bupipedream.com | February 21, 2023
NEWS
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Legal cannabis dispensary opens downtown breathe from page 1 Kraham said cannabis legalization is important because before becoming regulated, the buying and selling of it was a distrustful process. The products that people use will now be examined and tested, and consumers will have more awareness of the inner workings of the businesses
that are distributing them. At illegal stores, people have less of an awareness of what they are buying which, as Kraham emphasized, can be dangerous. Cornwell added that the dispensary offers an opportunity for college students to remain in Binghamton after graduation by increasing the city’s appeal.
“I think the Just Breathe dispensary is a step in the right direction to make this a more attractive place to retain the talent that the college has,” Cornwell said. “That’s really what we should be aiming to do. That’s how the town will reignite itself in the future.” According to Spectrum News, three dispensaries are in the process of opening in the
coming months in the Capital Region, with one meant to be located in Schenectady and two others in Albany. Malcolm Clemmer, a senior majoring in computer engineering, expressed concern about the success of the business. “Gray market shops are going to be important in determining [Just Breathe’s]
success — students are always going to go with the cheaper options,” Clemmer said. Michael Esquivel, a senior majoring in computer engineering, shared his support for the opening of the cannabis dispensary. “With a legal dispensary, I would assume the prices they are charging would match the quality of cannabis they are
selling,” Esquivel said. “I know of a few friends that are already excited that it has opened up. Now that it’s an actual legal dispensary, more people will be comfortable with the use of it downtown and it will gain a lot more business. There are a lot of students I have met looking for better places to purchase these products.”
Graduate students petition for ‘living wage’ The GSEU staged a petition drop and protest this past Wednesday. Jacob Knipes news editor
The Graduate Student Employees Union (GSEU) made their presence known in the Couper Administration Building yesterday, taping their “Petition For a Living Wage” to the stairwell. This latest protest comes after the completion of GSEU’s petition, which saw over 1,500 people from across the campus and beyond sign in support of the “GSEU Binghamton Living Wage Campaign.” Beginning last November, the GSEU has organized various initiatives in an attempt to raise the wages of Binghamton University Graduate Assistants (GA), Teaching Assistants (TA) and other positions, including a protest earlier last month. Members have claimed that most graduate student workers earn a median salary of $19,428 per year, compared to the minimum living wage of over $34,000 according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator. Beginning in the late afternoon, members of GSEU alongside other supporters first gathered on the green outside of the administration building. Once there, protest signs and slogan sheets were passed out to protesters, and many wore shirts with phrases advocating for the campaign.
Emily Blakley, president of GSEU and a sixth-year graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in cognitive and brain studies, described the crowd Wednesday as “engaging.” “They cheered at all the right moments, and I think it means that anybody who came who may have never really engaged in this before, I’m hoping came away with thinking this is an important thing, but also that they had a bit of a good time being in a group like that so they come back,” Blakley said. “But every time you stand up there and you look at a crowd of people who show up for each other, because that’s the only way you get things done and see that people power, that force, it means so much to us after the month of planning just to see people come out and be like ‘yeah we care.’” After the group had fully come together, multiple members of GSEU spoke about the campaign and its goals. Intermixed with the speeches were various chants and verbal answers from the crowd to questions posed by the speakers. After the speeches concluded, the group embarked on a march around the Spine. Jonathan Hagofsky, a fourth-year graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in philosophy, described his motivations for supporting the campaign as being able to afford necessities that come easy in other jobs. “It would mean for me to become something other than a graduate student slaving
joanna fishman & ryan harvey video contributors The protesters marched along the Spine before entering the Couper Administration Building to drop off their “Petition For a Higher Wage.”
away at their job, at their research and at their other obligations,” Hagofsky said. “I would have the flexibility to do basic things that other people do, like own a car, even a used car.” After the march concluded, the protesters then entered the administration building to drop off a printed version of the petition. Once inside a few members of the group took turns reading selected statements writing by anonymous graduate students, before another member read the text of the petition. When no one from administration came out to address the group, they proceeded to tap the petition to the stairwell. Blakley described the action of taping the petition as
preplanned and akin to Martin Luther’s “96 theses”. “It’s this, like, powerful movement of ‘here are our demands’, and it is a sign that we were here and they weren’t,” Blakley said. “It’s nice to leave a piece of evidence behind. So it was a really big symbolic movement of, ‘we were here, here’s our demands, you didn’t listen.’ And I’m going to follow up with them. I am going to email [BU President Harvey Stenger] the petition with all 1500 signatures as well. I know that he knows that it’s there, but just to make sure.” Lucas Williams, a campus organizer for GSEU and a third-year graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in mathematics, expressed his appreciation for the turnout to
the petition drop. “So many people care about this issue,” Williams said. “I mean, this is an issue that affects all of us. The range that TAs and GAs at [BU] are paid is from $11,000 all the way up to $27,000 while a living wage is $34,000. So this is an issue for everyone here, some more than others, but this affects us all. So it was amazing to see so many people here.” Moving forward, Blakley said other initiatives and potentially monthly events are in the works to further support the campaign. Representatives from the Union have also met with Kathryn Madigan, the chair of the BU Council, and Donald E. Hall, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, according to
Blakley. With the petition having come to a close and being dropped, Blakley said she was thankful for the support from the campus community. “I am 100 percent grateful for the people who showed up and signed the petition,” Blakley said. “The fact that upon making that petition scroll and seeing the people who signed, the fact is that over 600 undergraduates filled out our petition. The fact that that group is our biggest group of petition signers, and those are our students. Our students are the one who really stepped forward, and undergraduates are starting to realize that their education is because of us.”
BU places high on ‘Campus Pride Index’ The University was rated a 4.5 out of 5 on the survey, which rates inclusiveness. Vassili Gonzales news contributor
Binghamton University has received a 4.5 out of five stars on the Campus Pride Index (CPI). The CPI was created in 2007 by the nonprofit organization Campus Pride. According to their website, Campus Pride works with student leaders and campus groups to create safer, more LGBTQ-friendly
environments at colleges and universities. The index measures LGBTQ+ inclusive policies, practices and programs that are implemented by a university or college. The index score measures eight factors, including LGBTQ+ academic life, housing, campus safety, and counseling and health services, according to the Campus Pride website. To participate in the index, a campus official creates an account to take a self-assessment with over 50 questions corresponding to the eight factors being measured. Once
the assessment is complete, the official receives a confidential report of their responses, results and recommendations. According to the Campus Pride website, BU has received four out of five stars in terms of policy inclusion, support and institutional commitment, and recruitment and retention efforts. BU has also received five stars for both LGBTQ+ student life and residential and housing life. The index gave BU a 4.5 for campus safety, with the lowestrated factor being counseling and health, with a score of 3.5. Nicholas Martin, assistant
brianna crowther design assistant Binghamton University received a perfect score in two of the eight categories measured by the Campus Pride Index.
director of the Q Center, an organization providing resources and hosting educational events for LGBTQ+ students at BU, discussed the contributions the organization has made to the University’s score. “Since my arrival at [BU] in the fall 2021, the Q Center team has worked tirelessly to increase LGBTQ+ visibility on campus through events, educational workshops, our Gender Bender Clothing Closet and meaningful collaborations with campus partners and the LGBTQ+ student organizations,” Martin wrote in an email. “This work is never finished and improvement is always necessary.” Part of the CPI score measures two inclusion factors — sexual orientation and gender identity/expression score. BU has been rated 4.5 stars for both factors. Rachel Del Fierro, an intern at the Q Center and a sophomore majoring in psychology, said BU can improve inclusion for gender non-conforming students. “We recently celebrated the implementation of the SUNY-wide ‘chosen name and pronoun’ policy, which is great, but not the end-all, beall when it comes to combating discrimination against gender non-conforming folk,” Del Fierro said. “I believe having
more widespread, highly enforced education and training on the topic would help solve these issues on an individual level. On top of that, putting more gender-neutral bathrooms in popular, accessible locations would be appreciated.” The Q-Center provides resources for LGBTQ students, such as the Gender-Bender Clothing Closet, offering clothes affirming students’ gender identities and expressions in exchange for donated clothes, along with holding events such as Transgender Awareness Week, the National Day of Silence and the “OUTober” Pride Month. Luis Hernandez, the political activism chair for SHADES — an organization for LGBTQIAP+ students on campus — and a sophomore majoring in biology, said BU can improve their effort toward people-of-color (POC) LGBTQ+ students. “I think that [BU] can promote intersectionality between LGBTQ and POC identities, rather than solely focusing on the white LGBTQ experience,” Hernandez wrote in an email. “They can do this by simply hosting queer events and having resources that actively strive for more inclusion of different ethnic backgrounds. I think BU can also hire more POC LGBTQ figures for
students to go to for support and assistance, as well as giving appropriate budgets to each organization that correlates with their impact on campus.” According to the CPI website, some of the services that BU does not offer currently are an LGBTQ+ social fraternity, a standing advisory committee focused on LGBTQ+ issues and the option for students to selfidentify their sexual orientation on an admission application or post-enrollment form. Hernandez discussed the impact that events from SHADES have made for LGBTQ+ students at BU, such their Vogue Ball and Sex Carnival. “Voguing, originating from gay and trans-Latinx and Black culture, celebrates and magnifies a culture that is underrepresented on campus,” Hernandez said. “Thus, our event allows students of multiple identities to feel comfortable in a space where they can embrace themselves, their history and their roots. Conducting events that both [embrace] culture and addresses critical issues of being a POC queer student at a [predominantly white institution] allows the [BU] queer student body as a whole to benefit by embracing the diversity that exists within the queer community on and outside of campus.”