tor echo issue 6
DESCRIPTION
Tor Echo is the student newspaper of Alfred State SUNY College of TechnologyTRANSCRIPT
Tor Echo Newspaper of the Pioneers
Do Civic Engagement — Register to Vote!
Less than one-third of all eligible vot-
ers in New York State turned up at
the polls last Tuesday, putting our
state in the middle of a national trend
that had lower voter turnout in 38 of
the 50 states. Voter turnout among
young people was even more pathet-
ic. Only 13% of voters interviewed in
exit polls on Election Day were un-
der 30. Voters 18-29 make up 21% of
all registered voters, so the numbers
for this election show that 1 in every
3 young voters did not vote.
The news, however, is worse
than that. Only about half of Ameri-
cans between 18-29 are even regis-
tered to vote. Here at Alfred State
College, the Office of Civic Engagement has
been conducting a voter registration drive
using Turbovote, an online voter-
registration and reminder system. Sadly,
only a handful of the more than 3,500 stu-
dents enrolled at Alfred State have
availed themselves of this service.
Voting is important. Registering
to vote is the first step. Tor Echo, the
student newspaper, and the Com-
muter Council, working through the
Office of Civic Engagement are initi-
ating a “Get Out the Vote Cam-
paign.” Here in Alfred, village elec-
tions are held in March, so we have
plenty of time to show that Pioneers
do care and do want to involve them-
selves in their own future.
Will it matter? Yes, it will. The
village government of Alfred wants to
exert ever greater control over your
lives – they are, for example, requir-
ing off-campus Greek houses to reg-
ister every resident of fraterni-
ty or sorority houses with the
village. The village has created a
special “zone” where Greeks
may live off campus. Right now,
the village is considering efforts
to eliminate Hotdog Day. A
report delivered to the village
board in October stated that
“Our committee asked for sug-
gestions on how to improve
Hot Dog Day or how to repair
it. We received a few sugges-
tions from villagers, students,
police, emergency services, and
college administrators. Predict-
ably these represented a wide
range of opinion and strength of argu-
ment.” The report went on to say
that “The firmest response” was to
“End Hot Dog Day.” When the mem-
bers of the Hot Dog Day committee
were pressed, they admitted
that only one villager called for
the elimination of HDD, “but
that response was stated in
very firm language.”
What does this mean to you? It
means that a handful of people
in this community have the
power to change your college
experience. And what gives
them that power? Very simply,
they are registered to vote and
they do vote. It’s time for us to
vote, too. Let’s show our
strength. Look for our table in
SLC and register to vote!
Show the Village you won’t be
pushed around. Get your button
and wear it proudly. Register to
vote, and show that we want a say
in our community.
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Tor Echo
Report, Encourage, Engage
Issue 6, Fall 2014
Editor-in-Chief: Lynnette Lockwood / Associate Editor: Jordyn Riethmiller / Sports Editor: Morgan Franchina
Treasurer / Student Senate Representative: Daniel David
Reporters: Lee Button, Katie Dussing, Grace Franklin, Brianna Freeman, Anthony Grande, MiRonda Piphus, Don Schrader,
Breanna Smith, Madison Szpaicher, Angel Torres
© Tor Echo, 2014
Editorial by Lynnette Lockwood
College students can take steps to help improve the environment and be conscien-
tious of their surroundings. One of the most efficient ways to help the environment
is to compost. Compost is taking food waste and turning it into “green waste”
which will break down into humus in a few weeks or months. After the breakdown
of the food waste it can be applied to gardens to give nutrients to the soil to enrich
growth through a natural process. It is simple to use and saves energy as well. Ecol-
ogy is a responsibility that every citizen of the world should be concerned. Some
colleges offer compost bins in the dining areas instead of garbage cans. Being eco-
conscious is a frame of mind that benefits everyone. Alfred State offers vegetarian
options to students. I like the concept of replacing the garbage cans in the dining ar-
eas on campus with compost bins. It is a huge waste considering the amount of food
that is thrown away on a daily basis. Alfred State does offer recycle bins for cans,
bottles, and papers all around campus and in the dorms. Encouragement to the stu-
dent body to be eco-friendly could be reinforced in the dining areas and creating an
additional method to recycle our wastes. Currently some of the paper from cam-
pus is recycled and is used as bedding at the farm. The Alfred Community Garden
already has a compost pile available where the college could take the compost and
deposit it daily. A compost bin costs an average of $40.00 each and if they were
placed in approximately 10 places around campus the cost would be $400.00. A
small financial investment today would go a long way for the future of our earth. So
think about joining me in recycling today for a better tomorrow.
A Look into Sustainability at Alfred State
Hooping Workshop Extravaganza
Students engaged in a
night of fun learning how
to hoop, poi, gloving,
and even juggling. It was
lead by Ben Berry assist-
ed by many others. Be-
fore the hooping there
was a yoga/ meditation
session.
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Alfred State students in the Architec-
ture and Design department are help-
ing to improve the quality of the built
environment in Allegany County and
the surrounding region through a
number of Southern Tier Architectur-
al Resource (STAR) Center civic en-
gagement projects. The STAR Center
is a collaboration of two organizations
in the department: the Architecture
Club and the Interior Design Club,
which, through the promotion of
sound design and planning principles,
seek to enhance the local built envi-
ronment.
Last semester, architectural tech-
nology majors Jeremy Dearing and
Andrew Scott proposed designs for a
project at Pioneer Park in Dansville.
The project involved creating a place
for a monument marking the park as
Dansville’s first cemetery, landscaping
and lighting work.
“What the clients were propos-
ing was fairly low impact and it was
really meant to just formalize the park
and create a place for a new monu-
ment that they had already made.
Most of the time you would create
the plan first and then place the mon-
ument” said Bill Dean, chair of the
department of Architecture and De-
sign. Jeremy and Andrew talked about
two different possible locations for
the monument and did renderings of
what that might look like, just to kind
of give them some guidance. Dearing
said, “I’m very glad that I was able to
get some real hands-on experience
with actual clients.”
Since 2013, according to Dean,
the STAR Center students have un-
dertaken eight typically infrastructure-
related civic engagement projects,
mainly in the Southern Tier. Potential
upcoming projects include conceptual
planning for a pocket park in Scio,
documenting existing conditions for a
veterans’ center in Rushford and
for a building in down-
town Buffalo, and a
master plan for Lions
Camp Badger in Spen-
cer, NY. Another pro-
ject involves two stu-
dents working with the
Alfred State Sustaina-
bility Committee on
converting an L-shaped
area near the Central
Dining Hall into a com-
munity garden.
“It’s not a huge space,
it’s not a big project,
but any place we can
help, we’re happy to
give the students that
type of experience. We don’t
know if the garden is going to be
edibles or perennials. That hasn’t
been decided yet” Dean said.
Libby Dussault, an architecture
and interior design student, from
Horseheads, NY, said the STAR Cen-
ter provides an awesome opportunity
for students. "It's a good way to meet
and work with other people and form
relationships and learn how to work
on a project with someone else be-
cause we do a couple of partner pro-
jects in the studio but nothing that has
follow-through and you don’t see the
end result and I think working with
clients, that’s a good opportunity,
too,” she said. Dean noted, “These
students are actually getting that ex-
perience of talking to people about
their problems and helping them de-
velop solutions to the extent that
they can do that through an academic
exercise, so I think it really provides a
tremendous experience for the stu-
dents that they’re not going to get in
every architecture program.”
Caption: Pictured top, counter-clockwise, Alfred State architectural technolo-
gy majors Jeremy Dearing and Andrew Scott, and members of the Pioneer
Park Committee Patricia Kreiley, Paul Hoffman, and Jane Schryver.
STAR Center Civic Engagement
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The American Red Cross
launched a one of kind
Blood Donor App that
puts the power to save
lives in the palm of your
hand. The new app
makes it easier and faster
for users to find a nearby blood drive,
schedule blood donations, track their total
donations, get rewards and invite friends
and family to join them on a lifesaving team.
It’s free and available for download through
the App Store.
New Red Cross App
Three teams from the Alfred
State School of Applied Tech-
nology campus in Wellsville
went to Frisco, Texas and par-
ticipated in the Fireball Run. The
annual event features a life-sized
trivia game that seeks to aid in
the recovery of America’s miss-
ing children. “We’re really excit-
ed to be sending off another
team to the Fireball Run,” said
Craig Clark, executive director
and dean of Applied Technology.
The college’s support team will
perform duties such as tire pres-
sure and car checks, according
to Kent Johnson, chair of the
Automotive Trades department.
“When the cars break down,
we’re going to lend a hand,”
Johnson said of the Alfred State
team. The Alfred State drove
which will drive a 1987 Mer-
cedes Turbo Diesel donated by
1975 Alfred State graduate Mark
Crounse. Along with Clark and
Johnson, the Alfred State sup-
port team includes automotive
service technician students and
brothers Josh and Jordan Ricot-
ta, both from Falconer, N.Y. The
students said they were hon-
ored to be a part of this year’s
Fireball Run. “We’re honored to
go and represent the college
that we wanted to take up auto-
motive at,” said Josh Ricotta.
“Our hard work paid off and
they honored us with being able
to go. It sounds like a great op-
portunity and seems like we’ll
have some fun. It’s a great expe-
rience to learn from” Jordan Ri-
cotta said.
Alfred State Participates in the Fireball Run
Alfred State support team among Fireball Run squads that getting ready to depart
By Jordyn Riethmiller
I hosted a can food drive as
part of a civic engagement
project. The non-perishable
can goods will be donated
to the Alfred/Almond area
food pantry for the Thanks-
giving holiday. There was also
a collection of donations. The food pantry will use this
money to purchase perishable items for the holiday.
Can Food Drive for Local Pantry
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The Office of Equity, Inclusion and Title IX is honored to house the Paula Rezak GLBT Gender and Sexual-
ity Library in its new space,. It will be in SLC Room 409. The library contains numerous books, texts, films
and documentaries revolving around these topics. If you are looking for resources for personal, profes-
sional or academic purposes please come check out the library. Due to the strong commitment and gen-
erosity of the Rezak family we are able to continuously add to the library so if you have suggestions that
you would like to see included in this special collection please contact Nikkie Hockenberry at ext. 4076 or
email at [email protected]. We strive to honor Paula’s spirit and her deep dedication to educat-
ing the campus community in this area; if you would like someone to come do a presentation for your
class or organization around LGBT issues, Safe Zone or gender and sexuality we have a number of interac-
tive and educational workshops we can bring to you.
Paul Rezak LGBT Library
The National Court Reporters Association is launch-
ing its new Take Note campaign to promote court
reporting education. Professors are hoping to see
more interest and enrollment in court reporting pro-
grams in colleg-
es nationwide.
It is definitely
the hope of
Alfred State
and the Na-
tional Court
Reporters As-
sociation that
the new Take
Note campaign will result in
increased in-
terest in court
reporting ca-
reers and, in
turn, increased
enrollment in our programs, not just at Alfred State,
but at all court reporting schools around the country.
I think that just about all schools have seen decreased
enrollment in court reporting programs in the last
five to seven years; the hope is to get more students
into these programs so that we’ll have enough court
reporters to meet the demand in the coming years”
said Melissa Blake Alfred State’s court reporting and
captioning program curriculum coordinator.
The campaign’s website, http://www.crtakenote.com,
contains links with information on court reporting
careers, finding a school, and requesting information.
They filter requests and forward them to colleges
that are appropriate to what the person is asking for.
In the last cou-
ple of weeks
alone, 39 re-
quests for in-
formation have
been forward-
ed to Blake.
Each request
receives an
email response
with general information
about Alfred
State and an
attached bro-
chure with spe-
cific infor-
mation on the college’s court reporting and caption-
ing certificate program and its court and real time as-
sociate degree program.“We have no way of knowing
if any of those requests will result in students applying
to our programs, but we are very hopeful that they
will,” Blake said. “I will send information to all of
those who request it in hopes that we can get some
court reporters or captioners trained to fill the need
now and in the future when today’s reporters retire.”
Alfred State is Anticipating Greater Interest and Enrollment
in Court Reporting Through Take Note Campaign
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“Once on This Island" tells the tale of a poor peasant girl's journey to win the
heart of a wealthy young man with the aid of gods who watch over the island. The
music is jam-packed with Caribbean flavor and upbeat energy. The performance is
composed of an all-Alfred State-student cast under the direction of Buckwalter
and Eric Prentice, music director, with Jerry Ives, Alfred State's instrumental di-
rector, leading the pit orchestra.
“There is a lot of music and choreography in this musical and it is coming to-
gether well. We have a great student cast and technical crew who are working
hard and I am excited for the show” said Janna Buckwalter, Drama Club adviser.
Come and Dance to the Music
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Math Lab Procter Schedule
Final Exams are coming! Here is the Math Lab tutoring schedule once again. Take advantage of the resources you have here.
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Rep
ort
, En
cou
rage
, En
gage
!
Alfred State is teaming up with Cystic Fibrosis to hoop for a cure.
Cystic Fibrosis is a life threatening genetic disease that primarily
affects the lungs and digestive system. It affects nearly 100,000
people worldwide. People that live with Cystic Fibrosis have a
defective gene and its protein product causes the body to produce
unusually thick, sticky mucus that clogs the lungs and leads to life
threatening lung infections. The mucus also obstructs the pancreas and stops natural enzymes from helping
the body break down food and absorb vital nutrients. Cystic Fibrosis patients life expectancy has slowly
reached their way into the 30’s, with your help we can make cure found. The Basketball Game begins at 7
p.m. Wednesday, November 19th in the Orvis Gym. There will be prizes, autographs, giveaways, and events
throughout the game. All proceeds go to Cystic Fibrosis Research.
Hoop For the Cure Cystic Fibrosis
NOVEMBER 2014
Practice- Wednesday 11/5/14 9:00-10:30PM Olean Ice
Rink
Home Game VS Hilbert College 11/8/14 8:05PM
Olean Ice Rink
Practice- Wednesday 11/12/14 9:00-10:30PM Olean Ice
Rink
Away Game VS University of Pittsburgh Saturday
11/15/14 10:00AM Callahan Park
Away Game VS Elmira College Sunday 7 pm Mur-
ray Athletic Center 11/16/14
Practice- Wednesday 11/19/14 9:00-10:30PM Olean Ice
Rink
DECEMBER 2014
Practice- Wednesday 12/3/14 9:00-10:30PM Olean Ice
Rink
Home Game VS University of Pittsburgh at
Saturday 12/6/14 8:05PM Olean Ice Rink
Bradford Saturday 12/6/14 8:05PM Olean Ice Rink
FEBURAY 2015
Practice- Wednesday 2/4/15 9:00-10:30PM Olean Ice Rink
Home Game VS Daemen College Saturday 2/7/15
8:05PM Olean Ice Rink
Practice- Wednesday 2/11/15 9:00-10:30PM Olean Ice
Rink
Practice- Wednesday 2/18/15 9:00-10:30PM Olean Ice
Rink
Home Game VS Alumni Team Saturday 2/21/15
TBD Olean Ice Rink
Practice- Wednesday 2/25/15 9:00-10:30PM Olean Ice
Rink
Alfred State Hockey Team Schedule
By Madison Szpaicher
The Alfred State Women’s Vol-
leyball team got the chance of a
life time this past weekend
(October 30th-November 1st).
We headed to SUNY Canton in
Canton, NY for the USCAA
Women’s Volleyball National
Championships. With this being
only our second year as a Divi-
sion 3 school, this is some feat.
We have caught the attention of
many schools around the nation,
8 out of the 10 teams had never even heard of Alfred State or
Alfred University!
The team this year was made
up of 12 girls: 1 senior, 3 juniors,
4 sophomores and 4 freshmen.
All in all, we are a pretty young
team. But what sets us apart
from all of the other schools we
competed against was how close-
knit this group is. From team din-
ners, to team shopping trips
there isn’t much that we do
apart. One onlooker said, “I’ve
worked here at Alfred State for
14 years and never before have I
seen a team as close and happy
when they are all together than
this women’s volleyball team.”
Nationals were an eye open-
er, it led the team to believe that
it didn’t matter how young the
squad was but what mattered
was the heart and effort that was
put out there on the court. Go-
ing into this weekend we truly
had no idea what to expect, we
had not played any of the other
9 teams, nor did we know much
about them.
We made it to the final 4, we
were ranked in the top 4 of the
nation, and this was quite a sur-
real feeling. One school was
Florida College, another Roches-
ter College, out of Michigan and the third being SUNY Canton.
The New York schools repre-
sented well at this nationals
tournament. On championship
day, November 1st we ended us
taking 4th place overall, but the
semi-finals and consolation game
were not taken lightly. Every-
thing we had was left out on the
court; we knew big rewards
were at stake. We truly made a
statement, half of these teams
thought we were going to be a
walkover and we proved all of
them wrong. Alfred State Volley-
ball made a name for themselves
and I believe has a very bright
future ahead of them. I know I’m
already ready for next season to
start!
Family, Food and Then There’s Volleyball
The Alfred State cross country teams will be competing in the United State Collegiate Athletic Association's
National Championship race on Friday at SUNY ESF in Syracuse, NY. The women race at 11 a.m. and the
men start at Noon.
Keith Johnson looks to place in the 8K following his 3rd place showing at the Brockport Invitational
26:16.4 with his mile pace of 5:18.0.Jacob Hanss will also look for a strong showing after finishing 13th at
Brockport with a time of 27:46.8 pace.
The Pioneers had 11 runners with a sub-6 minute mile pace at the Brockport Invitational. In prior meets,
the men's team ran to 1st place at the Alfred Invitational and the Houghton Invitational. They also ran to two
3rd place finishes at Brockport and DeSales University. Most recently, the Alfred State men's team placed
4th overall at the New York State Collegiate Track Conference Championships.
Cross Country Get Ready AA for USACAA Nationals
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Senior Kay Pfleghardt winds up to serve in the
women’s NCAA division 3 nationals, where the
Lady Pioneers finished fourth in the USA.