FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 2023
VOLUME 108 | ISSUE 5
SUNY Plattsburgh’s independent student newspaper since 1997
Quake shakes up production BY ALEKSANDRA SIDOROVA Managing & News Editor
Photo provided by Jessica Facteau
UP intern Paula Cucaita stands between officers Conrad LaVarnway and Carter Frechette outside the UP building.
UP offers students safe late-night walks home BY ALEKSANDRA SIDOROVA Managing & News Editor
University Police’s Safe Walk service fully launched this semester, allowing students to request to get escorted by their peers, who are safety ambassadors and work in pairs Thursday through Saturday, 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. Students are always able to call UP and request to be escorted from one point on campus to another, but the Safe Walk service gives students the
option of walking with their peers instead of an officer. The service can be accessed by scanning a QR code on Safe Walk posters or on the SUNY Plattsburgh website. According to UP Investigator Jessica Facteau, who manages the program, Safe Walk was designed based on a survey conducted by Associate Professor of Teacher Education Michelle Bonati, which found that students would be more receptive to being escorted from one place to
another by their peers than police officers and they would be more likely to utilize the service weekend nights. Five students are currently Safe Walk ambassadors, sporting reflective bright-red jackets when they’re on the job. Four of them are paid — Dineshreddy and Shantan Channapareddy, Haleyann Ortiz and Kenneth Baez — and one, Paula Cucaita, receives academic credit for her work as a UP intern. WALK > 2
SUNY Plattsburgh’s student-run campus radio station known for more than two decades as WQKE is rebranding to Quake Productions as it returns to the scene of student involvement. A club becomes “frozen” after three semesters without training its officers. Interim Director of the Center for Student Involvement Jacob Avery said Quake found itself in the middle of a “perfect storm.” First, COVID-19 prevented Quake from hosting meetings and producing its usual content, then its “excellent” long-time Adviser Timothy Clukey retired last semester, and recently, there have been office space disputes. Now, however, the club has regained active status and its officers have been trained. All remaining steps, such as revising the club constitution and submitting a budget, should be complete by the end of April, Avery said. Quake’s new adviser is Communication Studies Lecturer James Ward. Besides the name change, Quake has shifted its creative direction to become a “hub for all things media,” in the words of Quake President Garrett Jones. By getting off the radio air and instead offering ondemand podcasting con-
tent, Quake is adjusting to a new media landscape while staying true to its mission of producing quality audio-based content — “keeping the radio aspect alive.” Quake also saves thousands of dollars that would go to radio station licensing fees. “Radio, as a format that we know, when you’re in your car listening to a DJ, is still happening, but it’s definitely changing. We’re seeing that more people are consuming podcasts — they want to listen to things on-demand when they’re ready to,” Quake Executive Producer Melissa Forte said. “Right now, podcasting is so lucrative. It’s so accessible to so many people, so it only makes sense that WQKE moves into Quake Productions and adapts.” Quake currently has the first installments of two podcast shows on its YouTube channel and SoundCloud account: “Various Voices,” where students discuss the end of WQKE, and “Pay it Forward,” featuring ‘14 SUNY Plattsburgh alumnus Trevor Kent, who now works in Los Angeles. Jones said there are plans for a show hosted in Spanish. Forte looks forward to producing content that is both informative and entertaining, aiming to showcase the racial, ethnic, gender and religious diversity of the SUNY Plattsburgh body. QUAKE > 3
Bazzano grows role as community director BY JESSE TAYLOR Staff Writer
SUNY Plattsburgh’s Campus Housing and Community Living staff is a department with 62 community advocates, four programming advocates and nine community directors. CDs are responsible for ensuring a safe environment in the dorm halls and overseeing community advocates. Typically, CDs are responsible for two buildings, but Zane Bazzano is a special case in that he is the director for three residence halls – Hood, deFredenburgh and Kent. On top of that, his supplemental job responsibility is as wellness coordinator. Although Bazzano may currently be considered the outlier in terms of managing three residence halls, it is not as unusual as it may seem. James Sherman, the director of campus housing and community living, said the reason Bazzano is currently managing three residence halls is because the school is moving away from hir-
Photo provided by Zane Bazzano
Zane Bazzano and his daughter Avery pose outside. Bazzano is a graduate student in the childhood education program. ing graduate students and looking into hiring more professional staff. Bazzano grew up in Peru, New York, just outside of Plattsburgh. Be-
fore becoming a CD, he went to college at SUNY Stony Brook. After graduating from Stony Brook he enrolled in SUNY Plattsburgh’s childhood edu-
OPINION Cardinal Sins: Nathan Dunlap
SPORTS Hockey finishes seasons
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cation masters program, which is part of the reason he decided to become a CD in the first place. He was looking to avoid further student loans as a
graduate student. Bazzano began working as a CD in fall 2020 at the height of COVID-19. During that time, programming was extremely
difficult, especially in terms of following the Centers for Disease Control’s social-distancing guidelines at the time, Bazzano said. But now it seems that Bazzano and the rest of the staff are beginning to return to how things used to be before COVID. Bazzano said he is seeing people wanting to participate in these programs more and that the campus and community living staff are beginning to get back in their “stride.” Bazzano said he oversees 20 CA’s, two assistant directors, a graduate wellness assistant and two peer educators. The only consistent thing about Bazzano’s workday is two to three one-on-one meetings with staff members. Other than that, “no one day is the same.” A lot of Bazzano’s days are full of planning for programs that he sets up as the wellness coordinator such as the programs offered in the recent wellness week.
BAZZANO > 3
ARTS & CULTURE Women in STEM presentation
THIS WEEK IN PHOTOS Zumba
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