FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2022VOLUME
VOLUME 107 | ISSUE 11
SUNY Plattsburgh’s independent student newspaper since 1997
Athletics celebrates Title IX anniversary BY COLLIN BOLEBRUCH Associate Sports Editor
The NCAA and SUNY Plattsburgh are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Title IX this year. Title IX is a federal civil rights law signed in 1972 that prohibits discrimination based on gender in educational settings and educationrelated programs that receive federal funding. Plattsburgh women’s cross country, ice hockey, soccer, tennis and volleyball teams are recognizing the golden jubilee during games at different points in its seasons. The volleyball team, for example, hosted former Head Coach Lisa Vicencio and raised a banner in celebration of her time with the team. Interim Title IX Coordinator Ann James said the primary attention around Title IX is with collegiate athletics. Before the passing of Title IX, James said men’s and women’s sports opportunities on campuses were “hugely disparate,” but they’ve “improved greatly” since then. Despite the progress, she said you can still find stories about the lack of gender equity. A recent example was the notable size and quality differences between the men’s and women’s locker rooms at the 2021 NCAA basketball tournaments, as noted by Cheryl Cole, associate athletic director and senior woman administrator. Current Cardinals are preceded by generations of pioneers and staples of women’s athletics at Plattsburgh. Of the 132 individual
RYAN NISTA/Cardinal Points
SUNY Plattsburgh’s women’s hockey team embraces during a game against SUNY Morrisville Nov. 19. The team will hold a ceremony celebrating Title IX’s 50th anniversary Jan. 20, 2023. members of the Plattsburgh State Athletics Hall of Fame, 45 are women. Ellen Turkel is one of those women. Turkel arrived on campus in the fall semester of 1972 — just months after Title IX was signed into law. She made history as the
first woman to compete in both track and field and cross country. Turkel experienced her share of teasing throughout her career, but she felt nothing but welcome at Plattsburgh. Growing up, she felt like boys had “more fun,” and Platts-
burgh gave her that opportunity. She approached the men’s coach, Tim Hale, and joined the team with “no resistance.” “I was a kid. I just wanted to do what I wanted to do. I wasn’t going to go to court or anything,” Turkel said. “If I was going to do
Boost takes off, changes dining scene BY HAYDEN SADLER Contributor
Boost Mobile is a phone application that allows students to order food on the SUNY Plattsburgh campus online, a convenient alternative to ordering food in person, but is there a cost to convenience? Chris Mihalyi is resident director of Chartwells, the company that runs campus dining operations. “I tell everyone it’s a fancy title for me in oversight of all dining services on campus,” Mihalyi said. He works closely with Kelly Santor, Chartwells’ operations controller. The pair have worked together to ensure a smooth introduction of Boost services across campus. With over 12,000 orders from the start of the semester to mid-November, Boost is
EIC LEAVES NEST, BIDS FAREWELL
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Platts studentparent count not yet certain BY ALEKSANDRA SIDOROVA
News Editor
no doubt growing in popularity. Mihalyi described the increase in popularity as a “crescendo.” “The students are embracing it much more this year,” Santor said. Campus dining locations are sometimes swamped with hundreds of Boost orders, so is it sustainable for on campus workers to fulfill an entirely different set of orders while ensuring the in-person line flows smoothly? Across campus, the popularity of Boost has become much more apparent this last semester. In some locations, such as Tim Horton’s and Kent Cafe, students have experienced longer lines, which they believe to be caused by Boost orders increasing the workload of employees across campus.
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it, I was going to do it. I mean, all I can do is hang on, keep on running.” Since her time at Plattsburgh, Turkel has competed in the Boston Marathon, ran in the Olympic trials and now coaches cross country at San Diego City College.
“It’s been my life. It’s my ability to express who I am. I express who I am through movement and then I share that expression with other people who also enjoy it as much as I do,” Turkel said. “It’s who I am.” Title IX and Plattsburgh athletics allowed her to do this at a high level and it shaped her life, and now she’s using her experience to help shape others’ lives. Turkel is impressed with the “level” women have “come up to” regarding athleticism. Watching the Olympics, she’s been “delighted” to watch these “amazing athletes.” She does think there is more to do to ensure fairness between men’s and women’s sports. The first step, she believes, is to distribute funding more evenly. Turkel specifically cited large programs’ high salaries for men’s coaches and the other sports that money could be used to fund. Cole is also a giant in Plattsburgh women’s sports. She was hired as the women’s basketball head coach in 1997. Now, two years after leaving the position, Cole now holds two administrative positions in the athletics department. She is a vocal proponent of women’s issues. Her Twitter account beams support for the release of Brittney Griner — a WNBA player sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison and fined 1 million rubles, or $15,920, for smuggling less than a gram of cannabis oil.
A Cardinal Points article published Nov. 4 reported the experiences of a professor and a student juggling their responsibilities as caregivers as well as work and study at SUNY Plattsburgh. Assistant Professor Akanksha Misra and Diana Cathcart, who is pursuing a master’s in clinical mental health counseling, shared their struggles and hoped to receive more support and recognition from the SUNY Plattsburgh campus. It may also be in SUNY Plattsburgh’s interest to support the student-parent population, currently of an uncertain size, to boost enrollment, retention and student success.
KIDS AND CLASS
In a previous interview, Cathcart said most of her BOOST l A2 Students can order Tim Horton’s through Boost Mobile. professors were accommoBRYN FAWN/Cardinal Points
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Q&A WITH HOCKEY GOALIE
dating of her missing class to take care of her two boys, 5 and 8, who were sick with a cold. Not all of them, though. While there are Title IX regulations for accommodating students through pregnancy and childbirth, there are no regulations specifically addressing a situation like Cathcart’s. Interim Title IX Coordinator Ann James said that if she received a report about a professor refusing accommodations for such an instance, she would email them asking to accommodate the student, but there is nothing more she can currently do. James hopes new Title IX regulations, which have been in the works since May 2021 on an executive order from President Joe Biden, will do more to support student parents beyond pregnancy and childbirth.
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FUERZA SPREADS SPIRIT