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inner art critic at six new
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Friday, September 9, 2016 | Vol. XC, Issue 5 | Binghamton University | bupipedream.com
Celebrating 70 Years as the Free Word on Campus
BU draws over 32K applicants University welcomed 2,600 new students for class of 2020 Stacey Schimmel Pipe Dream News
Binghamton University welcomed over 2,600 freshmen this year, after receiving a record number of applications from prospective students spanning a wide variety of racial and geographical backgrounds. BU received 32,106 freshman applications for fall 2016 admission, surpassing its previous record of 30,615 in 2015. The freshman class has an average high school GPA of 95 and SAT scores above 1300 for critical reading and mathematics combined. According to Ryan Yarosh, BU’s director of media and public relations, applications for graduate study have also reached a new high with 4,920 applications for fall admission, a 10 percent increase from last year. Joe Tiesi, senior assistant director for undergraduate admissions, said that over 2,600 freshmen have enrolled, which has increased proportionally with the number of visitors to campus. Visitors, meaning all students who attended tours or information sessions, increased to 43,000 for this year. According to Tiesi, the University has
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Kevin Paredes/Assistant Photography Editor Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger speaks in the Anderson Center’s Osterhout Concert Theater Thursday afternoon. Stenger reflected on the changes that have been made to the University since first introducing his Road Map to Success plan.
Stenger outlines plans for future
In annual address, president announces renewed Road Map to Success initiative Pelle Waldron Assistant News Editor
On Thursday afternoon, Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger spoke to the campus community in his annual State of the University address held in the Anderson Center’s Osterhout Concert Theater. Breaking away from an emphasis on plans that has been a trend in previous State of the University talks, Stenger reflected on changes since he arrived at BU four years ago.
“We’ve grown,” Stenger said. “You can grow, and not get better. But growing and getting better was the key to this plan that we started four years ago, that we call the Road Map.” Stenger introduced the Road Map to Success Plan in 2012. It emphasized a collaborative approach for advancing University goals, and focused on improving graduate research, enhancing education, fostering diversity and increasing the University’s economic, social and cultural impact, among other things.
According to Stenger, in the past four years, tenured and tenure-track faculty at BU have increased by 30 percent. Student enrollment has increased by 15 percent, and he noted that hiring more faculty than students, percentage-wise, has allowed for increased student success. In terms of physical growth, new and renovated buildings have increased the square footage on campus by 15 percent. Despite this, Stenger said, it is time to rewrite the Road Map Plan. “We need to regroup,” Stenger said.
“We need to renew it, because I really believe that there are so many new people on campus that they should be involved in creating the next five-year plan. So, we’re going to be looking for new and old members. We’re going to be looking at how we can take the current environment, our emphasis on collaboration and find new ideas for solving problems.” Calling for faculty, staff and people outside of the University to get involved
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Professor puts spotlight on hook-up culture Teaching lab First speaker in SA series, Ann Merriwether discusses sexual behavior of students leads BU in innovation Peter Brockwell
Contributing Writer
On Thursday evening, about 40 Binghamton University students gathered in the Old University Union to hear psychology professor Ann Merriwether deliver a talk about the realities of hookup culture and sexuality on college campuses. The talk was part of the BU Student Association’s (SA) new Spotlight series. Starting this week, the series is scheduled to run on the first Thursday of each month for the rest of the year with talks which are given by professors across various disciplines. Selected and voted upon by academic vice presidents from the different housing communities, the talks are designed to give students the opportunity to engage with faculty they would not normally be able to take classes with due to their rigorous academic or extracurricular schedules. Adam Wilkes, the SA vice president for academic affairs (VPAA) and a junior double-majoring in economics and sociology, put the series together to give students the chance to explore other
disciplines. “These things are geared toward the campus community — the undergraduate community the SA represents in hopes of intellectual and scholastic intersectionality,” Wilkes said. “It’s also just to showcase some of the incredible faculty we have working here at Binghamton University.” Merriwether’s talk focused on her work with an interdisciplinary research group which focuses on sexuality. Comprised of Sue Seibold-Simpson, a nurse practitioner who concentrates on contraceptive decision making; Sean Massey, an associate professor of the women, gender and sexuality studies department, who has a focus in social psychology; and former BU student Justin Garcia, ‘11, now a professor of biology at Indiana University, the group has been studying hookups at BU for about eight years. The group spent several years asking students through surveys to define a hookup, receiving an array of answers before deciding on their own definition.
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Center for Learning and Teaching expands under new vice provost Samuel Abaev Contributing Writer
representatives, with five coming from each on-campus housing community, five coming from Susquehanna Community and Hillside Community combined, and 15 coming from off campus. According to Ferrara, Student Congress representatives help make many important decisions throughout campus. “Decisions the SA makes are much more complicated than one
The Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT) at Binghamton University offers professors and students the opportunity to innovate their classrooms with technologies and unique teaching techniques, and is now expanding in a different direction under new leadership. The CLT, located in Glenn G. Bartle Library, provides a wide variety of services for both students and professors. Among the most utilized resources in the space are the instructional design service, which is a program designed to teach professors how to best present and convey course material to students, and tutoring services for students that are primarily focused on educational technologies. James Pitarresi was recently promoted executive director and vice provost of the CLT, and is now in charge of designing academic spaces and aiding with new educational technology. “If a professor wanted to meet with our instructional design team to think about a way to maybe add gamification to their class to make it more exciting, they’d come to us,” Pitarresi said. “On the student side, we have tutorial services such as a big team of tutors that support student success. So, I like to think that the CLT is supporting both sides of the learning environment: student and instructor.”
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Kevin Sussy/Photography Editor Professor Ann Merriwether speaks to students in the Old University Union Thursday evening. Discussing campus hook-up culture, she is the first professor to speak as part of BU Student Association’s new Spotlight series.
Community government elections moved online
Voting to be conducted today between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. in an effort to increase student-voter participation Alana Epstein Pipe Dream News
Today, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., the Student Association (SA) will conduct its hall government and Student Congress elections. However, this year, students will be voting online in a transition from the usual format. The SA switched to an online method in the hopes of facilitating higher rates of student participation. The previous elections were not streamlined to the
same day, and Hinman College did not allow students the opportunity to vote online. The only community not following this timeline will be Dickinson Community, because of the resignation of its executive vice president (EVP) stalling its process. The former EVP stepped down after taking an RA position last minute, and the Dickinson Community decided that more time was needed for students to submit letters of intent for the newly available position.
ARTS & CULTURE
Dickinson’s elections will take place from Sept. 15 to Sept. 18 and will also be online. Nicholas Ferrara, the SA president and a senior majoring in political science, said he is hoping to see increased involvement among students in the election. “Elections do not mean anything without voter participation, so I hope students take advantage of the opportunity,” Ferrara said. Student Congress is composed of 45 OPINIONS
Childish Gambino joins a new community on his show “Atlanta,”
Take your workout routine outdoors with our staircase exercises,
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The Pipe Dream Editorial Board discusses the State of the University address,
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SPORTS
Foreign recruits key to men’s tennis program,
Former BU Running Club member earns spot on varsity roster,
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