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Student Association
SA approves temporary vice president
BY SIERRA BABBIE Staff Writer
Dominick Andre was approved as a temporary vice president, and the positions of coordinator of public relations and board of elections chair were filled during the Student Association meeting on Feb. 18.
Jack Sweet, the previous vice president of the Student Association, unexpectedly resigned last week, leaving an open position in the SA. A temporary vice president was needed to fulfill the duties of the role until the upcoming special election.
The SA holds two types of elections; special and general. A special election occurs whenever an elected official leaves their position before
the end of their term, while a general election is planned far ahead of time and takes place in regular intervals. The next special election is expected to take place sometime before spring break, although the exact date isn’t yet known.
During the meeting, Dominick Andre, the current speaker of the student senate, was approved for the temporary position of vice president.
Soon after, Senator Jadalyse Medina proposed that her experience managing PR for both House of Divinity and K.I.N.K.S. qualified her to be the coordinator of public relations for the SA. Medina said her interest in technology and experience managing the social media of other organizations helped to suit her for the position, which would primarily
include using software such as Canva and social media to maintain student engagement.
“In my house, I’m known as the IT person. My parents are not from this generation, so I’m used to adjusting stuff and learning about new software, because at home, they don’t really know,” Medina said.
With a unanimous vote, the SA approved Medina for her new role within the association.
Yvonne Carroll, a first-year psychology major, spoke about her interest in becoming the board of elections chair for the SA — a position which, with the special and general elections approaching, is soon to be crucial.
Carroll explained that she has gained throughout college the interpersonal skills needed to
be effective at helping the SA through the election process.
She is the vice president of Active Minds, a club which seeks to increase campus awareness of mental health issues, and has experience working in an assisted living home.
“I’m very into teamwork, and I listen to other’s opinions, not just mine. I feel that I would do really good collaborating with everybody,” Carroll said.
Carroll was approved for her respective position with a unanimous vote. The two were then led through a joint oath by the President of the Student Association, Charlotte Feliz.
The SA is still in search of members for the Board of Elections, which will need to be composed by the next special election for the new vice president.
“We need to find people who are interested in this board. Anybody that you can find who would be interested, send them our way,” Andre said. “Anything you can do to make people aware that this is something that needs to happen. Twenty-five days from now at the latest, there needs to be a special election for my position.”
Lake Champlain freezes for first time in 7 years
BY LOHR MCKINSTRY Press-Republican
Lake Champlain has completely frozen over for the first time since 2019, according to National Weather Service officials.
The lake has full ice coverage, said meteorologist Seth Kutikoff with NWS in Burlington.
The weather service declared the lake totally frozen Feb. 14, using high-resolution satellite imagery and aerial photography.
It’s become increasingly rare for Lake Champlain to freeze over, due to warmer winters and climate change. When it does, it’s usually in February of early March, Kutikoff said.
In 2019, the lake was declared frozen March 8.
Extended below-zero temperatures in January probably contributed to the total freeze, Kutikoff said.
“(It’s) a rough idea of how cold each winter season was, based on not only the frequency of it closing, but also how early
LOHR MCKINSTRY/P-R PHOTO
Looking from Moriah’s Bulwagga Bay to the Vermont shore, Lake Champlain’s surface has frozen totally this year. No ice fishermen have been seen recently due to low temperatures and thin ice.
in the winter it closed,” he said.
The ice could still be very thin, he said, especially in the middle of the lake where it’s deeper, so people should stay off the ice for their own safety.
Anyone who wants to explore the ice near the shoreline should practice extreme
caution and use proper safety measures. Stay off the ice if unsure of its integrity, and never venture beyond where there’s a quick return to shore possible.
At Bridgeview Harbour Marina in Port Henry, which is closed for the season, co-owner Donald Jaquish said their obser-
vations are that the lake is totally frozen around Bulwagga Bay, where the marina is located.
“It’s frozen at the marina, but I don’t know about north,” Jaquish said. “I’ve heard 99% is considered totally frozen.”
A few ice fishermen have been seen on the lake in the
bay and near the Champlain Bridge between Crown Point and Chimney Point, Vermont.
The lake used to freeze every year, and ice festivals and other events were held on its frozen surface.
“The climatology of the lake closing shows most, but not all, years in the 1960s and 1970s saw Lake Champlain become fully ice covered, based on observations at the time,” Kutikoff said.
There were once wooden ice shanty cities around Port Henry, where ice anglers hunkered inside over holes drilled in the ice, hoping to pull in a few perch. But those have been replaced by pop-up shelters, sold at places like Tractor Supply Co., that fishermen can carry on and off the ice daily.
“It’s a new world out there,” Jaquish said. “A lot of people miss the clumps of ice shanties on the frozen lake. It was scenic.”
Kimora Decuteau/Cardinal Points
The Student Association meets on Feb.11 in the Angell College Center.
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Cardinal Creative: Alexandria Armstrong
Armstrong illustrates the North Country’s financial hardship
BY GRANT HOCHMUTH Staff Writer
Growing up in the North Country, SUNY Plattsburgh senior Alexandria Armstrong faced adversities that fueled her creative spirits. Her refined set of skills help her illustrate these difficulties on canvas.
“There is a lot of poverty, and everyone just kind of overlooks it,” Armstrong said. “Nobody even really talks about it, but I really wanted to emphasize it.”
Residents of the North Country tend to pick up trade skills to reduce the likelihood of needing to spend money on services such as plumbing or carpentry. Her current series follows her uncle, who embodies this characteristic of many in the North Country. Armstrong uses her uncle’s skills as her inspiration to fill her canvas.
“He taught himself mechanics, carpentry, plumbing, like all of it, so that he doesn’t have to rely on other people and spend money on things that you know can’t be afforded,” Armstrong said. “I want to highlight the hard work that so many individuals up here put in just to get by.”
Art is nothing new to Armstrong. From a young age, she had access to different media that cultivated a sense of creativity she always enjoyed expressing. Living across from her aunt and uncle also aided in her endeavors.
“My aunt and uncle are very artistic. She used to be an art teacher and he kind of just does everything. I lived right across the street from them so when my mom needed a baby sitter I would pop over. So I have been doing art since as long as I could remember,” Armstrong said.
Her early inspiration came from the internet, citing different Pinterest boards as a key source for some of her earlier creations. However, as of recently she has shifted towards a more serious tone with her art.
“Now I try to be a bit more
meaningful and thoughtful with my work. The series I am working on right now in painting is definitely a very personal one for me,” Armstrong said. “I am working on found objects more than usual, like wooden planks and stuff. I’m painting using acrylic, obviously I kind of gesso it to have a base.”
Currently a teacher assistant for an introductory drawing class, Armstrong encourages people of all skill levels to create and express themselves in their own way. According to Armstrong, art is less about the perfection of the piece and more about the process of creating.
“A white blank sheet of paper is so intimidating. When you look at it you just get lost, and you have no idea where to start,” Armstrong said. “If you just put
a mark on the canvas, make something, screw the wood to the piece, and just start and you will find something, and it will just take you from there.”
Armstrong hopes viewers of her work gain a sense of appreciation for the unyielding nature of the human spirit, something she wishes more people would appreciate in this fast paced world.
“There is a lot more than meets the eye. Everyone struggles with something, and I think everyday, everyone is just kind of putting in the work just to get by,” Armstrong said. “A lot of times people are doing things and learning things and putting in the work, and it gets overlooked and nobody really recognizes or appreciates it. I want to appreciate and I want to
recognize all of these people.”
Armstrong’s future is still undecided. The idea of heading to grad school and becoming an art teacher or professor enthralls her. In the same token, seeing the world and taking in more of what this world has to offer has also excited the young artist.
One thing is certain: Armstrong shows no sign of slowing down. As her creative journey continues to evolve, she remains committed to producing new work, pushing boundaries and finding fresh ways to bring her thoughts to life.
Alexandria Armstrong will be graduating this spring with high honors. Her art will be hanging in the senior exhibition inside the Myers Fine Arts building in the Myers Lobby Gallery.
“There is so much I want to do and create, again painting is my favorite, but I love just art as a whole. I don’t have one specific thing that I want to do. I want to do it all. I want to make all the sculptures, be a photographer, I want to paint and I want to draw,” Armstrong said.
To see more of Armstrong’s work, check out her art Instagram, @AlexandriaArmstrong.
BY KARA JEFTS Contributor
A new exhibition, “Object Lessons: Lines, Place, Persuasion,” makes public the often-hidden work of classes that use the Plattsburgh State Art Museum, PSAM, collection in their course work. This display, installed in the Slatkin Gallery on the second floor of the Myers Fine Arts Building, is operating as a working laboratory for courses in Environmental Science, Anthropology and Visual Arts.
As part of an invested effort to ensure students have access to the PSAM collection for study across academic disciplines, museum staff have been working to offer the opportunity for collections class visits to faculty. Through several informational events held for faculty and through curatorial opportunities open to the campus community such as Gather and Curate, held at the end of the fall semester, the campus community is starting to catch on.
Collections class visits, commonly held in the Fishbowl, the conference room in the Myers
Fine Arts building, have increased by 200% from fall of 2024 to fall of 2025.
PSAM hosted 31 collections class visits last fall semester, resulting in 550 student visits to view approximately 150 artworks
that were brought out of storage for individual class sessions. Though community interest in teaching with the museum is marked by significant growth, the visibility of how the
museum collection circulates for teaching is not easily noticed since it is behind classroom doors. The exhibition in the Slatkin Gallery helps make the process visible to the public, bringing together objects used in classes on mapping, Tibetan culture and graphic design.
Altogether there are 15 works on display. Some highlights include Tibetan thangkas that demonstrate a Buddhist painting tradition that originated in the 11th century; 18th century maps of Lake Champlain and North America; and propaganda posters from the mid-20th century that highlight topics from immigration rights to the spread of fascism.
A lunchtime reception will be held Friday February 27th from 12:00-2:00. The Slatkin Gallery is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. The exhibition, “Object Lessons: Lines, Place, Persuasion,” will run through May 15th. More information can be found on the Plattsburgh State
Museum web page.
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GRANT HOCHMUTH/Cardinal Points
Senior Art major Alexandria Armstrong stands beside her current work focused on a mechanic fixing a truck.
Art
Provided by Plattsburgh State Art Museum Rockwell Kent, Save This Right Hand, 1949, lithograph on paper, Museum Purchase with funds from the Sally Kent Gorton Endowment, PSAM collection P52004.16.1
BY GRYPHON AKRIDGE-PHILLIPS
Students should be involved
BY SYDNEY BLAKE
Staff writer
The school has over 75 organizations that are diverse and accepting to all students. The school offers sports, clubs, sorority/fraternity life and on campus events.
Students utilize and discover these programs more when they are living in the dorms, but as students move off campus or get busy with school and other commitments they stop participating in campus activities.
One of these programs is the House of Divinity modeling club. The club captures fashion by finding beauty and acceptance through modeling.
Aaron Reneau, who is a junior living on campus in Defredenburgh hall.
Although clubs are not mandatory for attendance, Reneau says that the club helps create a routine that makes his campus life more comfortable. He mentions that about 20 to 30 people are involved with the club currently.
“There aren’t that many people really involved with or trying to be involved with clubs as much as I feel like people should,” Reneau said.
The school and the clubs on campus encourage students to join programs with flyers and emails, but those can be easily missed or ignored. When students don’t live on campus, their involvement seems to diminish.
Senior Hannah Myers says she has seen a decrease in the amount of involvement when she had lived off campus ver-
sus on campus. Myers plays on the women’s soccer team and only lived on campus her freshman year, in Whiteface hall.
Soccer helped her become more connected to the campus, but living off campus can make it hard to find time between school, sports and life. She explained that the sports teams at the school participate in Cardinals supporting Cardinals, where each team will go to one another’s events to support and have crowd participation.
“I feel like playing soccer, I see a lot of people, but off campus I see the same people throughout the week and going to classes,” Myers said.
With soccer, the players try to stay active by going to the gym on campus; where they’re able to see flyers about campus life. Myers shares that she’s able to see more people and hear about more campus activities when she goes to the gym.
When Myers lived on campus her floor was very active and everyone hung out in their common area, where they had a floor Friendsgiving and Super Bowl party. Myers said that she’d go to the building’s bingo night, ice cream socials and slime making events.
But not all were lucky with getting a close knit floor their freshman year.
Sophomores Samantha Marcus and Emily Jaffee of Alpha Epsilon Phi, said that their floor in Wilson hall was quiet and not as close as others. The two found comfort in each other being the only girls on a co-ed floor.
Both Marcus and Jaffee wanted to become more connected to the school and started looking at the organizations offered and went to sorority rush events. Once the girls found Alpha Epsilon Phi they were able to get connected with people and campus life.
The sorority held events on campus like fundraisers and tabling in the Angell College Center, ACC, to spread the word about their organization.
Both Marcus and Jaffee said that these events have helped them during their sophomore year because they no longer live on campus. They’ve seen a trend with the participation declining in the second semester and said that the campus was more active during the first semester.
The new first years that come in are the ones they’ve seen the most as they seemed excited and are trying to see what the campus offers. As the year goes on people get into routines, become busy and get over the newness of campus. The weather also plays a part in everything as students stay inside more to protect themselves from the cold.
“If it’s cold and raining out, I’m definitely not leaving my dorm, When it’s the beginning of the semester or the end and it’s warmer out, I feel like I see a lot more people around campus and they’re willing to just walk around instead of going straight back home,” Marcus said.
The weather stops many from being more active and involved. Marcus and Jaffee expressed that now
that they live off campus it’s hard to have a reason to go to campus other than going to the library, class or sorority.
Jaffee expressed that her classes help her become more connected because she hears announcements about campus events. For example, some professors give them extra credit if they go to events like Wellness Day or Black Solidarity Day. She also will have some teachers bring students in to talk about a new club or opportunity available for students.
Plattsburgh tries its best to get people involved. They post flyers, send out emails, use social media platforms and inform the campus through word of mouth. When students become busy with school life or other commitments, participation seems to drop.
So next time you see the student digest in your email, don’t ignore it. Take a second to read the information to see if there is something you can do at the school that’s fun or just for the experience.
“If you see a flyer, it can’t hurt to stop by. You might make a friend or two or learn something new,” Jaffee said, “You know, you’re paying this much money. Sometimes there’s free food, too. You might as well take advantage of what you’re being offered.”
Newest olympian sparks patriotism
BY SOPHIE ALBERTIE Opinion editor
I know nothing about ice skating, but I’ve watched Alyssa Liu win the gold medal for olympic figure skating about one million times.
The 20 year old Liu apparently returned to skating after a four year hiatus. Despite her gargantuan victories, she preaches self care, self regulation and trusting the process. She has managed to center skating without making it the center of her life. Something that I can imagine to be incredibly challenging for other olympians.
“I connect with everything but I’m not attached to anything,” Liu said.
An incredibly talented young woman with an ever promising future, the first public figure I can’t find anything wrong with to write about. The halo rings bleached into her hair represent the rings of a tree, and her selection of songs that she skates to highlight her knowledge of culture. She is wholeheartedly a trailblazer. A skater who has brought the most relevance to the sport of ice skating since two time ice skating olympian Johnny Weir.
So how do some people not like her?
The majority of Liu’s haters are about as relevant as fax machines, but the real issue is the root of why people are even taking to the internet in the first place. They comment on her politics, her use of the f-bomb after her iconic routine and even her piercings. Something that wouldn’t happen to a male athlete in a thou- sand lifetimes. There has also unfortunately been the rampant sexualization of her pictures and videos that cycle the internet; men tweeting about one particular photo of her sticking her tongue out.
The saddest thing about any negative attention this girl is getting is that it highlights the universal truth about human nature: there’s always something wrong. Oftentimes this applies directly to young women in the spotlight.
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‘Bugonia’ a wonderfully weird remake
BY SOPHIE ALBERTIE Opinion editor
The future of mankind is in the hands of one simple man, who has just discovered an alien. Not just any alien, the supreme leader of all extraterrestrial life.
In Yorgos Lanthimos 2025 U.S. adaptation of the 2003 Korean sci-fi thriller “Save the Green Planet,” retitled “Bugonia,” Actor Jesse Plemons plays a bumbling conspiracy theorist who has just gotten his hands on a high tech girlboss CEO. The CEO is played by Emma Stone, and the theorist has convinced him-
self that this fast talking business woman has an alien agenda and is gunning for supreme rule of the human race.
The question this film asks is one of the more simple ones, resting on the surface of outrageous philosophy usually asked in Lanthimos films; real or fake?
Is this simple man pining aimlessly towards the execution of a completely innocent human being, or is he onto something greater? What does he know that the audience doesn’t?
This movie is not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach. If you
have a complicated relationship with your mom or grief, this may surprisingly bring out some repressed feelings.
One of the more surreal watches, an extremely stylized remake of an entirely different movie. This is what Lathimos does best in his movies, always adding the undertone of his own bizarre imagination that makes even a recreation feel totally unique.
Emma Stone shaved her head in one take for this movie, which definitely helps to put the ‘thrill’ in thriller. Not my favorite watch of 2025, but defi-
nitely the most memorable. Four out of five stars. Viewers will be on the edge of their seats for the duration of the two hour runtime. Nothing is as it seems but every uncomfortable moment appears to be adding up, accumulating one grand finale. It’s up to you to decide if the world ends with a bang or a whimper.
Hiram Cowhey/Cardinal Points
Students enjoy a game of pickleball.
SOPHIE ALBERTIE