Opinion
Movie Review: “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man”
Photo Page No Kings Protest
Biology professor birdwatches worldwide
BY GRANT HOCHMUTH Staff Writer
For SUNY Plattsburgh’s newest associate dean and longtime biology professor Neil Buckley, curiosity has never been a choice. It is simply who he has been since birth.
“I’ve always wanted to be a biologist,” Buckley said. “As far as I can remember, five or six years of age, that’s what I wanted to be.”
That early fascination eventually led him across the ocean. Raised in Ireland, but born in England, Buckley completed his undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University College Cork before coming to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Oklahoma. Buckley studied birds, specifically vultures, and how they share information while foraging.
A postdoctoral position at the University of Vermont followed, and with it came a turning point in both his personal and profes-
sional career. He met his wife there and soon after landed a job at SUNY Plattsburgh.
“I got the job offer in April of 1999 and then got married a month later,” Buckley said.
“So the timing worked out really well.”
Twenty-seven years later, Buckley is still on campus.
Over the years his responsibilities have evolved, but his core motivation has remained true throughout his time: enjoying the impact and the joy of working with young scholars.
“I’ve always liked students.
If I didn’t like them, I certainly wouldn’t be a faculty member.”
Buckley said.
For Buckley, one of the more rewarding aspects of higher education is the constant interaction with the younger generations.
“It improves your perspective on the world,” Buckley said.
“You get to find out what young people are thinking about.
They’re full of enthusiasm.”
For Buckley, the insight gath-
ered from students is what keeps the job meaningful especially in moments when students are beginning to find their footing in the professional world.
“When you see the light go on, when someone gets something they didn’t get before, that’s where the satisfaction is,” Buckley said. “You feel like you made at least some contribution.”
While teaching has always been central to his career, Buckley’s administrative role has added another layer of impact. Much of his work now involves helping students navigate academic systems and challenges.
“When I can fix a problem for somebody and make what seems to be an overwhelming problem go away, that’s really satisfying,” Buckley said.
Still, he believes many students overlook one of the most valuable resources available to them: the utilization of extra aid from professors.
“The single greatest unexploited resource is faculty office hours,” Buckley said. “Most
students never go see their faculty, and most faculty would love students to come and ask for help.”
Buckley encourages students to move past hesitation and ask questions. He views this as essential for academic success as well as professional growth.
“Never be afraid to ask a question. If you don’t know the answer, just ask.” Buckley said.
Outside of his professional role, Buckley’s lifelong passion remains unchanged. He has been and always will be an avid birder.
“I spend virtually all of my time either looking at birds or thinking about birds or reading about birds,” Buckley said.
He traces that passion back to a single childhood moment.
“There was this beautiful male bullfinch, bright red on the breast with a black cap. That bird was what started me off.” Buckley said.
Buckley’s fascination with birds has taken him around the world, from South America to
Student Association
Southern Africa, in search of wildlife and natural landscapes. Whether he is birdwatching abroad or helping a student navigate a degree issue, Buckley said his approach is grounded in the same principle. He wants to be seen as accessible to his students.
“If they have a problem, I’ll do everything I can to help,” Buckley said.
Looking back on his career, Buckley does not focus on titles or accolades. Instead, he focuses on something simpler and a bit more thoughtful.
“I’ve had good colleagues. I’ve had great students,” Buckley said. “I feel like I’ve been able to have a good career and do positive things. Not everyone gets that opportunity, and I’m very grateful for it.”
SA prepares for upcoming elections
BY SIERRA BABBIE Contributor
The Student Association gave Beauty Bar permanent status, approved Juliana Praino for the activities coordination board and spoke about upcoming events during the meeting March 26.
Beauty Bar, a cosmetology club that offers tutorials on hair, makeup and nails, requested to be approved as a permanent club. Beauty Bar had provisional status, which meant they had limited access to SA funding for their events and activities.
With a unanimous vote by the Student Association, Beauty Bar was approved for permanent status.
The club is planning an event in collaboration with SUNY Plattsburgh’s
modeling club, House of Divinity. In this event, the two organizations will work together to showcase beauty throughout the decades.
Juliana Praino, a freshman double majoring in marketing and music arts management, expressed her interest in a position on the activities coordination board. Praino said that what she has learned throughout her studies, particularly as a marketing major, could be beneficial for the board. She also spoke about how skills related to marketing, such as effectively promoting events, would be important to the goals of the position.
“Promotion is huge right now because getting attendance up for events,
GRANT HOCHMUTH/Cardinal Points
Biology professor and associate dean, Neil Buckley, sitting in his office surrounded by artwork representing his hobbies and interests.
SASHA LALICH/Cardinal Points
The Student Association votes on part of their budget during their meeting March 26.
I think, is everyone’s main goal. We really need to amp up promotion, and that’s what marketing is a lot of the time,” Praino said.
Praino was approved to the activities coordination board in a 10-0 vote with one abstention.
The Student Association has been drafting amendments, which will soon be ready to vote on. The student body can make their voices heard through voting, particularly on the referendum for the
continuation of the SA fee — this is used to fund activities such as clubs, peer tutoring and the shuttle. The amendments cover other topics, including whether to reduce the number of senators in the Student Association. Both the referendum and the elections for the SA will take place on April 9.
Vice President of the Student Association Dominick Andre spoke about the importance of passing amendments this spring.
“We need to get 10% of the student body involved,” Andre said. “We’re trying to pass constitutional amendments. We need to get the referendum to pass so that we can maintain our budget and funding so that the Student Association can continue to function as is.”
Advisor Tyler Hargraves indicated the significance of upcoming SA
events and encouraged students to become involved in the organization.
“Run for an SA position,” Hargraves said. “Yes, you can get paid. Yes, you can learn leadership skills. Yes, you can make a change on this campus. All these things can happen when we get students to run for these key positions.”
M. LACROSSE
W. LACROSSE
UPCOMING SPORTS
Friday, April. 3
SB vs. Morrisville 3 p.m. @ Home
BB vs. Oswego 3 p.m. @ Oneonta
MLAX vs. Oswego 2 p.m. @ Oswego
WLAX vs. Morrisville 4 p.m. @ Morrisville
Saturday, April. 4
SB vs. Cortland 2 p.m. @ Home
BB vs. Oswego 3 p.m. @ Oneonta
Follow retired leader of the Peaky Blinders gang, Thomas Shelby, as he moves through smoky, atmospheric and explosive scenery facing his grief over his violent past and saving his son from a Nazi plot that could destroy England. Just a disclaimer, I may not have watched the series before I watched this film, but I did see bits and pieces of the show as I walked by my living room.
SYNOPSIS
“Peaky Blinders” is a TV series that started in Fall 2013 and ended in Spring 2022. The series takes place in Birmingham, England in post World War One and follows the main character Shelby, played by Cillian Murphy, and his crime gang the Peaky Blinders.
Released on March 6, 2026, “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man” serves as a wrap up of the series in its entirety. The film takes place in 1940, four years after the date in the series finale. Development for the movie started in early 2021 with the film being directed by Tom Harper and written by Steven Knight.
The main characters in the film besides Shelby include Duke, played by Barry Keoghan, and the Chiriklo sisters, played by Rebecca Ferguson.
The plot consists of Nazis sneaking counterfeit bills into the English economy to end the war, and Shelby living a quiet life as a writer after his days of leading the Peaky Blinders years earlier. Shelby lives in an old secluded mansion with gravestones of his family in the
Tuesday, April. 7
BB vs. Canton 3 p.m. @ Home
courtyard unearthing and trying to cope with the loss of the majority of his family.
The film flicks between Shelby’s struggles and his son Duke running a new generation of the Peaky Blinders in Birmingham, England. Kaulo Chiriklo, the sister of Zelda Chiriklo to whom Shelby had a brief encounter with in the series, appears with a Romani kind of mysticism and supernatural abilities. She allows her dead sister Zelda to possess her and speak to Shelby’s dead brother. From this encounter Shelby travels to Birmingham to visit his son, who has entered a business proposition with the Nazis gone wrong, and deals with the repercussions slowly uncovering themselves.
What results is a tense father and son dynamic full of fighting not only with each other, but the fight to stop the Nazis from fulfilling their plan to drown England’s economy and influence in World War Two.
THOUGHTS ON THE FILM
Although the movie works as a final farewell to fans of the series, it also works as a stand-alone film. The only issue with watching it as a stand-alone film is that watching the rest of the series becomes useless.
The film starts off with a spark and gradually picks up and catches fire as the characters clash with grief and their desire to fix their present lives and build for a better future. It may follow the original hero’s journey that author Joseph Campbell first discovered, but it is so rich with emotion, intense war flashbacks, calm
Wednesday, April. 8 Friday, April 10
SB vs. Castleton 3 p.m. @ Castleton
BB vs. Clarkson 3:30 p.m. @ Home
WLAX vs. Potsdam 4 p.m. @ Home
MLAX vs. Potsdam 6 p.m. @ Potsdam
SB vs. Canton 3 p.m. @ Canton
dream-like memories and surprises that make up for the basic plot line.
I found the influence of Romani culture and superstitious, almost spiritual themes that characters such as Chiriklo, Shelby and Duke possess to be fascinating. Before watching this film I had only heard of Romani culture in passing, but after watching this film I feel like doing a deep dive into Wikipedia. With beautiful framing shots and often moody set design, this film is just about as close as you can get to feeling like you are in a different time and place. The main characters in the film have a lot of depth and emotion thanks to not only Murphy, but Keoghan and Ferguson. I give this film four stars out of five for
Art Acquisition Board faces budget cut
BY CHRISTIAN TUFINO Staff Writer
The Student Association plans to convert the Art Acquisition Board into a club instead of a board. This would result in a budget cut from $5,000 a semester to receiving less than $1,000 over two semesters.
For over 50 years, the Art Acquisition Board has served SUNY Plattsburgh by acquiring, maintaining and showcasing diverse art from deceased and living artists with the goal of enriching the campus’s culture and providing educational, contemporary art to inspire and entice students to think critically.
Junior Max Alexander, vice president of the Plattsburgh Association of Visual Arts, PAVA, has been a member of the Art Acquisition Board since 2024. Alexander said the shift into a club would hinder their ability to complete their mission of obtaining meaningful art.
“It’s not just the art that we’re purchasing, it’s the transportation, it’s the handling and it’s the framing. We need to get it and preserve it. It’s easy to look at $5,000 like it’s a lot of money, but it’s hard to find a living artist’s art for
$3,000 or even $4,000, which is on the lower end for pricing,” Alexander said. “They’re telling us to just become a part of PAVA while simultaneously defunding PAVA.”
Alexander said PAVA has also faced budget troubles, with their budget requests being denied and shrunk over time.
Student Association Vice President Dominick Andre said in an email that neither himself or the president were available to speak on the topic at the moment, but emphasized there is no concrete decision yet.
According to the Art Acquisition Board, the SA has expressed concerns about how often pieces are being shown and how they aren’t happy with the amount of art being shown on campus.
While the Art Acquisition Board works to acquire and present art to students, they are also responsible for taking care of the art ethically.
Senior Virginia Luchetti, board member on the Art Acquisition Board, explained how the overexposure of art can result in irreversible damage to art like fading, smudging, and bleeding colors.
“These artists are trusting us with these pieces. When we buy them we are also supposed
to take care of them,” Luchetti said. “With that being said, they can’t constantly be shown, there’s a science behind it.”
Senior Steven Vazquez, board member of the Art Acquisition Board, sees art as a core part of the campus and the student body as a whole.
“The art here is not decor, its representation. When you walk into not just the art
building, but every building on campus, you see yourself on the wall,” Vazquez said.
Alexander expressed concern over the Art Acquisition Board’s future, wondering what will happen in future semesters.
“There’s no guarantee of a good budget for the arts considering we get defunded each semester,” Alexander said. “It’s like a butterfly effect in a way.”
The SA votes on whether the Art Acquisition Board will be changed into a club on April 9 during the Student Association referendum.
Original: Harper Poulin/Art Acquisition Graphic: Ethan Hazel/Contributor SUNY Plattsburgh’s Art Acquisition Board’s social media graphic. The board faces a potential status change, decreasing its overall budget on April 9.
Kimora DeCoteau/Cardinal Points
Aries (March 21 –April 19)
BY GRYPHON AKRIDGE-PHILLIPS Staff Writer
Taurus (April 20 –
Libra (Sept. 23 – Oct. 22)
Scorpio (Oct. 23 –Nov. 21)
Sagittarius (Nov. 22 –Dec. 21)
Capricorn (Dec. 22 –Jan. 19) Aquarius (Jan. 20 –Feb. 18)
(Feb. 19 –March 20)
Plattsburgh’s No Kings Protest draws over 1,000 demonstrators
By Hiram Cowhey
Protesters gather along 18 Centre Dr in Plattsburgh.
The No Kings Protest spanning across U.S. Route 3.
Griffon Wilde’s papier-mache Trump puppet imitating his dance.
Protesters marching near the Champlain Vally Veterinary Services.
A protester marches with his sign on his walker.
A protester hammering away on their drum during the protest.
Protesters advocating for kindness and the release of immigrant families and children from the South Texas Family Residentail Center in Dilly Texas.