New Filipinix student union joins campus community

A new cultural club, the Filipinix Student Union (FSU), was recently founded at Geneseo. The club allows the Filipinix community and their allies to connect with one another and enjoy learning and experiencing Filipino culture. 

Geneseo has many cultural clubs, but this will be the first dedicated to members of the Filipino community and their allies. 

Early childhood/childhood education major senior and President of FSU Elize Oliverio said that she initiated the club’s founding because she felt Geneseo was lacking this niche for students. Oliverio transferred to Geneseo in fall 2018.

 Before coming to Geneseo, she studied at Binghamton University and Wellesley College where there was some representation of the Filipinix community. Oliverio said she wanted to create something similar at Geneseo. 

“Just being seen on campus and kind of having that community, both to just exist as a student but also to engage in discourse that felt important to identity,” Oliverio said. “As [Geneseo] is a predominantly white campus, having and creating that space felt important.” 

Oliverio and a few close friends committed to creating the FSU as a place where students who identified with Filipino culture could engage in cultural exchange.

“We first started the whole student audit process a little bit earlier than this time last year, and we had provisional status,” Oliverio said. “Then we went home [after Thanksgiving] and we had provisional status in the fall. And just last month we were fully recognized as a student organization.”

The executive board for the FSU hopes to plan events in the future that will foster community around Filipino people and Filipino culture. Currently, the FSU is looking into funding from the Alliance for Community Enrichment and the Student Association, according to biology major freshman and FSU secretary/public relations representative Samantha Dumitrescu.  

Aaron Enriquez, sociology major sophomore and FSU vice president, said the FSU’s goal is to create a community where students can connect over their common identities or love of Filipino culture. 

“Certain events that we do have planned are cultural dinners and other events that promote and celebrate Filipino culture,” Enriquez said. 

The FSU is currently holding bi-weekly meetings every other Monday from 7 to 8 p.m. The next meeting will be on May 3rd. 

“Our meetings are open to anyone, and it’s free for anyone to come. If you are interested, you know, there is nothing stopping you, just come,” Enriquez said. 

Dumitrescu said FSU will be a community for anyone interested.

“I’m so excited for people to start coming more into our meetings,” Dumitrescu said. “Just know that we have really good people on the e-board, and they just want to set up a community of people who are interested in our culture.”

Geneseo students are encouraged to contact Elize Oliverio, FSU president at epo2@geneseo.edu or Aaron Enriquez, FSU vice president at aje6@geneseo.edu, to be added to FSU’s Zoom email chain. 

Town of Geneseo approves solar farm on Conesus Lake

The Geneseo Town Board has approved the installation of a 40-acre, 5-megawatt solar farm on West Lake Road in Geneseo. Several town members have expressed concerns throughout the process, including Town Supervisor William Wadsworth. The Geneseo community is projected to save 10 percent on their energy expenses once the solar farm is fully installed and operational. 

Helios Energy, a solar company based out of Michigan, has contracted Ingalls & Associates LLP to build the solar farm. A representative from Ingalls, Joseph Hens, attended the Town Board meetings when the Helios Solar Farm was discussed to explain the project and answer questions from the community. 

Many community members voiced concerns about pollution to Conesus Lake and the Watershed, while others explained their reservations about possible effects the solar farm would have on local businesses and tourism, according to the meeting minutes of a public hearing hosted by the Town on March 12. These were also discussed in a letter from Hens to Planning Board Chairman Robert Harris addressed from August 2020.

One local business, the Deer Run Winery, stated multiple times that their business could be affected by the solar farm, which will be built on the property next to them. Hens enumerated measures that were being taken to ensure adjacent properties would not be affected, such as increasing privacy fencing and tree coverage surrounding the solar farm.   

Several community members also expressed concerns about potential cadmium pollution from damaged panels and increased or concentrated runoff. 

Hens explained that the solar panels are silicon-based, and pose no pollution risk to Conesus Lake, or the Watershed. Hens continued that any increased runoff would be mitigated by the positioning of the panels and the ground would be specifically landscaped in such a way that it would absorb any runoff from the solar panels. 

Amidst all these potential environmental impacts, the Town Board had other concerns in mind. 

Wadsworth said that he questions the project’s status decades from now.

“We believe, as most companies do, there’ll ultimately be a holding company that owns this particular project,” Wadsworth said. “And a fear of mine is that twenty years down the road, they’ve sold or renamed so many times that by the time they get to decommissioning, there’s actually nothing of value that the company owns that we could seize or use to help us decommission.” 

The best way to prevent an abandoned solar farm from falling into disrepair is to write a solid surety bond, or contract, that will ensure that in the event that the solar farm’s operations discontinue, the companies and banks involved will pay for it to be removed from the landscape. This process is ongoing, and requires a great deal of time and manpower, according to Wadsworth.

“We're making every effort to make that a solid, permanent, useful surety bond that will be there at the end if the company decides not to do their job,” Wadsworth said. 

Office of Financial Aid encourages students to apply for scholarships through online application portal

The Geneseo online scholarship application, Academic Works, is currently open to all current students and closes at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday March 14. Approximately 150 scholarships are available for applicants with a variety of requirements and qualifications.

The scholarship awards range from $500 for one academic year to $7,000 per year to finish a bachelor’s degree. Students can find the application on the Office of Financial Aid’s website homepage or add the Geneseo Scholarship Application tab to their MyGeneseo dashboard.

“These are scholarships that have been set up by donors, many of which are setting them up in memory of a loved one who's past,” Susan Romano, director of the Office of Financial Aid, said. 

Many of the scholarships are exclusive to specific majors. Previously, each department had its own application process. This led to some confusion between students and was cited by Romano as the reason for low submission numbers in the past. 

“Some [scholarships] had an online application and some had a paper application,” Romano said. “So last year, we implemented this new software which kind of centralizes all of the applications and the paperwork.”

Some of the scholarships are awarded to students involved in certain extracurricular activities, like sports and clubs, according to the Office of Financial Aid. 

“First, you log in with your regular Geneseo ID. You are going to fill out a pretty simple application. There are some short essay questions that we asked, questions like, ‘Why are you deserving of this award’ or ‘What extracurricular activities are you involved in?’,” Romano said. 

When students submit the application, the software combines the answers provided for application with information already recorded, like a student’s major or GPA. Then, the software matches the student with scholarships that they qualify for. 

“We know what county you are coming from, your high school … All of that information … because sometimes the scholarships are very specific. We will match you up for the awards that meet your profile,” Romano said. 

Students who are concerned about GPA requirements can still earn scholarships, as many of the possible scholarships do not have a GPA requirement.

This streamlined scholarship application first opened last year, with only a small fraction of the student body applying. As a result, some students received multiple scholarships, and most students received at least one scholarship award. 

“We are hopeful that more students will apply this year, Romano said. “All current students are eligible, and I really encourage students to apply.”