Autumnfest rings in the fall

The Geneseo community kicked off the fall season with its third annual Autumnfest on Main Street on Saturday Sept. 21. Hosted by the Geneseo Merchants Association, this event consisted of a smorgasbord of activities and events throughout the entire day including carriage rides, wine tasting, dancing, singing local vendor stations and pumpkin painting and racing. According to the official Autumnfest press release, Geneseo Merchants Association is a “volunteer organization that works to promote the local business community through events and group promotional opportunities.”

Center Street was closed off all day and lined with food vendors selling fresh fruits and treats such as apples, nectarines and kettle corn.

The Geneseo’s Got Talent Show was also on Center Street at 1 p.m. featuring musical a cappella groups, stand-up comedians, musicians and even some juggling. The participants were required to pay $20 to enter the competition and the judges consisted of Geneseo community members, including Mayor Richard Hatheway. The talent show consisted of 10 performances out of which a cappella groups Hips n’ Harmony and Exit 8, and solo performer Madison Scoville made it to the last round. After an intense final round, Exit 8 won the grand prize of $500.

Music and dancing were also present in the form of Geneseo student organizations such as the Geneseo String Band and Geneseo Bhangra.

A historic horse-drawn-carriage provided Autumnfest attendees with an opportunity to experience Main Street with a breath of fresh air and scenic view of the Wadsworth Homestead.

The Great Pumpkin Race began at 4 p.m. on Bank Street. Pumpkin and face painting stations were set up to decorate Autumnfest-goers and their pumpkins. To participate in the race, kids and adults alike lined up at the top of Bank Street to roll their painted pumpkins down as fast as they possibly could. The pumpkins were $1 each, to be contributed to the Geneseo Merchants Association and winners were rewarded with gift cards from Main Street vendors Empire Salon, Frugal Fashionista, Joe’s Comics, Envy Salon and Spa, Buzzo’s Music and Touch of Grayce.

T-shirts were contributed by Kelly’s Saloon as well as a hat from Brows, Brazilians & Bikinis Inc. Members of Alpha Chi Rho fraternity and Sigma Delta Tau sorority were running the pumpkin station, collecting the $1 pumpkin fees and standing at the bottom of Bank Street to declare winners for the pumpkin races. “I really liked how the families in the surrounding area and the college community could come together to enjoy this great event,” senior Melissa Liriano said.

Geneseo completes highly anticipated campus renovations

The start of this semester saw the completion of Letchworth Dining Hall and Bailey Hall. The integration of these buildings into the campus community will follow in the coming weeks.“[Letchworth] is complete, but the Campus Auxiliary Services staff is using the building to understand all of the equipment, get their training down and figure out what they plan on serving,” Director of Facilities Planning and Construction David Norton said. Because of this, Letchworth is not yet open to students.

Norton said that Letchworth contains a number of new eateries such as Max Market, Smokehouse Grill and Maxine’s Café. This allows for a wide selection of food options and cuisines including Asian, baked goods, vegetarian, halal, gluten-free and deli.

According to Norton, the first floor will consist of a large dining space and small market places where students will be able to order food, and the second floor will be an all-you-can-eat buffet-style area.

Alongside Letchworth’s plethora of new food options, there are a number of other special features included in the building, like projection screens in the first floor dining area. “You could turn the dining area into a seminar space,” Norton said. He noted that Letchworth will be able to host movie events and conferences.

Letchworth uses geothermal systems for heating and cooling similar to those included in other recent construction projects on campus. “We have geothermal wells that provide heating and cooling for Monroe Hall, Seneca [Hall] and we also have it over at Doty Hall,” Norton said. Norton said another green feature of Letchworth Dining Hall is a rainwater collection system. “We collect the rainwater and that water is recycled and for used for bathroom fixtures. Rather than flushing water down the toilet, the chlorinated water that you drain is actually rainwater,” he said.

CAS will host open houses at Letchworth this week and next week, specifically for Max Market and Food Studio North on Friday Sept. 5 from 3-5 p.m., Monday Sept. 8 from 10 a.m.-12 p.m., and Sept. 11 from 6-8 p.m. Bailey Hall, which houses general purpose classrooms and faculty offices for the psychology, sociology, geography and anthropology departments, opened to students this semester and to faculty over the summer. “We ended up moving faculty in in July, which gave them a lot of time to settle in and get ready for classes,” Norton said. There are lounges, study rooms and conference rooms dispersed throughout Bailey Hall, providing students and faculty with a lot of space to work outside of the general classroom.

Bailey Hall has been widely praised by students since the start of the semester. “I like how it’s accessible and has stylistic differences from the older buildings,” senior Maddie Herrick said. “I like the fact that there is a lot of room to do homework and study and that whole walls are white boards,” senior Samantha Laspina said. The favorable feedback attributed to the two new buildings is not limited to students. “Both turned out to be very great projects, they are both new gems that we have on campus,” Norton said.

Second Diasporas Conference draws interest from Northeastern colleges

Geneseo hosted the second First World Diasporas of Undergraduate Conference with SUNY New Paltz on Friday April 25 and Saturday April 26. The conference invited both undergraduate and graduate students as well as professionals from all around the region to share and discuss their ideas about all issues relevant to diasporas of color. The conference kicked off with the Art Exhibit Inauguration in Milne Library. Associate professor of Spanish Rose McEwen put the exhibit together with the intention of illustrating the importance of diaspora in the history of all people.

“The point is that nobody is here out of the blue,” she said. “You’ve arrived here from somewhere else.”

The “Collaborative Activism” panel also took place early on Friday and was put together by students or professionals that have been inspired by Geneseo’s retiring professor and Department Chair of Anthropology Rose-Marie Chierici. The panel was catered by the Provost’s Office.

“Many of the speakers contributed by bringing information about what diasporas are in relation to Rose-Marie’s experience but also in relation to what they have done to help people who are victims of diaspora,” McEwen said.

Many of these past students and professionals have helped Chierici with her past projects. These projects include Haiti Outreach Pwoje Espwa at Borgne Hospital in Haiti which was organized by Chierici.

Much of the conference consisted of papers and posters on the topic of diasporas, presented by students all across the Northeast region. It included presenters from Emory University, Nazareth College, SUNY Plattsburgh, SUNY New Paltz, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Rochester, City College of New York and professionals from Quebec.

“We also had people from the migrant center so, of course, many of these individuals already work to help ameliorate the issues or challenges faced by victims of diasporas,” McEwen said. “But I think that if we all become acquainted with each other and are better aware of what everyone is doing we will be in a position to collaborate more productively with each other.”

This interaction between people from different schools and regions led to an expansive discourse on the topic of diasporas of color.

“It was great to share ideas with students not only from different fields – English, history, anthropology, art – and with different areas of interest – Africa, the Caribbean, Native Americans, Islam – but also from different schools,” senior presenter Thomas Wight said.

In addition to the presentations, there were also dance and choral performances given by Geneseo’s Bhangra, Latino Student Association and Japanese Culture Club.

Many participants felt that the conference allowed them to delve further into the topics of the initial ideas of their presentations.

“The conference was very interactive; the discussions after presentations were very involved and educational as students, panelists and professors debated and discussed together panelist junior Hannah Pruch said. “It was exciting to extend the topic beyond the papers.”

The conference was funded by a grant from the SUNY Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Geneseo to host second diasporas conference

Geneseo will host the second First World Diasporas of Color Undergraduate Conference with SUNY New Paltz on April 25 and 26. This conference invites students to present papers and posters that are concerned with all issues relevant to the diasporas of color of Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States. It is free and open to the public.

The first-ever First World Diasporas of Color Undergraduate conference was held at New Paltz. For the conference, associate professor of Spanish Rose McEwen received three submissions and took two students to New Paltz to present their panels.

For the 2014 conference, McEwen has taken on the task of organizing and hosting here at Geneseo, and the rate of participation has gone up.

“At this point, we have about a dozen submissions,” she said, adding that this is a significant increase from last year.

McEwen noted that the national conference is hoping to add another institution by the next conference. Presentations are not limited to visual projects; participants may offer scholarly research or participate in panel discussions from different academic disciplines and social sectors.

“The kind of submissions we are looking for are any dealing with the topic of diasporas of color. So far, we’ve mostly had paper presentations, but there are a few posters,” McEwen said.

Submissions are not limited to students and many faculty members will also serve on panels. Faculty members take aspects of their subject material that deal with the topic of diasporas of color to create their presentations.

“In the case of [professor of English Maria Lima], her topic will be literature of the diaspora because that is what she teaches,” McEwen said.

There will be a portion of the conference devoted to professor and Chair of Anthropology Rose-Marie Chierici, who will step down from the department chair in May. A number of her former students are coming back to present a professional panel at the conference.

Among these is John Mazzeo, now an assistant professor of anthropology at DePaul University, one of the conference’s keynote speakers.

“The professionals that she has inspired even to this day will be participating in this panel from not an undergraduate but a professional point of view,” McEwen said.

The conference is funded in part by a 2013-2014 Explorations in Diversity and Academic Excellence support grant from Geneseo’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Geneseo Greeks see dynamism, increase in new members

Of the 27 social fraternities and sororities on campus, Kappa Sigma and Alpha Sigma Tau are Geneseo’s newest Greek organizations. According to Wendi Kinney, coordinator of Greek affairs and off-campus living, roughly 20 percent of Geneseo's student body is affiliated with Greek life. The number of students joining Greek life, both in Geneseo and across the nation, has seen a marked increase in recent years, according to Kinney.

“Kappa Sig is currently considered a colony, which is a new group that’s working toward their requirements for a charter from [international headquarters],” Kinney said. “They have national advisors that train them on how to be the Kappa Sigma fraternity.”

AST was chartered in spring 2013, but this is the organization’s first time participating in spring recruitment with the other national sororities. Kappa Sig started its colony group at the end of fall 2013, so this is also their official spring recruitment.

AST started when four Phi Eta Psi sisters expressed interest in going national. After meeting with national sorority representatives, it was decided that AST aligned most with the group's values.

“I really liked the wide variety of values that AST was representing, and I thought it would be cool to be in something new too,” AST President junior Emily Frawley said. “There’s a big focus on making connections with other people and other organizations, and at the same time, there’s another big focus on intellect and excellence.”

Aside from AST and Kappa Sig, Kinney is not aware of any current organization startups in progress.

“There was interest in a national Christian sorority early last semester, and I know that they held a couple of interest meetings,” she said. “My understanding is they weren’t able to identify a significant enough pool of interested women to start the organization, but I think it’s something they still desire to do.”

At the behest of the National Panhellenic Council, Geneseo's four national sororities now implement quotas for new members, with a maximum of a fourth of the total number of women involved in recruitment on the last day of the process. This new regulation allows for more even distribution of members between organizations, avoiding misconceptions over differences in size and its relation to perceived popularity, according to Kinney.

Kinney stated that there is persistent student interest to start new groups.

“There’s a process by which a new organization gets recognized, and we want to make clear that we are really more willing to recognize a new national organization. There isn’t anything negative about a local group other than it’s a lot of effort to start one from scratch,” she said. “We really value all the tradition and history that we have with our current local groups, but an existing national group can really provide that foundational piece, which includes all that history and tradition.”

In addition to the time and energy that goes into being a new Greek organization, Kinney said, “We are looking for organizations that would be a good match for the high caliber that Geneseo promotes.”

As Greek life continues to expand, Geneseo students continue to strengthen ties within the social community as well as with involvement in extracurricular groups.

“Geneseo students want to get involved … but I think that next step is they want to join something that makes this campus seem smaller and closer,” Kinney said.

“The people that I see joining fraternities and sororities are highly involved … It’s not either or; it’s really an ‘and,’” she said. “There is a lot of cross-membership.”