Volume 91 • Issue 5
October 14, 2022
FSUgatepost.com
Remembering a Ram
Leighah Beausoleil / THE GATEPOST
Students held a candlelight vigil Oct. 11 in memory of Tyrese Lee, a junior business management major, who died this past summer. The candles were placed in the shape of two hearts and the letters “T” and “Y.” Students left messages on the candles in his honor.
Commuter parking, student leadership addressed at Administrators’ Forum By Branden La Croix Asst. News Editor
Students raised concerns over commuter parking and residence hall issues, and discussed possible incentives for student leaders at the Administrators’ Forum Oct. 11. The administrators who attended the forum were President Nancy Niemi, Executive Vice President Dale Hamel, Dean of Students Meg Nowak-Borrego, University Chief of Police John Santoro, Wardell Powell, interim chief inclusion and diversity officer, Aretha Phillips, general manager of Dining Services, Eric Gustafson, vice president of Development and Alumni Relations, Lorretta Holloway, vice president of Academic
Enhancement, Kristen Porter-Utley, provost and vice president of Academic Affairs, and Ann McDonald, chief of staff and general counsel. The discussion was led by Student Trustee McKenzie Ward. Ryan Mikelis, vice president of the Student Commuter Group, said he and other students have concerns about the difficulty of finding parking spaces on campus for commuter students. Mikelis said in the Maynard and Salem End Parking Lots, “If you go down there at night, you’ll see 80% of the lot filled with cars,” adding most cars parked overnight either have expired parking permits or no permits at all. “It just makes it more evident that
VP OF DICE CANDIDATES pg. 4-5 these cars are not commuters’ and they’re taking up precious parking for commuter students,” he said. He added, “We have commuters driving up to an hour and a half to get to campus. We get to campus and we cannot find a single parking space at either of these parking lots. And that is honestly unacceptable.” Mikelis said he is aware University Police is currently understaffed, but added, “That can’t be the excuse the police fall to every time a parking complaint comes up.” Courtesy of YouTube Chief Santoro said there is curACCOUNTABILITY NOT HUMOROUS pg. 8 rently a position open for a parking enforcement officer, but the position has been vacant for over two years.
Opinions
See ADMINISTRATORS’ FORUM page 6
New Provost and Academic Vice President Kristen Porter-Utley highlights student readiness as a priority
By Emma Lyons Arts & Features Editor
Kristen Porter-Utley stepped into the role of provost and vice president of Academic Affairs at the beginning of the academic year. She said her primary goal is student readiness - working to connect major programs to careers and supporting students on campus. Porter-Utley earned her Ph.D. in botany from the University of Florida. She said her area of focus was evolutionary biology, working to understand how different species of organisms are related to one another.
The field work for her degree was conducted in Mexico, Florida, Haiti, and Jamaica, she said. At Keene State College, Porter-Utley began working as a professor before becoming chair of the Biology Department. She then took the position of assistant dean of Sciences. She moved to Bridgewater State University to become dean of the Bartlett College of Science and Mathematics. “With each stage of that progression, what I found was that I was able to positively impact a larger and larger group of people,” she said. Porter-Utley said she was drawn to serving in an administrative position
News
Sports
FOOTBALL pg. 10 FIELD HOCKEY pg. 10
because she wanted to bridge the gap between faculty and administration. “People who love teaching, who love students, who love faculty members and have a central mission of serving students, those folks need to step out of their comfort zones a little bit more and move into administrative roles,” she said. Porter-Utley said the position of provost was a “natural next step” in her career. She was already interested in becoming a provost before the FramZachary Sorel / THE GATEPOST ingham State position opened and she PRIDE ACROSS GENERATIONS pg. 11 was encouraged to apply.
Arts & Features
See PROVOST page 12 ‘HSMTMTS REVIEW’ pg. 15
INSIDE: OP/ED 8 • SPORTS 10 • ARTS & FEATURES 11