathy Roome have left the majority of reconstruction to be spearheaded by their granddaughter Sarah Dieter, a former bartender for the business.

Dieter, who said in an email that she is “knocking on the door to breaking ground very soon,” reported that the process has been slow, but steady.

“It’s riding on a few last loose ends along with Old Man Winter’s will, but we are close,” she said.

Dieter added that she hopes to have the bar open by the end of the summer or beginning of the fall semester and will keep the space similar to what it was before, “but a bit bigger.” The building will gain square footage and be altered to agree with new code requirements, including bigger bathrooms and a walk-in cooler out back. The space will remain narrow and the bar will be in the same place, although extended in length.

Dieter emphasized that support from the community has been unbelievable and inspiring. “It really is a beautiful and powerful thing when people come together … and to have it all be in the name of the history and love for a place that has meant so many different things to different people … I feel lucky to be a part of it,” she wrote.

One of those people is junior political science major Maggie Doran, who created a GoFundMe page for Kelly’s the same day as the fire. The mission statement of the page is “to help rebuild the historic Kelly’s Saloon on Main Street. Kelly’s has been a home to all and doesn’t deserve to go down like this. All proceeds will be going to anything insurance doesn’t cover: the things that make Kelly’s what it is. Even though signatures and signs have been lost, the memories still stand! Consider it just payment for a TC that won’t be able to be made in the upcoming weeks.”

Doran, who had not yet met Dieter or her family when she started the page, did so in honor of her family members who went to and loved Kelly’s in the past. “I’ve used GoFundMe pages before, so I knew how successful it could end up being and I wanted to save Kelly’s for the people that cherish it.”

Doran emphasized that she is very excited for the rebuild. “I cannot wait to experience the bar,” Doran said.