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Tuesday, September 27, 2016 | Vol. XC, Issue 10 | Binghamton University | bupipedream.com
Celebrating 70 Years as the Free Word on Campus
BU celebrates Nelson Mandela's influence
Alumni, students gather to commemorate renaming of former Social Room during South African apartheid Amy Donovan Staff Writer
The Mandela Room, located in the University Union and home to a wide variety of events and performances on campus, was given its name 30 years ago as a result of student protests of apartheid in South Africa. In 1986, Binghamton University students rallied against the system of racial segregation by boycotting companies on campus that had ties to South Africa. They organized demonstrations and demanded that the Couper Administration Building be renamed after Nelson Mandela, the South African politician and revolutionary who fought to end apartheid. As a compromise, BU administration agreed to rename the Social Room in the Union after Mandela instead. This occurred as Mandela was serving a 27-year prison sentence for his active political involvement in the anti-apartheid movement and served as a gesture of BU’s support for the suppressed people in South Africa. Students had been protesting the University’s ties to the country for a few years by holding rallies and pickets to protest BU’s investments in South Africa. Clifford Clark, the president of BU at the time, announced his support for the student protests, leading to the renaming of the room and an end to the University doing business with companies linked to South Africa. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the renaming of the room, and to celebrate, alumni, faculty and students
gathered to unveil a new portrait of Mandela, which will hang in place of the original one. Gillian Patrick, ‘94, double-majored in art and English at BU and was commissioned by the Black Student Union to paint the first portrait in 1994, four years after Mandela was released from prison. Patrick said that she was never quite happy with the way the painting came out, so when the University contacted her about putting up a plaque attributing the painting to her, she offered to make an entirely new portrait of Mandela instead. On Sunday, Patrick spoke about why Mandela is still an important figure in today’s society and used in current events, such as police brutality in the United States, to demonstrate why his teachings still matter. “Nelson Mandela, in his time with us, served an incredible purpose, not only to his country, but to the world,” Patrick said. “And he taught us many lessons, lessons in equal rights and humanity in mankind. At times I’m reflective of the fact that the rights he was willing to fight and give his life to achieve are still not fully granted to many, and the issues related to race are still so ever-present not only in South Africa now but in this country as well.” Patrick added that she believes everyone has a duty to observe the lessons Mandela taught. “It’s important because of what’s going on in the country now and what’s
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Sean Lastig/Contributing Photographer Adam Laats, an associate professor of education, sits in his office in Academic Building B. Laats will be awarded the History of Education Society’s Outstanding Book Award.
Professor explores history of education
Professor Adam Laats recognized for book on conservative schooling Stacey Schimmel Pipe Dream News
One Binghamton University professor has received a national award for his book, “The Other School Reformers: Conservative Activism in American Education.” In it, he tackles the subject of conservatism in the education system, a topic that is not frequently explored. Adam Laats, a professor of education, will be presented with the History of Education Society’s Outstanding Book Award in Rhode Island this November. The History of Education Society is a global professional organization which gives out a yearly award for what it believes is the
best book on education. Laats’ book investigates how education has been shaped by both progressive and conservative thought by studying four education controversies: the 1925 Scopes Trial, the 1939 Rugg textbook controversy, the 1950 ouster of Pasadena public schools regarding superintendent Willard Goslin and the 1974 Kanawha County schools boycott. These cases explored Darwinism, socialism, multiculturalism and feminism, respectively. While many historians regard history education as a liberal discipline shaped by progressive thought, Laats said that conservative activists have shaped and defined U.S. classrooms during the 20th
century and his book is an exploration of why and how this has happened. His book aims to address why schools are generally regarded by the public as conservative places concerning their rigid organization structure and teaching styles, while educators say otherwise. He said his goal was to let the definition of conservative schooling emerge from the four cases instead of imposing a definition of what it means to be conservative. “Instead of trying to figure out what it meant to be conservative, I decided to let the people speak for themselves — the people of the 20th century,” Laats said.
SEE BOOK PAGE 3
Risky behavior examined Food scientist studies obesity as product of environment Cornell researcher examines link between taste buds and diet Deborah Schechter looks at role of external influences on youth behavior Peter Brockwell Staff Writer
On Monday evening, Deborah Schechter, a visiting professor at Binghamton University, delivered a talk about developmental factors that lead young people toward risk-taking behavior. The talk was organized by David Wilson, director of the evolutionary studies speaker series and a BU professor of the anthropology and biology departments. It focused on Schechter’s work, which applies life history theory to a Native American community located in far eastern Maine. According to Schechter, life history theory functions to provide an explanation for the development of internalized environmental insecurity. The idea is that insecurity can stem from different stressors young people experience, such as frequent changes in living situations, economic uncertainty and poor familial relationships. When internalizing this environment, young people may turn to risk-taking behavior for short-term relief. To measure this, Schechter monitored the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in individuals. Those with higher cortisol levels were more likely to be experiencing stress and partake in risky behavior. “What research in this area shows is that for individuals that are experiencing economic stress, they have higher cortisol levels,” Schechter said. “For individuals who are experiencing family conflict, they have high cortisol levels. And also, individuals who show insecure attachment in a protective relationship also tend to have high cortisol levels.” Schechter’s research focused on the Passamaquoddy tribe located in
Maine. She noted that the reason for choosing them was that Native American communities are disproportionately vulnerable to high-risk behaviors after decades of marginalization. “The reason that I became interested in working with Native Americans in the first place is that Native Americans, taken as a group, are much more vulnerable to many different kinds of risk-taking behaviors, starting with drug and alcohol use, dropping out of school — even things like wearing seatbelts, suicide,” Schechter said. “All these things disproportionately affect this population.” Speaking to about 100 Passamaquoddy children between the ages of 10 and 19, Schechter asked about their home lives and their future plans. The interview acted as a stressor, with Schechter measuring the children’s levels of cortisol in a saliva sample both before and after the interview to see how external factors were influencing them. Schechter found that Native American children who were more involved with their traditional community — children who participated in events like a reservation-wide potluck and traditional drumming — had lower levels of cortisol and were less likely to participate in risktaking behavior. Wilson noted that even though Schechter was a new professor to BU, he felt her work was compelling enough that he would have asked her to speak to his students no matter the circumstance. “I would have paid for her airline ticket to come from the University of Washington, where she got her degree,” Wilson said. “So we were lucky to be able to have her so available to us.”
SEE RISK PAGE 2
ARTS & CULTURE
Peter Brockwell Staff Writer
On Friday afternoon, over 100 Binghamton University students and faculty members filled a lecture hall in Academic Building A to hear Robin Dando, an assistant professor in the department of food science at Cornell University, deliver a lecture on his research about the relationship between taste and obesity. Dando gave a talk focused on the effect obesity has on taste, and the consequences that changes in taste can have on a person’s diet. He was brought to campus by Patricia Di Lorenzo, BU professor of psychology, as part of the 2016-17 Harpur College Dean’s Speaker Series for Integrative Neuroscience. The two met after Di Lorenzo gave a talk
about her own work on the neural coding of sensory systems at Cornell. The speaker explained that a diet exists as a type of feedback mechanism, with food consumption leading to a release in an organism’s pleasure receptors. When a food is consumed that a person enjoys, or gives them valuable nourishment, they receive a pleasurable response. To measure the effect that obesity has on these tastes, Dando used specially bred mice with extremely similar genetic makeup. He then divided them into two groups and fed them different diets. One group received standard mouse food with a healthy balance of nutrients. The other group received a special diet that had extremely high levels of fat. Starting in the 12th week of the mice’s lives, Dando measured their weight gain and each mouse’s number of taste buds.
After eight weeks, the mice that were fed the high-fat food had experienced a dramatic weight gain and lost onethird of their taste buds. Without the taste buds to properly trigger the mice’s pleasure receptors, the obese mice ate more of their fat-heavy food, adding to their weight gain. While Dando said it is not ethically possible to foster this kind of weight gain in human beings, he theorized that a similar response is present in obese people. Dando was able to test his theory on a small scale by studying the weight gain of freshmen at Cornell. Researchers in Dando’s lab interviewed a group of students about their food consumption and took pictures of their tongues so they could study changes
SEE FOOD PAGE 2
Alumni discuss political polarization
Panel analyzes civic engagement, voter participation in U.S. David Zeiger Staff Writer
Claudio Muter/Contributing Photographer Binghamton University alum David Schultz, ‘86, speaks to students and staff about the current political climate.
Three alumni and current political science professors came to the Watters Theater in the Anderson Center on Saturday to discuss the current political climate as part of the Talks that Inspire, Educate and Resonate (TIER) speaker series sponsored by the Alumni Association. David Schultz received his master’s in political science at Binghamton University in 1986. Schultz is a professor of political science at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota and discussed the rise of political polarization in the United States in recent decades. Schultz highlighted economic inequality as a factor in the polarization of political views and stated that the degree of economic inequality has been rising since the 1970s.
OPINIONS
“Economic polarization drives political polarization,” Schultz said. “We now live in two different worlds, two nations separate and unequal.” He further discussed that people are becoming less tolerant of those with differing views. “Increasingly, we do not want to even live with people who disagree with us politically,” Shultz said. “This creates a situation in which our very environment reinforces our preconceived notions.” Matthew Kerbel graduated from BU in 1980 and is the chair of the political science department at Villanova University. He discussed how the internet and social media have made information more accessible than ever before. He stated that this is an opportunity for more informed political
SEE POLITICS PAGE 2
SPORTS
The Black Student Union features young designers at its fall fashion show,
Shawn Mendes looks to his influences in sophomore effort,
Student organizations pledge solidarity to victims of police brutality in a letter to the editor,
Volleyball falls to Albany in America East opener,
Men’s soccer defeats Buffalo, 3-0, in Homecoming game,
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