November 2014

REPORTER NOVEMBER 2014 reporter.rit.edu THE INVISIBLE POOR RIT students surviving poverty

OCULUS RIFT A Review of the Developer Kit 2

ROC PUNK The punk scene in Rochester

Rochester Institute of Technology

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Please Recycle

REPORTER EDITOR IN CHIEF Alyssa Jackson PRINT MANAGING EDITOR

Joan McDonough ONLINE MANAGING EDITOR

Nathaniel Mathews COPY EDITOR Amanda Moon NEWS EDITOR Taylor Derrisaw TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Natasha Amadasun LEISURE EDITOR Gino Fanelli FEATURES EDITOR Nicole Howley SPORTS EDITOR Alexander Jones VIEWS EDITOR William Hirsh WRITERS Andrew Tuttle, Prateek Ranka,

Erica Butler, Evander Sousa, Dominique Hessert, Gino Fanelli, Nick Bovee, Abigal Frawley, Nicole Howley, Courtney Smith, Nathan J. Lichtenstein

ART ART DIRECTOR Rachel Fox ONLINE ART DIRECTOR Jordyn Carias SENIOR DESIGNER Teysia Parks STAFF DESIGNERS Liz Mc Grail,

Raven Reynolds, Annie Wong, Halli Rosin, Alexandria Bates CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS

Jordyn Carias, Max Yaeger,

CALLING OUT RIT ADMINISTRATION I currently hold five different jobs on campus, including my Editor in Chief job here at Reporter. In addition, I hold an off campus job and attend school full time.

At the time of writing this, I have five more days until I am paid again for my work on campus. I also have $10 in my bank account to last me until then.

What I make here at RIT is what I have to live on. If I run out of food, I don’t eat. If my computer breaks, I make do with campus technology. If my car stops working, I have to find a ride to school and hope that my schedule lines up with someone else.

On Oct. 10, our news section published an article regarding workers’ rights here on campus.

Turns out, a lot of other students feel similarly that they should be paid as adults when having the expenses of adults. However, the article focused on people who work hourly jobs on campus (who are still suffering due to the 20 hour weekly limit that they are allowed to work).

What I’m betting that a number of students don’t realize is that your MSO leaders, for example me, any of the editors on staff here and members of Student Government, generally make a lot less than minimum wage thanks to the stipend system and the insane number of hours we put in at our jobs.

College is a time for students to act like adults with help from universities, educators and parents. There are resources on campus that could help you figure out how to file your taxes, how to ace that job interview and how to make the best use of your money. Despite this, it seems that we are still earning teenage wages to pay for adult expenses, in addition to the expensive text books, class fees and parking passes required by RIT. So I’m calling you out, RIT administration. Raise our wages, pay us fairly. If you can find donors to build a hockey rink, I bet you could find donors that would want to help end poverty among students. Minimum wage is not fair, and less than minimum wage for your MSO leaders certainly isn’t fair either. Quality of work would go up, your students wouldn’t be starving to pay for their textbooks at the beginning of the semester and you would be one of the most humane colleges out there (a livable wage would be a great marketing tool for new students).

I’m not saying that students should be paid according to industry standards. However, if I spend one more week hungry because I can’t afford to go to RIT, I may just lose it.

Jenny Kyong Ah Lee, Maliya Travers-Crumb

PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTO EDITOR Kim Bubello CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Maridelis Morales, Bob Civil, Tom Brenner, Lloyd McCullough, Paula Ospina, Mike Young

BUSINESS BUSINESS MANAGER Jaclyn Bergin

Alyssa Jackson Editor in Chief

Letters to the Editor should be sent to rpteic@rit.edu. No letters will be printed unless signed. All letters received become the property of REPORTER.

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Reporter Magazine is published monthly during the academic year by a staff comprised of students at Rochester Institute of Technology. Business, Editorial and Design facilities are located in Room A-730, in the lower level of the Campus Center. Our phone number is 1.585.475.2212. The Advertising Department can be reached at 1.585.475.2213. “This is a peice of crap.” -L.S. The opinions expressed in Reporter do not necessarily reflect those of the Institute. Reporter is not responsible for materials presented in advertising areas. Reporter takes pride in its membership in the Associated Collegiate Press and American Civil Liberties Union. Copyright © 2014 Reporter Magazine. All rights reserved. No portion of this Magazine may be reproduced without prior written permission.

November 3

TA B L E O F TECH 6

7

LEADING THE WAY IN TECHNOLOGY A look at RIT community members’ projects

OCULUS RIFT A Review of the Developer Kit 2

NEWS 8

WITR EXECS DONATE PAY The executive board’s decision to save the new studio

LEISURE 9

10

14

4 November

AT YOUR LEISURE AYL: Thanksgiving Edition

ROC PUNK The punk scene in Rochester

OUT IN THE COLD Homelessness in winter

CONTENTS FE ATURES 12

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE BLACK AND MALE IN AMERICA?

SPORTS 23

ONESPIRIT: A GLOBAL CELEBRATION A new tradition in the making

VIEWS 26

A Question Bridge exhibit downtown

16

THE INVISIBLE POOR RIT students surviving poverty

24

QUIDDITCH AT RIT: MUGGLES WELCOME More than your average sport

27

THE FINE PRINT Housing Terms and Conditions (visitation / overnight guests)

CRITIQUE OF WAGE: LIVING OR OTHERWISE A critical analysis of pay for students

20

REGULATIONS OF STUDENT LABOR The struggles with student employment

28

30

WORD ON THE STREET A look at RIT community members’ projects

RINGS O.G. Yik Yak

November 5

RIT T

his past year, many students have worked at RIT doing research and creating a more technologically advanced campus. With the help of RIT professors, these students have completed phenomenal research projects within the scope of the RIT campus and beyond.

Alexander Dawson-Elli, a fifth year Biomedical Engineering major, and Michael Potter, a fourth year Biomedical Engineering major, worked under the guidance of Dr. Cristian Linte. The key concept of their project was minimally invasive surgery. As surgeries become more complicated, there is a greater likelihood of damage. With minimally invasive surgery, both mortality rates and recovery times would decrease. The students utilized tracking technology that would give surgeons the ability to take an image before the surgery that would aid in tracking the surgical device. They were able to use a 3D Slicer program to generate metrics for accuracy and precision. Working together, they framed the problem, broke it down and each executed a portion of a solution. Then they reconvened to test each other’s work, reiterating problems if a solution was not found, which led to a well-formulated research project.

Alyssa Recinella, a third year Mechanical Engineering major, worked alongside graduate students with assistance from Dr. Satish Kandlikar. Her research involved two-phase cooling through flow boiling in microchannels. With flow boiling, liquid flows over a hot copper surface that is being heated from the bottom up, which results in the water boiling and releasing a gas when it reacts with the hot surface, making the process two phases. The research Recinella and her colleagues did can be applied to many different fields, including nuclear power plants and computational analysis.

Long Pham, a second year Computer Engineering major, worked on processing wind power data from the past in order to predict the amount of power that will be generated in the future. Pham became familiar with the computational software MATLAB under the guidance of Dr. Andres Kwasinski, which was then used to perfect his data. To do this, he retraced the algorithmic steps and restructured code after identifying the problem.

6 Technology

LEADING THE WAY IN TECHNOLOGY Ultimately, he designed reusable code that predicted how much wind power would be generated based on how much had been generated in the past.

At RIT, Dr. Mario Gomes works with both undergraduate and graduate students to create the most efficient, walking legged robot, focusing on rigid body mechanics and dynamics.

“The trick is to have the foot come down and slow down so that it reaches zero velocity, so that it has no impact,” he said. “It has a collision, but it doesn’t dissipate any impact.”

Mechanically efficient walking via a legged robot has not been done before, and if it were to be accomplished, it would give further insight into understanding robotics. Gomes also worked with students on an inertia coupled rimless wheel, the success of which was the stepping-stone to his recent robotics project. Gomes believes that improving and learning how to deploy what technology we already have is the best way to advance the technological world right now.

Dr. Michael Schrlau and his student assistants Zachary Hankinson, a second year Me-

by Erica Butler photography by Lloyd McCullough and Kim Bubello design by Liz McGrail

chanical Engineering student, and Akane Fujimoto, a second year Industrial and Systems Engineering student, work on a sub-cellular level, developing tools to work with technology on a nano-scale using template-based nano manufacturing. They grow carbon nanotubes by releasing gases that contain carbon onto glass capillaries. Chemical vapor deposition causes the gas to break apart and deposits small amounts of carbon on the inside surface. Over time, this carbon gas collects and grows carbon nanotubes on the capillaries. In the end, carbon nanotubes are left attached to very small pieces of glass. The purpose of these nanotubes is to poke cells and collect data from them, which is less damaging and more advanced than other methods.

If students continue the pace of applied technological research that they have sustained thus far, not only will our campus benefit, but hopefully society at large will as well—making RIT a leader in engineering systematic investigations and placing us on the cutting edge of future scientific advances.

OCULUS

RIFT DEVELOPER KIT 2

by Evander Sousa illustration by Jordyn Carias photography by Kim Bubello design by Raven Reynolds

I

fly through the void, completing my first orbit around the planet in my personalized mech suit. Up ahead, I spot a dense cloud of rock in the asteroid belt surrounding the planet and duck my head, maneuvering my suit to avoid a collision. Upon recovering from the dodge, I spot the enemy. Balls of machinery enter my field of vision. Using my eyes, I focus on them, the suit’s targeting system and fire.

The Oculus Rift is an upcoming partial-dive virtual reality system developed by Oculus VR. Oculus has sold developer kits in preparation for the 2015 target release, allowing consumers and programmers the chance to work with the system before its official launch. I recently had the chance to spend a weekend experimenting with Developer Kit 2, the most advanced Rift system to date.

SETUP The system itself is composed of a headset and a head-tracking device connected by a mesh of wires. Successfully connecting them to my desktop proved to be a difficult process. Once the system was set up, the instructions required me to download software from Oculus’s website in order to actually use the system.

As luck would have it, the website was experiencing problems the whole week, leaving me unable to download the files. Luckily, a moderator on the Rift’s Reddit page was able to send me a copy of the necessary files, and after another hour of troubleshooting, I was ready to launch my first program. ContentVirtual reality programs are not yet mainstream, but Oculus allows developers to upload their work onto their website, so anyone with a Rift can use it. Relying on the users of r/Rift, I downloaded three programs: Sightline: the Chair, Windland and Vanguard. The programs themselves were fantastic. While the graphics were not the most advanced I’ve seen, they were on par with many current video games. Each game had a different method for controls, including the use of a standard controller as well as using the head tracker to translate head movement to in-game movement.

I found myself extremely satisfied with the available programs, especially considering that most of the available content is made by individual programmers or companies experimenting with the technology.

PROBLEMS Since the Oculus Rift is still in the development stage, there were many problems.

To start, it took almost five hours to get the Rift setup ready for actual use. Beyond that you can still see individual pixels when using the system, which takes away from the experience. However, the biggest problem has to do with motion blur and the effects on your brain. After using the system for 20 minutes, most users start to experience intense headaches and nausea. The best way to describe the feeling is that it seems like the Rift has burned out your brain. The effects become more intense after removing the system, and persist for at least half an hour. After spending about six hours using the system, also called ‘Rifting,’ I was not capable of higher-order thinking for the rest of the day.

THE FUTURE Oculus has been great about sharing its information, which has allowed Samsung to develop their Gear VR system, though the release date is still unknown. Oculus itself plans to release its first official system in 2015, hopefully without the current issues.

THE OCULUS RIFT IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARD A FULLY IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCE. Once this technology becomes readily accessible, I predict that the available content will rapidly become more common and the problems currently present will become non-issues. Now that virtual reality has caught the attention of larger companies, huge amounts of funding are available to take the technology to the next level. With Samsung’s upcoming Gear system and Facebook’s purchase of Oculus, the technology finally has the jumpstart it needs to push it into mainstream media consumption. The Oculus Rift system has opened the door to the limitless world of virtual reality, and I look forward to seeing the advances in VR technology in the future.

Technology 7

by Dominique Hessert | photography by Kim Bubello | design by Halli Rosin

F

or years, RIT’s WITR radio station has been working from a small, cramped studio in the basement of the Student Alumni Union. Years ago, a project proposal involving a bigger and better studio arose. As the idea grew older, no money was raised, so the project did not advance … until last year.

RIT students Eli Clampett, Joe Makowski and AJ Colosimo of WITR’s executive board inherited the 3-year-old project plan of a new stu-

While they were trying to come up with a successful fundraising plan, WITR’s general manager from 1980 approached Makowski and told him about a time when WITR needed a new transmitter, but they didn’t have the money. The staff decided to suspend their pay and have it diverted to the project. This strategy was soon applied to the current issue, and the executive board voted to donate one pay period to the project.

“WE EITHER NEEDED TO GET THE MONEY AND BUILD THE STUDIO, OR IT WAS GOING TO BE TAKEN AWAY FROM US” dio. When the boys took on the project, it was a make-or-break situation. “We either needed to get the money and build the studio, or it was going to be taken away from us,” said Makowski, WITR’s student general manager. The plan involved a much bigger space, an office, an equipment storage area and a more visible location. Overall, this ideal plan had a price tag of $160,000, but the group set a fundraising goal of $80,000. After that, the question was how to raise the money.

8 News

“It wasn’t that large … only about $400, because we aren’t paid very much. It was more of a symbolic gesture,” Makowski said. “We needed to do something relatively drastic to show off our commitment to it.”

Clampett, WITR’s sports director, noted that despite being away on co-op, he was inspired to donate his pay as well.

WITR broadcasted the opportunity to donate with its Listen UP: A Campaign to Bring the Sound Up from Underground. Students, facul-

WITR EXECS DONATE PAY ty and alumni alike contributed to the cause, including former Senior Vice President of Student Affairs Mary Beth Cooper and President Bill Destler. With a total of over 300 gifts ranging from $5 to $5,000, WITR was able to raise all of the money it needed within last year alone.

The point that the students were trying to make was that there are things worth donating to at RIT; what a portion of RIT students do not realize is that student organizations are not funded by tuition dollars. Fredyne Frey, senior associate director and manager of Campus Life Facilities, said “I think the main reason WITR’s campaign was successful is that the students involved in WITR are passionate about college radio and take a lot of pride in WITR, and they built relationships across the RIT community to tap into the resources available on campus to help make the new studio a reality.”

The new studio will be approximately three times the size of the current one, and will be located on the upper level of the Student Alumni Union. Construction for the studio has already begun.

Clampett, Makowski and Colosimo played large roles in making a 5-year-old idea a reality, but there were many steps and many people involved along the way.

“We relied on the faith and money of ourselves and our students on staff and the public itself. We relied a lot on Freddie’s [Fredyne’s] ability to help coordinate what we were doing and give us ideas. We relied a lot on our advisor Carol [Reed] to navigate the politics of RIT, which can be complicated. We started it and have seen it through, but along the way RIT showed a lot of support.”

AYL

THANKSGIVING

by Gino Fanelli | illustration by Max Yeager | design by Teysia Parks

STREAM OF FACTS In 2012, Americans consumed a total of 46 million turkeys on Thanksgiving alone.

Fires from deep-fried turkeys are most prevalent in Texas, with 19 insurance claims on Thanksgiving Day between 2007 and 2011.

Contrary to popular belief, Thanksgiving was first celebrated in Texas by Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in 1541, not in the Plymouth Colony.

The Puritan Thanksgiving, originally celebrated by the pilgrims to the Plymouth Colony, was a holiday of solemn prayer which included feasting.

In preparation of the Thanksgiving feasting, vegetarian Americans will spend seven and a half times the price for a pound of turkey on the same amount of tofurkey.

WORD SEARCH BREAD COOKIES COOKING CORN CORNUCOPIA CRANBERRIES DRINK FAMILY FEAST FOOTBALL

GRAVY LEFTOVERS PIE PLYMOUTH POTATOES PUMPKINS SQUASH STUFFING TOGETHERNESS TURKEY

Leisure 9

K PU ROC

N

r

raphy by Tom Brenne

by Gino Fanelli | photog design by Halli Rosin

I

n April 2012, Reporter published an article profiling The Meatgrinder, a basement venue pivotal to the Rochester punk scene. Since the article’s publication, The Meatgrinder has closed its doors, and many bands—including the house owner Adam Kramer’s own Endangered Youth—have broken up. The punk scene, known for its resiliency and DIY aesthetics, has struggled following The Meatgrinder’s demise. Today, it is an unfortunate reality that the dwindling house shows which are so essential to the genre are being replaced by the bar scene in Rochester, sucking away much of the elements of DIY pride in the community. While new bands emerge from the shadows, it is feared by many in the scene that the glory days of Rochester punk are behind us.

Lights dimmed on a Saturday night over a 50-by-100-foot black dance floor inside of

yet sing-songy vocals that are a staple of the pop-punk genre. Neon colors began to flicker across the stage, while blinding strobe lights flashed across the floor. The bodies gradually began to move before finally throwing themselves into fits of shoving and slamming, all captivated by wide smiles on scraggly bearded faces. Collin Bourne of the eponymous punk band Collin and the Bournes ran rapidly from person to person, greeting all with a signature hug and some with a beer-scented kiss on the cheek.

This is a scene representative of Rochester punk. Though it is lively and full of passion, many within the culture believe that it is slowly but surely sliding into decay which is almost entirely due to apathy and arrogance toward building an accepting scene.

“You know what I think the problem is?”

Bourne said. “The scene has gotten cliquey.

The hardcore kids don’t want to play with the pop-punk kids, and the noise kids don’t want to play with the hardcore kids. It’s hard to get anything done when people refuse to drop the labels and just play music together.”

Bourne was soon met by Tim Ernst of the Buffalo band Accidentals, who joined the conversation.

“Yeah, it’s not like that in Buffalo,” Ernst said. “I remember a few months back, [Buffalo band] On the Cinder needed a place to play, so they make a phone call to one of the guys who lived at [house venue] The Flower House. He said, ‘Yeah, sure, come by, we’ll get you set up!’ and that was it. That’s something that happens all the time in Buffalo, yet just

“THAT WAS GREAT, MAN,” A YOUNG MAN WITH A THIN BEARD SAID TO BOURNE. “JUST GOOD, CLEAN, PUNK-ROCK FUN.” Rochester’s California Brew Haus. A dizzying array of bodies in flannel shirts and backpatched denim jackets mingled around the front of the stage as Fairport band Slut Week quietly tuned their instruments. The crowd moved to the front of the stage as a distorted guitar melody began to echo through the venue, quickly accompanied by a thumping bass, an energetic drumbeat and the scratchy 10 Leisure

Bourne walked onto the patio after his set and met a splay of concert-goers puffing on cigarettes and taking swigs from Mason jars filled with Genesee.

“That was great, man,” a young man with a thin beard said to Bourne. “Just good, clean, punk-rock fun.”

Bourne moved to a picnic table and set down his drink.

doesn’t seem to be happening in Rochester.”

“Yeah, Buffalo seems to be really where the basement shows are at,” Bourne said. “They’ve got something for everyone, and everyone wants the scene to be the best it can be, so everyone works together to make it that.”

“Except for the noise kids,” Ernst laughed.

“They don’t like anyone.”

“Well, yeah, but fuck them,” Bourne chuck-

led, then took a sip from his beer.

Bourne went on to reminisce about the now-defunct Meatgrinder and what its presence meant for the Rochester scene.

“You know, I remember when The Meatgrinder first opened,” Bourne started. “I biked past the place like five times just looking for it, finally running into the place where these big, hairy guys with beards were standing out front. They asked me if I was here for the show, gave me a beer and were the nicest people in the world. I got my first band started there. I had some of the best experiences of my life in that basement. There were no cliques. Bands of all different genres, all different scenes, all working together to make it a place for everyone to come and play. What Adam Kramer and the Endangered Youth guys did was experimental, both with their music and The Meatgrinder, but it was what the scene needed.”

Rob Keefe, vocalist for Slut Week, approached the table and lit up a cigarette.

“Rob, what do you think of all this?”

Bourne asked him.

“I don’t know if I can really say much, since so many people in the Rochester scene don’t seem to like us,” Keefe said between drags.

“But I will say that those basement shows and house shows, that’s where the real Rochester punk scene is happening.”

“Exactly!” Bourne exclaimed. “But if we want the scene to change, we can’t just expect it to. Like everyone in Buffalo, someone needs to stand up and make the change we want to see. We all want another Meatgrinder, but no one seems to be doing anything about it. And if not caring and judging what

furious movements. Some gripped others’ shoulders, swaying. Others swung viciously at one another, making it a priority to pick up those in the crowd who fell. All, with wide grins and head nods, sang along with Bourne.

At this moment, the purity of punk rock could clearly be seen. Something so draped in misinterpretations and paintings of vandalism is actually nothing but kindred spirits, all united through a love of music.

“...BUT IF WE WANT THE SCENE TO CHANGE, WE CAN’T JUST EXPECT IT TO.” other people do is what people want to do instead of making that change, then it’s just never going to happen.”

Earlier, during Collin and The Bournes’ set, the band removed their shirts, stalling only as drummer Jon Bishop refused. Bourne began a chant of “Take it off! Take it off!” before finally moving into their closing song, a cover of Misfits’ “Skulls.” Everyone in the crowd tossed themselves across the venue with

It can be seen here, captivated by off-key sing-alongs to punk classics and a writhing mosh pit a vast amount of potential energy held in the hearts of angsty youths and swelling beer guts, all waiting for someone to cause the spark that will help them ignite yet again.

Leisure 11

WHAT DOES IT

MEAN

TO BE

BLACK &

MALE IN

AMERICA

by Nick Bovee | photography by Kim Bubello | designby Alexandria Bates

“What is common to all of us?” one man asked.

“What do you do to keep the faith and prosper in your environment?” another said.

One teen spoke, “How do you know when you are a man?”

I

n a darkened room at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center, the faces of these men are displayed on-screen, insistent and wondering. Typography borders the entrance, asking further questions and announcing the arrival of the Question Bridge: Black Males installation in Rochester.

More men appear on-screen to answer these and other questions in a seemingly

endless stream. Meted out in turn, this steady procession of viewpoints creates a stream of consciousness presentation of what black men wonder about the world and society that surrounds them and what roles race and gender play in their lives.

WHY NOW? “POST”-RACIAL AMERICA With this year marking the 50th anniversary of the Harlem and Rochester race riots and the shootings of Mike Brown and Voderrit Myers, Jr., the issues discussed in this exhibit seem relevant to where society stands today.

Nevertheless, race as a topic of discussion and conflict is often avoided, despite the remaining stereotypes and disparity.

In order to combat the continued existence of these issues, artists Chris Johnson, Hank Willis Thomas, Bayeté Ross Smith and Ka-

mal Sinclair created Question Bridge and its digital dialogue. In order to capture a group consciousness, Question Bridge filmed over 1,500 response videos, edited them together and combined the footage into a the three-hour-long looping video now installed downtown.

By bringing together these responses, originally collected from 150 interviews with black men from various backgrounds, Question Bridge aims to present a trans-media space for candid questions to be answered by other black males. The project premiered at the Sundance Film Festival New Frontier in 2012 and has been shown worldwide. Other incarnations besides the physical exhibit exist as well, cementing the role it looks to take as a public record of the dialogue. Simple web and mobile versions are available that allow viewers to select a question from a list of topics and see the published answers at will. In this capacity, Question Bridge also allows feedback. Users can upload their own answers, or even questions, to the project. These tools and the project itself were intended to address some of the stereotypes and disparities in the perception of black men, internally and externally.

Kevin McDonald, vice president and associate provost for diversity and inclusion at RIT, has been involved with the Rochester exhibition. “There have been a number of pieces of dialogue prior to Question Bridge that suggested that maybe race wasn’t much of an issue anymore, but when you start to look at and even see some of their efforts, why Question Bridge was created was that existing disparities are still shown.”

ISSUES ADDRESSED As a dialogue rather than a repository, the physical installation still trumps the mobile versions. In that dark room, the exhibition hall’s only focal point is the projected video.

Five separate men can be shown on screen at any time, and as one finishes his answer, another begins.

Further questions touch on establishing common ground even within the dialogue.

Participants are asked “What’s with the code of streets?” and “How can you take a bullet for someone and say nothing?” establishing the fear that sometimes the street is all a man has to fall back on. “Why are we afraid of appearing

“THE OTHER THING THAT’S VALUABLE ABOUT QUESTION BRIDGE, AND WHAT I APPLAUD THEM FOR, IS WANTING TO CREATE A SPACE IN WHICH PEOPLE CAN REALLY SEE THE INDIVIDUALITY WITHIN THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY.” 12 Features

intelligent?” addressed both the internal and external stereotype of appearing to act gay or white. Answers to these questions alone could take hours, but still more are asked.

Questions framed as humor still raise valuable responses. “Why do we do that ‘What’s up’ head nod?” and “Do you have a problem eating chicken, watermelon and bananas in front of white people?” open up the floor to topics of both solidarity and the way black men are viewed by white culture. Respondents also mention the unease with which outsiders react to black men enjoying their own culture and the fear of nonacceptance because of that.

Even more touching is when those questioned can’t muster a direct answer; it shows the depth to which a question affects the participants. Responding to the question “Why don’t black men seek mental therapy or go to the doctor?” one man being interviewed broke down, because he had been reminded that he lost his brother to this exact problem. “He could’ve done something, he could still be here, he could still be with me.”

Another man took a different tack, relating the lack of medical trust to the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments.

“The other thing that’s valuable about Question Bridge, and what I applaud them for, is wanting to create a space in which people can really see the individuality within the African

American community,” McDonald said. “I think one of their desires is for our society as a whole to be able to look at constituency groups and see

the important individuality that is among them.”

The installation has also pressed into community initiative, prompted by one of the more compelling questions asked by a participant: “Why didn’t you leave us a blueprint?” That young man’s feeling of being lost in the modern day reveals the lack of guidance he feels.

Answers men gave to his question, while varied, all pointed out a need for discussion within the community. In that spirit, localized events began with the purpose of opening a dialogue between generations and the community at large.

As part of the installation in Rochester, weekly discussions are taking place; one was held by RIT’s Men of Color, Honor, and Ambition (MOCHA) on Oct. 29.

McDonald said that he sees these discussions as evidence of continued progress within the city. “Over the last two years, there seems to be even greater intentions about discussing race in Rochester. Part of it could be that this year celebrates 50 years after the riots of ‘64. An initiative called “Facing Race, Embracing Equity,” the D&C has created a blog, Unite Rochester, to talk about race,” said McDonald.

“I have appreciated what the city has attempted to do as of late. There’s a history here, but also a willingness to engage in this kind of discussion.”

The Question Bridge: Black Males exhibit will be at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center through Nov 16. More information can be found at http://www. rochestercontemporary.org/questionbridge.html.

Features 13

OUT in the

COLD

by Abigail Frawley photography by Bob Civil design by Annie Wong 14 Leisure

T

he biting cold of a Rochester winter makes life hard for everyone. For the city’s homeless shelters, the chill of the holiday season presents a time when resources and staff are stretched thin. With a shortage of beds and the need to place people in warm shelters more dire than in other seasons, the winter proves a daunting time for shelters and homeless individuals alike.

An estimated 3.5 million people are estimated to experience homelessness in the United States every year. The Volunteers of America surmised that there are over 600 people who are homeless in Rochester each day, and that mothers and children under 18 years old make up approximately half of this population.

For these displaced Rochesterians, there are 416 beds available each night at emergency shelters, according to Monroe County’s published draft of the 2013 Housing/Homeless Services Annual Report. The types of services offered range from shelter to shelter; some cater only to men, others only to women and families. The Catholic Family Center, for example, has one shelter for men—the Francis Center—and two for women and children—

the Sanctuary House and Women’s Place. Alternate but far less used solutions for shelters include hotels, which house about a quarter of those placed in emergency housing, and leased houses, which house one percent, according to the 2013 draft. Thus, it is the responsibility of shelters to house most of the city’s homeless, despite very limited resources.

Shelters rely heavily on the generosity of the community; gifts of money and time are vital to their existence. They aim to serve the needs of the homeless community as best as they can, but the reliance on handouts is extremely limiting to the services these shelters can offer.

Shelters also have set amounts of beds, which means they can only accept a certain number of people each night, and they are typically full.

This leads to utilization of secondary shelters such as the Cadillac Hotel in downtown Rochester. Shelters are always strained; the winter simply highlights how flooded they can become due to the conditions the homeless face and the resulting pressure to find a warm shelter for every possible person.

The winter brings a different set of struggles—namely the cold—for the homeless,

whose lives are naturally difficult and oftentimes dangerous. The average high temperatures in Rochester for the months of December and January are 37 and 32 degrees respectively, with lows often dipping down into the teens. Hypothermia can occur anywhere below 50 degrees Fahrenheit if a person is inadequately dressed and sheltered.

Without a warm shelter to go to or proper winter clothes, the city’s homeless are among the most vulnerable populations for hypothermia and frostbite. The National Coalition for the Homeless found that 700 people experiencing homelessness are killed by hypothermia every year in the United States.

Unable to accommodate more people, shelters have no option but to leave people out in the cold. While some shelters develop different plans to address the winter, many do not, as their resources and staff restrict them. The best many shelters can do is try to accommodate a handful of additional people. The National Coalition for the Homeless details how,

even with extended winter services, shelters often turn people back out into the streets once the night is over, even though temperatures can still remain dangerously low.

With shelters unable to support all of the homeless population during these dangerous months, there has naturally been talk of alternative solutions. Some cities have developed winter plans which aim to open special winter shelters to protect the homeless when the temperatures drop. Tucson, Arizona has developed Operation Deep Freeze, which opens more shelters when the temperature falls to 35 degrees. The overflow shelters provide basic medical care and special beds for those who enter the shelter intoxicated. Many shelters restrict those who can enter, especially if drug or alcohol use is suspected; Operation Deep Freeze has emphasized on its website that all are welcome when they open their doors. These emergency programs exist with safety and mass housing in mind. They represent progressive programs that aim to shed

AN ESTIMATED 3.5 MILLION PEOPLE ARE EXPERIENCE HOMELESSNESS IN THE UNITED STATES EVERY YEAR.

THE NATIONAL COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS FOUND THAT 700 PEOPLE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS ARE KILLED BY HYPOTHERMIA EVERY YEAR IN THE UNITED STATES. light on an often unseen demographic of the city. They also remove the strain and pressure from the year-round shelters and allow more people to be housed somewhere warm when the shelters are full. These winter shelters allow year-round shelters to uphold any substance use policies that they might have due to religious or safety concerns, though some shelters feel compelled to loosen these policies when the weather gets cold.

Rochester, where the temperatures last year plummeted to negative digits, lacks a plan like Tucson’s. In fact, most of the cities that have emergency winter shelters are cities where the winter is not nearly as cold—Los Angeles has a winter shelter program, and San Diego funds inclement weather shelters through its Comprehensive Homeless Policy.

It is becoming more and more evident that Rochester, like many other cities, must reevaluate how it supports its homeless population. With the shelters lacking the ability to support the entirety of the homeless population even during the harshest of months, the city must look to expand its services for those who desperately need shelter. The development of cold weather plans would likely assist in taking some of the pressure off of the emergency shelter system while providing more for the homeless and preventing cases of hypothermia and frostbite.

The City of Rochester has shown, through its Homelessness Resolution Strategy and robust research into the problem of homelessness, that it is devoted in the fight to end homelessness. Soon, however, the snow will start to fall, and despite the best efforts of the city and the shelter system, it is a harsh reality that many of those in need will be left to face the winter without a home.

Leisure 15

POOR

THE INVISIBLE

by Gino Fanelli | design by Teysia Parks

B

eyond the surface of how an organization presents itself, beyond the cries of innovation, beyond the strides towards diversity, social awareness and superficial renderings of what that organization stands for, secrets are always dwelling in the shadows. Sometimes they are benign, like the hidden corner of the college campus where kids roll up mid-grade weed inside of Top papers, within walking distance from the main buildings but far enough that the smoke doesn’t waft into the noses of authority, or the hot spot for underage drinking inside a crowded campus apartment.

Some other secrets, however, are dirty, like the students to which the administration chooses to turn a blind eye. In this case, these are the students living in silent poverty, ostracized by their own unavoidable situation, trapped at a junction between the poverty line and the degree that could offer freedom, all the while stared down by judgmental eyes waiting for a chance to pick their perils apart.

Nicole, a third year Psychology major, finds herself stalled at this junction. She asked to keep her last name anonymous.

“I’m technically homeless right now,” she said in a matter-of-fact manner as if describing the weather.

“I’m living in an apartment with my significant other and four other roommates. Of course, the administration doesn’t know that.

I try to keep that a secret. In this situation, you eventually find yourself living in a constant state of paranoia. You hide your stuff so others don’t find it. You put fake addresses on paperwork. You send mail home because you don’t have an address to give the administration, and 16 Features

if they found out that I was homeless, they’d require me to get an address on campus, which I can’t afford. I’m stuck, basically.”

Nicole described her family in Philadelphia as “working-poor,” which essentially means that though her parents do work, they are still below the poverty line, which is a baseline of $23,850 per year in a four-family household.

Despite this, Nicole is dressed in a manner akin to any college student, with a clean denim jacket draped around her shoulders; she is not by any means the expected image of poverty.

“People seem to think that because I try to dress nice or because I have an iPhone that I’m not living in poverty,” she said, gesturing toward her phone, “but poverty doesn’t mean I can’t afford things. It means that I can afford an iPhone, but I have no way of saving in a meaningful manner, and things like having an apartment or owning a house are

absolutely impossible. And I have no support net; if I don’t pay my phone bill, it’s not like my family back home can help me. My phone goes off.”

As college students, there is an expectation to meet some social standards in order to be able to, in the most basic sense, fit in with rest of campus. Though these standards are often implemented by peers, they are widespread,

“PEOPLE SEEM TO THINK THAT BECAUSE I TRY TO DRESS NICE, OR BECAUSE I HAVE AN IPHONE THAT I’M NOT LIVING IN POVERTY.”

POVERTY

DRESSING PROFESSIONALLY

coming equally from professors and administration. These expectations to have access to technology or to “dress for success” often conflict directly with the students who are stuck below the poverty line.

“Clothes were a big problem,” said 2014 RIT ASL-English Interpretation alumnus Tristan Wright while explaining the trials he faced as an adult student living below the poverty line.

“I was able to afford one nice suit, and collected an assortment of hand-me downs. But, to call it what it is, the whole idea of ‘dressing professionally’ is classist. Suits are expensive, and if I can’t afford them, I can miss out on career opportunities solely because of how I dressed.”

Alongside this expectation to be professionally clothed, the expectations that students have access to technology is a massive hurdle for low-income students, especially at a university with as big an emphasis on these resources as RIT has. Nicole shared an example: “I remember sitting in and listening to a Student Government proposal to have a full conversion to e-textbooks at RIT, and there were kids in there whining about rebuttals to that proposal because there are students like me, who don’t have access to laptops or tablets 24/7.”

Wright explained the social ramifications of not having access to technology while he was a student at RIT. “For my first two years on campus, I didn’t have an iPhone,” Wright said. “And it got to the point where I didn’t even understand what people were talking about a lot of the time when they talked about things relating to apps and smart phones.”

This sentiment of there being a stark disconnect between students of means and

AFFORDABILITY

“SUITS ARE EXPENSIVE, AND IF I CAN’T AFFORD THEM, I CAN MISS OUT ON CAREER OPPORTUNITIES SOLELY BECAUSE OF HOW I DRESSED.” students going without is perhaps the most evident portion of the trials that poor college students face. The biggest barrier is the fundamental lack of understanding of what poverty is among college students.

“My biggest pet peeve is to hear about ‘the broke college student,’” Wright said. “What that means is, that’s the kind of person who has no disposable income to, say, go out to the bar on a Saturday night. That term doesn’t bring to mind the image of me, when you see me eating a slice of pizza and that’s the only meal I’m going to have for the day. It doesn’t bring to mind me living off of $12,000 a year, and at parts of the year having to survive off of the kindness of others.”

While the expected burden of books is surely a sentiment that tends to dwell heavy on the hearts of the low-income college student, the situation in which they find themselves is sadly identical to the typical image

Features 17

of poverty. That is, lack of food, lack of healthcare and often judgment and condemnation from their peers.

“There seems to be this understanding among people that food stamps and free healthcare just fall magically from the sky,” Nicole said.

“What they don’t realize is that [I], as a college student, don’t even qualify for food stamps just because I am a college student. I can’t afford food on campus, and I don’t have a car, so am I supposed to get to the public market, where I can actually afford food, and back? RIT seems to have no problem with giving us a drunk bus on Saturday nights to say ‘Hey, go out there and be reckless, we’ve got your back!’ but can’t even provide shuttles to Wegmans and back.”

As for healthcare, the pressure to avoid injury and illness incessantly dwells on the shoulders of these low-income students.

“I honestly have no idea how I even made it through my first two years of school without health insurance,” Wright said. “I remember that I got pneumonia in my second year and needed a steroid inhaler. At that point, the RIT Health Center was my primary health care. I ended up needing a steroid inhaler,

“... I WAS ABLE TO QUALIFY ONCE I MADE NOTE THAT I AM TECHNICALLY HOMELESS. WHICH IS JUST AMAZING, THAT THE GOVERNMENT TURNS A BLIND EYE ON YOU UNTIL YOU’VE REACHED THIS POINT.” 18 Features

which cost $200. I couldn’t afford that, and what happened was the Health Center ended up giving me a bunch of Wal-Mart gift cards to help pay for some of it, which was great— but for other things, like physical evaluations or HIV-testing, I needed to pay out of pocket.”

Nicole’s experience as a homeless student in search of healthcare exposed an astounding piece of convoluted legislature in the New York healthcare system.

“I qualify for health insurance in Pennsylvania, but not in New York,” Nicole said. “However, I was able to qualify once I made note that I am technically homeless. Which is just amazing, that the government turns a blind eye on you until you’ve reached this point.”

To remark that the government turns a blind eye to the issue of college poverty is by no means inaccurate. In fact, the U.S. census reports that calculate the poverty index in differing counties often exempt off-campus college students, lowering the total rate of poverty in that county. As these students have a rate of poverty over three times the national average, their exclusion from these statistics removes a significant portion of the population from the total poverty index in the county.

In Monroe County, the redaction of off-campus college students resulted in a 1 percent drop in total poverty. Meaning, quite literally, these students are made invisible on the census scale creating the illusion that there is less poverty.

For students like Nicole and Wright, one of the few places to turn for aid on campus is TRiO, a Department of Education-funded program that provides tutoring and guidance to first-generation students as well as students living at 150 percent of the poverty line.

The Director of TRiO at RIT, Bernadette Lynch, offered some insight to the program.

“The services we provide are incomparable,” Lynch said.

“We provide one-on-one mentoring, tutoring, help navigate

financial aid and help with grad school. We deal with a lot of students who are first-generation who don’t have a support network.”

However, TRiO faces the problem of simply not being able to provide enough. With 3,500 freshman and transfer students moving into RIT, the workload to provide adequate assistance is staggering and, sadly, TRiO’s current funding alone cannot meet the requirements.

“We’re allowed to have 225 students in our program at any time,” said Lynch. “A third of our freshman class is first-generation. The dream is to provide scholarships, to help everyone, but we’d need a donor—and at this point, we just can’t help everyone.”

TOTAL POVERTY IN MONROE COUNTY CENSUS AFTER THE

REDACTION OF OFF-CAMPUS COLLEGE STUDENTS

“ ” Coupled with this, Lynch notes a pervasive reluctancy of students in TRiO to seek help; they often feel ashamed of their situation and hide the issue.

“We’ve had some students who’ve come here with just clothes. No bedding, no jackets, nothing. And they’re embarrassed.”

“I was one of those students, and I know I didn’t walk around saying, ‘Hey look! I’m poor!’” Lynch said. “What’s funny is, we held an event earlier this year where all of our students came down and got together, and so many came up to me and said things like, ‘Oh my god, I didn’t know so and so was in here!’”

This is, perhaps, the most universal and self-perpetuating symptom of poverty. That is, to pretend it does not exist, to hide it out of fear of ridicule and to live in constant worry that one day that mask will be removed.

“People think it’s laziness,” Nicole said.

“They think I’m less intelligent because I’m poor. They have this horribly harmful understanding of the world as you get out what you put in. That if you work hard enough, every-

thing will turn out okay. But I’m working the maximum I can on campus while taking 19 credit hours. What else am I supposed to do?

It makes me furious to hear that I just need to work harder, especially when it comes so often from people I know don’t even work.”

Wright noticed a similar attitude among students during his time at RIT. “There’s this, just, fundamental lack of understanding,” Wright said. “I remember in my senior year I had to make a poster, and the size I needed to print cost $100. I remember students asking me why I couldn’t just save up $100, as if the entire concept of poverty just went right over their heads.”

Much of the student population will never get the chance to walk the mile in the other man’s shoes. It is an unfortunate reality that the treatment of students experiencing poverty can be equally attributed to lack of aid available and ignorance, arrogance and avoidance. We walk down the Quarter Mile, glancing at all of the expressionless faces, never for a moment considering whether

the kid in the white T-shirt puffing away at a hand-rolled cigarette is able to afford a meal that night, that the girl in the flower-print blouse may not be able to afford to get home to see her grandmother before she passes, that the man with the unkempt beard and leather jacket doesn’t know where he’s going to sleep tonight.

This is poverty in its essence. An issue of the blind eye, sometimes illuminated by a vocal few like rays of sunshine that place a brief spotlight on the issue. Yet, the inevitability of being overlooked seems to always come from the dreary clouds overhead, slowly creeping once again, blotting out the bits of light and leaving that shroud of shadows to be cast again over the bricks.

IT IS AN UNFORTUNATE REALITY THAT THE TREATMENT OF STUDENTS IN POVERTY IS EQUAL PARTS LACK OF AID AVAILABLE AS IT IS IGNORANCE, ARROGANCE AND AVOIDANCE. Features 19

REGULATIONS OF STUDENT LABOR

by Nicole Howley | illustration by Jenny Kyong Ah Lee | design by Alexandria Bates

W

hile standing in the mile-long 10 a.m. line for coffee on campus, you can already see from a distance that the newest employee is fumbling with the cash register, the orders, the pastries—everything. Over the course of your unreasonably long wait, you question why this student decided to add a job into the mix.

Most new student worker trainees eventually get the hang of their work, though, and it is not uncommon for students to work while taking classes and doing other extracurriculars. We have student workers in food service, in computer labs and in offices across campus. However, there are restrictions on how much students can work, where they can work and who they can work for.

WORKING ON CAMPUS The regulations placed on the amount of hours you can work as a student employee are pretty straightforward, especially for students making use of federally-regulated financial aid.

If you have taken a good look at your FAFSA awards, you may have noticed the Federal Work-Study (FWS) category, the total of which is not automatically calculated into your overall financial aid package that the school applies to your tuition. FWS, as defined by the Student Employment Office (SEO), is “… a federally funded program administered by RIT to promote access to employment. This program assists students who demonstrate financial need as defined by the Federal Government.”

Since one of the requirements which students must meet to qualify for an FWS program is that they be a full-time student, the regulated maximum hours for student workers clocks in at 20 hours per week while classes are in session and 40 hours a week during intersession and breaks.

While not all student jobs on campus are eligible for Work-Study, meaning that their pay is not allotted as part of their financial aid package and may not be eligible for the same tax deduction, the same rules and regulations are generally held in place. But, like many rules, there are exceptions.

20 Features

The first is that not working over 20 hours per week isn’t a steadfast rule. The federal government won’t be knocking at your door demanding answers if you go over by a few hours, but there will definitely be push from your employers or the SEO if you start to exceed part-time hours. After all, the amount of funds you can receive from a FWS is limited, as are the number of hours employers have available for student workers.

Students are also allowed to work more during certain times of the year, including summer breaks and other breaks when fulltime classes are not in session.

Jobs paid through stipend are one of the most notable exceptions to the hourly limitations. Stipend jobs are those where you receive a fixed salary, regardless of the number of hours worked. No punching in, no punching out. They are generally reserved for student leadership positions, such as executive positions of Major Student Organizations and Student Government.

On average, according to the SEO Student Handbook, non-stipend student employees work between eight and 12 hours a week.

Some students avoid the maximum number of hours in order to find a suitable balance between class loads, work hours and any other commitments. Lauren McShane, a fourth year Communication major, experienced some of the difficulties that coame with working while taking classes.

Following a spring co-op with Student Services in the College of Liberal Arts, McShane transitioned into a part-time job in the office while taking summer online classes. “Working for Student Services was a little tricky. I worked 21 hours a week, but when I got home I was exhausted. I wasn’t able to start working [on class work] right away.”

As a former reporter for SportsZone, McShane mentioned that there are also some pros of on-campus work when schedules are less structured. “With SportsZone, it was nice,” McShane said. “There was a lot flexibility to work with our schedules. We had one meeting a week that we definitely went to, but our hours for interviews or games were more flexible.”

INTERNATIONAL STUDENT WORKERS Work limitations for international students are a little trickier and depend on whether a student’s visa is F-1 or J-1. Students with an F-1 visa may work up to 20 hours on campus while classes are in session and 40 hours during breaks and intersession, much like domestic students. However, to work off campus while being a full-time student, F-1 visa students must go through Optional Practical Training which may allow for part-time off-campus employment in their academic field for a year at most. Optional Practical Training also requires that the student be at least nine months into their studies.

Students with J-1 visas may also work 20 hours on campus, but work is limited based on their visa sponsorships. With a J-1 visa, students are funded by a non-familial sponsor, such as the U.S. government or the government of their home country, to attend American universities. Student employment with a J-1 is usually restricted to working for the student’s program sponsors. If a student is sponsored

by RIT, he or she will generally have access to employment on campus, but if he or she is not sponsored by RIT, there is a strong possibility that the student cannot become a student worker. J-1 students may also go through Optional Practical Training, but they must have an unforeseen and urgent financial need.

I WORKED 21 HOURS A WEEK, BUT WHEN I GOT HOME I WAS EXHAUSTED. I WASN’T ABLE TO START WORKING [ON CLASS WORK] RIGHT AWAY.

Paola Gonzalez Rodriguez, a fourth year Marketing major on an F-1 visa from the Dominican Republic, has had a plethora of on-campus jobs throughout the years and is currently serving as a note taker, an office worker in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and director of marketing for Global Union. According to Gonzalez Rodriguez, employment opportunities for international students are very limited.

“The general rule for F-1 is that if the specific department has a contract with the U.S. government, you cannot work there,” said Gonzalez Rodriguez, referring to U.S.-born clearances associated with government contracts. “There are [also] certain departments that have an unspoken rule of not hiring international students.”

Like regulations for domestic students, stipend jobs are not counted towards the number of hours international students can work.

“Even though I have to dedicate at least 10 hours to Global Union, it’s a stipend position,” said Gonzalez Rodriguez. “I could actually work another 10 hours without stipend, but then you have to think about your schedule,” since academic standing is of equal, if not greater, importance.

Some of these regulations on work hours may encourage students to find a balance between work and school, but if students feel that they are able to work more hours, stipends provide another option for additional income for both domestic and international students.

In the end, figuring out how many hours you should work comes down to balancing your financial need with your classes and any other commitments you decide to take on.

For more information on being a student worker on or off campus, visit the Student Employment Office.

Features 21

Your 24/7 tutor.

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Through a collaboration with CIAS, Lynda training is FREE for all.

Find it at library.rit.edu/dbfinder

ONESPIRIT:

A GLOBAL CELEBRATION

by Courtney Smith | photography by Paula Ospina | design by Liz McGrail

T

he One SpiRIT: Global Hockey Festival was held on Oct. 11 at the new Gene Polisseni Center. This new tradition-in-the-making allowed RIT to share its rich hockey culture while bringing all its campuses together as one global family. The campuses were brought together for a memorable doubleheader, where the men’s hockey team team took on Clarkson University after the women engaged in tough battle against Northeastern University.

The purpose of the festival was to “bring all of the RIT campuses closer together,” said John Moore, the assistant vice president for Facilities Management Services. “The creation of One SpiRIT required teamwork, innovation and technology,” he continued.

“We hoped that we could make some magic happen.”

RIT’s Henrietta campus was connected to RIT’s Kosovo, Dubrovnik, Zagreb and Dubai campuses through interactive technology. Cisco video conferencing technology, TelePresence, powered the event. All of the campuses were hosting their own celebrations as well.

RIT Croatia held its One SpiRIT event on the beautiful Banje beach, where they tuned into RIT’s broadcast of the event. The interactive lounge used the advanced Cisco Systems telecommunication technology and allowed students to connect and talk to many other students across the globe.

The celebration here at RIT Henrietta included many traditional games such as KanJam, bean bag toss and ladder ball. There were also opportunities to race in a human hamster ball, rock climb a small tower and play human foosball. Free food, including popcorn, hot dogs, cornbread, chili, donuts and lemonade, was given to students, which resulted in close to a half hour wait at times. There was also live music for everyone to enjoy.

“We’re very proud of the way OneSpiRIT turned out,” Destler said. “We could recommend this to be done again in the future, and maybe next time we could even send students to different campuses.”

Both the women’s team and the men’s team were looking to add a win to their résumé that evening. Spirits were high and RIT’s hockey teams were able to feel the presence of many RIT students and fans. The atmosphere of the Gene Polisseni Center was riveting after an entire day of tailgating and celebration.

The women’s hockey team came back from a 0-2 deficit to tie the game at 2-2 with goals from Darcy Henderson and Christa Vuglar. The women tied No. 10 Northeastern to bring their record to 2-1-1. After the first period, students watching the game performed a card stunt and successfully spelled out “One SpiRIT” and “Go Tigers.”

The men’s hockey team unfortunately could not pull off a win and lost 3-1 against Clarkson. A lone goal from Caleb Cameron was not enough to defeat the Golden Knights, which brings the men’s record to 1-1.

Although neither the women’s or the men’s hockey teams were able to walk away with a win, the day was filled with a memorable festival and thrilling hockey games. RIT’s campuses were connected and all were able to feel the magic that is RIT hockey.

“WE HOPED WE COULD MAKE SOME MAGIC HAPPEN.” “It was a smashing success,” RIT President Bill Destler said. “I’m very happy to see the amount of support the women got at their game as a result of the festival.”

Attendance peaked at 3,011 fans, which is a program-record crowd. Students were eager to enjoy the women’s game that followed the festivities. Free T-shirts were given to the first 1,000 students that entered.

Sports 23

QUIDDITCH AT RIT: MUGGLES WELCOME

by Prateek Ranka | photography by Mike Young | design by Rachel Fox

I

f you ever see a group of 14 or so people gathered around the grounds near Gracie’s shouting Harry Potter-isms such as “Get that Snitch!” and “Bludger alert!” there are a few things you should be sure to do. First and foremost, get out of harm’s way, as you might be in the line of fire of a few dodgeballs. Second, don’t panic; RIT has a Quidditch team, and they’re actually kind of a big deal.

For the people who are furrowing their brows right now, hang tight and take a peek into the craziness that is the Harry Potter fandom. This was supposed to be a fictional sport that Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling made up for use in the story, but some intuitive person somewhere managed to find a way to play in real life. Now college campuses across the country have their own Quidditch teams, and RIT is no exception.

According to the club’s website, the RIT Quidditch Team, the Dark Marks—a name they are beginning to transition away from— began in the fall of 2009, and after receiving

24 Sports

official status in the fall of 2010, has grown in leaps and bounds. Today, RIT’s Quidditch team is an official member of the International Quidditch Association (IQA) and a regular participant in the Quidditch World Cup. There are four kinds of players on each team: three Chasers, whose job it is to score points by putting the Quaffle (a volleyball) through the opponent’s hoops; two Beaters, who try to take people out of the game by hitting them with a Bludger (in this case, a dodgeball); a Keeper, who acts as a goalie; and a Seeker, who is the only one who can end the game by catching the elusive Snitch.

“AT THE BEGINNING, THERE WERE ONLY SEVEN PEOPLE IN THE CLUB, SO YEAH, WE’VE COME A LONG WAY,” Captain Kenneth Radzyminski said with a chuckle.

For those of you who are still wondering exactly how Quidditch is played in our pitifully magic-lacking reality, Radzyminski explained: “A goal is still worth 10 points, but instead of the Snitch being 150, it has been brought down to 30,” he said. “Also, because this is a

co-ed game, we have a rule that says there must be two people from each gender on the field at any point of time.”

The team has achieved a great deal in its four years of existence. Back in 2011, it was the Division Two runner-up in Randall’s Island, New York City. Then, at the Quidditch World Cup 2012-13 in Florida, the team placed 27th in the world. “[The] next year, we played at Myrtle Beach, which was pretty cool,” Radzyminski said. “This time, we bettered ourselves and climbed six places to 21st in the world and also third in our region.”

It seems as if most RIT students are unaware that the 21st-best Quidditch team in the entire world has been right under their noses for years at this point, but there are still plenty of opportunities to watch them play.

“As a matter of fact, our season began on the 20th of September,” Radzyminski said.

“We played SUNY Geneseo, Ithaca College, University of Rochester and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and won against all of them by comfortable margins.”

As they begin to get a bit more serious and competitive, rumors have emerged that people are being turned away from the club.

“Yes, we have turned people away, but not from the club. Only from the team,” Radzyminski said. “We had tryouts at the beginning of the semester and picked the people who we thought would add to the team. Anyone and everyone who wants to play Quidditch is welcome to join the club and attend practices.”

With a terrific beginning of the season un-

“THIS TIME, WE BETTERED OURSELVES AND CLIMBED SIX PLACES TO 21ST IN THE WORLD AND ALSO THIRD IN OUR REGION.” der their belts already, The Dark Marks’ goals for the future seem well within their grasp.

“This season is basically going to be about improvement,” Radzyminski said. “Improving our world rank, improving our tactics and our game in general.”

For the next tournament, the team will travel to Boston for an eight-team tournament where it will face the Boston University team, which is ranked fourth in the world.

The Dark Marks will also compete in the regional tournament, held right here in Rochester, on Nov. 15 and 16.

“I went to the Club Fair the Sunday before classes start, played a few pickup games with them, and have never really looked back,” said Samuel Bankowski, the longest serving member of the club, who appeared visibly delighted to be talking about the club. “To kind of put it

into perspective, we only had one day a week when we met in the fall of 2010, played a few pickup games and we struggled to have maybe like 15 people at most, whereas now we have practice four days a week and there [are] usually 30 people at practice sessions.”

Bankowski recounted the toughest game of Quidditch he has played in his career so far.

“It was regionals down in Rhode Island, two years ago,” Bankowski said. “We were playing a team from Boston. It lasted about 40 to 45 minutes, if you count the injury delay. One

of our players accidentally collided with the Snitch, and we had a substitute Snitch come on. That was a five to eight minute break.”

“One of our Chasers is out ‘til January with concussion symptoms, and another one of our Chasers, she got a concussion couple of weeks ago but she should be back in a week or so,” he said. “A lot of people are banged up from Penn State the past weekend. To put into perspective the extent of injuries, only a handful of people played all three games while we were there.”

With mounting membership, highly competitive seasons and a sense of camaraderie and teamwork that rivals the most highly-watched sports, this is a sport—and a team—not worth missing out on.

Sports 25

The opinions expressed are solely those of the students and do not reflect the views of REPORTER.

THE FINE PRINT: HOUSING TERMS & CONDITIONS (VISITATION/OVERNIGHT GUESTS)

by Nathan J. Lichtenstein | illustration by Maliya Travers-Crumb | design by Teysia Parks

I

t’s likely that you’ll be sexiled from your room at some point during your college career. Instead of a sock on the doorknob, RIT requires a process that entails less hosiery and more paperwork.

Though the term sexile isn’t used in official documentation, the RIT Office of Housing Operations does deal with the delicate topic of overnight guests in shared RIT housing.

Section 11.02 of the RIT Housing Terms and Conditions for the 2014/2015 academic year discusses visitation and overnight guests.

The policy begins with a simple but important sentence: “Residents have guest privileges.” A shared room is as much yours as it is your roommate’s; this mentality is important to many aspects of shared living, especially when considering overnight guests.

RIT outlines that the rules pertaining to guests apply equally to guests of the same and opposite sexes. Additionally, it is clarified that “Visitation by opposite sex guests on single-sex floors and rooms, apartments or suites is allowed.” It also states that a guest may not move his or her belongings into RIT housing, and the guest’s visit must be approved by all roommates.

The rest of the policy goes on to list several starchy and seemingly unenforceable rules.

They go from the mundane “Guest must abide by all RIT’s terms and conditions,” to the unreasonable “An overnight guest must be registered by the hosting resident in advance of his/her arrival with the Center for Residence Life using a guest registration form,” which must be completed 48 hours prior to the visitor’s arrival.

While I understand the legal precedent for having these measures in place, I don’t think they should be included in an official policy if they’re not enforced with consistency by the Office of Housing Operations.

Now please, don’t take this message the wrong way, because I do think that having a guest housing policy in place is important; however, I think we should try to be more realistic with our expectations and enforce them consistently. Inconsistent policy enforcement can lead to a feeling of injustice 26 Views

among students, which creates an unpleasant community environment.

Inconsistent enforcement is not isolated to this clause of the housing contract. For example, take the safety concerns for pedestrians in relation to bicycles on campus, a topic that Reporter covered last year. RIT has simply put up signs asking students to walk their bikes in certain areas, even though there is a ratified policy in place for the safety of pedes-

INSTEAD OF DIRECTLY ADDRESSING THE ISSUE AND HAVING SAFETY OFFICERS PATROLLING THE CAMPUS, RIT HAS RESIGNED ITSELF TO DEPENDING ON A LAISSEZFAIRE APPROACH.

trians. Another fantastic example is one of the early drafts of the smoking policy shared with students, in which there would be no actual enforcement; instead, the policy would rely on community enforcement.

Instead of directly addressing these issues and having safety officers patrolling the campus, RIT has resigned itself to depending on a laissez-faire approach.

At the end of the day, I think our campus’s administration needs to take a hard look at certain policies in terms of enforcement and necessity. I strongly believe that poorly enforced policies, like the housing guest clause, are worse than having no policy in place at all.

Rules are meant to be consistent and meaningful, not spotty and used only when it is convenient. The only way to change the community we are a part of is to read the fine print, understand the rules and make yourself heard. The ball is in your court, RIT; make a difference.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the students and do not reflect the views of REPORTER.

CRITIQUE OF WAGE:

LIVING OR

OTHERWISE

by Andrew Tuttle | illustration and design by Annie Wong

O

ur economic system is predicated on a socially constructed reality where we are forced to work in order to live. This places one’s ability to create profit for others at the root of one’s existence and the well-being of the global economy above basic human needs.

Profit exists in the gap between the amount of value workers provide and the amount their employers pay them for their work.

Thus, the opposing interests of profit gainers and wage earners lie in the mutual claim to economic value. Your wage is the skewed negotiation of this mutual claim. In essence, we are being duped while someone else enjoys the fruits of our labor. This is exploitation.

The workplace benefits that some of us enjoy and most of us take for granted are not the result of business executives waking up on the altruistic side of the bed.

Rather, they are the result of over 100 years stained with class struggle.

The insidiousness of our wage system becomes obvious in U.S. Department of Labor documentation: there is no official process for setting the minimum wage. Congress and those who line their pockets arbitrarily decide how much—or how little—we can be paid.

A living wage would allow people to feed, clothe and house themselves. It would enable us to focus less on surviving and more on community organization and social transformation. However, the living wage only maintains the wage system. Thus, the living wage is not the solution; it is a stepping-stone to a truly humane society.

I HAVE A VIVID MEMORY OF SLEEPING IN THE SOL LAUNDRY ROOM AND REALIZING THAT I WAS SURROUNDED

BY THOUSANDS OF EMPTY BEDS THAT I COULD NOT AFFORD TO SLEEP IN.

I am not writing from a position of financial comfort. I live off of loans and multiple jobs along with what my parents are able to contribute. I spent an entire summer living and working on research in various nooks on campus because I was homeless.

I have a vivid memory of sleeping in the Sol laundry room and realizing that I was surrounded by thousands of empty beds that I could not afford to sleep in.

Zakary Skinner, a fourth year Multidisciplinary Studies major, is a full-time student and full-time worker at or below the minimum wage with no health insurance or financial support from his family. He works as a dishwasher, a barista and in a back-house position in a restaurant.

“I value the work, but I am not valued,” Skinner said. His jobs require that he relinquish control and autonomy to his manager while constantly moving on his feet without breaks for eight to 12 hours at a time. Skinner said he relies mostly on tips to pay for the basic necessities of life and has to hope that he will make enough each day.

“Being able to engage in higher education is a privilege,” he said. He rushes to complete assignments because he is unable to take the time to fully understand the materials. We both love what we do, but when you have to struggle to survive, writing a paper and turning it in on time is a luxury.

The Fair Labor Standards Act established the federal minimum wage in 1938, after 50 or more years of labor struggle. I sat down with Professor Vincent Serravallo, an expert on social change, labor and sociology of work from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. He suggested that the concept of a living wage is a societal critique of the failures and inadequacy of the minimum wage to provide people with a level of subsistence.

Skinner recommended that students organize with other low-wage workers on campus. “When students graduate and begin their careers, they will want to organize to demand fair wages and benefits from their employer,” he said. Only through organizing and coming to the bargaining table as a collective do we stand a chance against a CEO or a board of trustees with deep pockets and a bureaucracy at their disposal.

Serravallo mentioned a two-day public hearing in Rochester that focuses on low-wage work in Rochester. I would encourage you all to attend one of two public hearings being held on Nov. 6 at 5 p.m. and Nov. 8 at 10 a.m. respectively at the Rochester Public Library.

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WOTS WORD ON THE STREET photography by Maridelis Morales | design by Teysia Parks

T.J. Tarazevits, First Year Game Design and Development “I spend meal options at the Corner Store Sunday nights on ingredients. I can make food for the rest of the week.”

BAILEY GAINEY, First Year Film and Animation “How I save money is a rather simple way. I simply like to store a large fraction of what I earn away and use the leftover amount towards needed items. It’s simple, but effective!”

ALICIA FITZSIMMONS, Second Year Electrical Engineering “I save money by putting all of my loose change in my piggy bank, which is conveniently a Tiger Pig.”

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“

“ WAY THAT YOU SAVE MONEY? WHAT IS THE MOST UNIQUE The opinions expressed are solely those of the students and do not reflect the views of REPORTER

JACOB ADJEKUM, First Year Mechanical Engineering Technology “I save money by not spending it.”

KAILEY MARTIN, Second Year Fine Arts Studio “I hide money from myself in different pockets, drawers and boxes. It’s a nice surprise when I find it, but annoying when I can’t.”

TOM BRENNER, Third Year Photojournalism “Recycling ‘soda’ cans.”

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RINGS compiled by Will Hirsh | design by Teysia Parks

The opinions expressed are solely those of the students and do not reflect the views of REPORTER

FRIDAY,

Sept. 26, 10:30 p.m. [Text]

FRIDAY,

Are there different degrees of homeless?

I think there are. I think I’m a degree of homeless right now.

Sept. 12, 4:17 p.m. [Text] To those charming young men walking on the Quarter Mile behind me who realized a few minutes into their conversation about me that I could probably hear them, and still felt that they deserved my time and conversation: you can go [fright] yourselves.

I should have scratched the back of my head with my middle finger while you still had the chance to see it. I don’t walk around campus to be a topic of your conversation or a source of your entertainment.

Next time you see someone that seems interesting to you, it might be best to talk to them before you make fools of yourself in front of or, in this case, walking behind them.

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 17, 1:53 p.m. [Text] Love the idea of Pawprints but so far it has only highlighted how clueless and misinformed the student body is through their own fault. #readyouremails #getinvolved

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 17, 12:11 p.m. [Text] On the sign that says no skateboarding there’s an ad for the longboarding club.

[Kickflip] the system.

FRIDAY Oct. 3, 9:22 a.m. [Text] Rings is the original Yik Yak.

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 24, 10:55 a.m. [Text] They’re talking about banning smoking on campus because people can’t follow the rules in place now and I still walked through three doors to buildings where people were smoking by them. Nice to know you smokers give a [puff].

CALL OR TEXT US AT: 585.672.4840 Views 31

DEBI T

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