Geneseo Class of 2014: Features editor advocates discipline

The endgame is in sight. Fuck the dishes, fuck the obligations and fuck what remains of my education. Four years of hard work have granted me this rite, or at least that’s the popular conception. Our imminent expiration will deliver us from Geneseo with something scholarly, something cherished and something that we probably should have grown out of by now – be it a school spirit shirt from high school or some learned behavior that I have yet to kick.

In coming to college, I had a rigid, disciplined idea of what my education should be. College was this dogged ritual my hard working father drilled into my head after his seven-to-five custodian job. As my freshman year unfolded, I made more time for friends – and a little less for my schoolwork than I care to admit.

In some ways, for me, my sophomore and junior years involved one fumble forward and then faltering some.

Doing work usually involved tickling my keyboard, hoping that Lady Fortuna would grant me a sufficient word count. I thought that if I could get my work done, do some internship on the side and focus on my friend group, I was doing college “right.”

College is a “sweet spot,” a time when we can relax, kick back and party because it is supposed to be the time of our lives. Never again are we going to be able to have large clips of time off to lie around our house and watch Netflix all day in between semesters. Drinking and sitting around are the ways that we maximize our prime.

But this attitude is counterintuitive. Geneseo students have access to a growing number of resources in a small and removed environment. Simply disregarding these would be foolish.

I am grateful for the patience and capacity of the professors here. Without an engaging curriculum, I would have felt more bewildered by what exactly I was spending my four years doing in splendid isolation.

This isn’t an attempt to shame those who have a fun time on weekends – I am one of them. There doesn’t have to be a tradeoff between having fun in college and pursuing your interests. Keep things interesting for yourself and avoid a stale social life. Many of the parties and bars that are appealing as an underclassman start to follow a script as you become an upperclassman.

Get involved in something meaningful and pursue your interests. When you get out of college, it could give you direction. That isn’t something that happens when you are busy spending your time with the same like-minded people. Branch out and make connections through clubs you are interested in. Find a few organizations that really catch your interest and dig in.

Being involved isn’t lame. Pursuing your betterment and development gives you experiences that are not easily forgotten, unlike weekends spent huddling around a keg. You might actually leave college with some cool stories, other than that time you “Jersey-Turnpiked” a “rando” at the bar – believe me, those short stories are not in short supply.

Art thrives as students battle in juried exhibit

On a campus where the lack of an arts community is usually bemoaned, Geneseo boasted its own Battle of the Artists on Saturday April 26. Activities Commission Arts & Exhibits Coordinator junior Chelsea Butkowski and senior resident assistant of Nassau Hall senior Matt Briars organized the event, sponsored by Student Association, the Department of Student Life, the Department of Residence Life and Activities Commission. A total of 50 students, many of whom are not studio art majors or minors, submitted 116 works. Artists could submit up to three works in any media.

Nine judges composed the panel that judged the works: Butkowski and Briars along with resident director of Nassau Hall Neal Brooks, SA Graphics coordinator Kristen Fuest, senior coordinator of student programs and activities Tiffany Brodner, student coordinator of the Lockhart, Lederer and Bridge galleries senior Lauren Slezak, associate professor of studio art Patrice Case, associate director of Residence Life Kevin Hahn and Dean of Residential Living Celia Easton.

Each member of the panel ranked their top 10 pieces out of all the submission. A number one ranking was worth 10 points, number two was worth nine and so on. The top three prizes received $200, $100 and $50, respectively. Students weighed their input through the people’s choice award, which granted $50 to the recipient. Seven honorable mentions were awarded as well.

According to Butkowski, in 2012 there was a similar Battle of the Artists contest. Though the two contests were both juried exhibitions, this year’s showcase provided a forum for the student art community during and after the event. The first Battle of the Artists only accepted three students for a month-long exhibit of their work, while this year’s event showcased the work of all entrants.

Sophomore Suma Hussein’s outstanding piece, “Transcendence,” a surreal charcoal facial portrait, took the top prize; granting her the option of displaying her work in the College Union. With the consent of each artist, other works were up for sale and some were even purchased by Residence Life to be displayed in residence halls.

According to Briars, Nassau Hall has recently moved toward becoming an arts-based community. The Battle of the Artists was among a series of events that have attempted to broaden the visual and performance arts for Nassau residents as well as the campus. The hall also had a talent show at the same time as the Battle of the Artists event.

“Other events we have had include dance boxes that we do throughout campus,” Briars said. “People walk through the boxes and are encouraged to dance through them. It brings a little vitality to campus as well as promoting the arts. We also work with the Geneseo [Learning Independence, Vocational and Educational Skills] Program to start an arts club with them.”

Battle of the Artists allowed students to participate in a more democratic and open competition than some of the other exhibitions on campus that showcase student talent.

“I think that events like Battle of the Artists allow students to see there is an art scene on this campus with many talented students doing work,” Butkowski said. “The event itself is a statement that students value art and we deserve a formal art education. It really embodies the liberal arts values of Geneseo.”

Traveling senior assesses cultural aspects of health care

Popular thought would have it that the sciences and humanities occupy two separate worlds – so much so that our brains occupy two separate regions, using two mutually exclusive skill sets. That is contrary, however, to the work senior Tasmia Naz has done. Merging the methodology of the exacting scientist and the contextually minded anthropologist, Naz has traveled to Borgne, Haiti twice and anticipates returning.

“I think it’s important to recognize that the hard sciences, the social sciences and the humanities aren’t opposing at all but rather complementary,” she said. The English major and biology minor finds she is concerned with the “macroscopic,” through public health, rather than the “microscopic” field of medicine.

“The first time I went to Haiti, I got my feet wet and learned about the different projects that were happening in the community,” she said. “We learned about [Haiti Outreach-Pwoje Espwa’s] agriculture initiatives. They had a pepinye farm where they grew fruits and vegetables and sold them around the community to keep the agricultural economy local.”

That summer, Naz developed the methodology of a researcher through an internship with the SUNY Upstate Medical University in the summer after her junior year. During her time there, she worked in a leukemia lab, learning various techniques including gel electrophoresis.

“I know I always wanted to work with people – I wanted to work in healthcare, but over time I realized that I wanted to focus more on social issues on that macroscopic level rather than that microscopic level,” she said. “That’s kind of what drew me to more of an anthropological way of going about that.”

Naz has traveled to Bangladesh many times throughout her life, as it is where her family is from. She traces her experiences of traveling through the country as formative, as she observed many of the structural barriers that the nation faced. Though her interests are aligned, Naz sees Haiti and Bangladesh, or any other developing nation, as unique.

“I don’t want to compare [Haiti and Bangladesh] and make it seem like they are the same thing because they are developing nations,” she said. “It isn’t like that at all. In terms of the things that people tend to think about developing nations – like problems with living with infrastructure, not having access to clean water – those things are similar and I’ve had experience with that.”

Starting her sophomore year, Naz became involved with Community Health Alliance. This year, she is the international outreach coordinator, focusing on reaching out to the campus on the international opportunities available to students, particularly the spring break trip to Haiti.

“CHA … their values are community, outreach – combining health and education initiatives with the local community,” Naz said. “That was something that really resonated with me. So I got involved my sophomore year. I started out volunteering at the parish outreach center down at the end of Court Street. They provide really inexpensive [or free] healthcare to local residents. I did that over the summer after sophomore year.”

Naz returned to Haiti this year, during spring break, conducting preliminary research for a larger project on community cardiovascular health. After graduation, she hopes to secure funding to study this project further, something she is currently working in a directed study with professor and chair of the anthropology department and the founder of HOPE, Rose-Marie Chierici.

Global Village Week examines international development

In the Genesee Valley, our splendid isolation seems to disconnect us from the goings on outside of it. The Community Health Alliance sought to bridge the lacuna with its Global Village Week, which began with a Haitian cooking class on Monday April 14. In total, CHA planned four events, hoping to “increase conversation about global development across campus,” according to international project coordinator senior Tasmia Naz.

“[We] had been thinking about recreating Haiti week again but I really wanted to expand it beyond Haiti so students could participate and talk about their experiences. We have only a small group of kids who have been to Haiti before and there are so many other projects going on around campus that I wanted to showcase,” Naz said.

Junior Tamara Kurek led the cooking class, bringing to Geneseo two recipes that she had observed the cook prepare during her trip to Haiti and had gleaned from a Haitian cookbook. The dishes included legume, a tomato-based rice and bean dish and diri ak pwa, a “vegetable mash” consisting of eggplant, carrot and cabbage with a mix of herbs.

Naz also said that CHA is working on possibly introducing a Haitian dish to one of Geneseo’s eateries.

On Tuesday April 15, the organization screened the documentary One Dollar Poverty, which showcases the work of four activists living alongside earthquake survivors in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on a dollar per day. The members founded the nongovernmental organization Poverty Resolutions, which works to raise awareness and combat global poverty.

Professor of biology Susan Bandoni Muench spoke about her research on neglected tropical diseases that occur in the developing world on Wednesday April 16. The presentation gave an overview of a field that she is familiar with; she leads research and teaches in Ghana on public health issues the country faces.

The week concluded with the student project exposition, which showcased students that have contributed to international development in some way, be it through a directed study or an experience abroad. Students and groups discussed topics such as healthcare access and field experiences through non-governmental organizations.

“I hope that students are inspired by some of the work that these upperclassmen have done and some of them are actually the ways in which they initiated their ideas,” Naz said. “I just hope that students who want to get involved see the capacity of the work they are capable of doing in their undergraduate careers.”

Naz spent her past two spring breaks in Borgne, Haiti doing research on cardiovascular disease. She hopes to receive funding to extend this research.

Programmer networks the social, hacks the computational

Programmers are not a group easily associated with sociability. Garrisoned at the keyboards of innumerable startups, techies often find themselves to be denizens of basements, according to senior Herb Susmann.

Yet, for a field that is renowned for an all-work, no-play lifestyle, it is refreshingly social.

“I think a lot of people looking into the community don’t get why these people in bushy beards are spending all of their time doing these weird things, but I think a lot of it is for the social rewards,” he said.

For a class assignment, Susmann worked on a ray tracer program, similar to what Pixar Studios produces animation with, using a programming language called Bash. The synergy of the two formats is somewhat unusual, as Bash is used to add or remove files. Much of the interest in reconfiguration is not all that useful, Susmann admitted, but he said it’s “really cool.”

The playful hacker mindset motivates, attacking “arcane” problems partly for fun and partly because it warrants bragging rights.

“You do it because it’s not designed for it and because it’s really hard,” Susmann said. “Part of the mindset is you seek out really weird things to do because then you can talk to your friends about it. One of my friends from last year … would be like ‘I was tired of unplugging and replugging my router because it kept crashing, so I wrote a little program to automatically detect when it went down and then run three commands.’ That’s crazy, but it’s so cool.”

Susmann’s formative years were spent at home as a teenager, slicing through the tomes of his father’s engineering career that were lying around the house. His mother, a progressive Mennonite, found her son’s preoccupation with the programming manuals amusing, as he would read them before going to bed.

According to Susmann, some of his father’s manuals had command instructions to program games on these early computers. He found himself creating these games for many hours, something he believes is crucial to developing talent. That is, those who pursue an interest from an early age can really master a certain skill set – a pet theory of his.

Throughout high school, Susmann’s parents had a “hands-off approach” to his education. Prior to attending Lehman Alternative Community School, which did not have grades but written evaluations, Susmann was home-schooled. In an attempt to branch out and become a little more competitive, his parents nudged him to go to LACS.

The school had a proposal system through which students could request changes, but Susmann joked that they usually involved requesting doughnuts in the lunchroom. One of the experiences that led him to web development was creating a website that catalogued these requests, going as far back as the 1980s. He also interned at Knowledge Town, a web development firm out of Ithaca, N.Y., during high school, as LACS had a career exploration requirement.

Susmann made the decision to attend Geneseo based on the desire to branch out and meet more than “people who hang out in basements all the time, like I do.” In coming to college, his wandering interest was noticed by lecturer of computer science Homma Farian as Susmann inspected various posters in the department.

That fall he became involved in the undergraduate research computer lab run by Farian and has done many projects since including the schedule planning site Knight Scheduler and integrated light and sound systems for Syracuse University “frat” boys. He even dabbles in computational biology, modeling the spread of influenza through networks.

These days, Susmann spends his time reading physics textbooks from the ‘60s, watching “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and getting stranded in Washington, D.C. with his longtime friend senior Ian MacPherson.

New York wines sweeten the pocket

Somewhat antithetical to the type of consumption that goes on in college towns like Geneseo, wine is a staple of the Finger Lakes region. Savored, not guzzled, many sweeter wines can be a gateway to an increased appreciation for the grapey stuff. According to Greg Brown, who co-owns Good Spirits liquor store on Route 20A with his wife Barbara Brown, too many novices start out trying more “advanced” wines.

“I always tell people, ‘Drink what tastes best to you,’” Brown said. “Don’t try to force yourself to get a drier flavor because someone is telling you that [others] are going to be too sweet … The more wine you drink, you’ll find, slowly, that you are going to want to find something drier.”

Brown, a former manager for a wine distributor, recalled diners ordering drier wines like cabernet and rarely getting through the serving.

“I would occasionally go over to the table and say, ‘Was there something wrong with the wine?’ … They would say, ‘No, just drier than what we like … People tell us that’s what we’re supposed to drink with steak,’” he said.

Brown recommends consulting a knowledgeable retailer when considering moving toward a drier bottle, giving them an idea of what wines you have previously enjoyed.

When searching for the ideal bottle, a novice can also be somewhat mystified by wine terms. Dry wines are simply less sweet with lower sugar content than, say, a sweeter wine. Full bodied versus lighter wines are gauges of the consistency of the product. Acid content is something to consider as well. European wines are usually more acidic while American blends, especially Californian ones, are fruitier.

Popular wine varieties that tend to be sweeter and appeal to beginners are pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc, moscato, riesling and inexpensive chardonnays, among the whites. Cheaper chardonnays tend to have sweeter grape varieties mixed in and no wood ageing; instead, they are produced in stainless steel, similar to pinot grigio, a fruitier wine. Sauvignon blanc is not quite as dry as chardonnay and has a citrusy flavor. Moscato is also sweet but does not have a grapey flavor.

In terms of red wine, Brown recommends pinot noir, which is still dry but less so than a cabernet or merlot. Malbecs are growing in popularity and tend to have an earthier flavor. Other suitable options are New York State reds, which have a sweeter flavor, largely because of the indigenous soil composition and shorter growing season than most other regional blends.

For locavores, Deer Run Winery, located on Conesus Lake, offers its Max Black, a sweet red. Hazlitt, a winery just off of Seneca Lake in Hector, N.Y., has Red Cat and White Cat, top-selling varieties that are sweet and indigenous to western New York. Either of the establishments sell these products for under $10.

For Geneseo students – who are 21, of course – the area offers wines that are accommodating to both a pupil’s palate and pocket.

Jazz ensemble promotes musical empathy

Many musical performers I know – myself being one of them – no longer play once they get to college. Among the numerous excuses for band-geek dropouts, confidence or the lack thereof seem to be the prominent reasons most do not continue. Practicing was a zero-sum game for me. I was absolutely terrible if I didn’t practice (as most are, unless you are Yo-Yo Ma) and I was so nervous when I did practice and went to perform that I figured I might as well not practice. Obviously, my trajectory with the clarinet didn’t last past high school.

But for those who do continue through college and even beyond, that anxiety can still be a factor, so says adjust lecturer of music and jazz ensemble conductor David Gibson.

Oftentimes, students of music become engrossed in a “feedback loop” in which they are taught by a teacher who doesn’t perform or they do not interact with a real audience, according to Gibson. The result is a learning experience that doesn’t incorporate a less obvious but universal and essential skill: awareness, particularly of the present.

“You are not responsible for what you don’t know; you are only responsible for what you do know. The audience doesn’t know what you don’t know. They only know what you tell them,” Gibson said. “So if you are secure in what you are telling people, then they will feel secure – and that’s the goal. No one comes to a show feeling afraid for you.”

Frankie Mandracchia/Knights' Life Editor

The ensemble meets every Monday for an hour and a half. Between that time, Gibson is a full-time New Yorker, writing and performing music and working at Columbia University and the New School as an adjunct music instructor. Every Sunday, the musician travels by track or air to Western New York.

Gibson describes his week less as a rote sequence of frenzied events than a regiment with which he applies diligence and attention. Getting to the stand at rehearsal at 7 p.m. on a Monday night, he addressed the jazz ensemble, caught up with the group and tuned each section.

“It’s about having fun – and not fun where we are disregarding details but having fun where we’re all committed to the details and holding each other accountable. There’s a resonance to this program,” he said.

The students, too, describe the program as an enjoyable but committed endeavor. Senior Steven Rosenzweig said the program is “high caliber.”

“I want my students to develop … empathy – to think of something other than themselves,” Gibson said. “As a performer, when you start thinking about yourself, you are really dealing with your own fear because you are starting to make choices on your fear – instead of a spirit of sharing.”

Goat cheese garbage sandwich on a weeknight

Getting out of class as the sun sets, you vigilantly tiptoe on ice to get home when you realize that you haven’t been grocery shopping in two weeks. Considering what to make in light of your restricted options is difficult. Making a meal that is palatable yet nutritious: an art. It was late on Monday night and I peered into my fridge with slim prospects. I had about an inch of jarred tomato sauce brimming with crust at the lid, a quarter of a brownish green avocado and a generous mouse’s portion of goat cheese crumbles – plus the myriad of frozen food that I keep on stock for when I’m absolutely desperate.

The thought of pizza just added to the monotony of the week ahead and my indigestion. With the hope of fulfilling my desire for something different, I made one of the better dinners I have had in a while. I made a sandwich – I would call it a panini but it doesn’t seem fair to have a name that is befitting of an Italian culinary institution.

Here are the ingredients I used and how I made it:

• Two slices of bread

• 1/4 tablespoon of butter (about half the size of your pinky nail)

• A couple dabs of olive oil

• Any roasting spice you have on hand (I used rosemary and red pepper flakes)

• 2 1/2 tablespoons of goat cheese (or a couple of slices of mozzarella)

• A fist full of frozen spinach

• A quarter of an avocado, sliced thin

• 3 tablespoons of jarred tomato sauce

1. Nuke the spinach in the microwave.

2. Brush the olive oil on the bread; you can dab a paper towel and brush it on. Add spices.

3. Put cheese on bottom slice of bread; it will not be as messy if it is on the top.

4. Add spinach, tomato sauce and avocado.

5. Melt butter in frying pan. Place sandwich in pan and compress with a plate.

Monitor the sandwich flipping between both sides, putting the plate back on it and pressing down so the bread cooks evenly. The butter will give the bread a golden brown tint when it is finished. Don’t press too hard or else your sandwich will ooze out.

Remember when you’re food shopping to stock up on durables such as frozen green beans and spinach. Breads and bagels also freeze very well and easily defrost in a toaster. These staples can ensure a sustained pantry in a time when uncertain weather and winter blues can keep you from frequenting the supermarket.

Phi Beta Lambda sees increase in events, leadership

Despite misconceptions about the organization, Phi Beta Lambda is revived and well at Geneseo.

The business fraternity is the college extension of Future Business Leaders of America, a high school-based program that aims to promote confident leadership in pre-college students.

According to the organization’s adviser, professor of accounting Mark Mitschow, Phi Beta Lambda has been around for 20 years at Geneseo, 11 of which he advised. About eight years ago the organization was effectively “moribund,” as he put it.

Mitschow became the adviser when former Dean of the School of Business Mary Ellen Zuckerman stepped up as dean and was unable to maintain the position.

“The biggest thing about Phi Beta Lambda is, unlike the Accounting Society, where they have got a preset audience of majors, Phi Beta Lambda doesn’t have that,” Mitschow said. “You need a student who is really interested in it and who really wants to take the bull by the horns.”

Phi Beta Lambda President senior Abigail Rulison has since taken the initiative and re-energized the organization. After joining in her freshman year, Rulison wanted more out of the organization, which met infrequently.

“The club had kind of died out,” she said. “Over the summer … I emailed [Mitschow] asking, ‘Has anyone stepped up to go forward again?’ He said, ‘No, why don’t you do it?’”

Rulison suggested that the club had gone through cycles in the past because of a lack of presence, something she would like to change.

“I want to keep events coming out to get our name out,” she said. “We have had a couple of ideas – we want to do a job fair where it’s not going to be a typical job fair. It is going to be people from different areas of business; I have figured out whom I want to ask. I would like to start out small.”

Rulison is working on bringing managing partner of The Bonadio Group Thomas Bonadio to speak on campus about his career in the accounting industry on Feb. 20. The events are aimed at making members savvier in the business world and more educated about possible career paths.

“Frankly, one of the things at Geneseo is we don’t have a lot of nontraditional students. If you go to [Rochester Institute of Technology], you get a lot of 30-year-old students who have business experience,” Mitschow said. “We don’t have that here.”

“What we lack is we don’t have as many people who have ‘real world experience,’ so it’s probably more important to a place like Geneseo to have organizations that will help,” she said. “[Students] get internships, come in and explain what different professions entail. The more organizations you have doing that, the better.”

Queer identities in a "post-acceptance" atmosphere

Being open about your sexuality in college, no matter where you lie on the spectrum, is critical to personal development. A nurturing and accepting environment is key – an environment that Geneseo has the potential to foster. Coming out in college was refreshing; unlike high school, when I winced at the idea that my flamboyantly glowing green cardigan was a weency bit too obvious or that I blurted out a zippy one-liner unknowingly.

When I was in high school, it was not about acceptance but flying under the “gay-dar.” In the locker room, I prayed that the pubescent basketball jock didn’t catch my glances at his first emerging locks of chest hair. In college, for me, it is less about acceptance but more about being boxed into a stereotype.

To say Geneseo is a whole-heartedly accepting place would be a farce; some LBTQ-plus students grapple with a homophobic roommate or a disapproving town resident. Late on a Saturday night once, a fraternity brother sneered “What, are you in Crows?” to my partner and me while we walked back to my house. He was poking fun at a fraternity that has several gay members, me among them.

But this isn’t the type of frustration that I find myself dealing with most often. Many people tout that Geneseo has an open-minded campus because it is a liberal arts college as if the community is impervious to any sort of misguided prejudice – and there is some validity to that. Geneseo is a pretty “open” place.

It is as though, in this spirit, some people get it wrong. In a “post-acceptance” environment, misunderstanding can be highest among my peers. When they learn I am gay, the point of conversation always seems to move toward clothing or dancing or gossiping.

Of all the possible states in this world, I do not consider myself a “bad bitch.” I hate when girls grind up on me and I do not enjoy making out with them to be ironic. I am gay, and that does not mean it is funny to sexualize me because I am innately not attracted to the female gender. In fact, it bothers me that I am seen as some generic drag-donning flamboyant camp gay.

Coming out is a process, one that is difficult and is not solely forward flouncing. I felt and was influenced by these pressures at one point and have evolved from it. Conforming to the expectations of those whom you consider to be your friends can be challenging. At a time when you are discovering your identity, others are infringing on it and giving social cues to perceived norms: “Act this way and you will be accepted and liked. It’s atypical if you are gay and aren’t good at dancing,” you think to yourself.

That is not to say that you are stereotypically gay if you do exhibit these qualities. It is about feeling comfortable and accepted for the tendencies that you display, not the tendencies others think you should display.

Global citizen masters college experience, seeks travel

Resident assistant and frat brother are not usually labels that describe one person. Nor are champion power lifter and wallaroo-rehabilitating environmentalist – but these activities comprise senior Luke Johnson’s time. It is difficult to frame the Oneonta, N.Y. native into a particular camp or stereotype. The once physics, then anthropology and now geography major has kept an eye toward aid work in the Global South throughout college.

“When I get out of here, I want to do some kind of general development work where I can somehow help people, but I didn’t really know what that meant for a while,” he said. “After finishing my second year here, I was looking for a mix-up.”

Following his sophomore year, Johnson pursued the University of Albany’s program in Tanzania through Global Service Corps, a California-based service learning nonprofit organization. The semester-long project gave him the opportunity to hold workshops on reproductive health awareness, agriculture and nutrition.

“We would travel Monday through Friday and go to different villages out in the middle of nowhere. For some, I was the first white person that they saw,” he said.

Tanzania, an “officially” English and Swahili-speaking country on the coast of southeast Africa, is comprised of a diverse cultural and linguistic heritage, something that Johnson seemed unencumbered by.

“I had to get people to believe that I knew about HIV/AIDS or agriculture … You learn more about the misconceptions that there are with HIV/AIDS. Theoretically we have an expert with us through the process – that didn’t always happen – and a translator. That didn’t always happen, either, but that made it fun,” Johnson said.

Tribes that didn’t speak Swahili needed two translators: one to translate English to Swahili and one to translate Swahili to the indigenous language.

“At that point, nothing I am saying is getting across,” he said. “It was always more about using information in context and knowing how to address the situation.”

Constant traveling left little access to communication, making it difficult for Johnson to prepare for the upcoming semester.

“When I applied for the RA position, I had missed emails because I couldn’t get my [Internet] access to work … I get an email that said if I don’t make a call to have an interview I would be disqualified,” he said. “I got that the day I was leaving for a village.”

“We get there – three hours in the middle of nowhere. There are giraffes crossing the roads and there’s no service,” he said. “We were right by this mountain and I was thinking, ‘Maybe I’ll get reception up there.’ I took my friend Allie and for like two [or] three hours we hiked the mountain. At the top I got like one bar of service and I made the call.”

Returning to the United States around Christmas time, “at the height of capitalism,” he experienced reverse culture shock, readjusting to the disparate conditions between nations and more introverted social protocol in America.

At Geneseo, Johnson hit the campus running, getting the RA position he had applied for and reconnecting with Zeta Beta Xi, the local fraternity he pledged the semester before studying abroad.

“There are certain things you can do in college that should be exclusive,” he said. “It wasn’t a sudden realization, but I realized how much you can do in four years and how much you can see in four years – how if you do a lot of things, even if they seem contradictory or if they seem very different, they help [you] … see what you are doing in a new light.”

Controversial Twitter account poses potential threat to college reputation

A boy jumping from a roof into a crowd of people, a slip and slide in a dorm hallway, a boy sipping beer in a classroom – these are just a few of the many activities photographed and posted on the Twitter account SUNYPartyStories (@SUNYPartyStory). Each weekend the account receives submissions of outrageous party pictures from students at State University of New York schools and holds a contest for the one that people find to be the best entertainment. On Sundays, SUNY students can submit photos by tweeting them at the SUNYPartyStories Twitter account. Followers of the account vote for the best submission, and the school where the photo was taken is identified on the post. Photos from Geneseo have been featured previously by the account.

The account was started in April 2013 and is managed anonymously by a SUNY student.

“I took the initiative and created this platform for a way for SUNY students to boast about their social lives, vote for who is the best, and create competition among the most popular endeavor in college,” the account operator said.

The operator of SUNYPartyStories said he chooses to remain anonymous so that people will not assume that he is biased toward his own school in the competition. He also said he wants to keep his identity separate from the account for personal reasons.

“I am a student comedian whose career and reputation rides on my image, and since the press tends to write about party stories in a negative manner, I do not want those negative images about me on the web as a develop myself professionally,” he said.

According to the account operator, only about 2,500 people followed the account at the end of the summer, but a huge increase in its popularity began in mid-September. In three months, the number of followers increased to over 45,000. Today, about 48,000 people follow the account.

“The popularity came about because everyone does it,” the account operator said.

Wendi Kinney, the assistant dean of students for fraternal life and off-campus services at Geneseo, has a different theory about why the account has gained popularity.

“It’s a spectacle for people to watch, like reality TV,” she said.

Bryce Wiley is a sophomore economics major at Geneseo. He has submitted a photo to SUNYPartyStories.

“It gives a glimpse into the nightlife at each SUNY school and shows some of the crazy and hilarious things that go on during the weekends,” he said.

Kinney expressed concern about the fact that the people in the photos do not usually submit them.

“People forget how far-reaching social media can be,” she said. “It’s fun in the moment to the people posting and retweeting, but we forget that it’s affecting a real person.”

The account operator expressed that if someone in a photo on the account does not want to be featured, they can request for the photo to be taken down and it immediately will be. This happens regularly.

“I’m not here to deteriorate anyone’s image or get people in trouble, just for good ‘new-fashioned’ fun,” he said.

There has been speculation that the site could damage the image of SUNY schools.

Wiley said, “If people don't like the side of college the Twitter [account] portrays, they don't have to follow it.”

The account operator said people should understand that being associated with a photo on the Twitter account is not meant to have a negative impact on the school’s reputation, but that it is “just a reflection of what the tour guides are forbidden to say.”

Kinney, however, said she believes that the account could affect impressions of Geneseo.

“We project an image, and this could impact what people think of the institution,” she said.

Wrongful conviction of a brutal crime leads victims to form an unlikely friendship

Time moves people. In 11 years, you can fall in love, change careers, start a family – or spend that time in jail for a crime you didn’t commit. Friendship from among those who convicted you is unlikely. Yet, in the most of unusual of cases, Jennifer Thompson, the victim of an appalling crime, would eventually share an indescribable bond with the man who was wrongfully convicted of an offence he did not commit.

In 1985, Ronald Cotton was convicted of first-degree rape and burglary. Two years later, he was retried and convicted for two counts of each crime.

In the end, 11 years after his original conviction, Cotton was exonerated with DNA evidence.

“My first response was fear – that [Cotton], after 11 years of being falsely imprisoned, would come after me and try to hurt me or my children,” Thompson said. “Once you go through the fear, it’s kind of a train wreck of emotion.”

After Cotton’s exoneration, about two years after he had been released, the two had separately participated in a documentary for the Public Broadcasting Service titled What Jennifer Saw. 

“The last thing I say in the film is that ‘I know [Cotton] is innocent but I still see his face in my nightmares,’ and the last thing that [Cotton] said is ‘I know she is sorry, but I need to hear that from her mouth,’” Thompson said. “When I heard that I realized I was never going to be able to move forward … until I saw the man who was not the monster.”

According to Thompson, friendship was one of the last things she had expected to come from this unexpected turn. In April 1997, the two met and shared emotional apologies and insights.

“We spent the rest of that meeting talking about … the time we spent afraid, the losses we suffered – all at the hands of this serial rapist Bobby Poole,” Thompson said. “We had both been victims of [Poole]. We had both been victims of a criminal justice system that often doesn’t get it right.”

That afternoon started a very long, indefinable friendship. Thompson described the progression of their relationship as “organic,” developing over time through an exploration of their “parallel” experiences. Slowly the duo grew into the role of advocating and teaching about subjects like eyewitness memory and race and class in the criminal justice system.

Thompson emphasized how crucial trust and respect were at every step of their relationship.

“Our relationship is very strange,” she said. “He is a part of my family … I protect him and I will always protect [Cotton]. And [Cotton] will always protect me. It’s something deeper than a friendship. It’s almost spiritual.”

Puppies and pre-planning help students prepare to take on the stress of finals

Whether you’re cramming or crying, no one is safe from the chaos of finals week.  Luckily, a variety of tricks and school activities can help relieve the stress of these tests without sacrificing grades. Starting before Thanksgiving break with a “Stress Less” night in the College Union, Healthguards work particularly hard this time of year to offer relaxing opportunities and tips to Geneseo students. Among the Union’s organized events, Healthguards had a table set up where students could write down their stressors, crumple up the piece of paper and throw it into a trashcan.

Geneseo Healthguards are trained students who raise awareness about college health topics, such as safe sex, responsible drinking and stress management.

Healthguard and Health Promotions intern senior Joanna Simone’s number-one tip is to remain calm throughout the studying process – no matter what.

“Remember: Everything is not a crisis,” she said.

While most of us have succumbed to the panicky six-hour study sessions at one point or another, Simone points out that these are actually harmful and unproductive.

“Make sure that, when you’re studying, you take time to go and hang out with your friends,” she said. Periodic breaks as well as ample amounts of sleep are as crucial to success as going over the materials.

“You need to sleep,” Simone said. “No matter how late you stay up, you aren’t going to take the information in.”

Simone also recommends studying sitting up in a chair instead of lying down in your bed.

“Study in the position you will be in when you take the test,” she explained. If possible, study in the room that the test will be in. This helps the brain remember facts on the spot, as it recalls the similar sensation of studying while taking the actual test.

Scheduling is also a key component of finals week.

“Google Calendar is my life,” Simone said, and she highly recommends taking five minutes each morning to quickly plan out what you will be doing for the day, including breaks, meals and exercise.

She recommends sitting down at the very beginning of finals week and creating one universal to-do list for the rest of the semester. She said that, while it may seem daunting at first, “it is such a relief when you are able to cross things off physically.”

Melinda DuBois, administrative director of student health and counseling, seconds the importance of scheduling and taking breaks during studying stress.

“What I hear a lot of students do is sit for hours and hours at a time, and at some point that becomes useless,” she said.

She explained, however, that not all breaks are equal. While many students party during finals as a reward or de-stressing technique, she believes that this actually puts excess stress on the body and mind and negates the hours of work that students put into studying.

Both Simone and DuBois highly recommend incorporating meditation into your finals routine, because it effectively calms and awakens the mind and gives it a much-needed rest from the constant multitasking it’s expected to perform.

So, when it comes down to it, maybe the best thing you can do to succeed this finals week is take a break.

The holiday season inspires increased volunteering in Geneseo

With the power to cure Ebenezer Scrooge’s grouchiness and make the Grinch himself feel charitable, the holiday spirit has been known to warm even the coldest of hearts – and this year, it seems to have brought out the best in the Geneseo community. While there is almost always a widespread spike in volunteerism around the holiday season, Geneseo Volunteer Center coordinator Kay Fly said that this year Geneseo has really caught the “giving season” bug, and interest in Geneseo’s annual Adopt-A-Family program has been higher than ever.

“We’ve had so many people offering to adopt families; it’s been incredible,” Fly said. “We’ve just been inundated with people who want to give back.”

According to Fly, Adopt-A-Family is a program that allows groups, organizations and departments to work with the Livingston County Health Department and Catholic charities to donate gifts to families for the holiday season.

Each group is provided with a family and a wish list and is then responsible for purchasing and wrapping the gifts from that list for its chosen family.

“There’s been more participation from the different departments in the college too,” Fly said about involvement in this season’s program. “And we’ve even had just groups of students and friends who have wanted to take on a child by themselves.”

This year, 41 different families were assigned to the Volunteer Center, all of which have already been spoken for.

“I think it’s around this time of year that people begin to realize how lucky they are,” Fly said. “They recognize all that they have and decide that maybe they’d like to share it.”

For people who want to keep the good cheer rolling over winter break, Fly suggests volunteering at a local soup kitchen or even just donating old winter gear to a local shelter.

“This time of year is particularly hard on the homeless,” she said, and those “who don’t have [adequate] coats and other things for the cold.”

Additionally, the Teresa House in Geneseo is always looking for help and is particularly willing to offer volunteer hours around the holiday season. In fact, it is there that Fly said she herself volunteers, and where she and her husband always spend their Thanksgiving serving food and sharing time with the families of the individuals that reside there.

“The Teresa House really is a great place to start out and begin to make that commitment [to volunteerism],” Fly said.

So, while for many of us this time of year may be devoted to devouring delicious homemade meals and exchanging presents with our families, it is also a time to give back to our communities and spread a little cheer to those who happen to be less fortunate this holiday season.

Music ensembles perform festive repertoire at holiday concert

Members of the Geneseo community – students, residents and professors – crowded into Wadsworth Auditorium on Nov. 24 for the Geneseo Symphony Orchestra, Festival Chorus, Chamber Singers and Spectrum Women’s Ensemble performance. Adjunct faculty member in music Jim Tiller conducted the first part of the program, putting on Giuseppe Verdi’s “Overture to Nabucco” as well as Kirke Mechem’s “Seven Joys of Christmas.” Throughout the concert, there was a festive holiday spirit in the air alongside the performances, with the crowd sitting in the mounds of their shed outerwear, while the female members of the choir donned red gowns and the male members wore tuxedos.

Brass was implemental to the performance of the overture, often alternating between playing solemnly, harmonizing with the woodwinds and bombastic runs, heavy on the percussion, especially the tympani drums. The piece almost had the feel of Charles Dickens, with a slightly more theatrical flair, especially with the vibrancy of the brass section.

The Spectrum Women’s Choir joined the orchestra to perform “Seven Joys of Christmas,” containing seven movements, each with its own distinct flair. Much of the piece was light and airy, even whimsical, with a spirited oboe among other woodwinds.

After intermission, professor of music Gerard Floriano conducted Chamber Singers’ performance of Mozart’s “Requiem,” composed of eight movements. This piece was more solemn in tone, dramatic in feel, reminiscent of the time and place it came from: 18th-century Europe. The strings, along with the heavy vocal tones, created movement.

Junior Jane Coons has been in Chamber Singers for three semesters and was a soloist featured in the introitus and tuba miram and benedictus movements of “Requiem.”

The group’s hard work was apparent; it was clear that the singers just put on a concert in October. Around mid-October, the group began preparing for the Nov. 24 concert. Chamber Singers met three times a week for approximately four and a half hours in addition to soloist rehearsals outside of that time.

The orchestra performed alongside the choir, adding another element necessary to rehearse. Coons noted the difficulty of orchestrating several performance groups under one piece.

“We had two rehearsals with the orchestra and had to put all of the voices together. It makes it more difficult because it is more parts that have to be going at the same time. We had extra rehearsals with them [as well],” she said.

Festival Choir is a group that is composed of both students and community members.

Coons, a vocal performance major, enjoyed being a soloist, especially as there have been hired performers in the past to fill the position. This year, the Festival Chorus featured nine soloists, a majority of whom were students.

Knightline and community work together for charity

While most of campus sleeps in or heads to Milne Library on Sundays, you can find the women of Knightline walking around Geneseo gathering cans and bottles for the Wounded Warrior Project. Until the end of November, Knightline will fundraise for this charity that helps fund treatments for physically or mentally wounded veterans in the line of duty and assisted the family of one of Knightline’s members.

Knightline used to limit fundraising to benefits for the team but chose to expand its efforts this year for the first time.

“A lot of other groups [volunteer] on campus, and it raises awareness not only of your organization but of the charity you’re supporting,” junior Keriann Dengos said.

As co­captain alongside junior Lisa Cordara and senior Shannon Gruenauer, Dengos has stored approximately 2,000 cans and bottles that the team has collected so far in the basement of her off­campus house.

Knightline has never done a drive of this type before. The group chose it because it is simple but more fun than collecting money, and it allows them to interact with other organizations and the Geneseo community.

Prior to collecting, members call fraternities, sororities and other houses asking if they can pick up their recyclables and ask door to door in the town.

Most Greek and sport houses comply and even clean and bag their recyclables in advance to simplify the collection process.

Then, for about an hour, the girls pick up their loot, which provides a chance to connect with the residents of Geneseo.

“You kind of forget how many real people there are that live here,” Dengos said. “You don’t even know when you’re walking into a professor’s house.”

This form of charity works both ways, by reminding the students of the town they live in while providing the town a connection and group effort with the college that thrives within it.

“It’s all within the community,” Dengos said.

The team hopes to expand its fundraising this year and has already done a car wash and hot dog stand. Those proceeds will also go to a charity – which one is still undecided.

The team also plans to hold a second bottle drive in the spring semester and a “Day of Dance” with other dance organizations of campus, with profits set to go to a dance charity.

“We’re helping out, seeing the town, bonding,” Dengos said. “It feels good to be donating to something, not ourselves.”

Geneseo senior launches Skooloko, website for student sales

“Great ideas begin with crazy thoughts” is the slogan for Skooloko, a website designed exclusively for students to sell their books, items and services.

The website, on which college students can buy, sell and communicate efficiently and on one medium, will provide a platform where “students can interact with each other in a new way,” according to co­owner senior Sewedo Whenu.

Whenu, who is a communication major, said, “We created the site because we believed students should have the ability to sell their items on a program that is safe and local.”

Users cannot make an account on this website without a “.edu” email address, ensuring that it solely caters to students selling to other students. Users can sell anything from used textbooks, video games and old furniture to services such as photography or tutoring.

Students can register anywhere in New York State. Whenu and his co­owner Toyese Adeyeye of Lehman College hope the business will expand nationally. Their goals do not involve profits for themselves, and Whenu said they “don’t plan on ever charging to use the site.”

Students make an account on the site when they are looking to buy or sell a service within a college community. The website is searchable by school, college major, hometown, ISBN number for books, price and category, according to Whenu.

Thanks to the site, whether your textbooks seem less useful than you thought or you’re a graduating senior who has no more need for the armchair you bought from Goodwill, there is a platform to use.

“Instead of throwing something out on the street, you can sell it on here,” Whenu said.

Skooloko is particularly exceptional because all seven staffers are current college students. Regarding what it feels like to double entrepreneurship with classes, Whenu said that he loses a lot of sleep, often working on the website late into the night.

“It’s a sacrifice I think I have to make to see that this service is available for students to use. I think it’s a very important service,” he said.

Now that the website has been up and running for one week, Whenu and his colleagues are working to focus their efforts on advertisement.

“We just want to get our marketing plan out so people can know about this website and its services,” Whenu said. The team created a video advertisement and is planning on hanging posters around campus to raise student interest.