Club requests granted

BY HAYDEN SADLER Staff Writer

Members of the Student Association met March 8 to discuss approvals in club requests. All who were present also received a presentation about the Green Grant from the Campus Committee for Environmental Responsibility.

The first item of discussion was the approval of a request for $400 for the Council for Exceptional Children Club. The club focuses on providing educational opportunities and increasing awareness for children with exceptional needs. Exceptional needs can be anything from a student requiring assistance in any curriculum to more advanced students requiring different accommodations. The money would help the club fund its upcoming

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Burghy’s Blurbs

Cardinal Cash Update

Three Stewarts locations, along with Kinney Drugs and The Butcher Block, are still unable to accept Cardinal Cash, according to a March 17 update from College Auxiliary Services. The campus was first notified of the issue Feb. 16.

Ticketing Website Update

The campus ticketing system is still offline, as it has been since Feb. 24. Tickets to campus events can instead be purchased from the Angell College Center Information Window. To securely purchase athletics events tickets, contact burghystickets@plattsburgh.edu or 518-5644062.

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OPINION:

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1) In the previous issue’s article “Panelists discuss all things law school,” the name of associate professor of political science Raymond Carman was misspelled as “Carmen.”

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trip and the cost of a place to stay. Members of the senate unanimously approved the club’s request.

The second item on the agenda was a presentation from the Campus Committee for Environmental Responsibility from Curt Gervich, a professor of environmental science at SUNY Plattsburgh. Gervich informed the room about Plattsburgh’s Green Grant with a presentation. The presentation explained the benefits of the Green Grant, a program which allows students and faculty to propose environmental policies that the school can fund.

In the past, the Green Grant has provided improvements such as the bike fix-it stations, electric vehicle charging stations and the campus gardens. There also needs to be five student representatives, and currently

Facteau hopes the number can go up to seven or eight students, as it was in 2018, but in order to receive more funding from the Student Association, there has to be a formal record of the service being utilized. So far there is none, though Facteau said student ambassadors would perform 10 to 15 escorts a semester in previous years.

Facteau recognized students may be sharing their locations with friends through their smartphones as a safety measure, but still wants more students to know about the service should they need it.

Students have had the opportunity to work with UP as safety ambassadors since 2018, originating from former UP Officer Coty Cowles’ experience being part of a student patrol program at SUNY Brockport. Facteau disagreed with the idea of students acting as their peers’ patrol officers and enforcing student conduct, instead focusing on improving campus safety “so it didn’t feel police-y.”

As such, if students in a compromising situation — intoxicated or otherwise violating student conduct — request a student safety ambassador through Safe Walk, they will not face consequences as it is not the safety ambassadors’ responsibility to enforce law or student conduct.

“We’re all about safety, right? This is college — we understand that students may be drinking, but this is not an opportunity to enforce those particular sets of laws,” Facteau said. “More likely than not, I would imagine, Friday, Saturday night in the late hours of the morning, someone may be coming back from a party and maybe got separated from their friends. I think that’s why it was believed that if it was students providing these escorts, more people would utilize them — because the police wouldn’t be the ones responding.”

Dineshreddy Channapareddy heard about the job through his brother Shantan, an SA senator for student affairs and diversity, and it appealed to him because it did not conflict with his class schedule. As a first-year or sophomore, he would have regretted being busy on weekend nights, but as a senior, he likes his working hours because they give him “an excuse not to go out.”

A typical Safe Walk shift starts out with walking through every floor of the residential halls and campus buildings, such as Angell College Center. In the fall, ambassadors would walk to Hawkins pond as well. Ambassadors also have the opportunity to ride along with UP officers during their patrols.

Channapareddy majors in economics and finance, unlike some of his criminal justice coworkers, but the job still taught him a valuable lesson in commitment and responsibility.

“We can’t shy away from things that we could before. Honestly there are only two. Recently, the Green Grant hasn’t received many student proposals, a factor which ensures the grant — and the fee that students pay to support it — doesn't go to waste.

The fee adds up to about $50,000 that can go toward environmental goals established with the Green Grant. Gervich brainstormed with members of the SA to generate ideas regarding how the Green Grant can get more pub- licity and attention from students. Senator Sy recommended utilizing future campus involvement fairs to garner student interest. Senators had some announcements to share as well. Senator Patel looked into the cancellation of summer storage. Finally, Senator Vaidya wishes everyone the best on their midterms.

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speaking, if I was a freshman or a sophomore and I found someone being drunk or acting out on the streets, I would walk away — that’s what most people would do,” Channapareddy said. “But you learn that once you have this windbreaker on you that says ‘Safety Ambassador,’ you’re pretty much responsible for everything that goes on campus.”

A highlight of Channapareddy’s time as a safety ambassador is the opportunity to participate in a Christmas parade, where he gave out candy to Plattsburgh residents while Burghy and the Grinch cruised through the city on a float.

Facteau said working with students is her favorite part of her job.

“I’ve always said that I learn just as much from the students as they learn from me, if not more, honestly,” Facteau said. “Engaging with students is definitely a highlight of my job here”

The first student hired as a safety ambassador, ‘20 alumnus Humberto “Tico” Alvarado, who now works as a college counselor for the nonprofit Harlem Children’s Zone, visited SUNY Plattsburgh in early March. Alvarado said the visit was emotional for him, as he didn’t have a chance to say a “proper goodbye” to Facteau; he went on spring break and “never got to return” due to COVID-19.

The safety ambassadors program was presented to Alvarado as a bridge between UP and students of color, and the opportunity signaled to him UP’s willingness to better understand students of color. Alvarado said being part of the program “opened my eyes” and changed how he views law enforcement as well as other groups of people.

“Around 2016, that’s when Trump got elected, and around that time there was a lot of turmoil in the country, specifically for students of color,” Alvarado said. “Working with UP showed me not all [police officers] are the same. It’s a life lesson as well, because it applies to everything.”

Channapareddy does not have such an impression of the program, but does agree that new students can have a stigma against UP.

“It’s never good news if police come knocking, right?” Channapareddy said. “So I think that’s where the stigma comes across, but they’re very nice people once you get to know them.”

When Channapareddy first came to Plattsburgh as an international student from India, UP was a new phenomenon, but after working with them, he said he thinks of them as “very chill and very easy to get along with.”

Alvarado also said he noticed his friends felt safer knowing he was a safety ambassador — “knowing that, OK, they don’t hate us, right?”

“I think it provides a sense of security and safety, even though safety ambassadors can’t really do much,” Alvarado said. “But the fact that they are an extra set of eyes on campus that can alert UP if they see something, or just kind of be a mediator for certain things, I think that also provides a lot of support for students and the faculty and staff.”

In Channapareddy’s experience, students were curious about his position and asked how they could get involved.

“It’s a very good program,” Channapreddy said. “I don’t know why it was under the radar for such a long time.”

As some safety ambassadors, including Channapareddy, will be graduating this semester, UP will be looking for candidates for the fall semester. Interested students in good academic standing will be able to apply on Handshake, an application that connects students with job opportunities, or they can email Facteau at jfact001@plattsburgh.edu.

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One of the more unique programs that Bazzano facilitates as the wellness coordinator is his Painting with Avery program, in which students are invited to chat with Bazzano’s four-year-old daughter as she paints various things on her easel in the main lounge of Hood Hall. Bazzano said that since he started advertising the program, they have been getting five to ten people showing up each week, with “a few regulars.”

Bazzano said he is grateful for the opportunity to do this program with his daughter on campus.

“It is a unique dynamic and I am very grateful for it,” Bazzano said.

He said the surrounding community outside the college is not the most diverse population, with Clinton County demographics averaging 11% of the population identifying as a person of color, compared to the 29.1% of Plattsburgh undergraduates identifying as such. He appreciates that his daughter is being exposed to more diversity at such an early age.

This is Bazzano’s first year as the wellness coordinator, and he puts a lot of effort into providing as many programs for as many students as possible.

“The goal is to be involved in wellness programming as much as possible,” Bazzano said.

The days that he is able to be involved in programming “are the days that stand out.”

The passion that Bazzano has for his work does not go unnoticed. Sherman said, “It’s a passion of Zane’s, and he really likes to do this type of work and it shows.”

Quake

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Forte also wants Quake to complement other campus media outlets’ coverage of SUNY Plattsburgh and work together with them.

“I see [campus media outlets] as very necessary pieces to this beautiful pie that is campus and student life,” Forte said. “I think it’s beautiful when you can have so many different stories. It’s boring when you can only have one source of media consumption. So when you have a variety of media on campus, that’s amazing, and I would love to see cross-collaboration in the future.”

As another part of its rebrand, the club is moving its headquarters from the corner of Burghy’s Den on the first floor of Angell College Center to the middle of Yokum Hall. Jones said the offices are “small,” with enough room for storage, and “almost soundproof.” Before the club finalized the decision, it met in a Yokum conference room and Burghy’s Den.

The club made this decision before any disputes arose surrounding office moves involving the offices of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Enrollment and Student Success; and Fraternity and Sorority Life, in which Frater- nity and Sorority Life was initially planned to move to the space that had belonged to WQKE.

Some of Quake’s new content was produced using the communication department’s equipment, as samples to “show the SA that we actually know what we’re doing,” Jones said. Quake still has the equipment from its WQKE days, of which some is still good to use and some will be sold or replaced.

Joining Quake will give any student interested a chance to learn to use any technical equipment, as only communication studies majors may rent equipment from the communication studies department’s equipment cage, Forte said. The club currently has about 10 members and hopes to attract more by appealing to the entire campus and not limiting itself to communication studies majors or people who are already skilled in handling equipment and producing content.

“If we’re going to be studentfocused, we can’t be like, ‘You have to come with this amount of knowledge’ — there are job applications and job postings for that. College is the place where you get to get your hands dirty and make mistakes and learn. That’s the place where you get to do all of this, so we cannot be putting barriers on student access,” Forte said. “How I see it is we really should be the place where students can get the opportunity to play, because there aren’t many opportunities for a lot of people.” Forte, who is graduating in May, has always wanted to be part of Quake, but was never able to join until now.

“It’s going to take some time for us to rebuild, and it’s going to take some time for things to ‘return to normal’ but I am very excited to be part of the people who are planting the seeds so that Quake and many clubs like it can just be successful and thrive on campus,” Forte said.