SUNY Plattsburgh’s independent student newspaper since 1997
FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2022
VOLUME 106 - ISSUE 3
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Enyedi reveals 3-year plan BY ALEKSANDRA SIDOROVA
Staff Writer
Photo provided by Michael Brockway
Aislyn McDonough walking away from breaking SUNY Plattsburgh’s school record for the 600-meter race. She beat the record from 1983.
McDonough breaks school record BY OLIVIA BOUSQUET News & Managing Editor
After 39 years, Aislyn McDonough broke SUNY Plattsburgh’s school record for the 600 meter event with a 1:38.86 time. The track and field team traveled to St. Lawrence University Feb. 18, which is when McDonough beat Amy Pagani’s record time of 1:41.78 in 1983. “I was kind of in shock, definitely,” McDonough said about her reaction after realizing she broke the record. “And then my
teammates came over, and they were hugging me. And I was just very grateful for the opportunity to be able to do that again, and it’s really exciting.” McDonough, a senior captain on the team, rarely competes in this event because it’s offered only twice a year. The reason is because it’s a nontraditional distance. Head Coach Andrew Krug said it’s not offered at SUNYAC Championships, regionals or national competitions. Yet earlier in the season, McDonough came
one second close to beating the record at Middlebury after Krug told her. She had no idea she was so close to beating the record and “begged him for another chance.” After Krug asked the St. Lawrence staff to add it, they did, but couldn’t promise any entries. Only one other athlete from the University of Vermont competed against McDonough in the 600 meter race. But her ability to break the record did not come as a surprise. “Aislyn is a very talent-
ed athlete that was very capable of breaking that school record, and she did so in a kind of commanding fashion,” Krug said. “I’m so very happy for her. It’s been on her mind for 3 weeks, and so for her to be able to accomplish that and put her name in our team’s history is great.” The night before the race, McDonough called her brother Liam to talk about the race. She regularly calls him before and after meets to keep him in the loop of what happens. “I am her No. 1 fan as far
as athletics goes,” Liam McDonough, a former college baseball and hockey player, said. “And it doesn’t matter what sport, I’ve always been a full supporter of hers. She also played college soccer for the University of Maine, so I’ve always been a big fan of Aislyn’s.” As she prepared herself at the starting mark and the gun went off, she ran about 25 meters before being told there was a false start. RECORDS l A2
The Plattsburgh Next Steering Committee presented a strategic plan to guide the development of the SUNY Plattsburgh campus for the next three years — in a webinar Tuesday, Feb. 22. The plan is also available online on the SUNY Plattsburgh website in PDF format. The Steering Committee consists of 31 members across faculty, staff and the student population, including the three presenters: President Dr. Alexander Enyedi, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Anne Herzog and Dr. Gary Kroll, former chair of the Faculty Senate and now a history professor. The plan is based on data from 47 focus groups and 177 survey respondents, which the Plattsburgh Next Steering Committee collected within the first month of the Spring semester. The data was analyzed using SOAR, an alternative for the SWOT analysis model, standing for Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations and Results. The webinar opened with a moment of silence for Elizabeth Howell, a music education student at SUNY Potsdam who lost her life at the hands of a shooter Feb. 18, the previous Friday.
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SA takes students to Burlington BY ALEKSANDRA SIDOROVA
Staff Writer
For its first trip this semester, the Student Association took 94 students to Burlington, Vermont, Saturday, Feb. 26. The two buses left Plattsburgh at 10:30 a.m., reached Burlington by noon, and returned by 6 p.m. Tickets cost $5. Initially, the SA only reserved one bus for the trip, but with the tickets completely selling out within a day, upgraded to two. Tickets for the second bus sold out after two days — 98 spots in total. Incomplete attendance is a rare occurrence on SA trips, according to Carter Mosher, the SA’s senator for PR and co-chair of F.E.N.T. (Film, Entertainment, Novelties and Trips) on the SA activities board. “The only reason maybe was that it was a Saturday, and I know students like to party on Friday nights,” he said.
Mosher chose Burlington as the destination because it is an hour away from Plattsburgh. “I wanted to stay closer to Plattsburgh and I figured, you know, everyone loves Burlington,” Mosher said. Unlike the trip to Salem, Massachusetts, last October, the SA did not plan a sightseeing program. In the allotted time, students were free to explore Church Street and the surrounding area as they wished, indulging in shopping and dining experiences unavailable at Plattsburgh. “Essentially, I just wanted everyone to go have fun, shop, eat, explore the city of Burlington,” Mosher said. Logistically, the trip went smoothly. Despite the large number of attendees, the return bus was delayed by no more than 10 minutes.
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LIAM MOLONEY/Cardinal Points
Randall Horton performs his poetry as his band Radical Reversal plays music for the community Feb. 24.
Poet educates community BY LARAIB ASIM Staff Writer
As the night grew colder, the community’s excitement grew as well, for Dr. Randall Horton’s recent memoir “Dead Weight” and his first performance with the new band “Radical Reversal” Thursday, Feb. 24 at the Alumni Conference room at the Angell College Center. The event was arranged by Dr. Anna Battigelli, the professor and chair of
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the English department. “I first found out about Dr. Horton [when] listening to interviews on the radio, and I started to read his work, and so I emailed his agent and before long he responded,” Battigelli said. “We started talking, [after a while] we got him invited, and I got more and more interested in his work and I have just been enthralled.” Horton is an award winning memoirist, poet and an associate professor at the University of New Haven in Connecticut. His recent book,
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“Dead Weight: A Memoir in Essays,” is about his personal life story from a drug dealer with seven felony convictions to a tenured professor. “When Anna came forward with an opportunity, I was up for it. At first it was not supposed to have the Radical band play, I was just going to read,” Horton said. “Anna graciously combined what we wanted to do, to make it all work, it was a definite effort.”
POETRY l A2
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