The minimum number of course requirements has been reduced from 32 to 30 credits for all enrolled undergraduate students effective immediately, according to an email sent to faculty and staff by Provost Kristen Porter-Utley on Oct. 1.
An additional email was sent notifying students about the change by University Registrar Mark Powers on Oct. 8.
President Nancy Niemi approved the change, which Porter-Utley wrote in her email “reflects our commitment to supporting every student’s path to timely degree completion.”
The new minimum requirement will be automatically applied to students’ academic records, and they will be advised accordingly for the Spring 2026 semester, Porter-Utley wrote.
“We’re trying to think about time to degree and time to graduation. What are the things that we should be thinking about in terms of our academic program to ensure that we’re offering a quality program that we need to offer? Are there ways in which we can assist with time to degree? That’s basically where we started in the conversation,” Porter-Utley said in an interview with The Gatepost.
Niemi said in addition to helping students complete their degrees, “[We were] thinking about how we serve our students wellparticularly in the context of the state university system.”
According to Niemi, every other institution in the Massachusetts state university system already follows a 30-credit minimum model.
Both Niemi and Porter-Utley said they want to ensure students know 30 credits is now the minimum number of credits that must be taken to qualify for graduation. Some majors will require students to take more than 30 credits to complete a degree.
Interview with published author and FSU professor
By Sarah Daponde Asst. Arts & Features Editor
Author and Professor Jennifer De Leon held a discussion about her latest book, “White Space,” on Oct. 6 in the Heineman Ecumenical Center.
Lisa Eck, English Department chair, introduced De Leon and Adam Stumacher, an author, visiting lecturer at Framingham State, and De Leon’s husband, who conducted the discussion in an interview fashion.
“There’s so many ways for words to go to work in the world and the two authors we have here today write in multiple forms to many audiences,” added Eck.
De Leon is the author of several published works, including young adult novels “Borderless” and “Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From,” as well as her new book of essays, “White Space,” Eck said.
De Leon is also a tenured professor of creative writing at Framingham State and is currently on sabbatical.
“It feels kind of surreal because it’s been several months since I’ve been on campus,” said De Leon.
De Leon began the discussion by reading an excerpt from “White Space” called “A Pink Dress,” a piece about her mother buying her a dress for college graduation.
“My college graduation dress was as important to [my mother] as a wedding gown,” De Leon read.
She said her mother, an immigrant from Guatemala, inspired her to write. “All of her stories really lit a match in me that made me want to write and write and write.”
Rams raise awareness about breast cancer
Adrien Gobin / THE GATEPOST
The view of the sunset behind the McCarthy Center Sept. 29.
E ditorial Board
Editor-in-Chief
Sophia Oppedisano
Associate Editors
Adrien Gobin
Dylan Pichnarcik
Copy Editor Antonio Machado
News Editor Bella Grimaldi
Opinions Editor
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Sports Editor
Izabela Gage
Asst. Sports Editor Taylor Kimmell
Arts & Features Editors
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Asst. Arts & Features Editors
Sarah Daponde
Liv Dunleavy
Photos & Design Editor
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Illustrations Editors
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Staff Writers
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Advisor
Desmond McCarthy
Asst. Advisor
Elizabeth Banks
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Emma Lyons
Gatepost Interview Ryan Hacker
Associate Vice President of Facilities and Capital Projects
By Dylan Pichnarcik Associate Editor
By Kennedy Thompson Staff Writer
What is your academic and professional background?
I’ve been in the public sector my whole career. I am trained as an architect. I have an undergrad degree from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, and my grad degree is in facilities management from Massachusetts Maritime Academy. So two fellow state institutions like here at Framingham. I’m a strong proponent of public higher education. And I am a graduate of two of the state’s nine public state universities so definitely a point of pride for me. I know when applying to this position and interviewing here that was something that really resonated and it was certainly a draw for me because of the positive experience that I have had personally in my educational career. So it has definitely been a big part of my reasoning to come here and remain in the public sector. Professionally, I worked for the state for 10-and-a-half years at UMass Chan Medical School as one of their in-house designers and later an architectural and construction project manager. And then for the past two-and-a-half years, I was most recently at the city of Worcester as their assistant director of facilities and capital projects. So, I actually oversaw all of the capital programming directly. It was my main area of focus. But also, we had a department of 206 staff members. ... Worcester was the second largest school district in New England and had 25,000 students, 5,000 staff members, and 4.5 million square feet of space. So, very large buildings of all ranges from stuff 140 years old to the new school that we opened up last year. I have loved the public sector and I’m delighted to keep that trajectory going by being here.
What brought you to Framingham State?
I think the opportunity to stay in the public sector for me was big. I wanted to get back to being on a college campus. I loved my time at UMass Medical. UMass Chan has a relatively small student population [and is a] very big
Correction
research institution. Often labs would be staffed by post-docs and sometimes students. But I love the energy of a campus and helping students too. I have a job because of the students and the faculty and staff here. We have to deliver the best possible spaces for education and learning. To me, that’s really a point of pride.
What issues do you hope to address in your role?
My philosophy is to hit the ground listening. The work of this role is not new to me, this is my professional career. I’m familiar with the work. It’s fairly universal across all facilities … every facility has challenges, like today with the roof leaks. So, on my way, I called up Danny [Giard.] I said, “Danny, Hey, Where are the problem spots for inclement weather?” I live out in Worcester and I was driving in torrential rains. I’m going, “OK, there’s going to be some issues.” And sure enough, there were. So, some of it’s very predictable. There’s the operational stuff that we know
is going to happen all the time that just is part of the territory. There’s some exciting new capital projects like Linsley Hall with the conversion. We’re in the Campus Master Plan closing steps that dictate the future of layout and changes on campus that will all be made public and for comment, for faculty, students and community comment. … I want to make sure my department staff has all the tools they need to do their job and to serve the students and campus population. And I will add that I want to ensure that students feel like we’re here for them, and to be able to come to us because [students are] my customers. So I want [students] to be happy, whether it’s in the dorms or your classroom and learning spaces. We’re here to support students.
CONNECT WITH DYLAN PICHNARCIK dpichnarcik@student.framingham.edu
On page 1 of the October 3, 2025 issue of The Gatepost, the headline for an article regarding Linsley Hall renovations read “Framingham State prepares for $1.6 million Linsley Hall renovations.” This is incorrect. The headline should read “Framingham State preparing for $6.6 million Linsley Hall renovations.” We apologize for this error.
Police Logs
Tuesday, Oct. 7 9:39 Alarm, Fire, Miles Bibb Hall No fire services
Wednesday, Oct. 8 8:52 911 Hang up, McCarthy Center No Police Services Wednesday, Oct. 8 1:03 Vandalism, Maple Parking Lot Report Taken
Courtesy of Ryan Hacker
Three new senators appointed to SGA
By Bella Grimaldi News Editor
Student Government Association swore in three new senators at the Oct. 7 meeting.
The three senators are Kait Eller, Yisel Bedoya, and Caleb Conners.
Senator Eller was elected to SGA in the Sept. 26 election.
Eller said since she is a transfer student and a commuter, she was interested in joining SGA because she wanted to get involved with the University’s community.
“I’m very interested in the events committee and just getting involved in the school and putting things together so that other people can feel involved in a way I didn’t previously,” she said.
Conners was also elected to the Senate but had to be appointed since he didn’t accept his position in time, according to César Matos, SGA president.
Conners said he has been looking to get more involved on campus, especially as a commuter.
“I thought this would be a good way to, hopefully, make a positive impact,” he said.
He added he is looking to work on improving the game room, among other issues.
According to Matos, Bedoya showed interest in SGA following the elections and joined through the appointment process.
Bedoya said she wanted to join SGA because she hasn’t joined as many groups as she would like to and is passionate about student government.
She said she believes now is the right time to join after gaining experience in leadership,
working as an orientation leader in the summer.
“I’ve seen a lot of micro-issues that could still definitely be addressed, and I think joining SGA is the perfect reason to do so,” said Bedoya.
Senator Conners and Senator Bedoya were both appointed by SGA to the Senate after unanimous votes.
After the new senators were sworn in, Matos set forth a proposal to remove the SGA Code of Conduct as a membership requirement.
Matos said the reason for the removal is that the SGA Code of Conduct is in violation of the University’s code of conduct.
He said, “Basically we have two codes of conduct now, one for SGA and another for the University. And the University is like, ‘If somebody is in violation of your code of conduct, then they’re in violation of our code of conduct. If you’re going to have a code of conduct, it better not overlap with our code of conduct.’”
Rachel Spezia, SGA advisor, said if members were in violation of the SGA Code of Conduct, they would be referred to the Dean of Students, who handles University conduct.
She said, “The language was exactly the same. And also, [for] student government itself, if someone was found in violation of it, we don’t want students holding other students accountable in that way.”
Spezia added, members of SGA have to abide by and uphold their constitution and bylaws.
Matos said, “The idea is if there’s any breaking of the rules, it’s not SGA’s responsibility to hold you accountable. It’s
the University’s existing processes to hold you accountable to what you signed up for when you became a student of FSU.”
Events Coordinator Alix Ayoub motioned to amend the SGA Constitution by removing the code of conduct. Senator Mari Awuah seconded the motion.
The motion to approve the removal of SGA’s Code of Conduct passed unanimously.
Matos introduced the changing of the vice chair of the Events Committee from treasurer to publicist.
Taylor Royal, SGA publicist, said, “The publicist and events coordinator work very closely together to advertise, cover, and get this information out to the student body. So, we felt that it kind of took out that ‘middleman’ where it can make our communication more effective and get the information put together and sent out in time.”
According to Ayoub, this change would allow the treasurer to join a governance committee since those meetings
overlap with the Events Committee meetings.
There was no debate on this change and the motion passed unanimously.
According to Matos, this change will start this week.
SGA then voted to hold an expedited Senate meeting at 7:30 p.m. following the club representative meeting on Oct. 14.
This meeting will discuss the creation and implementation of a temporary Safety and Security sub-committee within the Student Affairs Committee.
Ayoub said she is bringing back recognizing SGA eBoard member of the week with, a temporary, “You-Rock Ram.” She presented the “You-Rock Ram” to Vice President Shubham Valand.
She said, “He is the only new eBoard member who has not already been prepared for this role and he’s doing a great job trying to catch up.”
Dylan Pichnarcik / THE GATEPOST (Center) SGA President César Matos speaking at the Oct. 7 SGA meeting.
Course system
Continued from page 1
The 30-credit minimum and standing major requirements continue to be in accordance with requirements set by the New England Commission for Higher Education, which requires a minimum of 120 course credit hours.
The log to change the minimum number of credits required to graduate was submitted by Susan Dargan, former dean of the College of Education and Social & Behavioral Science, and Patricia Thomas, dean of the College of Business, to the All-University Committee (AUC) on January 24, according to AUC Chair Sarah Mabrouk.
According to Academic Policies Committee (APC) Chair Stefan Papaioannou, “AUC really decides which committee it goes to based on what the scope of that committee is and what the proposal is. So they forwarded it to the APC. That’s usually a pretty routine process.”
APC is defined by the Massachusetts State College Association (MSCA) contract as a committee which, “after receiving from the All-University Committee any recommendation submitted by any member of the university community, the Academic Policies Committee shall from time to time prepare and transmit to the Vice President reports and recommendations” which would revise academic standards.
According to Papaioannou, this log fell under “academic standards,” which is why APC was tasked with making a recommendation on it.
APC voted 5-6-1 against the log on March 28, he said.
After the log was discussed and voted on by APC, it was sent back to AUC to be voted on for final approval or disapproval, according to Papaioannou. In this case, APC and AUC disagreed on the log, he said.
AUC voted 8-1-0 in favor of the log on April 11, according to the committee’s approved meeting minutes.
This log was “particularly contentious” because “it affects the entire course of study for all students. … It seems higher stakes,” Papaioannou said.
In an effort to reconcile the dispute between the committees, Papaioannou said he and Mabrouk had conversations with MSCA Framingham’s President Benjamin Alberti, as well as the head of the MSCA.
Following those conversations, APC voted to create a document that allowed any voting member of AUC and APC to contribute their perspectives on the log, according to Papaioannou.
Mabrouk wrote in an email to The Gatepost that “Sharing ideas and information is always important when conflicts arise, and the [document] provided a helpful venue via which to do so.”
All arguments included in the document are anonymous.
Arguments in favor of the log include points that the change will serve as a “potential solution” for the “retention and graduation crisis.”
Currently, FSU’s graduation rate is approximately 47%, according to Lorretta Holloway, vice president of Student Success and a member of the All University Committee (AUC).
Another argument in favor of the log cited the financial de-
cisions students have to make if only one or two credits must be completed before they qualify for graduation. Additionally, the flexibility of the 30-credit system is desirable for students who are faced with those decisions, as well as transfer students.
“We know from experience that many, not all of our students, but many of our students, finish their degree requirements and get toward the end of their degree, and they have one or two more courses left. … That’s certainly not all of our students, but when you get to that point, we worry about the meaning of trying to take two more courses,” Niemi said.
She said faculty are often put in a position where they need to tell students to “take any two classes” or they must take College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) exams to test out of certain requirements in order to graduate.
Opposition to the log included arguments about how the change may “squeeze out” elective courses and dissuade students from pursuing minors. As a result, students’ time at the University would be solely focused on major requirements and a “limited menu” of general education courses.
Holloway said there was concern within AUC regarding a decrease in academic standards if the log to approve the change was passed.
She said she did not share this concern because it’s not forcing people to cut classes from their schedules because many majors on campus will still require 32 or more credits for degree completion. This is based on outside requirements and certifications that go along with a specific major area of study, she added.
Students are also not limited to 30 credits and can elect to take more courses for credit, according to Holloway.
The document was sent to Niemi for consideration along with the recommendations on the log from APC and AUC.
“I took those arguments, pro and con, very seriously. I read every one of them, and I can see exactly how the decision could have gone either way,” Niemi said.
Porter-Utley said, “We had a split vote of two governing bodies composed of the same proportions of faculty and staff who came to different decisions, and then it was up to the president to consider those votes and then also the document they sent forward for her consideration.”
Porter-Utley, who is also a member of AUC, said she was in favor of the log because it offers “reduced time to graduation for students,” and it will help transfer students “complete their degree programs in a much more timely way, depending upon how much they’re bringing to the institution.
“Results of studies published by Gallup and other organizations have also shown that reducing these kinds of barriers for students can potentially really advantage certain populations of minoritized students,” she added.
Niemi said, “The truly compelling arguments for me were the potential for equity, particularly among minoritized populations, but also the flexibility for all of our students to be able
to have a little more bandwidth. … It also means that you have a degree that you can use to do the things that you want and need to do.”
Alberti wrote in an email to The Gatepost that faculty response to this change has been “mixed.
“Some see the change as a slippery slope to reducing the ‘seriousness’ of a degree from FSU. Others see it as in line with other universities and helps students to graduate sooner,” he wrote.
Alberti said he is concerned “30 credits means about 7% fewer classes needed overall to graduate, which might have an impact on the number of classes we get to offer or class enrollment.”
Porter-Utley said this is “possible,” but it is not clear if it will become an issue. “I’m not sure - it depends upon how the departments now respond,” she added.
Niemi said, “I’d be careful about any of us making that causal link that because of this change, we’re just going to have fewer courses. We could have increases in specific kinds of courses. We could have increases in specific kinds of internships or work experiences and so on, because of the flexibility. So, it’s the flexibility that’s the key, and because the departments are the ones that make their majors and make the requirements for them, then the keys are really in their hands, which is where they should be.”
Lawrence McKenna, chair of Environment, Society, & Sustainability, said, “This is a really complex issue, and a simple yes or no answer to the idea of 30 versus 32 credits is impossible because this issue intersects the way that education is changing in the United States. … Anyone who tells you, ‘Oh, I’m for it,’ or ‘Oh, I’m against it,’ doesn’t understand the subtleties.”
McKenna said reducing the minimum requirement to 30 credits means students have to take 6.25% fewer classes to graduate. “That means eventually we’ll need 6.25% fewer professors to teach those classes. … It’s one of the many complex aspects of this issue.
“What makes us unique is that we have faculty here who want to teach. What makes us unique is we have faculty here who love being in the classroom and find a thrill in it every morning,” McKenna said. “I’ve never been at a place where the faculty are so friendly and collegial and supportive. It’s not like that in most places. The question comes back again to how do we build change, keep the core of who we are, but allow us to change into the future?”
Niemi said there will not be a reduction in the number of faculty as a result of this change. “That is an erroneous slope. We have 120-credit-hour degree programs at a minimum that we have to have. We need faculty to teach all of those. There is no link between fewer credits that you need to graduate and the number of faculty that I saw at all - that was not part of my consideration.”
Lynn Parker, an English professor and member of APC, said the new 30-credit system “might be fine if it was done in a thoughtful and careful manner. It feels like less bang for your buck, because students can still
take 32 [credits], which is lovely, but most people won’t.”
Parker said she is concerned students will be less inclined to take courses outside of their majors or hesitant to pick up minors since they do not have to exceed 30 credits.
“I don’t understand why we would be in a hurry to foster that system without doing more research. I’m not unaware of the benefits as far as enrollment goes, but I’m not convinced we did enough research on the educational downside,” she added.
As advising for the Spring 2026 semester approaches, Parker said the overwhelming reaction she’s gotten from her advisees is “confusion and a double edge,” where some of her students are excited they do not have to take an extra intercession class to graduate on time, but some have found out the extra classes they may have taken were unnecessary.
Parker said APC and AUC did not settle the matter of when students should take a shorter semester throughout their four years and how that issue will be settled in advising.
“You take three semesters, presumably, of four credits, and then two semesters of three credits somewhere along the line. So when do you choose to do that? Do you wait and then still have four credits in the graduating year? Because so many programs have requirements in that final year. If that’s the case, and you’ve opted to take three credits earlier, you’re in the same bind,” she said.
David Restrick, director of the Advising Center, said the change will only affect the language used by advisors in regard to speaking with new students about meeting graduation requirements.
He added the 30-credit minimum requirement will provide students with flexibility in their schedules.
“It gives students some wiggle room if there’s a semester where there’s a particularly rough class that they don’t think they’re going to pass. If they withdraw from that, depending on their major, it may not necessarily set them back,” Restrick said.
He said the change is “really a service to students,” particularly students whose degree completion would be delayed if they did not reach the 32-credit requirement by their anticipated graduation date.
Junior Jeremy Gonzalez said he is “a little behind right now, so I look at it as something that helps us.”
Gonzalez said there are times when every college student might be having a difficult time applying themselves to their courses. “I feel like bringing it down to 30 helps the people like me and the people in my shoes. It just gives you more of a light at the end of the tunnel,” he added.
[ Editor’s Note: Additional student comments can be found in the web edition of The Gatepost. ]
CONNECT WITH SOPHIA OPPEDISANO soppedisano@student.framingham.edu
CONNECT WITH DYLAN PICHNARCIK dpichnarcik@student.framingham.edu
Framingham State changes bookstore vendors
By Francisco Omar Fernandez Rodriguez Editorial Staff
Framingham State, along with the other state universities and 15 community colleges, switched bookstore vendors on July 1, contracting with eCampus to provide course materials and the University Gear Shop (UGS) for FSU merchandise.
eCampus implemented a new online system for ordering course materials and textbooks for the fall 2025 semester. Instead of books being physically available in the bookstore, they must be ordered online for pickup.
Robert Totino, vice president of Finance, Technology, and Administration, said this is how eCampus works.
This model and its benefits were touted during the interview process, he said.
The University’s contract with Follett expired June 30, according to Totino.
The University decided to work with the consortium of state universities and community colleges because of the buying power, he said.
In the bidding process, there were three finalists, he said. These included the previous group, Follett, as well as BibliU and a partnership between eCampus and UGS.
eCampus and UGS are two separate companies that are working together in this contract, he said.
The University tends to work with The Massachusetts Partnership To Advance Collaboration And Efficiency (PACE), he said. They’re a state purchasing group that worked on the contract through the fall of 2024 and into the winter and spring of 2025.
No one from the University was on the selection committee, but Totino did sit in on the interviews over Zoom, he said, as did the former dean of the Henry Whittemore Library, Millie Gonzalez, and Print Services Supervisor Dillon Handy.
Vincent Pedoni, the executive director of the Massachusetts State Universities Council of Presidents, represented the nine state universities on the selection committee, he said.
The community colleges have a similar organization representing them, he said.
Totino said the new contract will last for five years.
There are two large sales periods for books: shortly before classes start and shortly after classes start in the semester, according to Totino.
Outside of September, January, and a short period in the summer, there aren’t many book sales, he added.
“It’s taking up a lot of physical space which could be maybe better utilized on our campus,” Totino said.
He added it’s exciting to think about what that space could be used for, and it could tie into the campus master plan.
In the future, the bookstore could be moved to a different location, possibly with a smaller space, Totino said.
For this academic year, though, the bookstore will stay where it is, he added.
Throughout the spring and summer, emails were sent to educate everyone on the new system, he said.
The Registrar’s Office, IT, and Students Accounts made sure
financial aid for books and Inclusive Access were still available, according to Totino.
Inclusive Access is a program that integrates course material into a learning management system, according to their website. For FSU, this is Canvas.
“Lots of effort there to make sure the process that worked with Follett would work with this new group as well,” Totino said.
Some faculty have expressed that the website isn’t very transparent when it comes to fees, he said.
In some cases, eCampus changed their website to make it more understandable because of customer input, he added.
He said he needs to work with UGS to understand what happened better.
“I got an email yesterday, as a matter of fact, from a dean that what they’re noticing in some of their areas is higher pricing,” Totino said.
Phil Catalogna, the assistant store manager of the bookstore, said the plan is “to continue as close to usual as possible.”
The store may be moved next summer and he is hoping it will be to the McCarthy Center so it will “be more easily accessible to students,” he said.
However, nothing has been finalized yet, he added.
Catalogna said working with the new vendor has been both positive and negative.
Many products came in later than he would have liked, he said.
He wished the book vouchers stayed open longer because a lot of students were still trying to use them, he said.
Overall, however, he likes the change, he added.
“The book transactions have been very easy to handle,” Catalogna said.
While the store is often referred to as the bookstore, it’s officially called the “Campus Store,” he said.
“We don’t sell books. We don’t sell the codes or the e-books that kids can use for classes,” Catalogna said.
The Campus Store will focus more on selling apparel, supplies, and self-care products, though they can’t sell food or drinks because Sodexo has that contract, he added.
Other than moving in the future, he’s not sure what additional changes might occur, he said.
“We’re not going to go back to selling books, I can tell you that,” Catalogna said.
He said students should have ordered their books before the school year started because now, it’ll take longer for the books to arrive.
Tom Kelley, director of Athletics, said the potential use for the bookstore space is still in the discussion stage.
“Would we like to have it? Yeah, certainly, we’d like to have that space,” Kelley said.
One possible outcome is making it into a varsity weight room in order to open up space in the Athletic Center, he said.
English Department Chair Lisa Eck said it feels disappointing to not have a physical bookstore on campus.
Her biggest concerns are what she has heard from students, she said.
Sometimes, the books will arrive in a “strange” order, she added.
“I’ve had students be in a panic because they have books from the end of the course, but the ones we’re about to read are not in their hands,” Eck said.
The book order for an honors course was incorrect and in order to return the books, the students had to pay for the shipping, she said.
English Professor Lynn Parker had to take over a Composition II course at the last minute, she said.
Parker said these first-year students had purchased the assigned texts, many before coming to campus, but the books didn’t match the ones Parker or the professor originally scheduled to teach the class needed.
“They were a strange mashup of texts from other courses that had been taught in the past from the English Department,” Parker said.
The students were told they needed to go to a UPS site and pay to have the books shipped back within 15 days, she said.
Some students were still waiting for books they couldn’t cancel and would need to return, she added.
When she asked the bookstore for help, they only extended the 15-day deadline, Parker said.
It was difficult to get a hold of someone and the website wasn’t very helpful, she added.
“I just canceled my books for the class because I’m not going to make them buy more books and go through the whole process again,” Parker said. She’s using open source texts for the class now.
She said before the change, she could call the bookstore, and whatever mistakes happened were easily corrected.
Angel Torres Ortiz, multisite regional manager for UGS and site supervisor, said he was made aware of the situation but declined to comment.
Art, Design & Art History Department Chair Marc Cote said the process for getting art supplies to the Campus Store has been better because they’re able to use their primary vendor, Blick Art Supplies.
They’re able to create class lists for supplies on Blick’s website, which can also be given to the bookstore, he said.
In the past, Follett would get the supplies from various sources, he added.
“They couldn’t always get the specialized art supplies that we sometimes need, like for printmaking supplies or specific oil paints or ceramic supplies,” Cote said.
He said corporate bookstores are more geared toward books, so getting specialty items can be difficult.
However, now there’s a noticeable surcharge when buying art kits through the Campus Store, he said.
Professors have been advising students without book vouchers to purchase the supplies directly from Blick, he added.
He asked Totino and the dean of Arts and Humanities if Financial Aid could work with Blick, and they’re looking into whether it’s contractually or legally allowable, he said.
Sophomore studio art major Christie Ballan said she was told the art kits would cost about $250, but they were really approximately $360.
She said $250 was already “a crazy amount,” but she was still
going to buy it because it was needed for class.
She said her father was able to pay for half of it, but not everyone has that advantage.
“I really wish the store had more empathy for the students who had to pay that much money that day,” Ballan said.
Sophomore studio art major Sophia Silveria said she had to spend approximately $360 for an oil painting kit.
“It was just an insane amount of money to spend,” she said.
Senior studio art major Jorjan Mitri said in the past, they bought an art kit for between $100-120.
This semester, they had to buy two: one for about $370 and another for about $250, they said.
The first day they went to buy the art kits, they couldn’t afford them and couldn’t participate in their classes, Mitri said.
They said it’s possible to get the supplies more inexpensively at an art supplies store, but “we were given the impression we could get them for $200, maybe $250 because of rising prices.”
Chemistry Professor Catherine Dignam said she and other professors ordered lab notebooks and goggles from the previous bookstore, but the current Campus Store management notified the faculty that they had not received them.
This was particularly difficult for courses that used Inclusive Access, she said.
“Those have to be set up on a particular timeline, and we were informed essentially that we had missed the timeline, which turned out to not be true,” Dignam said.
Several of her returning students told her they were surprised the bookstore no longer had books, she said.
Dignam said students have not received enough support in terms of class materials, such as lab notebooks.
She was assured that the store had plenty of inventory, but as of Oct. 6, there were still students in labs without access to lab notebooks, she said.
The previous vendor also had problems with stocking enough lab notebooks, though, she added.
“I will state that by this point in the semester, the previous bookstore typically had sufficient inventory to cover the last remaining students,” Dignam said.
Senior health and wellness major Cristian Acuna said he’s been relying on the internet instead of the Campus Store.
“It’s not like there’s books in there to begin with. You have to order them,” he said.
He said he would only go to the store if he needed some last-minute supplies such as a binder.
Freshman marketing major Nolan Wusterbarth said he bought some books for his Composition II class, as well some clothes, from the Campus Store.
“Everybody there was super nice and helped me find what I needed,” he said.
[ Editor’s Note: Additional student comments can be found in the web edition of The Gatepost. ]
THE GATEPOST EDITORIAL
We need to be proactive about our campus elevators
In the past two months, students, faculty, and staff have received numerous emails alerting them about elevator outages in the McCarthy Center and Foster Hall.
Emails about the McCarthy Center elevator began July 8 and continued steadily through September, with the final alert being sent out Sept. 8. The campus community then began receiving emails on Oct. 1 about the elevator in Foster Hall, where the Counseling and Health and Wellness centers are located.
The campus community received an update on Oct. 2 that the Foster Hall elevator is only “partially operational,” as the down button on the first floor is not functioning properly.
There has not been an update that the elevator has been fully restored since Oct. 2.
Students in residence halls such as Miles Bibb and West have also reported the elevators in those buildings being down for extended periods of time since the school year began.
We have been here before.
This is the second time The Gatepost Editorial Board has opined about elevator issues in the last seven months.
These recent elevator break-
downs come after a slew of outages across campus last year in the Henry Whittemore Library, Hemenway Laboratories, Larned Hall, and May Hall, where the elevator was out of service for six months.
Hundreds of students frequent May Hall on a daily basis and the extended period of time the elevator in the building was out of service was detrimental to the daily lives of students, faculty, and staff.
Elevators are an essential accommodation for members of the campus community who have a disability, are dealing with an injury, or who have to carry art supplies, projects, or cleaning carts between floors.
An article published inThe Gatepost Feb. 21, “May Hall elevator repair will take months,” noted replacement parts for the elevator were “obsolete” because the elevator had been in service for so long.
Campus administrators told The Gatepost that both the May Hall elevator and the Henry Whittemore Library elevator were beyond or near the end of their working life.
If it is a normal practice to repeatedly overextend their working lives - why do we continue to let the elevators get to
this point of disrepair?
Elevators across campus are far too old and they are used far too frequently for their working lives to simply be extended without proper maintenance in the interim.
If the University is going to continue to keep using the outdated elevators then more maintenance is imperative. However, instead of continuing to ask how the current elevators can be fixed, when is it time to pivot to asking what the threshold is for getting them replaced?
How can the University be as proactive as possible about this accessibility crisis moving forward?
We deserve honest, transparent communication about what is going on with the elevators and why it continues to happen.
At President Nancy Niemi’s State of the University address Sept. 29, she referenced the state of the elevators and said there is an accessibility task force aligning with the upcoming campus master plan.
“If you need one more reason to know why it’s important that we’re doing this - if I say the word ‘elevator?’ I also lose sleep over that,” Niemi said.
The Gatepost Editorial Board
acknowledges there have been budget cuts across campus and we are aware that simply replacing the elevators may not be a viable financial option. It does not feel like too much to ask for working elevators in two of the most important buildings on campus. The McCarthy Center is our student hub. It houses everything from the Dining Commons, to classrooms, to student organizations. These are vital areas students need access to on a daily basis.
The elevator in Foster Hall brings students up to the Counseling Center, which serves as a vital resource for students. If the elevator falls into further disrepair, some of our students would be cut off from the Counseling Center.
It is disappointing that the University did not learn their lesson from the six-month outage in May Hall and is continuing to tempt fate with the other elevators on campus. If the Foster Hall or McCarthy Center elevators were not operational for an extended period of time, it would be disastrous. This is an issue that affects everyone on this campus - you may not know the value of an elevator until you need one.
The game isn’t finished for women in sports
By Izabela Gage Editorial Staff
Women’s sports are finally commanding headlines, but women working in sports, whether as athletes, coaches, journalists, broadcasters, or executives, are still battling for recognition, respect, and fair compensation.
Behind the inspiring surge of visibility for women’s athletics lies a deeper struggle - the industry’s persistent resistance to valuing women’s contributions both on and off the field.
The pay gap makes that reality glaringly obvious. Even as women’s leagues grow in popularity, compensation lags far behind.
The WNBA, which has seen soaring attendance and viewership, has become a symbol of this fight. According to MarketWatch, “League revenue has doubled since 2019 - from $102 million to $200 million.”
WNBA players only receive 9.3% of league revenue, including TV deals, tickets, and merchandise sales, while NBA revenue is split roughly 50/50 between owners and players, according to CNBC.
At their All-Star Game in Indianapolis on July 19, WNBA players sent a message to the league by wearing shirts during warmups that said, “Pay us what you owe us.”
The recent WNBA collective bargaining movement was a turning point, but the fact that star athletes still have to go overseas in the off-season to make a living highlights how far the game has to go.
It’s not just about money - it’s about dignity and acknowledg-
ment that their labor is worth equal respect, and that inequality doesn’t end with athletes.
Women working in sports media, journalism, broadcasting, and coaching often find themselves dismissed or scrutinized in ways their male peers are not.
Commentators like Doris Burke have had to weather years of skepticism simply for analyzing the game the same way men do.
Women reporters on the sidelines are often subjected to online harassment when they appear on screen.
Molly Qerim, co-host of “First Take,” a sports talk show on ESPN, was only making half a million dollars a year on First Take, while her co-host, Stephen A. Smith, was reportedly making $20 million a year, according to Yahoo Sports.
According to the 2025 Global Sports Report released by Nielsen Media Data, women now make up “a larger share of fans for both women’s (47%) and men’s (42%) sports (up from 45% and 40% in 2022).”
Yet, they are still vastly underrepresented in leadership roles at sports networks, athletic departments, and front offices.
According to a study conducted by Data U.S.A. in 2023, out of the total spectator sports workforce, 27.9% is made up of women and 72.1% of men.
The paradox is striking. Society is increasingly embracing women’s sports, but hasn’t extended the same acceptance to women as experts, leaders, or decision-makers.
Women on the court, field, ice, or track are typically celebrated, while women in the press box
or the boardroom are too often treated as a novelty. And when women athletes themselves are paid a fraction of their worth, it sends a discouraging message to those working behind the scenes - success in sports is still defined on men’s terms.
This isn’t simply a matter of fairness. It’s a question of growth.
Sports are a cultural experience, shaping how we think about identity, competition, and community.
By underpaying women athletes and undervaluing women professionals, the industry holds itself back from fully evolving.
If the WNBA’s pay struggle teaches us anything, it’s that visibility and success won’t automatically dismantle systemic inequities - those require intentional, structural change.
There are glimmers of change, though. Trailblazers like Jessica Campbell, the first woman to hold a full-time assistant coach position in the NHL, and Doris Burke, the first woman to call the NBA Finals on national
Courtesy of Izabela Gage
television, show that breaking barriers is possible.
Still, their stories are treated as exceptions rather than the norm, reminders of how far there is to go.
The future of women in sports depends on turning these exceptions into norms. That means leagues committing to equal treatment in pay and travel, media companies hiring women into leadership, and fans demanding accountability from institutions that continue to drag their feet.
Women’s sports are growing, but the environment around them - the decision-makers, the storytellers, and the supporters - needs to grow too.
The industry already knows women can excel as athletes. It’s time to recognize that they can excel equally as leaders, professionals, and executives. Until women are valued not only for the points they score but also for the insight, strategy, and hard work they bring across all areas of the sports world, the game will remain unfinished.
By Antonio Machado Copy Editor
Conflict is an innate part of human nature. Conflict is how humanity grows and learns to better understand one another. Conflict is the seed of innovation.
But when does an argument cross the line between enrichment and growth and teeter into the realm of unadulterated, pointless negativity? When do we as people draw the line between conflict with purpose and conflict for conflict’s sake?
This is what we must interrogate when we look at how arguments are perceived in the modern day.
When two queens maximize and unleash their joint hatred for each other, it results in a no-holds-barred, week-long dispute on X (formerly known as Twitter, and much better titled) for the entire world to see and weigh in on.
Rap giants Nicki Minaj and Cardi B went back and forth in a series of posts throughout the week of Sept. 21, a seven-year in-the-coming altercation following the infamous “MotorS-
Ding-dong: Must be that beef that I ordered
port” incident, wherein Minaj felt disrespected by Cardi’s treatment of her on their collaboration and planted the seeds of one of the most iconic rap beefs in “herstory.”
In her feature on Katy Perry’s “Swish Swish,” Minaj said, “Silly rap beefs just give me more checks,” but as the women grew tired of exchanging digs at each other, each one seemingly searching for the most vulgar, outrageous, and unsubstantiated claim they could make about the other, they eventually diverged into instead attacking each other’s children, and we were brought to wonder if more checks are worth the bad press (press, press, press, press).
Exchanges like this are integral to Hip-Hop - Kendrick vs. Drake, Nicki vs. Megan, Nicki vs. Latto, Nicki vs. Remy Ma, and Nicki vs. Lil Kim (notice a pattern?) - but those exchanges mostly stayed within the music and were expressed through each party’s individual art.
However, Minaj and Cardi’s argument extended beyond their art. In an X post, Cardi claimed to have information pertaining to Minaj’s medical history, saying she was “going to different fertility doctors [because] you couldn’t reproduce from all them percs scrambling your eggs,” and Minaj, in response, called for her fans to boycott any companies associated with Cardi.
The conflict between these
Woman’s Best Friend
By Kristel Erguiza Staff Writer
A week ago, my dog, Sabrina, passed.
Hearing that as I’m writing this still makes my heart drop. It just doesn’t make sense. I think last week I cried a total of seven times every day of the week.
She passed away last Monday morning, which had obviously made me withdraw from my community, hoping that this wasn’t a true experience that happened to me, and that I was just going to wake up the next day and see her.
It’s very hard to understand grief. I experienced it once before, and Sabrina feels more significant. She was my best friend - a dog that I could confide in and she would listen.
A dog that despite her not being able to talk, still conveyed her emotions through her actions.
I am constantly trying not to think of her when I am busy with something, hanging out with friends or my family. How could I? Now I hate that I have to use the past tense when talking about her. I have to feign a smile when I think of her, because I still get so sad thinking of her.
She was honestly the one who made me the happiest.
She came into my room when she knew I was sad. She smiled when she knew I was happy. She barked when she knew I was mad.
Though a dog, she understood me and my emotions. I understood hers when she was hungry, sad, sleepy, or mad that she was not getting attention.
women, while hilarious to any external party, begs the question - how low is too low?
It is virtually impossible to make anyone set their differences aside amicably. The purpose of an argument is to work out said differences, but an argument of this nature is neither beneficial nor healthy for either party nor their legacies or careers.
The conversation regarding the “beef” between these women becomes further nuanced when we begin to consider our roles in enabling their behavior. Since these were public posts, fanbases from both parties were present and contributing to the dispute.
As an audience, we are active participants and, in a way, partially responsible for allowing innocent children to be victims of incredibly hateful rhetoric that will follow their names forever as children of public people.
We live in a time of conflict. The entire world is aflame, and Hollywood serves only as a mirror to the turmoil we face in our everyday lives.
The world will not be healed with kindness, and taking the high road only makes the fall hurt more, but sinking to the depths of depravity for the sake of winning an argument is never the right pathway to engage in a discussion.
When we observe foolishness such as this, the first thought
should not be getting front-row tickets to the most TikTok likes by posting screenshots of Minaj calling Cardi’s children racial slurs or Cardi telling Minaj’s son he “can’t speak and [bangs] spoons because [his] mother couldn’t put the drugs down” in various X posts as though we were recording a performance at the circus.
When we allow conflict to be reduced to a form of entertainment, where the person who says the most low vibrational thing about the other “wins,” we begin to lose sight of why we argue in the first place.
Conflict is inevitable because it is a catalyst for growth, a necessary step in humanity that raises us up and allows us to more deeply perceive every aspect of each other, and recently, we have repeatedly tripped over that step.
In a time so lacking in empathy, it is imperative that we take action in ensuring we are understood. Nobody has ever been killed with kindness, but millions have died from misunderstandings.
The bridge between Cardi and Nicki has long since been burned, but the echoes of their ruin are not the songs we should sing in our daily lives.
If conflict is what makes us human, then it is our responsibility to decide what kind of humans we want to be.
Days when I’d be annoyed or mad at something, Sabrina was always there to lend an ear (or a paw) when I just was overwhelmed with my feelings. Sometimes, I wish she could’ve talked so I could know what she sounded like.
I kept on resenting God about what had happened to Sabrina and how it made my family feel. Especially how Sabrina’s passing impacted my parents. My parents, both registered nurses, always come home at insane hours of the day and have Sabrina to look forward to when opening the front door.
She was a very sassy girl. My siblings and I would get her dresses and jackets for the winter, shirts and dresses for the summer and spring, but she would just want them taken off! She always wanted some sort of attention, even if it was just a glance from one of us when we were busy doing something.
She slept a lot every day, but always made time for our family, and always woke up right when one of us would open the door. Running outside the door to greet my mom or dad, she would always run to the corner of the yard and just find somewhere to use the bathroom.
It still does not feel real - her
not being here. I got two necklaces for her, one with an emblem of her face, and another with her name etched onto a heart that I can put her ashes into.
Courtesy of Kristel Erguiza
My parents gave me advice on how to move on, saying it would be hard but to just use her as an inspiration for my life. I’ve been taking this advice with me day by day, using it to help me cope and move on, though hard to do.
My grief for her will always be there but my love for her will be stronger.
Campus Conversations
“What are you doing for the long weekend?”
By Dylan Pichnarcik, Associate Editor and Izayah Morgan, Opinions Editor
“I’m going to New York City with FSAB!”
- Iz Shields, junior
“I’m going to play League of Legends.”
- Idalina Marquees, junior
“I’m going to spend time working.”
“Go home, then relax with a friend and go to a horror house.”
“Going home and spending time with my family, bonding time.”
- Abena Asare, sophomore.
“Stay here and probably work, take a day to myself.”
- Emma Schor, sophomore
“I’m going to hang out with my friends and my cousin is coming down.”
- Christina Kpendema, junior
“I’m going to go home and do some shopping with my family.”
“I’m just going to work.”
“Study and go to the gym.”
“Relaxing, sleeping, and lounging, know what I mean?”
“I’m probably going to go hoop.”
- Shyere Henderson, freshman
- Jariquan Hayes, senior
- Angelina Cappadona, sophomore
- Kollin Morgan, freshman
- Samara Martin, sophomore
- Bianca Ferguson, junior
- Mayla Yellig, junior
SPORTS
Records were made to be broken by Kate Buban
By Izabela Gage Sports Editor
When the cross country season begins, most runners set their sights on personal bests, hoping to shave a few seconds off their times.
But Captain Kate Buban, a junior, didn’t want just to improve her personal record.
She broke the Framingham State women’s cross country 6K all-time record - not once, but twice in one season.
The first record she made came at the Pop Crowell Invitational hosted by Gordon College Sept. 13, which is a notoriously tough course.
Buban said, “Personally, I think it means that I put the work in, and I’m seeing it pay off. I’m hoping that my record stays for a while, and that it’s a hard one to break.”
Head Coach Mark Johnson said she started the race with lots of energy, and with “just over one lap around the track left in the race, I looked at the watch and saw that she was right there. I screamed at her, something like, ‘You’ve got to go now!’ I’m sure she didn’t hear any of that because she was just in the zone.”
The old record was set by Taylor Roberts in 2015 and stood at 23:35, and Buban finished with a time of 23:34.63.
Johnson said he wasn’t surprised, as he has seen Buban’s
steady climb over the past three years. “I could not have been more enthused to see Kate break that record. She has put in so much time and effort, not just this year, but over her time at Framingham - in season, out of season, prioritizing getting the runs in, bettering herself as an individual and as a runner.”
Johnson said because the old record was 54 seconds faster than the nearest person, it “was a record that myself and our old coaching staff used to joke about. Would it live on forever?”
Buban thanked both Johnson and Assistant Coach Glenn O’Connor “for always showing up for us.”
Buban said her mindset going into races has shifted, and that has made a big difference. “I just go into it as easy-minded as possible, and I don’t stress about anything - just go in with kind of a blank chalkboard and do my thing.”
That focus carried her through her second record-breaking performance at the Keene State College Invitational Oct. 4, where she finished with a time of 23:29.4.
Buban said she didn’t think there was a chance of her breaking it again. “I was surprised. But I’m glad that I pushed through, and it was one of the first races where I felt that I gave it my all.”
Johnson said Buban’s work ethic sets her apart because of
“her will and her determination when she’s set her sights on something.”
He added, “She has put together an incredible running base, especially in the summer when it’s crazy hot out. Getting the motivation to go run 7, 8, 9, or 10 miles in 100-degree days is tough. … She did it, and with a smile, of her own accord.”
That effort hasn’t gone unnoticed by her teammates, either. Johnson said, “The team is very supportive of Kate - seeing what she’s doing and trying to replicate that. Across the board, the team is super proud of all that she’s accomplished this season.”
Johnson said, “Kate’s also a great captain, as she leads by example. She really shows our younger athletes on the team that if you’re willing to put in the time and drive yourself in the summer, this is what you can be capable of.”
Buban said the races are as much mental as physical. “Especially when you’re racing, one thing you just need to think about is that it’s going to hurt, and you just need to sit with that emotion and let it hurt. I was like, ‘This feels too hard. I don’t want to do this anymore.’ And then I was like, ‘Wait, no, it’s fine because I’m ahead of Westfield State.’”
She added it’s not just time that drives her this year, but placement, too. “Passing those
girls that you usually run with in that pack is a huge motivator of like, ‘OK, I need to keep going. I need to keep pushing to win.’” Looking ahead, Buban said she hopes to stay consistent and keep improving.
Johnson said, “I’m sure I’ve said it in 14 ways, but I’m super proud of everything that Kate’s done so far. She’s been a lot of fun to work with for the last three years. I’m excited for her, but sad that she’s a junior. … I think big things are coming for Kate Buban.”
Stats sourced from fsurams.com and MASCAC.com
CONNECT WITH IZABELA GAGE igage@student.framingham.edu
Cross country sets the pace at Keene State Invitational
By Izabela Gage Sports Editor
The women’s and men’s cross country teams competed in the Keene State College Invitational Oct. 4.
Head Coach Mark Johnson said, “This meet was probably one of the most competitive cross country meets that we’ve ever gone to for Framingham State. It included two of the top10 teams in the country for DIII, and a bunch of the top-ranked teams in our region.”
He said, “There were close to 300 people in the race, and you had to fight for your position right from the gate - I think both teams did a great job doing so.”
The men’s team placed 22nd out of 26 teams with an average time of 29:13 for the 8K course.
Junior Ayden Giombetti said, “I think that the average result shows that we have put in lots of work and effort, and everyone did really well.”
Sophomore Aaron Corlette led the men’s team in the 8K course, placing 66th out of 277, with a time of 27:12.4.
Corlette said, “I felt fine during the race, but I didn’t [meet] the goal I had set before the race, as I always have my expectations high for myself. But I never let that get in the way of me helping the whole team while also pushing myself to be better.”
The next Ram to cross the finish line was sophomore Vincent
Gauthier, with a time of 28:14.9, placing 144th.
Giombetti finished for the Rams at 29:31, earning 194th place, and senior Parker Win ters ended with a time of 30:30.9, placing 219th.
Junior Robert Perruzzi and senior Jazmany Reyes rounded out the top six for Framingham at 30:36.2 and 30:39.5, placing 224th and 226th, respective ly.
Johnson said, “One of our new bie seniors, Jazmany, PR’d about four minutes, which in the 8K is a cra zy drop.”
Corlette said, “We had some very impressive results that all of the team was proud of. We wanted to finish strong, and we did so.”
Giombetti said, “We have all worked together during training and meets to push each other to be better, and we are closer be cause of that.”
The women’s team placed 18th out of 26 teams with an average time of 25:43 for the 6K course.
The Rams were led by Captain Kate Buban, a junior, placing 56th out of 288 with a time of 23:29.4, breaking the all-time school record for the second time this season.
ing to be on that upward trend, and we have a good vibe going.
Johnston said, “Everyone on the team has been working really hard this season, and that
has really been showing in our races.”
Johnson said across the board, the teams have been in high spirits. “Thursday, we’re at practice running over near Bowditch, and I had made a joke about just the giggliness of the team and the positive energy and vibes - I think they carried that into Saturday. The PRs that occurred were big time. Kate PR’d by five seconds, which, for a top runner, is a big, big drop. Lydia PR’d by almost 40 seconds.”
Both teams travel to Westfield State University to compete in the James Earley Invitational Oct. 11.
Johnson said, “I’m proud of the team and excited to see where we go come MASCACs in a couple of weeks.”
Johnston said, “We are a very close-knit team and all care a lot about each other.”
Corlette said the team’s chemistry is his favorite part of the program because both teams are so close. “I always tell them, ‘We are “one team, one heart,” and of course, “one family.”’ We check up and make sure everyone is doing OK, and help one another out.”
Adrien Gobin / THE GATEPOST
Buban breaks 10-year standing all-time 6K record twice in one season
Gatepost Archives
Football overcomes Falcons in conference game
By Sarah Daponde Editorial Staff
The Framingham State Rams traveled to Fitchburg State and defeated the Falcons 22-12 Oct. 4. Their conference record is now 4-0 and their overall record is 4-1.
The Rams began the game strong with a touchdown on their fourth down by junior running back Jarvin Simon. The extra point was missed, leaving the score at 6-0 Framingham.
The Falcons tried to take off to the endzone, but the ball was intercepted by sophomore James Wilder.
Framingham rushed 20 yards forward but was then hindered by a loss of 15. Sophomore Adrien Sarrette punted the ball out of bounds, and possession returned to Fitchburg.
Three incomplete passes, followed by a fair catch by junior Mathias Fowler on the fourth down, hindered the Falcons’ flight to the endzone.
On their first down, the Rams were awarded 5 yards due to a false start.
At fourth down and nine to go, Sarrette’s punt plummeted out of bounds.
Fitchburg’s next drive closed out the first quarter and continued in the second.
A fumble recovered by senior Kymauny Roland at the 44-yard line brought the ball back into Framingham’s hands.
Roland was awarded MASCAC Defensive Player of the Week af-
ter helping limit the Falcons to 44 yards rushed total, making four tackles, and blocking an extra point that earned the Rams two points.
The Rams’ next drive was hindered by a holding penalty and a false start, resulting in a total of 15 lost yards.
At the 50-yard line, the ball was intercepted by the Falcons.
Fitchburg completed two passes and fumbled the next three, followed by Framingham denying a holding penalty on Fitchburg.
The Rams were hampered during their next possession when they received a total of three penalties, including one for an offside, one for holding, and one for a false start.
The Falcons received their share of penalties during their next possession for holding and an illegal shift, and they were unable to recover.
Framingham was unable to gain yardage in their next four downs, and the ball returned to Fitchburg after a punt of 18 yards was downed in the fourth.
The Falcons closed out the first half unsuccessfully, and the score remained 6-0 Framingham as the third quarter ramped up.
Senior Dillon Mangus kicked off to Fitchburg, and the Falcons began their next drive.
A pass of 15 yards earned Fitchburg their first touchdown of the match, and a failed kick attempt brought the score to a 6-6 tie.
Several minutes later, with
Fitchburg in possession and the ball 3 yards from the endzone, a defensive return by sophomore Melvon Crump earned Framingham two points for a score of 8-6.
Both Framingham and Fitchburg struggled to gain yardage in their next possessions, which swiftly closed out the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the Falcons scored a touchdown, bringing the score to 8-12 Fitchburg.
The Rams were unfazed. After a holding penalty on the Rams set them back 10 yards, a pass from freshman Michael Marcucella to Fowler resulted in a triumphant touchdown.
Mangus’ kick was successful, bringing back the Rams’ lead 1512.
Fitchburg’s hopes of soaring to the endzone were shattered by a fair catch by Wilder.
The Rams rushed to the endzone again with the help of a face mask penalty on Fitchburg, gaining Framingham 15 yards.
Marcucella made a thrilling pass for 69 yards to junior Ayden Ramirez, and another touchdown was secured.
The game ended with the score 22-12 in favor of Framingham.
Marcucella was named MASCAC Rookie of the Week Oct. 5 for the second week in a row after completing 16 of 24 passes for a total of 169 yards gained and scoring two touchdowns.
He said winning the award “feels great. I just want to contribute to wins. The award is a fun extra motivator, but winning is the real goal.”
Fowler said the Rams are undefeated in their conference.
“Every week brings a new opponent and that’s motivation enough to keep pushing ourselves,” he added.
The Rams host the Westfield State Owls for a conference matchup on Homecoming Weekend Oct. 18.
and MASCAC.com
CONNECT WITH SARAH DAPONDE sdaponde@student.framingham.edu
Women’s soccer secures win over UMaine at Fort Kent
By Avery Slavin Staff Writer
The Framingham State Rams beat the UMaine at Fort Kent Bengals in a matchup on Oct. 4, bringing their overall record to 4-5-3. Their conference record remains at 2-2.
Seven minutes into the game, freshman Sophia Thimm went for the first shot, but it didn’t make it around Maine’s goalie, Dreanna Thaw.
Captain Grayson Tellier, a senior, attempted a shot next, only for it to be high.
After about six minutes of fighting for the ball, Maine’s Petagay Dixon tried to put a point on the scoreboard, but Framingham’s goalie, sophomore Savannah Goba, remained strong on defense.
Junior Ana Serrano was the next Ram to make a shot, but it flew high above the net.
Maine’s Brianna Levesque tried to bounce back from their unsuccessful shot on goal a few minutes prior, but couldn’t get
the ball past Goba.
After three substitutions from Framingham State and a corner kick from freshman Abigale King, Sarah Bashore, a freshman, went for a header shot, but it was saved by Thaw.
The Bengals went for another shot, but still couldn’t break Goba’s defense.
Thaw saved another shot after junior Tarynn Smith tried to get the ball past the goal line.
Finishing up the first half, sophomore Hailey Ring tried to put the Rams in the lead by taking a shot on net, but it hit the crossbar.
Ring didn’t stop there, though. Seven seconds later, she shot again, but the ball was blocked.
The first half ended with a foul from both teams before the clock hit zero.
One minute into the second half, Tellier assisted freshman Leiyani Buckner’s shot, earning the Rams the first point of the game.
Freshman Bethany Serrano tried to keep the momentum go-
ing and launched the ball toward Thaw, but she quickly saved it.
After six substitutions between the teams, Bethany Serrano attempted another shot, with this one being saved by Thaw as well.
The Bengals prevented another goal from the Rams after Ana Serrano sent the ball toward the net.
Bashore attempted her second header shot to keep the Rams up on the scoreboard, but it was too wide.
Thimm and freshman Anilyse Laderwager both worked for a second point, but neither could break Maine’s defense.
Buckner was substituted in, and within five minutes, she shot and scored. The Rams were in the lead 2-0.
After nine substitutions from FSU and a few more minutes of fighting for possession of the ball, the game ended with the Rams taking the victory.
Tellier said, “We have been practicing attacking in our offensive third for a while now, and I think our chemistry has just grown over time. We have put more and more trust in each other every day, so that we can win games and have fun.
“I truly think we have progressed more on offense than we ever have before, and Saturday’s game just proved that,” she added.
She said she was proud of this win. “Seeing all of us really put the work in [during] that game and all of our others makes me so happy, like we truly are getting what we deserve. As a captain, watching everyone get along and the team chemistry continuing
to build makes me and the other captains feel like we really did our job and made our team like a family. We are truly all sisters.” The Rams didn’t allow the Bengals to take any shots on net in the second half. Buckner said in the locker room at halftime, “Our coach explained to us that we are able to beat this team if we take shots and work together. This gave me confidence to go out there and take advantage of my opportunities.”
To continue this momentum in future games, Buckner said, “I’m going to continue to give my best effort and be the best teammate I can be in order to achieve the goals we set at the beginning of the season.”
Tellier said, “We continue to grow every practice and game we have. I’ve played on a lot of different teams in my life, and I have never seen such quick success and trust in teammates before. We are always ready and willing to improve day by day, and I really think we can take that far with us this season.”
She added, “Trust is one of the biggest factors of playing with a team, and it is visible more after every game that we are playing for the person next to us, and we trust each other like family.”
Most recently, the Rams fell to UMass Dartmouth on Oct. 8, the final score being 3-0. They head to Anna Maria College on Oct. 11 for a conference matchup.
CONNECT WITH AVERY SLAVIN aslavin1@student.framingham.edu
Stats sourced from fsurams.com
Adrien Gobin / THE GATEPOST (Right) Amari Williams catching the ball for a touchdown in win against Bridgewater St. Sept. 27.
Adrien Gobin / THE GATEPOST
Abigail Pratt preparing to kick the ball in win against UMaine at Fort Kent Oct. 4.
Field hockey hosts Breast Cancer Awareness game
By Taylor Kimmell Asst. Sports Editor
The Framingham State Rams fell to the Bridgewater State Bears 5-1 in a conference matchup Oct. 4.
Bridgewater’s forwards pressured Framingham’s side of the field out of the gate, closing in for a shot on goal two-and-ahalf minutes in that was saved by Captain and goaltender Kaitlyn Tello, a junior.
Their first shot on net earned BSU a corner, which did not yield any shots on net, but earned the team a second corner, during which the Rams cleared the ball past the Bears’ 25-yard line.
Two minutes later, Bridgewater pressured the net once again, resulting in another shot saved by Tello.
Ten minutes in, after both teams alternated offensive pushes, Bridgewater again brought the ball to FSU’s net, with Tello blocking two consecutive shots.
Tello’s clear allowed the Rams to bring the ball down the field, with sophomore Mikayla Malmquist making the first shot on the Bears’ net, blocked by Bridgewater goaltender Brianna Gagnon.
Bridgewater took advantage of this save and brought the ball to the Rams’ net, with Tello saving their first shot at 10:25.
However, BSU’s second shot found a gap in FSU’s defense, allowing the Bears to score the first goal of the game.
Not a minute later, Bridgewater earned a corner penalty and quickly found the back of the net once again, ending the quarter 2-0.
Two minutes into the second quarter, sophomore Allison Wurms earned Framingham a penalty corner. Forty seconds later, sophomore Reese Neale earned the team’s first goal of the game - on her birthday!
Following the Rams’ goal, Bridgewater’s offense brought the ball down to shoot on FSU’s net, but were blocked by Tello.
BSU earned a corner on the next play, but the Rams stole back possession and earned two corners of their own.
The final minutes of the half yielded three more shots from Framingham - one from Malmquist and two from sophomore Finley Hogan.
Coming into the second half with a score of 2-1, Bridgewater worked quickly to widen their lead.
A shot from the Bears’ offense resulted in a corner, which in turn earned the team their third goal of the game on a stroke.
Two Framingham corners ensued, with one resulting in a shot from Hogan.
Tello saved two additional shots before BSU was able to find the back of the net once more.
Another shot from Neale marked the final play of the third quarter.
The Rams tried to make up the points, earning two corners in the final quarter.
A shot from Malmquist was unable to break through.
On the following play, junior defender Marina Cadena blocked a shot from Bridgewater.
With just three minutes left on the clock, the Bears netted another goal.
FSU was unable to recover
from the deficit, and the match ended with a score of 5-1 for Bridgewater.
Tello accumulated 10 saves over four quarters.
This match, despite the result, was an important one for the Rams - their annual Breast Cancer Awareness game.
Junior Allison Harmuth said, “It’s important we play for a reason that goes beyond our team, school, or sport.”
The Rams show their support by sporting pink T-shirts, pink hair accessories, and temporary tattoos, as well as hanging posters around the Maple Field Athletic Complex.
Hogan said, “I think we all enjoy making posters together because it brings us closer for a good cause. I like that we have a poster that we all sign with names of people we know who are fighting, have fought, or did fight.”
On Tuesday, Oct. 7, the Rams earned their first conference win with a score of 2-1 in a match against Anna Maria College.
The goals came from Cadena and senior Natalia Roehr.
FSU outshot the Amcats 2314, with attempts by Neale, Malmquist, Hogan, Harmuth, freshmen Chloe Moynihan, Hannah Poklemba, and Aubrey Jenkins, junior Jillian Meeker, and senior Reese Perry.
The Amcats’ lack of cohesion allowed the Rams to play a heavily offensive game.
Hogan said Anna Maria’s style of play was “very clumped in the middle of the field, so we were able to capitalize on the sidelines while carrying the ball up the field.”
Harmuth agreed, saying Anna Maria’s lack of coordination on plays allowed the Rams to gain an advantage. She said, “They hit balls that often got stopped by our defense, and we had a few offensive pushes that way, with passing progressions up the sideline.”
Following this game, the Rams’ overall record is 2-9 and their conference record is 1-5.
Hogan said, “It feels really good to have a conference win under our belt, and I think that the win will carry us over into the rest of the season.”
Following a string of gamerelated injuries early in the season, the Rams are grateful to be making strides to improve their record.
Harmuth said, “After a streak of losing, it feels unreal to have a win. Our team is very grateful for the challenges we have overcome this season.”
The Rams travel to Westfield State University for a conference matchup Oct. 11.
CONNECT WITH TAYLOR KIMMELL tkimmell@student.framingham.edu Stats sourced from fsurams.com and MASCAC.com
ARTS & FEATURES
Lawmakers and University community discuss book banning
By Francisco Omar Fernandez Rodriguez Arts & Features Editor
The Education Department and the Henry Whittemore Library hosted “Free Expression & Book Bans in MA: What Can We Do?” in the McCarthy Forum Oct. 7.
President Nancy Niemi said it’s wonderful to see a full house for an event focused on such a topic.
“It is almost assuredly true that as long as the written word has existed, there has been some opposition to it,” Niemi said.
A significant portion of the population lives in states that are affected by anti-literacy laws, she said.
“Almost 40% of the population now lives in states affected by state-level higher education censorship laws or policies,” Niemi said.
She said public educators have a commitment to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to protect the community’s right to read and teach students to think for themselves.
One way to protect this right is to highlight the practice of book banning, she added.
In 1982, the American Library Association launched “Banned Book Week” in response to the surge of book challenges in bookstores, libraries, and schools, she said.
“Post-COVID, once again there has been a large increase in book challenges and now state-sponsored censorship efforts in Florida and other states. Federal legislation has also been proposed,” Niemi said.
Ten states have enacted laws to protect access to diverse materials in public schools and libraries and prevent censorship, including California, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, she added.
She said Massachusetts legislators have also proposed bills to prevent censorship.
Niemi introduced Massachusetts State Representatives David Linsky, Jack Patrick Lewis, Adam J. Scanlon, and Kate Donaghue.
Linsky asked everyone to look up State House House Bill HB 3598 after the event. HB 3598 is one of two similar bills.
There are two because there are different types of libraries, and HB 3598 deals with school libraries, he said.
Libraries in elementary, middle, and high schools are a different legal entity than a public library, he added.
School libraries are controlled by school committees, while public libraries are governed by a library board of trustees, he said.
The bill is at “the final step we do procedurally in Massachusetts before a bill gets to the floor for a final vote,” Linsky said.
A few years ago, he would never have thought a bill like this would be necessary, he added.
He said he attended a hearing about a month prior at the State House, and people from the American Library Association testified to some inci-
dents.
Sometimes someone objects to a book and heads straight to the library to demand it be removed, he added. Librarians usually don’t know what to do in such situations.
Linsky said he and his colleagues want to make sure that professional librarians are the ones deciding what goes in the libraries.
The bill would protect First Amendment rights for library patrons and employees, he said.
“I’m something of a First Amendment absolutist. I will defend your right at any time to say anything you want to say, as long as it’s not directly harmful, I’ll say,” Linsky said.
Scanlon said he’s a Framingham State University graduate from 2019.
He’s the first Democrat and gay person to be elected to his current position, he said. He’s from a conservative town.
He found out about North Attleborough taking steps to ban books from a Boston Globe article, he said.
The book in question was a book of poems titled “Woke: A Young Poet’s Call To Justice,” he added.
“The book was about poems that talked about equity, equality, body positivity, kindness, you know, really controversial stuff,” Scanlon said.
He said it was removed from
tees in Massachusetts adopt policies that prevent book bannings based on opinion, political, or ideological reasons, he said.
He said he learned two important lessons from reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” that he wouldn’t have learned if he didn’t have access to the book. They’re that everyone is entitled to justice and that to understand someone else, you need to walk in their shoes, he said.
Lewis said it’s in some ways ironic for him to be discussing banned books when he admittedly doesn’t read as much as he should.
In middle and high school, he also didn’t read everything and instead often used CliffsNotes and SparkNotes, he added. He did eventually learn to love reading.
He said his first experience with book banning was actually in an old show, “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.”
In the show, there was an episode where books from the library were being banned and even burned, he said.
But then Dr. Michaela “Mike” Quinn starts talking about another book that she says should be banned, he added.
The book contains incest, fathers wanting to kill their sons, voices coming from bushes. It’s the Bible, he said.
In Hollywood and history,
the shelf because a parent said they didn’t think it was appropriate for kids.
The original official reason was the book’s title, which got enough pushback that they changed their reason to it not being age appropriate, he added.
“It’s OK if you don’t want to read a book, or you don’t want your kid to read a book, but don’t tell other people’s kids on what book to read,” Scanlon said It was restored to the shelves in a couple of days, but he wouldn’t have known about it “if it weren’t for the press reaching out and investigating the story. Nobody would have known. It was all done in secret,” he said.
Scanlon and other representatives worked on the Freedom of Expression Act, which would have all of the school commit-
he can’t think of a single instance where books are banned or burned and the ones doing it are the good guys, he said.
But now, we’re in a time where people are claiming to be the heroes while “their ultimate goal is to prevent us from accessing resources that we need and that we are entitled to explore,” Lewis said.
If his kids went to the library and read something he would otherwise encourage them to, he’d be happy they were reading, he added.
When growing up, he didn’t have role models in the local library books, he said.
“My local library didn’t have a rainbow corner or a pride display,” Lewis said.
They’re not banning books like the Bible despite its concerning content, but they are banning books with trans kids, books by those who were en-
slaved, and those that are from a refugee perspective, he said. Everyone in Massachusetts, regardless of age, citizenship, or being a registered voter or not, has a state representative, he said.
His job is to represent 45,000 people, and to help them all he needs to hear from them, he added.
“Because even in Massachusetts, the folks that support book bans are organized. They come to the State House, they lobby us,” Lewis said.
He said these groups, such as Focus on the Family, have active chapters in Massachusetts trying to keep families like his own from showing up in classrooms.
The New England Library Association launched a grant-funded hotline for librarians to get resources and support, he said.
The panelists started taking questions. The panelists include Niemi, Political Science Professor Thomas Severo, Education Professor Chu Ly, English Chair Lisa Eck, English major Charlie Karp, and English major Norah Russel.
Both Karp and Russel are also working in education.
Eck said one of the challenges is when people pretend “the whole room is straight and white because that diversity is not in the curriculum or is threatened.”
These policies are being voted on in school council meetings, and we need to stay alert for them, she added.
Niemi said to avoid self-censoring, even if you think a parent might complain.
What a teacher puts in a classroom should have a learning intent, which gives them a reason and a defense for using it, she said.
“I can’t believe that I didn’t get in more trouble in 1984, ’85, and ’86 when I was teaching middle school English and history,” Niemi said.
“Don’t let them take that power from you,” she added.
In universities and colleges, they can make sure students see that censorship is immoral and wrong, she said.
Karp said it’s important for students to question why these materials are being censored and why they’re being deemed inappropriate.
Russel said giving students access to books that allow them to live through other people is a good way for them to figure out who they are.
Ly said college students can run for local offices, such as school committees, and that she’s happy to talk it through as a director of civic engagement.
Severo said one of the reasons political science is difficult is because they don’t always have clear rules.
Schools do have the right to ban content that is pervasively vulgar or not suitable for an age group, and it’s difficult to define that clearly, he said.
Dylan Pichnarcik / THE GATEPOST
Chu Ly and Lisa Eck at the Banned Book Panel Oct. 7.
Interview
Continued from Page 1
Stumacher said this interview between him and De Leon would not be a typical author discussion because they were married. “The mother in ‘The Pink Dress’ is at home right now watching our sons,” he added.
Stumacher said he had the privilege of reading many of De Leon’s essays in their earliest forms. He asked De Leon to describe the steps that went into putting together “White Space.”
“I did not know I was writing a book,” said De Leon.
She wrote one essay at a time over the course of 10 years, which she would publish in journals and magazines, De Leon said.
De Leon said she “came from a family of storytellers,” but publishing a book was something she knew nothing about.
She went to a writing conference, The Association of Writers and Writing Programs. An editor from Salamander Press asked to read her collection and this was when she began to think she had a collection, De Leon said.
She needed a narrative arc between her essays to make it a real collection, she said. “The me at the beginning of the book is going to be different from the me at the end of the book.”
She structured “White Space” into three parts - before she moved to Guatemala at the age of 28, while she lived in Guatemala, and after she returned back to the U.S. after living in Guatemala, she said.
“I wanted to fill the well that I could draw from in all my writing,” said De Leon. “I wasn’t the same Jen when I came home.”
She said she worked on an adult novel for seven years that she was unable to publish. At the time, she said she felt like this was the worst thing that could happen.
“I was trying really hard to sound like what I thought an author sounded like. And that meant dead old white guys,” De Leon said.
She said she was never assigned a book to read in school that was written by someone like herself - a Latina woman.
“It’s really important to know you can write and you can share your stories and you don’t have to sound like anyone but yourself.”
De Leon writes both nonfiction and fiction, and Stumacher asked her how she decides which genre to write in for a specific project.
De Leon said the word “essay” comes from the French word for “to try” and that an essay is what someone uses when they are trying to figure out the answers, which is how she felt when writing “White Space.”
“I can’t imagine these as es-
says,” she added.
De Leon said sometimes there is more “emotional truth” in writing fiction than in nonfiction.
“It is complex, right? Sometimes when you are writing fiction, you give yourself permission to go there, to go to a dark place that you couldn’t necessarily do when it’s not fiction,” said Stumacher.
Stumacher said De Leon is always working on more than one writing project.
“She is the queen of productive procrastination, … so if she doesn’t want to work on this novel, she’ll work on some essays and if she doesn’t want to work on some essays, she’ll work on something else,” he said.
Discussing Deaf and Latina Identity
By Sarah Daponde Asst. Arts & Features Editor
In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Center for Inclusive Excellence, in partnership with the American Sign Language (ASL) Club, hosted Melissa Elmira Yingst for a discussion about Deaf and Latina identity on Oct. 7 in the McCarthy Forum.
There were two ASL translators at the event.
The members of the ASL Club were introduced onstage, as well as Angela Herbert, professor of ASL and English interpreting, and Bruce Bucci, professor of ASL, co-advisors of the ASL Club.
Club members present included President Meriam Boutissant, Vice President Priscilla Bonilla, Secretary Eli Onyeabor, Treasurer Ava James, Events Coordinator Tara Brown, and Social Media Manager Emmy Johnson.
Herbert said she was thrilled to have people in attendance from Framingham State and Northeastern University, as well as people from the Framingham community.
Herbert introduced Yingst, a media advocate and host of The Melmira Show.
Yingst said she was excited to share her story during Hispanic Heritage Month, but felt everyone “should be able to share our lived experiences year round.”
She was raised in Southern California with a deaf brother by two deaf parents. She did not have any Hispanic friends growing up and was the only deaf person at her school. “My interpreter was my best friend,” Yingst said.
“You would think my deaf
identity would be really strong, but it wasn’t until I went to Gallaudet,” said Yingst.
Gallaudet, a university in Washington D.C. for deaf and hard-of-hearing students, was where Yingst said she started to form her deaf identity.
She said she originally wanted to attend a mainstream university, not Gallaudet, but when she visited she was amazed to see teachers and students communicating directly to each other.
“I have the freedom of communication. … I could go order food in the cafeteria and sign instead of pointing,” she added.
Yingst said her mother was not able to form a proud Latina identity because of her lack of communication. Yingst’s grandparents did not learn Sign Language for her mother, but learned it for Yingst.
She said when she was born it “made them realize that deafness isn’t going anywhere … so maybe at that time there was more of a sense of acceptance.”
Yingst became best friends with her grandmother and she is the person who taught her how to be a proud Latina, she said.
Yingst said growing up in Santa Ana, California, the population was mostly white, and she did not have Hispanic friends.
“I always felt that pressure to conform to be like them,” she added.
Yingst said she remembered scratching at her skin as a little girl, seeing the white lines it created and thinking she was turning white. “And I told my mom, ‘I can become white. I want to be like my friends.’”
De Leon said she is working on three young adult fiction novels at the moment, including two that take place in Guatemala. She said she thinks she will never stop writing about Guatemala.
When it comes to writing about her own life experiences in her essays, she likes to write about the good parts and the bad parts. She said you cannot only write in one “shade” or emotion.
“That’s what makes stained glass beautiful - you need the light and the dark,” De Leon added.
CONNECT WITH SARAH DAPONDE sdaponde@student.framingham.edu
When she was studying at Gallaudet, Yingst said she was asked to join the Hispanic Club and declined because she had other priorities to think about, which became one of her biggest regrets.
“If I could go back, I would have definitely joined the Hispanic Club, as well. But again, my identity was so weak at that time,” she added.
Yingst became involved with Deaf Women United (DWU). “I felt like I lost myself as a woman, so I joined this organization,” she added.
DWU had a reputation of being an organization for white deaf women, Yingst said.
“I spent so many hours thinking about, ‘How can I connect with deaf women of color?’ … I’m trying to understand why we haven’t come together yet. We’re nice, we don’t bite,” she added.
“I realized, to be able to be fulfilled, fulfilled with our identities, we have to be able to
contribute to the community,” Yingst said.
She said both her deaf and Latina identities were oppressed growing up, and her identities always felt like they were being “slapped back and forth.”
“Welcome to being a deaf woman. Welcome to being a proud Latina, but at the same time, I also realized that I’m Queer. … so it was the idea of, ‘Where do I fit into this world?’” she added.
Yingst said she was grateful to have the support of so many different communities.
Yingst began her own talk show, “MELMIRA,” on which she discusses identity, social justice, and Deaf experiences, she said.
“Everyone just needs that space to be whoever they are,” Yingst added.
CONNECT WITH SARAH DAPONDE sdaponde@student.framingham.edu
Adrien Gobin / THE GATEPOST
Melissa Elmira Yingst in the McCarthy Forum Oct. 7
Alexis Schlesinger / THE GATEPOST
Jennifer De Leon reading from “White Space” Oct. 7.
Mazmanian Gallery hosts “Shift - Space - Return”
By Antonio Machado Copy Editor
The Mazmanian Gallery held an opening reception for “Shift - Space - Return,” a multimedia group exhibition about the use of language in art, on Oct. 6. It is on display in the gallery from Oct. 1 through Oct. 31.
The exhibition was curated by faculty Yumi Park Huntington, art history professor, Keri Straka, art professor, and Ellie Krakow, director of the Mazmanian Gallery as well as student interns Marcus Falcão and Eliza Gaston from an open call for artists based in Framingham, said Krakow.
“This is the first time we’ve ever done an open call for artists who are based in Framingham. … I had this brainstorm last year. I was like, ‘How do we get our communities to cross over?’ And I’m very much enjoying watching [that] tonight,” Krakow said.
Curators chose five artists from the open call submissions who fit well together to create and fit a theme to show off the quality of Framingham artists and did studio visits to examine their works and select specific pieces, said Falcão.
“It was a very difficult decision, and we were delighted with how it turned out. We ended up creating a themed show with all artists who work with language in some way.
“We thought it was a really interesting throughline that left enough openness for all the works to stand in their own meaning but also pulled everyone together in a nice way,” she added.
Ileana Doble-Hernandez, Mary Kostman, Janet Montecalvo, David Roane, and Alice Ridley all had various art pieces showcased in the gallery.
Doble-Hernandez’s “Pollage” (Political Collage) is a collection of political artworks constructed from magazine cutouts and placed in lightboxes, she said.
Her work is meant to emulate the experience of scrolling through various social media platforms, Doble-Hernandez said.
“It started during the pandemic in 2020 because I was very overwhelmed by looking at a lot of things on the screen. Experience mediates how we look at the world and a lot of the information we get, and that was the experience at the
time,” she said.
She subscribed to magazines to scroll through another medium. Certain messages and images she found in magazines resonated with her, so she decided to preserve them, she said.
After making the collages, she “put them in these very thin light boxes that resemble devices like tablets, and with these, I take back that idea of how the information that may take over your opinions comes from the things that we see on the scripts,” she said.
She views every collage as a self-portrait of her own experience scrolling through social media, she said.
“What I really like about this exercise is that, … it’s like processing everything that we’re reading and putting it in a visual way in which people can see it and say either agree or disagree, but then we can start a conversation and talk about these things that are affecting everyone,” she said.
Kostman is a printmaker whose art series, “Who sees?” examined the uses of masks, veils, and face coverings and their relationship to women and played with various different textures through the printing press, she said.
“I had been in Morocco, which is a [nearly] 100% Muslim country, and so I took some chiffon fabric that was similar to what a lot of women use
there for their veils. I was just experimenting, like, ‘Can I get the feeling of it?’ And I could, so then I made faces out of various materials,” she said.
Kostman incorporated Braille, the impression of corrugated cardboard, and a wedding veil as textures in her pieces. “I was using it for texture. … It’s two different languages speaking to each other,” she said.
“I had these images of robed and veiled women. … I was just exploring how head or face coverings impact people when you see them, you know? Do the people wearing them feel disempowered? Do they feel empowered? Because they don’t necessarily have to show what they’re feeling,” she said.
Montecalvo said her art is a documentation of her life experiences and surroundings, specifically signs.
“I used to be a sign painter when I first started my commercial career. … I still love signs, especially the old ones, so I tend to do just signs or a scene of the signs that kind of draw me in,” she said.
Her experience illustrating children’s books makes her add story elements to otherwise still pictures of signs, she said.
“I couldn’t just do the sign. I have to have the pigeons checking into the motel and the one pigeon over on the side jealous because he’s alone,” she said of her artwork “The Siesta.”
Montecalvo said her work brings her happiness, and she hopes others find joy in it too.
She said, “There is rust and stuff. I know people always want to paint beautiful things, but to me, there’s a history in the old things. … To me, it’s character. It’s not just a sign - it’s what the sign has been through, and I like the color.
“All these old neon signs are getting destroyed, and I just think somebody has to mention or document them because there really are artists who bend the glass and decide what gas goes in to make the colors,” she added.
Roane’s pieces are autobiographical and all revolve around the idea of selfhood and self-identity, he said.
“Since memory serves this narrative function for me, I felt like I could claim my story through the process of claim-
ing my memories. I feel like art is just a mode for representing and communicating that story. It’s really just functioning as a language,” he said.
Roane said his primary goal through art is conveying a story, and the materials he utilizes serve that function.
He used the cloth of a canvas without the wooden bars to create one of his pieces. “I decided to leave the cloth - the canvas - hanging in order to bring attention to its material essence as a cloth because cloth serves as a perfect analogy for the structure of stories,” he said.
Roane’s artwork is his own language, and he views it like a dictionary, he said.
“If you think about each of these as visual words, then you compare them together and group them into larger statements. Visual words, visual phrases, visual sentences, visual chapters, and ultimately, the book, which becomes the story of my life,” he added.
Ridley, a Framingham State alumna, said her art is representative of the realm between dreams and waking, calling them a “dreamspace.”
She describes her work as “kind of somber and lonely. I think I’ve been trying to fight against that a little bit. … They’re getting more abstracted,” she said. “The paintings are subtle and intentionally try to be familiar and ambiguous,” she said in her artist’s statement.
Ridley said her art is developed slowly over time, and she likes to continuously add on to and build from pieces until figures begin to form from abstract shapes.
“For me, it’s really about the process. Coming back to it and then transforming the paintings as they go. … It’s more about the process of making the painting than it is about the final painting. Oftentimes, it’s just like suddenly they’re done,” she said.
[ Editor’s Note: Marcus Falcão is an Illustrations Editor for The Gatepost. ] CONNECT WITH ANTONIO MACHADO amachado4@student.framingham.edu
Alexis Schlesinger / THE GATEPOST
A work of Ileana Doble-Hernandez’s in her “Pollage” collection.
Alexis Schlesinger / THE GATEPOST
The displayed works of Ileana Doble-Hernandez in the Mazmanian Gallery.
ARTS & FEATURES
‘Jaws’ retains that classic bite
Steven Spielberg’s third movie turned 50 this year
By Jesse Burchill Staff Writer
“Jaws” received an anniversary re-release from Aug. 29th to Sept. 4. to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
The re-release began with an intro by Steven Spielberg himself, where he touched upon the movie’s production and runaway success and mentioned it would be remastered in 4K for the re-release.
This movie is over two hours long, but the pacing and writing easily keep the viewer engaged throughout the movie’s runtime. The balance between the terror of the beach attacks and the slow-burn action of the shark hunt pans out perfectly.
The performances of Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw are the clear standouts of this movie, especially in the second half of the film when they’re the only characters present and have only each other and their clashing personalities to work with.
In particular is Shaw’s monologue of his survival after the USS Indianapolis sank during World War II, and how he watched several crewmates and friends get eaten alive by ravenous sharks. There’s no flashbacks, no music, just Shaw telling a horrific tale, and the simplicity is what makes the scene so chilling, especially considering how it comes after the far more light-hearted and hilarious scar story scene.
In terms of the movie’s writ-
ing, the dialogue and tension between Martin Brody, Matt Hooper, and Mayor Vaughn are brilliantly written, and you can easily sympathize with Brody and Hooper’s frustration with Vaughn for refusing to listen to them, thanks in part to Murray Hamilton’s smarmy performance whenever he rejects their arguments in the name of protecting the money they’ll make on the Fourth of July.
Furthermore, the way the rest of the townsfolk are written really makes it feel like Amity is a genuine small town and closely-knit community, with notable scenes being the town meeting, people talking on the beaches, the capturing of the wrong shark, and the holiday roast scene. It really feels like Amity is one of those places where everyone knows each other.
Thanks to the movie’s 4K remastering, the shark’s attacks can come off as even more intense thanks to the sharper visual quality on the bloodshed and the shark’s movements in the water. This also adds to how the shark still manages to be unsettling, in spite of the problems the crew had with making the animatronic look convincing.
The shark manages to be just as creepy fully underwater as it is when it surfaces to attack the boat as shown in the shark cage scene.
Despite being the main antagonist, the shark itself almost never appears for most of the movie. Its presence is only
30. Female zebra
31. Clean suds off
32. Excite, informally
34. Addition result
ACROSS
1. Give it a shot
4. Wasn’t honest
8. Delay
11. Common furniture material
13. Word in a portmanteau with “guess”
15. Ancient 17. Irish equivalent of the name “James”
18. Concertgoers’ references
21. Poetic tribute
22. Zero
23. 2014 Sia hit whose title is a light fixture
hinted at until the third act through John Williams’ iconic score, brief glimpses, and an underwater first-person perspective.
However, the shark does not need to be on screen to be scary. This is highlighted best when it attacks the boat to the point where holes are busted open and water starts pouring in, knocking out the only light and damaging the engines.
The cinematography has also stood the test of time. Its visual quality makes it look like this movie could be made today, especially thanks to the 4K remastering, and it genuinely makes it seem like the Orca is far out at sea when in fact they had to shoot close to land with camera tricks for budget and practicality purposes.
Just like the shark, Williams’ iconic score for this movie is used sparingly, mostly in the third act when Hooper, Brody, and Quint are out hunting for the shark. However, also like the shark animatronic, the shark’s theme is used perfectly in its incidental appearances.
Even outside the shark’s iconic theme, the soundtrack serves its purpose perfectly and really hammers home how deadly the entire situation is and how much fear the shark in-
Liv
stills in the Amity community.
“Jaws” famously went through a very troubled production - shooting went several months longer than expected, the cameras malfunctioned several times thanks to water damage, the movie went over-budget during reshoots, and the animatronic used for the shark was notorious for almost never working properly.
However, the efforts and dedication of Spielberg and company paid off perfectly, resulting in the creation of the first “summer blockbuster” ever made and paving the way for all similar movies in the future.
Dunleavy / THE GATEPOST
35. Person who prefers platonic relationships, for short
36. Animals similar to hares
38. Trattoria handout
40. Very uncertain
45. British length units
47. Like breezy rooms
48. Big to-do
51. Highest suit in bridge
53. Economic metaphor introduced by Adam Smith ... or what can be seen four times in this puzzle?
57. Scientific paper reviewer
58. ___ network (machine learning model)
59. Was ahead
62. Like distilled water
63. Declining due to age
64. Paramore genre
65. Chooses
66. Two-___ (duplicitous)
67. Was into
DOWN
1. Low poker pair
2. Princess Leia was one for Carrie Fisher
3. “Star Wars” character who is 26 inches tall
4. Show
5. *“This ___ Me Trying” (Taylor Swift song)
6. *Martians, e.g., for short
7. *Run out of battery
8. Undefeated boxer Ali
9. Upper chamber of the heart
10. Fuels up
12. *Expo pre- sentations
CONNECT WITH JESSE BURCHILL jcelardo@student.framingham.edu
14. *Everest, e.g.: Abbr.
16. *Less polite
19. Drive-___
20. Arise (from)
23. Do some last-minute studying
24. *Fury
25. *Opposite of “oui”
26. Emotional ___ (mental work)
27. Suffuse
28. Sweeping narratives of heroic deeds
29. *Unproductive behavioral pattern
33. *Letters before an addendum
37. Achieves
39. “Safe!” people
41. *Battery size for some wall clocks
42. *Did nothing
43. Test taken by a college sr.
44. Exasperated cries
46. Windy City trains
48. Animal whose full name comes from the Greek for “river horse”
49. Outdo
50. Undisguised
51. *Ad’s goal
52. *Begged
54. Bone to pick
55. Moon-related name
56. Bay Area representative Swalwell
60. Bird that lays green eggs (but is not a source of ham!)
61. Rottweiler, e.g.
Puzzle solutions are now exclusively online.
Showing up for coming out
On Oct. 9, the FSU community celebrated National Coming Out Day in the McCarthy Dining Commons.
Photos by Associate Editor Adrien Gobin
Spread by Photos & Design Editor Alexis Schlesinger
