Social Host arrests ineffective in enforcing student safety

The Geneseo Police Department recently made its first arrests in conjunction with violations of the Village of Geneseo’s newly minted social host law. While it is important to remember that laws are in place for a reason, I would question the wisdom of a law that seeks to penalize students in the name of keeping others safe, but in actuality only succeeds in the former—all the while demonstrably failing in the latter. The social host law holds anyone with the “actual or apparent authority and ability to regulate, direct or dominate private premises” responsible for underage consumption of drugs or alcohol that may have taken place on said premises.

In an interview with the Genesee Sun, Geneseo Police Chief Eric Osganian ‘91 noted that the closure of several bars over the past year has resulted in house parties and ambulance calls growing much larger. The social host law, however, does not provide for any sort of mechanism to address the issue of public safety.

The social host law reflects the Village’s distrust of students to act responsibly to ensure one another’s safety. One might point to the aforementioned rise in emergency response calls as positive proof that students are unqualified to protect safety, but such reasoning rests upon tenuous logic.

The fact that emergency calls are being made is, by itself, insufficient to prove that there is a safety crisis arising from house parties. The police chief did not cite any rise from previous semesters in deaths, injuries, accidents or hospitalizations resulting from drug or alcohol-related complications.

The calls may have been precautionary measures or made by resident assistants, who are trained to place emergency calls if they so much as perceive a student to be in need of medical assistance. Even if out-of-control house parties are the most damning threat to student public safety, the social host law is impotent in curbing parties compared to existing state law that covers similar ground. The $250 fine—which Osganian indicated was the most likely outcome for social host violations in an April 3, 2015 Lamron article—falls drastically short of the penalties resulting from a class A misdemeanor, which the first two social host violations were charged with.

Students, police and the Village can find common ground in hoping to increase public safety at house parties. To that end, students should utilize robust risk management protocols at parties to keep attendees safe. By sending undercover officers into parties to enforce the Village law, however, the police are essentially splintering student risk management efforts between keeping attendees safe and making sure that there are no undercover cops present—cops who can hand out a social host violation that could result in criminal charges.

If public safety were the true catalyst for this law, the conversation would focus on what students can do to make parties safer. Rather, the law seems to be a symbolic condemnation of student house parties by the Village, a way to raise revenue or, most likely, both. Framing the social host law as a legitimate method to increase public safety is simply untenable.

Geneseo Police and all that the rest of our local emergency response units do is important and valuable work in protecting students. Members of the Geneseo community should not stand behind a plainly symbolic, revenue-boosting law while public safety falls by the wayside.    Frankly, a Village law that leads to Geneseo students facing criminal charges reflects a true lack of concern for student welfare and should be strongly opposed.

Frankel: Despite poll numbers, Trump not qualified to be president

Real estate mogul Donald Trump will not be the Republican nominee for president in 2016. This is as irrefutable as the fact that the media are oversaturated with stories covering Trump’s campaign—all apologies from this columnist for contributing to the saturation. Still, it is upsetting to see so many intelligent people lending him legitimate political credence. If anything, his dumpster fire of a campaign is a godsend for the left.

First of all, Trump is not an aberration. His stated political positions are not at all far outside of the GOP mainstream. United States Sen. Ted Cruz—frequently mentioned as a serious candidate for the nomination—has called to end birthright citizenship—a position he shares with none other than Trump.

Jeb Bush—another serious contender—wants to cut federal funding for Planned Parenthood on the basis that they don’t provide substantive women’s healthcare. In comparison, Trump’s menstruation joke directed toward Megyn Kelly in the first GOP debate seems relatively innocuous.

When it comes to economic issues, Trump has earned praise from notable liberals Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman for proposing tax hikes on the wealthy. Considered by some to be the GOP frontrunner, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker drastically cut taxes for the wealthy while in office. Compared to Walker, Trump looks like Leon Trotsky.

Trump’s coarse statements regarding Mexicans, women and just about everyone else reflects the subtext of his fellow candidates’ highly polished rhetoric—rhetoric which the Republican Party expertly uses to trick Americans into voting against their self-interest.

That explains why Trump has earned the ire of the GOP base. He is essentially pulling back the veil to expose the core tenets of the modern GOP: xenophobia, misogyny and contempt for the poor. Those do not sound as bad when they are positioned as patriotism, traditional values and a “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” attitude.

By dropping that idiotic façade, Trump may hopefully turn middle of the road voters away from the GOP. Lord knows Hillary Clinton—who has public appeal problems of her own—could use the help should she earn the Democratic nomination.

Still, observers point to polls indicating that Trump is leading the current GOP field, as if these polls have any bearing over who will eventually join the elite ranks of Mitt Romney, U.S. Sen. John McCain and former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole. In a recent interview with The Guardian, University of Maryland professor of government and politics David Karol—who co-authored the 2008 book on the historic importance of presidential endorsements The Party Decides—affirmed the unlikelihood of the Republican Party embracing Trump.

“[Republican party leaders] don’t know what he’s going to do,” Karol said. “He doesn’t have a long history in the party. He doesn’t have a history with them. And there is a lot of reason to believe he would be a weak candidate in the general.”

Trump continues to splinter the GOP voting base to the inevitable benefit of the left. For whatever horrifying reason, his message does seem to resonate with certain people—specifically, white supremacists, evangelicals and former Chicago Bull Dennis Rodman.

Trump will likely leave a mark on the 2016 presidential election, but not in the way people think. There is no need to wring one’s hands over the verbal sewage that leaks from his mouth—to do so would needlessly legitimize his presence in the political sphere.

One would be better served to aim that anger at the Republican nominee hopefuls who are saying the same thing—albeit slightly more elegantly.

Migos mixtape marks return of brash underground rap

You can tell a lot about a person by how he or she feels about Migos. After 2013’s “Versace” dropped, critics were quick to position the Atlanta trio as a one-hit wonder whose time in the spotlight was already limited. The group’s flashy aesthetic, bouncy production and distinct flow screamed “novelty act.” Then something remarkable happened—Migos didn’t go anywhere. Each song, mixtape and video the group dropped thereafter was straight fire. Before long, Drake and Kanye West were rapping in triplets in the vein of group members Quavo, Offset and Takeoff.

Those who still look down on Migos’ in-your-face, outlandish spin on Southern hip-hop might as well be the rap game Bill O’Reilly. Members of the old hip-hop guard sound as crotchety complaining about the likes of Migos and Bobby Shmurda as middle-aged parents do talking about how “they just don’t make music like they used to.”

These hip-hop “purists” hated Migos upon arrival, and will definitely hate the group’s latest mixtape Rich N***a Timeline. RNT doubles down on the funny, brash braggadocio that originally endeared listeners to Migos––or turned them off.

The beauty of Migos is the group’s ability to seamlessly integrate a believable street aesthetic with an innate weirdness that is more common in alternative hip-hop circles.

The most obvious comparison to draw is with Migos’ Atlanta predecessors OutKast. On Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, the duo was an ill-defined blend of traditional Southern hip-hop in the vein of Underground Kingz and the new wave, psychedelic sound of the West Coast collective Hieroglyphics. By OutKast’s 1998’s Aquemini, it was clear that the duo had opted for the latter.

Migos, however, thrives in the stylistic schism that forced OutKast to choose a side. Rapping about growing up broke and in trap houses, the group maintains a playful exuberance that is uncommon in the normally bleak landscape of Southern hip-hop. In RNT’s lead single “Story I Tell,” Quavo raps, “I just share the rock like I’m John Stockton/African diamonds, Olajuwon, Houston Rockets.”

There have been rappers who have flourished off of harrowing drug-dealing tales, and there have been rappers who succeeded off witty wordplay. It takes something truly transcendent to mesh these two styles seamlessly––whatever it is, Migos has it.

The songs on RNT are definitely more lyrically dense than previous Migos mixtapes; it’s a more challenging listen especially given its 84-minute length. Still, this should silence critics who question Migos’ ability to actually spit bars.

RNT is an exemplary distillation of what Migos is: an authentic, unprecedented and most importantly accessible window into the Atlanta underground. Doubters question Migos’ staying power and originality. If the trio’s recent string of success is any indication, however, doubters need not doubt for much longer.

Questa Lasagna: Delicious cuisine awaits behind casual storefront

At first glance, Questa Lasagna could easily be mistaken for a café or even a coffee shop. Passersby might not realize that the Mount Morris restaurant serves up exquisitely fresh Italian cuisine. With a menu serving up paninis, pasta dishes and the eponymous lasagna, this restaurant is perfect for both lunch and dinner. The décor is relatively minimalist, an extension of the restaurant’s nonchalant storefront. One certainly does not get the sense that this is a particularly fancy restaurant; reservations are optional and the entire menu is scrawled on a chalkboard above the register. Despite the restaurant’s informal aesthetic, Questa Lasagna delivers where it matters.

For a Friday night, the restaurant was surprisingly empty. I was unsure why. As it was my first time dining there, I was not sure what to expect in terms of the food. I soon came to discover that it certainly was not for lack of quality.

The salad and bread that come with each entrée were vastly superior to similar offerings at other restaurants. Whereas most complementary salads are bland and flavorless and the bread stale, these were distinctly fresh. The tomatoes were especially noteworthy and the bread even tasted homemade, or at least straight from a bakery.

You cannot go wrong with the baked eggplant for an appetizer. Breaded and served with prosciutto, capers, garlic, herbs and melted mozzarella cheese, the dish is large and filling enough to be its own meal.

The entrees were an absolute revelation. I tried the cheese lasagna given the restaurant’s namesake. Meticulously layered, the dish was perfectly proportioned. The sauce had just enough spiciness to enhance the dish’s flavor without overpowering the lasagna and the cheese was beautifully melted.

The pasta options did not disappoint either––the shrimp scampi was truly delicious. The only criticism of it could be that with such fresh pasta, its overbearing sauce was a tad too strongly flavored.

The true standout was the restaurant’s Sicilian lasagna. Offered as a special, the dish is served with a variety of Italian meats and prepared with egg. Though I was already quite full by the time I got to try this dish, I still could barely help but eat more and more of it.

A quiet, quaint—not to mention affordable—restaurant, Questa Lasagna is a great destination for any occasion. In fact, it may just be the best-kept secret around Geneseo. Whether you just want a change of scenery from Geneseo’s Main Street or you are going on a dinner date, this restaurant is sure to satisfy.

Adam Sandler looks to revitalize career with move to Netflix

Adam Sandler’s new films have quite frankly sucked over the past few years. This is an objectively true statement, regardless of whether you choose to evaluate movies by critical consensus or box office returns. His movies are consistently rated in the single digits on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes and are taking in less money than ever. They are still profitable, however––this is Adam Sandler. Still, Netflix recently partnered with Sandler’s production company Happy Madison Productions to develop four new films to be released exclusively through the streaming site. This move seems puzzling at first, but the deal has potential to be a career-saver for Sandler and a savvy business strategy for Netflix.

It seems hard to fathom today, but there was a point in history when Sandler was a creative force to be reckoned with. His early albums like the 1993 They’re All Gonna Laugh at You! and the 1996 What the Hell Happened to Me? boldly experimented with the medium. Not only were these records hilarious, they were commercially viable––both went double platinum.

His earlier films contain the same anarchic aesthetic. By taking generic plots wherein the protagonist must overcome some obstacle to save the day while getting the girl—see Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore—and injecting them with downright absurdist diversions, Sandler subverted audience expectations of what a major studio comedy film could be.

Lately, however, Sandler has fallen into a mid-career malaise. His latest offerings, including Blended and Just Go with It, more closely resemble the films that he used to skewer. His only impressive performances of this millennium have come in non-Happy Madison productions such as Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love and Judd Apatow’s incredible Funny People.

With this move to Netflix, however, Sandler has a new opportunity to focus on the quality of his films rather than their profitability. As Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarando said, “Very uniquely, he [Sandler] stands out for his global appeal to Netflix subscribers. Even movies that were soft in the U.S. [theatrically] outperformed dramatically on Netflix in the U.S. and around the world.”

With a built-in audience ensured, Happy Madison can primarily focus on the quality of films it puts out. This will hopefully signal a return to the spirit of weird experimentation that marked Sandler’s earlier career.

No one should worry about Netflix posing as a creative obstacle. The company’s original programs including “Orange is the New Black” and “House of Cards” are generously supported with big budgets, reflected by the quality of the finished products.

This move could be a career renaissance for Sandler. He’s long overdue for a return to the wild, outlandish humor that initially endeared audiences to him. For Netflix, this is a low-risk, high-return endeavor—as long as Sandler doesn’t put out anything as awful as Jack and Jill.u

Students honor Sondheim with musical review

Student performers are bringing the work of song- writer Stephen Sondheim to life in a production of “Putting it Together,” a musical review of the Broadway legend’s hits spanning his entire career. Written by Julia McKenzie and Sondheim himself, the review will be performed by the Gen- eseo department of music and has previously been performed in Oxford, England and on Broadway. “We really had to be the book writers for the show,” senior CJ Roche––who plays the unfaith- ful male lead John––said. “All of us, including Melanie [Blood] and Don [Kot] created our own plot for the show. It’s not a very complicated plot and it is similar to the Broadway production. It’s interesting that we got to create our own characters.”

Given that this review has neither dialogue nor a rigid plot, the performers were faced with the unique challenge of creating characters essentially out of thin air.

“It’s very crucial to have that kind of emotional con- nection––especially in terms of your character––because there isn’t a lot of dialogue,” sophomore Ben Ranalli––Paul in the show–– said. “You can’t really get across a lot of your emotions except through the songs.”

Senior Megan McCaffrey, who portrays the character of Elaine, added, “He’s very quick- witted and clever.”

Professor of theater and di- rector Melanie Blood, lecturer of music and musical director Don Kot and student perform- ers have adapted the plot to fol- low the relationships of various attendees of a swanky dinner party. The original production

With no spoken dialogue oc- curring whatsoever, the entirety of the plot is conveyed through songs from Sondheim’s reper- toire. Many of the numbers appear as they did in their original form, but some had to be altered in or- der to fit in with the themes of this production.

“We would rehearse song by song,” sophomore Nicole Eras–– who portrays Joanne–said. “It was very hard to get our characters un- til we did the entire run-through; then you can actually see who our characters are, what they do and their relationships with others. Before then, we were just singing songs.”

For those in the perfor- mance, the opportunity to adapt the work of Sondheim was a truly special one. Sond- heim is one of the most revered figures in the history of musical theater, a fact evidently not lost on the cast.

“Putting it Together” had its first performance on Wednes- day Oct. 1 in the Robert Sinclair Black Box Theatre in Brodie Hall. The musical will also be performed on Thursday Oct. 2, Saturday Oct. 4 and Sunday Oct. 5. The performances are being dedicated to Alan Case, a fac- ulty member of the department of music for over 30 years who passed away this summer.

3 Legged Pig serves up juicy delights

Outside the familiar confines of Main Street lies the unassuming, yet absolutely delicious pit barbeque restaurant 3 Legged Pig BBQ. Serving up essential fare including St. Louis-style ribs, pulled pork, brisket and more, 3 Legged Pig offers an authentic barbeque experience with an ambiance to match. Located in in Lakeville, New York––just a few miles from the Geneseo Wegmans––3 Legged Pig achieves a perfect marriage of a casual, laid-back atmosphere with undeniably good food.

I had no idea what to expect going to 3 Legged Pig for the first time. At first glance, the small storefront and lack of décor was mildly discouraging. Unlike a traditional sit-down restaurant, you give your order to a cashier as you enter, seat yourself and wait for the food to arrive. I sat outside, overlooking Vitale Park and Conesus Lake. A group of old friends were seated next to me, reminiscing and getting progressively drunker and more jovial as the night wore on.

The meal started with Cajun catfish fingers that were fried to perfection. The batter was expertly crisped, while the fish remained plump and juicy. The only flaw I could find was that they were over-seasoned, as the fish itself had more than enough flavor to satisfy without the smattering of spices used in the batter. I was thoroughly impressed, yet remained skeptical until the entrees arrived.

I ordered the St. Louis-style ribs with sides of macaroni and cheese and potato salad. As soon as I bit into my first rib, my lingering reservations dissipated instantly. The meat was tender, falling right off the bone—more than can be said about ribs from nearby mainstays like Sticky Lips or Dinosaur BBQ.

The sides were a nice complement to the main course. The mac and cheese was comfort food done right and the potato salad was a tangy contrast to the rich, almost-sweet barbeque sauce.

By the time the check came, I could barely move because I was so full—a testament to the quality (and quantity) of the food. With a menu that also includes sandwiches, chicken and beef dishes, 3 Legged Pig definitely encourages repeat visits.

As far as a Sunday night dinner goes, it’s hard to do much better than 3 Legged Pig—especially if you are on a budget and can’t swing a meal at Ember Woodfire Grill or Big Tree Inn. Vegans and vegetarians beware, however; the menu is overwhelmingly meat-centric.

So next time you find yourself craving some barbeque, don’t think you need to journey out all the way to Rochester; 3 Legged Pig is just down the road.

In lieu of IB, students find refuge in The Statesmen

The Inn Between Tavern’s decision to surrender its liquor license sent shockwaves through the Geneseo community. After the biggest shake-up to Geneseo’s nightlife scene in recent memory, The Statesmen quickly emerged under new management as a popular weekend destination for students. I visited The Statesmen on a recent Friday evening, determined to find out whether or not the bar was a viable alternative to the venerable Geneseo institution that is the IB. I arrived around 11:30 p.m. ready to pay the standard $5 cover fee for patrons under the age of 21—the same fee charged by the IB while it still served alcohol. I immediately noticed that the majority of the action was concentrated in the bar area, leaving the dance floor almost entirely empty. This was a stark contrast to the IB and its notoriously difficult-to-traverse dance floor.

As the evening wore on, however, more and more patrons moved away from the bar and onto the floor. Soon enough, personal space became staggeringly hard to come by. One shortcoming was the dimly lit room that hosted the dance floor. Whereas the IB had two distinct floors complete with nooks, crannies and—most important of all—risers, The Statesmen’s single, rectangular floor reminded me of a lame bar mitzvah. This architectural defect hardly seemed to bother the scores of students dancing, but was enough to give me pause.

While its dance floor falls short, The Statesmen scores back points with its affordable drink selections. For instance, Welfare Wednesdays offer half-priced drinks from 8 p.m.-12 a.m. My sources above the age of 21 inform me that the “Chameleon” is a particularly popular and “efficient” drink.

Perhaps the greatest difference between The Statesmen and the IB is that the former is open all week long. On any given night during the week, you’re bound to find students treating themselves to the bar’s truly exceptional chicken wings while watching whatever game is on television.

Students may recall the IB’s weekday presence—an eerily quiet reminder of the past weekend’s poor decisions looming over campus.

When all was said and done, I left that evening having had quite a good time. The atmosphere was decidedly less intense than the IB—it was much easier to stop and have a chat with someone you’ve run into.

Every bar has its own vibe. Though The Statesmen cannot replicate the amplified environment of the IB, it has established its own unique presence in the Geneseo community. The timing of the bar’s reopening has many looking to substitute weekly trips to the IB with visits to The Statesmen—these people will be disappointed.

As time passes, however, Geneseo students and residents alike will come to discover The Statesmen for what it truly is—a genuinely refreshing destination for anyone looking to relax and blow off some steam. Whether you’re the type of person who’s looking to celebrate the end of another week with four Chameleons straight to the face or merely want to enjoy some hot wings while watching football on a Sunday afternoon, The Statesmen has got you covered.

Softball postseason approaches

With the SUNYAC tournament just around the corner, the Geneseo softball team’s strategy is to stay the course and hope its regular season success translates into the postseason. “Everything we did week one, we’re doing right now,” head coach David Sylvester said. “We find that’s the best way to approach that. There’s nothing new being thrown at us, there’s no panic taking place, there’s no sense of urgency and it’s another game that we’re going to play.”

Although they hold the No. 4 seed, the Knights are only two games out of first place. Sylvester is confident in his team’s ability to win.

“If you take the team we have right now compared to the team we had five weeks ago, I think this is a better team that’s stepping on the field,” Sylvester said. “They know themselves – we really didn’t have a sense of who we were as a team. I think they truly have molded into a team that understands what [it has] to do to win.”

In order to succeed, Sylvester is counting on the whole team to step up, which he does not anticipate being a problem.

“At the beginning of the season, we had three or four girls that were carrying us,” Sylvester said. “I can honestly say we are eight or nine deep now. If you look at the batting averages, they have all gone up.”

In the SUNYAC tournament, teams play just one game per day. This will be a change from the regular season, where teams play doubleheaders against every opponent. The tournament is double-elimination, which bodes well for the Knights who have performed extraordinarily well in the first games of doubleheaders throughout the regular season.

Expectations are certainly high going forward given Geneseo’s success in the SUNYACs in previous years. Last year, Geneseo went all the way to the finals, where they lost in extra innings to SUNY Cortland. Still, the players are not worried.

“We came into the end of the season and we didn’t really have to win all the games,” Sylvester said. “We were in the playoffs as of last week and we went into last weekend and went 3-1. There’s really no one who’s tense right now. We’re taking it as if it’s just another game.”

The Knights play SUNY Brockport on Thursday May 1 at SUNY Oneonta in the first round. The last time the teams met was April 19, when the Knights and the Golden Eagles split a doubleheader. Geneseo won the first game 3-2, while Brockport took the second 9-1 in six innings.

Antiquated racist attitudes linger in professional sports

Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling is the latest ignorant white guy to find himself in hot water for waxing poetic on race relations. Sterling was caught on tape allegedly taking his girlfriend to task for bringing black people as guests of hers to Clippers games, including NBA legend Magic Johnson and current MLB star Matt Kemp. Many have questioned how someone with such backward, ignorant views on race could own an NBA team that relies on black athletes to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue each year. Sterling’s racism makes perfect sense within the twisted power structure that has always existed between whites and the African-Americans that financially benefit them.

Just before the outset of the Civil War, the total value of slaves in the United States was $3 billion – around $75 billion in today’s money. Wealthy Southerners who made a killing in the sugar, tobacco and cotton industries did so upon the backs of slave labor.

The domestic and international market invested heavily in industries propped up by slavery, and for good reason – slave labor had a 13 percent return on investment, against the 6-8 percent return for railroad bonds at the time. The same institution that designated black workers as property allowed those who owned them to reap immense revenues off of their work.

This power dynamic is key to understanding how Sterling’s racism cannot only exist, but flourish. To Sterling, whose decades-long career in racism is reflected in court documents and anecdotal evidence, the athletes that inflated his basketball team’s value to $575 million are not people, but rather conduits for his own profits.

As Sterling put it, “I support them and give them food, and clothes, and cars and houses. Who gives it to them? Does someone else give it to them?” Just as slavery apologists perpetuated the myth that blacks were content under slavery, Sterling sees himself as a savior of these athletes – whose possessions, I’d argue, are entirely the results of their athletic merit rather than some crusty, old white guy’s generosity.

Professional sports are a natural manifestation of this twisted power dynamic. Athletes, despite their generous compensation, are actually undervalued given the revenue they bring in for team owners.

Writing in Deadspin, Tim Marchman said, “That a player makes millions doesn’t make it any less true that he’s making a fraction of what he’s worth, or that he’s being essentially stolen from by a system designed to divert wealth from those who create it to those who already have it.”

All the handwringing going on by those asking how such intolerance could exist in a league that affords African-Americans such great opportunities is misplaced. Not to downplay the ugliness of Sterling’s racism, but his pathology is not at all unique or original. Asking where his racism comes from ignores the history of persecution of African-Americans in this country that spans four centuries.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver took decisive action on Tuesday April 29, issuing Sterling the maximum ban possible of $2.5 million and banning him from the league for life. The fine is pocket change for Sterling, whose worth sits just below $2 billion. The lifetime ban, however, is an affirmative statement that wretched intolerance will not be brushed aside.

Unfortunately, this story is far from over and Sterling will likely fight tooth-and-nail to retain control over his team. One can only hope that the inexorable march of time extinguishes the social constructs that facilitate Sterling’s prejudices.

Achieving equality in the tech industry begins in the classroom

Despite ongoing concerns over unemployment, one sector of the American economy that has enjoyed steady growth is the tech industry. Naturally, the industry’s continued growth and prosperity has lead countless young Americans entering the workforce to seek careers in the field. Access to the tech industry, however, is apparently highly restricted along racial lines, and it appears that some of the biggest firms in the arena are trying to keep that a secret. Back in 2011, CNNMoney filed a request for numbers sent from major tech firms to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding their employees’ demographics. The request, filed under the Freedom of Information Act, was blocked. Only a few firms agreed to release the information anyway, and the results are startling.

Based on data collected from Intel, Dell and Ingram Micro, African-Americans comprise just 6 percent of the tech workforce in contrast to the 11 percent they make up of the general workforce. Looking at top executives, the numbers are even more damning. At Intel, only 1.3 percent of its top officials are black. The same goes for Dell, where out of a pool of 137 executives, there are no Hispanic representatives and just one African-American.

The bigger firms refused to release any information at all. Apple, Google, Netflix, Yahoo and Oracle all chose to keep the demographics of their employees confidential.

The reasons behind these disparities are complex and hard to boil down into a neat answer. Before attacking the hiring practices of these firms – there is no evidence of discriminatory job placement – it is instructive to look at public education and socioeconomic conditions in communities with high African-American and Latino populations.

African-American and Latino students are consistently the most underrepresented in Advanced Placement STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – courses. According to CollegeBoard, only 3 percent of the 30,000 students who took the AP Computer Science exam in 2013 were African-American. Eleven states saw no participation by black students at all.

As Jack Smith IV points out in BetaBeat, degree programs in tech are also costly and unaccredited, meaning they cannot be covered using private student loans.

These barriers perpetuate economic inequality along racial lines. Ensuring equal access to advanced STEM courses in public schools will not only prepare students for careers in growing industries, but may even lead to students pursuing tech careers who otherwise would have never considered it.

Thankfully, there are people working toward this goal. General Assembly, a private school in New York City with a focus on engineering and technology, recently established the “Opportunity Fund” scholarship for African-Americans, Latinos and women. Early notable supporters of this scholarship include Microsoft, Google and the rapper Nas.

The scholarship is a great start and will likely benefit many, but again, it is imperative to address the problem from its root. Investment in STEM programs in public schools with large minority populations along with strengthened affirmative action programs in major firms will be most effective in breaking these glass ceilings.

There are millions of individuals out there with untapped potential who could easily be the next Mark Zuckerberg. Ensuring everyone’s equal access to the tech industry has the potential to benefit the entire world.

Secrets to pitching in softball

Standing at the heart of the diamond, the pitcher is both the figurative and literal center of each and every ballgame. Being part of the action on every single play can certainly take its toll on anyone’s arm, but for softball pitchers it’s just part of the job. Softball pitchers are expected to toss complete games in all of their outings. Considered a rarity in baseball, complete games are the default in softball and pitchers train accordingly. Junior Corrin Spallone, who pitches for Geneseo’s softball team, said that despite the appearance, going the distance each game is not too difficult with the right training.

“For a baseball player, it’s harder to throw overhand,” Spallone said. “It’s a more natural motion to throw underhand, so we don’t have the same shoulder injuries that baseball players have.”

Given their windmill-style delivery, softball pitchers rely on their legs and core to help them throw faster. That’s why you’re more likely to find them on the treadmill than hitting the weights. “You do a lot of abs and running. You want to gain endurance,” Spallone added.

Once they’ve taken the field, there are a number of things pitchers can do to stay loose and make sure they make it through all seven innings. Wearing a jacket between innings and refraining from strenuous dugout cheering helps, according to Spallone: “Even if it’s really warm out I put on a jacket to stay warm. I don’t do a lot of yelling and shouting because I’m trying not to overexert myself, mentally and physically.”

With such a packed schedule – it’s not uncommon for the team to play six games over the course of a weekend – it’s important for pitchers to heal in between starts. Icing down after pitching appearances helps them limit soreness so they’re ready to go the next day – pitchers typically throw every day.

For pitchers on the Knights squad, training extends beyond the mound. Unlike in baseball where pitchers are essentially an automatic out, softball pitchers are expected to contribute equally at the plate.

“[Sophomore] Mikayla Moore is a starting pitcher and she can definitely hit,” said Spallone. “[Coach David Sylvester] told us at the beginning of the year that he’s going to expect the pitchers to hit.”

This season, the Knights’ team E.R.A. is just 2.56, to their opponents’ 3.01. Geneseo has also tallied 185 strikeouts against 96 walks. Pitching may not be an easy job, but Geneseo’s pitchers have proven to be up to the task.

Softball’s Presutti steps up to challenge

Despite this year being her first at the collegiate level, freshman Alyssa Presutti has been playing like a seasoned veteran for the Geneseo softball team this season. The outfielder has earned her place as the only starting freshman on the team – something she says is the result of a lifetime of hard work and preparation.

“I’ve played [softball] for as long as I can remember,” Presutti said. “I started in T-ball when I was little and I played Little League when I was 8 years old. After I moved from Geneva, [N.Y.] to Buffalo, I started playing travel. I pretty much travelled all over the east coast playing softball.”

While this experience obviously helped Presutti find her bearings, she said playing in college is a totally different level of competition.

The jump from high school to college proved to be a stark difference. “I don’t want to say it was easy, but it definitely wasn’t the same level of playing that it is now,” Presutti said.

After just a few months on the team, Presutti fit in naturally amongst the team’s older athletes, being received warmly as a young, new addition. “I feel a lot closer to [the older girls] than I was toward the beginning of the year,” Presutti said.

“In the fall, I didn’t even know if I was going to make the team and now that we’re into the season I feel much more comfortable talking to the girls and playing with them. They’re all really supportive,” she added.

One of Presutti’s defining characteristics as an athlete is her versatility. At one point or another in her softball career, she has played “pretty much [every position].” So far at Geneseo, she has split her time between left and right field.

What truly earned Presutti her starting spot on the team, however, has been her performance at the plate. Her phenomenal stats include a .387 batting average and a home run, which she hit against SUNY Cortland during the Knights’ 5-3 loss on April 11.

Motivated by head coach David Sylvester, Presutti spent winter break working on her swing. According to Sylvester, “The separating point for anyone who is going to be starting on the team is how they hit the ball.”

Over the course of the season, Presutti emerged as a consistently reliable hitter who has “contributed all the time.”

After achieving so much in so little time, there is no telling what the future holds for Presutti. With such a remarkable start under her belt, she is definitely an athlete to watch in the coming years.

How Stephen Colbert advanced the medium of televised satire

In 2006, Stephen Colbert was scheduled to perform at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. Having been the host of “The Colbert Report” for less than a year at that point, it was a defining moment for the comedian. Speaking in front of President George W. Bush, Colbert held nothing back. Referring to the president’s approval ratings, he said, “Sir, pay no attention to the people who say the glass is half empty, because 32 percent means it’s two-thirds empty. There’s still some liquid in that glass is my point, but I wouldn’t drink it. The last third is usually backwash.” If ever a moment encapsulated the Colbert’s ethos, that was it.

While his mentor Jon Stewart succeeded as a comic delivering politically-pointed jokes night in and night out, Colbert went even further to satirize the nation’s right-wing fringe by embodying its most absurd elements.

When CBS announced that  Colbert would replace David Letterman as the host of “Late Show” in 2015, it became apparent that “Stephen Colbert” the character was in his final days. While it is undoubtedly a beneficial move for Stephen Colbert the person, the world is losing one of the most important satirists of all time.

It may sound hyperbolic, but Colbert has done more for the medium of satire than anyone else in recent memory. The key to understanding the difference between his satire and that of other commentators such as Stewart and Bill Maher lies in his unique presentation.

By fully committing himself to this character that truly believes everything he’s saying, no matter how ridiculous, Colbert illuminates the thought processes behind the people who actually believe what he’s saying. While Stewart and Maher rely on snarky jokes to make their viewers question how anyone could subscribe to the regressive politics of the GOP, Colbert explains it by offering up a funhouse-mirror version of those who earnestly ascribe themselves to these beliefs and walking us through their twisted logic.

It is nothing if not fortuitous that Colbert’s rise to stardom coincided with Barack Obama’s presidency, an administration during which the GOP grew increasingly extreme in rhetoric. Amidst unfounded questions over the president’s birth certificate, a non-scandal out of Benghazi and everything in between, Colbert has been there, not to make fun of conservatives crying wolf, but to deflate them by way of imitation. He delegitimized those who should have never earned legitimacy in the first place. In his absence, their words will carry more sway than they ever should.

Colbert’s power to transform one’s mentality worked both ways – the 2013 segment where Colbert traveled to the small, Appalachian town of Vicco, Ky. comes to mind. The segment focused on the town’s enthusiastic support for its openly gay mayor, Johnny Cummings, and the LGBTQ-plus Fairness ordinance he passed.

This segment challenged the perception of small-town America as being exclusively close-minded and intolerant. Local residents discussed how great of a mayor Cummings is and how his sexuality is completely irrelevant to any of them. All the while, Colbert tried to goad them into fulfilling the stereotype of a homophobic hillbilly.

“Late Show” will make it exceedingly difficult for Colbert to present his unique brand of challenging, yet accessible humor. He is a talented performer and will likely succeed in this new capacity, but his contributions to the medium of satire will be sorely missed.

We need to keep Jeb Bush out of the White House

If the American people care at all about the well-being of their country, they will do everything in their power to prevent Jeb Bush from winning the presidency in 2016. Though Bush has yet to officially announce his candidacy, the former governor of Florida is on the GOP shortlist for potential nominees in the next presidential election.

Granted it has been a long six years since the last time a member of the Bush family was president, so let’s review some of the highlights – or lowlights, depending on how you see it – of his brother’s presidency.

After narrowly defeating former Vice President Al Gore in Florida – then governed by Jeb Bush, where up to 20,000, mostly African-American citizens were purged from the voter rolls – President George W. Bush settled into office and got to work.

In his first term in office, Bush endorsed an amendment to the Constitution banning same-sex marriage and increased federal spending by 26 percent, while at the same time cutting $1.35 trillion in taxes over 10 years. The increase in spending coupled with massive tax cuts precipitated the nation’s gigantic budget deficit.

According to The New York Times these two moves in confluence reduced revenue by $1.8 trillion between 2002 and 2009. Furthermore, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the cuts added $1.6 trillion to the national debt, excluding interest.

In many ways, the Bush tax cuts were a precursor to our current national economic debate. Though supporters of the cuts point to the increased tax burden shouldered by the wealthy, many critics point out that income inequality grew at an increasing rate under this tax policy.

The tax cuts are not exclusively to blame for growing inequality in the United States, but they do help paint a broader portrait of the Bushes’ utter disregard for anyone not in the American upper class.

Bush then pushed us into the Iraq War on faulty intelligence, a move that cost hundreds of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars. It may seem foolish of Bush to start what would become such an unpopular war, but there were larger factors at play.

When all was said and done, the company that profited the most off of the Iraq War was Halliburton – the company where former Vice President Dick Cheney served as CEO less than a year before taking office. During the Iraq War, Halliburton received $39.5 billion in government contracts via its engineering and contracting wing, KBR, Inc.. In 2007, Halliburton and KBR, Inc. split.

This is not just some leftist conspiracy theory connecting dots where there really aren’t any. Back in 2009, GOP-darling U.S. Sen. Rand Paul acknowledged that Halliburton stood to gain immense profits from the Iraq War.

Bush’s failure to lead the country while in office is not even a partisan issue at this point. He has a substantial amount of critics on both the left and the right, yet some people are clamoring for another Bush president.

Putting another Bush in the White House would be at least another four years of the mediocrity and ineptitude that defined George Bush’s presidency. To believe that Jeb Bush would be at all different from his brother is an exercise in naiveté.