March 2015

REPORTER MARCH 2015 reporter.rit.edu

THE EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN BEER, PAGE 9 LEAVING TRACKS WITH PAWPRINTS, PAGE 20 SNOW DAY NO DAY, PAGE 26

Thank You! Allan Andranikian, Taylor Blackwell, Karen Blanco, Avanell Brock, Angelica Campa, Joshua Cohen Shantinique Cowans, Christina DiSalvo, Alexandra Doucette, Samuel Echefu, History Estill-Varner Joshua Farrell, Jonathon Greene, Olivia Harrison, Ivan Hayes, Maggie Hewitt, William Kelly Kristopher Krempa, Nicholas Marchionda, Enri Marini, Michael McCarroll, Erin McLaen Robert Newell, Yulesh Patel, Taylor Potter, Adityaa Ravi, Emma Rogers, Tallon Rood, Jordan Roth Amelia Rothfuss, Emily Sanseverino, Elizabeth Shafer, Chevelle Sleaford, Jordanae Smith Lennon Sulzbach, Bailey Tam, Kristoffer Van Nostrand, Vasilios Anton, Chakeil Armwood Jeremy Astolfi, Claire Bernard, Rosemary Carter, Justin Cha, Breana Chandler, McKenzie Clark Michael Conrad, Jennifer Corbit, Keith Delk, Max DeSousa, Bridgett Emigh, David Goldstein Cecilia Grugan, Ocean Jangda, Wanya Jefferson, Shannon Keenan, Sadie Kulhanek, Andrew Leja Richard Loya, Brittany McConnell, Katherine Perchik, Shawn Ribaudo, Kaitlyn Shirey, Kayla Stanley Marina Thelen, Janet West, Brent Aguilar, Laura Alderfer, Reena Banerjee, Anthony Bizzarro Robert Busch, Tristan Cannan, Nathan Castle, Christopher Caulfield, Rachel Curtis, Kevin Dolan Brittany Dzugas-Smith, Laura Flood, Andrew Glaude, Rory Glenn, Joshua Gray, Usama Haq Hassan Jehan, Samuel Kirschbaum, Scott Kocian, Derick Kowalczyk, Charles Krouse, Trina Ray Lauren LaPerle, Shannon Lawless, Veronica Lesnar, Rebecca Lucas, Shena Marshall, Tyler Schrodt Benjamin Marus, Ann Marie McFee, Eronmonsele Omiyi, Jordan Omorogieva, Jonathan Pons Rose Rustowicz, Jessie Schnall, Maura Sepesy, Naveena Shanmugam, Ruth Starr, Erica Steele Andrew Stidwill, Kristen Swerzenski, Mariah Texidor, Jacob Timmons, Catherine Turner Marian Van Vlack, Ila Vaughan, Amanda Webster, Alexandra Wright, Matt Hart, Melody Kelly Britta Moberg, Malachi Schultz, Cassidy Smith, Andrew Smith, Ebenezer Baawuah Justin Dickerson, Peter Dunning, Ian Gauger, Catherine Hellsten, Kerry Kuntz Saabirah Lallmohamed, Harshita Sood, Robert Lumsden, Jeremy Marshall, Melissa Perkins

Thank you for being outstanding student leaders and role models!

The Center for Residence Life has 130 Resident Advisors who support over 6600 students living in RIT’s residence halls and apartments.

They work tirelessly to build a sense of community, promote student engagement, create safe living and learning environments, and serve as invaluable campus resources.

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 Natasha Amadasun, Bryanne McDonnough, Gino Fanelli, Evander Sousa, Jake Krajewski, Nicole Howley, Alexander Jones, Kevin Zampieron

ART ART DIRECTOR Rachel Fox ONLINE ART DIRECTOR Jordyn Carias SENIOR DESIGNER Teysia Parks STAFF DESIGNERS Annie Wong, Teysia Parks, Kuan-Lin Chen, Halli Rosin, Morgan Reed CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS Annie Wong, Teysia Parks, Kaitlyn Fitzgerald, Halli Rosin

PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTO EDITOR Kim Bubello CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Victoria Binkley, Lloyd McCullough, Sarah Ann Jump

BUSINESS BUSINESS MANAGER Jaclyn Bergin AD / PR MANAGER Rachael Moynihan PRODUCTION MANAGER Ryan Walsh

3 REASONS WHY LIST ARTICLES ARE THE WORST 1. I AM NOT STUPID. These list articles are often insulting, at least to my intelligence and interests, if not anyone else’s. For example, here are a few of my favorite, mind-numbing list articles that are supposed to interest people: “The 35 People Who Just Realized Seth McFarlane Is Actually Hot” (which is just a bunch of tweets by random people who think Seth McFarlane is hot), “The 22 Biggest Differences Between Halloween As A Kid And As An Adult” (haven’t most of us lived through a couple of Halloweens? Can’t we figure that out ourselves?) and “16 Struggles Everyone Who Always Get Mosquito Bites Will Understand” (really? really?). Articles like these make it more difficult to sift through the endless junk on our newsfeeds to get to quality information.

2. WHAT IS THE POINT? While some can be helpful, a majority of these articles take broad subjects that will appeal to a lot of people, and then just put funny memes in a long list of random statements meant to make the reader feel as though they belong and are normal. I can’t see why there is a need to read articles on the 28 reasons that make someone a cat person. Can’t they decide that themselves? The information provided in these articles is often lackluster, lacking completely or completely irrelevant and subjective. In addition, there are so many important things going on in the world! We’re losing out on important information and stories because we tend to be more interested in the list articles that have very little meaning.

3. WE HAVE TO STOP CATEGORIZING EVERYTHING. Anthropologists and sociologists have long argued that our human obsession with placing things and people in definable categories has contributed to social problems and horrific events for quite sometime. List articles often create definitions of people, no matter how trivial they are. Categorization of people creates an “us vs. them” dynamic; it allows people to feel normal in their own group of people while defining others as outsiders. This dynamic has been a common theme in events and constructs such as the Holocaust, slavery, police brutality and profiling. Though it may seem like a stretch that articles are a serious detriment to society, when we categorize the little things we are much more likely to categorize based on big things.

It may seem like a feeble argument, but these list articles drive me nuts and I can’t get anyone to explain their allure to me. Each time I scroll past one on my newsfeed I’m instantly annoyed by the lack of thought put into these articles that are being passed around the internet like they’re life-changing. As a journalist and a member of this magazine trying to figure out how to reach out to our audience, it’s difficult to remain optimistic about our new information sharing technologies and opportunities when most people appear to not be interested in an article that isn’t in list form. I think we are more sophisticated as a society than this. What do you think about list articles? Send me a letter to the editor on the subject!

ONLINE SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR Nathan J. Lichtenstein WEB MANAGER Joe Jankowiak VIDEO EDITOR Sara Caruso

ADVISOR Rudy Pugliese PRINTING EPi Printing CONTACT 585.475.2212

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.

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. “Not all butts are unpleasant.” J.M. 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.

TA B L E O F cover photography by Victoria Binkley table of contents photography by Kristen McNicholas

TECH 6

THE WORLD OF HACKING A closer look into hacking vs. cracking

LEISURE 8

12

THE EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN BEER Exploring craft breweries in Western New York

AT YOUR LEISURE Beer!

FE ATURES 14

16

20

@REPORTERMAG /REPORTERMAG 4 November

RIT FOOD SHARE A new way to find free food on campus

THE STUDENT PARENT What it’s like to have a child while in school

LEAVING TRACKS WITH PAWPRINTS Student Government’s efforts are not going unnoticed

CONTENTS SPORTS 22

24

NEWS

FIGURING OUT FITNESS Experiencing the RIT Fitness Lab Evaluation

LET’S GET RID OF THE BMI SCALE An examination of Body Mass Index

25

MORE THAN THE “WINTER BLUES” Explaining Seasonal Affective Disorder

VIEWS 26

28

31

SNOW DAY NO DAY We don’t need as many snow days as we think we do

WORD ON THE STREET What is your favorite style of beer?

RINGS Dear beautiful, bearded man...

REPORTER.RIT.EDU November 5

H

istorically, hacking was a positive term for people who could expertly use the massive mainframe computers of the past. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s artificial intelligence lab (renamed the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory) was home to many early hackers, and they accepted the name with pride. The negative connotations associated with it today began in the 1980s after the first large arrest of computer hackers took place. Computer programmers are attempting to reclaim the word by calling those who illegally break into computer systems “crackers” and the practice “cracking.”

As time went on and technological capabilities increased, so did the skill level of the hacking community. Interest in computer technology and how it affects society also increased, giving rise to different sects and uses of hacking and types of hackers. Hacking is a multifaceted issue that spans many arenas, including political, financial, technological and societal.

TYPES OF HACKERS

THE WORLD OF HACKING

by Natasha Amadasun | photography by Victoria Binkley | design by Annie Wong

White Hats—These are generally seen as the “good guys.” They are the people companies hire to hack into their security systems and report what failures, patches and bugs might exist.

White hats are not malicious in nature and aren’t out to take information from you.

Black Hats—Black hat hackers are the type of hackers that come to mind for most people when they think about hacking. Black hats illegally access files and use that information for their own gain. They are the hackers that turn your computer into a zombie while slowly sucking away your information, and they are the main perpetrators of cyber crimes.

Gray Hats—Gray hats are a combination of white and black hats. They hack into computer systems without the knowledge of the user and still look for failures and bugs, but don’t use that information in a malicious way. Typically, a gray hat will hack into a company’s network illegally, uncover issues with it and, instead of reporting back to the company, they release this information on a public plat-

form. This is what many hacktivists are, but on a political scale.

Script Kiddie—The term “script kiddie” is usually used pejoratively to describe newer or more inexperienced code hobbyists who use basic or pre-written script to hack networks and websites. They are seen as the lowest tier because they don’t typically write their own codes and often stick to juvenile deeds, such as vandalizing websites. They are not considered hackers by most of the community.

HACKTIVISM Hacktivism is a relatively new subset of hacking that uses computer technology as a means to promote political platforms and agendas. They use the same means as other hackers and crackers to gain access to computer networks, but instead of doing what a white, gray or black hat would do, they use their skills to increase political or social awareness.

One famous hacktivism group is the Anonymous group. They are a leaderless, international Internet community that functions with “a very loose and decentralized command structure that operates on ideas rather than directives.” Anonymous has gained widespread notoriety for its work in exposing government secrets and increasing awareness of important issues such as the shooting of Tamir Rice, the Charlie Hebdo attacks and the infamous WikiLeaks events.

Hacktivism can be thought of as an act of cyber terrorism or an act of freedom. Many believe that the distinction between the two is very ambiguous, just like with gray hat hackers. Edward Snowden, who leaked National Security Agency (NSA) files to the public, was touted as a criminal by the government, but is a hero to many hacktivists.

Hactivism is the political side of the gray area where hacking and cracking meet.

FINANCE Hacking in finance almost always comes down to one thing: banks. Banks are the targets of many crackers due to the wealth of information available. Banks have access to addresses, social security numbers, birth dates and, most importantly, money. The new rise in internet and mobile banking has also created a niche in which bank robbers dwell.

Gone are the days of souped up getaway cars; now, one can simply hide behind a screen.

Banks that offer internet banking, mobile banking, ATM services and that keep most of their records in electronic files, which today is almost every bank, are susceptible to more threats than ever before. An American Bankers Association survey states that 31 percent

of people prefer online banking, 10 percent prefer mobile banking and those who prefer ATMs are at 14 percent. These numbers may not seem large, but they are still an important factor of the increase in bank hacking and actually do have an effect on the economy.

Some of the largest banking firms have been hacked, such as Citigroup, Regions Financial Corporation and the largest of them all, J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. At times, the effects have been insurmountable.

A researcher at the White Ops, Dan Kaminsky, said, “We’ve migrated so much of our economy to computer networks because they are faster and more efficient, but there are side effects.”

These new technologies, while beneficial and easy-to-use, give more options to hackers and make for increasingly technology-savvy bank robbers. In the words of Robert Anderson, executive assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Cyber Response and Services branch, “We’re in a day when a person can commit about 15,000 bank robberies [while] sitting in their basement.”

This is startling, but it is the stark truth of technological advances.

“WHETHER BEING USED FOR GOOD, BAD OR ANYWHERE IN BETWEEN, HACKING HAS A STIGMA ATTACHED TO IT THAT MANY PEOPLE CONTINUE TO BELIEVE.”

SMART DEVICES Today, you can pretty much get a smart-anything. The influx of smart devices like smartphones, smartwatches, smart TVs and even smart bike locks has widened the playing field for hackers and crackers alike.

In late 2014, the Apple iPhone hack scandal, which released photos and messages from the phones of many celebrities, caused a reopening of the discussion on smart device security.

A new concern is the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT is “the inclusion of electronics and software in any device not usually considered computerized in nature, to enable it to achieve greater value and service by giving it an ability to network and communicate with other devices.” This phenomena is seen in the creation of smart homes and, directly related to RIT, the brand-new, environmentally-conscious smart apartments in Global Village. Advances such as these have lead some to believe that IoT opens a whole new issue of safety. Research company Synack had security analyst Colby Moore attempt to hack into various IoT-certified devices and found that it took him around 20 minutes to compromise almost all of the devices. The ease with which this can be done to appliances that many people use, like phones, or have in their homes, like thermostats, is frightening.

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF Computer security and hacking techniques of the future are unclear, but there are steps you can take to protect yourself: 1) Create strong passwords 2) Invest in quality network security 3) Always secure smart devices 4) Authenticate websites before visiting them 5) Familiarize yourself with how hackers can enter your devices 6) Learn more about hacking and programming Visit RIT’s Department of Computing Security in B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Science for more information.

Technology 7

THE EVOLUTION OF

AMERICAN

BEER

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

“T

oo early for beer?” Naked Dove Brewery co-owner Don Cotter, 56, asked as he poured two tasting glasses of American Amber Ale. The clock overhead read 10:05 a.m.

Cotter, a California native, has an extensive history in the alcohol industry, having worked locally for Constellation Brands, a Victor-based company specializing in international branding of everything from Svedka to Corona, and Genesee Brewery. At Genesee, Cotter played a pivotal role in founding the craft division of Genny, Dundee. However, Cotter tells of a stark difference between the functions and operations of a craft brewery in comparison to a large corporation.

“The big difference between the two, and what makes craft brewing special, is that with places like Genny, they cast a broad net,” said Cotter. “They try to produce a product that appeals to everyone. Craft breweries are all about appealing to a more localized center of the marketplace — and now we see from Anheuser-Busch these attempts to catch up, with their American Ale and buying up of craft breweries. But it’s still broad brushstrokes that show they’re still missing the point. You can’t make the same product small breweries are making when you’re mass producing with adjuncts (grains that are not malted barley, wheat or oats). And then there’s their Superbowl commercial attacking craft beer, which seems to really contradict their buying up of craft breweries and trying to appeal to that demographic.”

The commercial Cotter refers to, entitled “Brewed the Hard Way,” essentially depicts drinkers of craft beer to be pretentious, while Budweiser — which, judging by the predominately featured sparks, is produced as the by-product of some sort of metal-forging — is a beer that real beer-drinkers enjoy. While

8 Leisure

Budweiser is known for an ad campaign that features promises of coolness and an endless pit of supermodel vaginas, there is a much deeper element at play with these targeted ads against the craft beer industry; namely, they are not as much playful as they are defensive. While craft breweries are growing at a startling rate (a 17.2 percent sales increase in 2013), Anheuser-Busch’s profits dropped 5 percent in the same year.

While the argument can be made that craft brewing is a modern, passing fad, the reality is that the amount of breweries currently operating in the U.S. is indicative of a healthy drinking culture, more akin to a change in the status quo than a revolution. In fact, as of June 2013, there are 2,538 active breweries in the U.S. In 1890, there were 2,011. The modern, more socially-conscious young consumer is fueling the marketplace.

“I think a lot of the younger kids who grew up during the recession have grown this sort of distrust of the big corporations,” said Geoff Dale, co-owner of Three Heads Brewing. “You see a lot of people caring more about the community and realizing that those big corporations like Anheuser-Busch aren’t a part

THERE ARE

2,538 ACTIVE BREWERIES

IN THE US

of that community — and it’s not just beer.

I’m hoping to see McDonald’s sales decline, too, and today you have a lot of youth who are willing to pay the extra couple bucks for something that’s better, something where they can take some pride in knowing where it [has] come from and exactly what’s in it.”

In order to appeal to this demographic, Anheuser-Busch has been buying out larger craft breweries, including Chicago’s Goose Island, Long Island’s Blue Point and, most recently, Seattle’s Elysian Brewery — who, ironically, brew a pale ale alongside Sub-Pop records entitled “Loser,” which features a slogan of “Corporate Beer Still Sucks.” While many craft beer drinkers consider these breweries to be sellouts, Dale has a different perspective.

“I have no hard feelings toward the breweries that get bought out. I’d love to lie and say I have perfect convictions, but if someone came up and offered me $15 million for my brewery, I’d do it in a second. I love my family even more than beer, I think,” said Dale.

“I’m also good friends with the owner of Blue Point, and there actually are a lot of benefits from those arrangements. Yes, the brewery is now Anheuser-Busch property, but they’re also offered the benefit of the distribution of Anheuser-Busch. A lot of these breweries [that] would normally be stuck with selling to maybe two or three states now have a national network to work with.

Alongside that, [the Blue Point owner] has been able to keep total creative control of his product.”

Dale went onto explain the benefits Anheuser-Busch has inadvertently given the craft beer industry.

“A lot of the craft breweries have benefited from Budweiser because of the re-distributors who have the money to support these brands. Where do you think that money comes from?” said Dale. “In the end, in a weird way, Budweiser is almost becoming their own worst enemy, because they’re helping support the guys who are taking away their market share. Most of the places you go to, the big distributors put the taps in themselves, and most of them have Coors or Budweiser as their bread and butter. Almost every line that any craft beer in Rochester is poured through is going through a

“... IF SOMEONE CAME UP AND OFFERED ME

$15 MILLION

FOR MY BREWERY, I’D DO IT IN A SECOND.” macro (corporate) beer’s line.”

The idea that these recent trends in sales are part of a bubble that will one day pop and bring down many breweries with it presents a troublesome thought for the craft beer industry. However, this idea is not consistent with the nature of the industry, due simply to the fact that beer offers an almost endless array of stylistic choices and presentation.

“Around the same time [Naked Dove] opened up, Three

Leisure 9

THESE ARE NOT PEOPLE INVOLVED IN AN INDUSTRY THAT EXIST SOLELY FOR LUCRATIVE PURPOSES. Heads [was] opening up,” said Cotter, “and what we’ve got are two breweries with completely different models. We’re more of a traditional brewery and taproom making really balanced beers, no bottling or labels, while Three Heads has no brewery of their own, makes much more experimental beers and [is] really heavily focused on brand recognition. And of course Rohrbach’s has the taproom, bar and restaurant angle. So, extremely different approaches that all seem to work.”

“That’s the thing people don’t expect, that we different brewers all get along,” said Dale.

“We all like each other. Of course we have our disagreements, but we’ve come to realize that there’s room enough for all of us. We’re hopheads, we like making big, west-coast IPAs, while Naked Dove has the whole really German, balanced approach to brewing. And that’s the kind of diversity that really builds the industry, because sometimes people want a big beer, other times you want something lighter that pairs better with food. Having those options is never a bad thing.”

The fact that these are not people involved in an industry that exists solely for lucrative purposes becomes readily apparent when meeting the minds behind great beer. Cotter spoke of Wegmans urging him to start bottling his beers. Even though he has a bottling line, he’s opted to wait before starting actual production in order for the company to “grow naturally.”

Meanwhile, those in charge of Three Heads, which currently has all of its recipes produced by Custom Brewcrafters of Honeyoye Falls, plan on opening their own brewery in Rochester’s Village Gate sometime in the future. Dale explains that this growth is a natu-

ral progression for the Three Heads brand in a way that represents the entire philosophy behind the craft beer movement.

“The moment you’re a business-guy doing it, the moment you open the place thinking ‘Hey, I can make money doing this,’ those are

“... WE’VE COME TO REALIZE THAT THERE’S ROOM ENOUGH FOR ALL OF US.” the places that are going to fail. It’s not an easy place to make money. I’ll put in 60-70 hours a week, and I’m not rolling in it.

Hopefully when we finally do open this place we’ll start pulling in some real revenue.”

Despite the work involved, Dale revels in the community presence of craft beer and the values that shine through the industry unlike virtually any other.

“It’s a fun industry, and the thing you see throughout is that if you’re not happy and having fun in this industry, you’re doing it wrong. It’s really a laid-back industry. That’s not to say it doesn’t have its stresses or drama, but for the most part, I mean, everyone’s happy to see me when I walk into their place. It’s ‘Oh, the beer guy’s here!’ You never hear people going ‘Crap, the beer’s here.’”

“IT’S NOT AN EASY PLACE TO MAKE MONEY, I’LL PUT IN 60-70 HOURS A WEEK, AND I’M NOT ROLLING IN IT.” 10 Leisure

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AYL:

STREAM OF FACTS While it’s commonly thought that all those who built the pyramid were slaves, workers in Ancient Egypt were typically paid in a gallon of beer for a day’s work.

Craft mega-brewer Dogfish Head has revitalized an Ancient Egyptian recipe entitled Ta Henket, which features Middle Eastern herbs and chamomile and is brewed using biomolecular archaeology and hieroglyphics.

Using a variety of herbs, Scottish Brewery Brewdog and Maryland’s Flying Dog have produced International Arms Race, an IPA containing no hops.

Belgium is home to Trappist Ales, or ale produced by monks in order to fund their monastery.

Brewdog is also known for producing the strongest beers in the world, having most recently put out The End of History, a 55 percent alcohol Belgian Blonde served in a bottle stuffed in a taxidermied squirrel, which selling for a meager $765 per 12-ounce bottle.

Low on bar funds? Maybe Vietnam is the place for you, where a pint averages 76 cents in American dollars.

Vietnam is also home to a recent crop of “beer clubs,” which are nightclub focused around excessive drinking that even provide toilets specially designed for vomiting.

Contrary to popular belief, there is no correlation between excessive beer consumption and a “beer gut” or weight gain in general.

In fact, Arizona man Evo Terra has managed to lose weight through an impressively German diet of sausage and a six-pack a day.

BEER

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

ACROSS 1. Bitter Component 5. The Product of Fermentation 6. Source of The Hoppiest Beer 10. Base Grain of All Beer 11. Term Describing Independent, Small-Production Beer 12. Broadest Beer Category 14. Darkest Drink 16. Process From Sweet Water to Beer 17. Common Stout Grain 19. Characteristic of Lambics 20. Number One American-Made Beer 22. Tweak to a Style Featuring Higher Alcohol and Flavor 26. Variety of Small Glasses of Beer Used for Sampling 28. Bubbly Bit 30. Source of Carbonation and Alcohol 33. Fermentation Friend 34. Unit of Measurement Used in Large Production 35. Dark Brown Brew

A single six-pack of Stella Artois’ Nobillis limited-edition beer, autographed by Samuel L. Jackson, Ryan Gosling and other celebrities, sold for $15,000, making in it the most expensive six-pack in the world.

$2K

But without gimmick, the title of most expensive regularly-produced beer goes to “Dave,” a barley wine produced by Portland, Oregon brewery Hair of the Dog, whose most recent release sold for $2,000 a bottle.

DOWN 2. World-Renowned Beer Celebration 3. Source of Unfermentable Sugars 4. Fermenting Vessel 7. Highest Beer Drinking Country Per Capita 8. Common IPA Characteristic 9. Process Barley Goes Through 13. Traditional German Mug 15. Beer Brewed by Monks 18. Standard Bar Pour 21. Home of the Dubbel, Trippel and Quadruppel 23. Liquid Component of Beer 24. 64 oz. Bottle Commonly Found at Breweries 25. 22 oz. Beer Bottle 27. Cold Fermented Brew 29. Descriptor for a Light-Colored Ale 31. Base Mixture of Hot Water and Grain 32. Rochester Staple Ale Style For crossword answers, please visit reporter.rit.edu/leisure Leisure 13

RIT FOODSHARE

by Evander Sousa | photography by Lloyd McCullough | design by Rachel Fox

I

n recent years, food insecurity has become a growing issue on college campuses. According to two sets of surveys conducted in 2011 at University of California Santa Barbara and a university in Oregon, many if not the majority of students face the decision between paying for either education or food one or more times each year.

In an effort to fight food insecurity and reduce food waste, students created the RIT FoodShare. Through profiles on Twitter and Facebook, the RIT FoodShare program allows students to post the locations of free food on campus.

According to Enid Cardinal, the senior sustainability advisor for RIT, the FoodShare program is “a creative solution to food insecurity on campus as well [as] food waste.” She said that the program was created by students

14 Leisure

last semester, and has two parts: social media pages and the FoodShare Center, which will open this spring.

The social media element is comprised of a Facebook group and a Twitter account. Cardinal said that events on campus tend to have leftover food that normally can’t be reused and instead goes to waste. Now members and followers of the RIT FoodShare Facebook and Twitter accounts can post where the leftover food is and allow others to take advantage of the free meal. The goal is to have students enable notifications from the group so that they can be updated in real time about where free food is available on campus.

Kelsey Kiefer, a fourth year International Studies and Environmental Sustainability, Health and Safety student, is highly active on the site. Whenever Kiefer has found free

food on campus, she has immediately posted the location on the Facebook page. “I do it because I know that if I was hungry and there was food in the next room, I would want someone to tell me,” she said.

She also said that she believes the group has made a difference, and she has seen it herself. One of her most recent posts included free food in her office, and she actually saw students come in asking about the free food who had learned about it from the post.

The program was developed by a Campaign Management and Planning class run by assistant professor Kelly Martin last semester. According to Cardinal, Associate of the University Dr. Rebecca Johnson came to her with the idea to distribute leftover event food, and they pitched the problem to the class. The original idea was to create the no-

tification system, but Martin says that the students took to the idea and wanted to expand it. “[T]hey’re the ones that said we should do more than this, [that] it doesn’t feel like enough.”

The class started planning out the FoodShare Center as a place where students can donate, exchange and pick up food in addition to the social media notification system.

The RIT FoodShare Center is a combined effort by the class and Residence Life. Sharon Kompalla-Porter, associate director for Residential Support and Success, has been part of the combined project since before Martin’s class took over the initial idea. Kompalla-Porter originally wanted to create a “free-cycling place on campus where students could bring items that they no longer had use for, and they could pick something that they might use or want.” After meeting with Cardinal, they decided to merge with the FoodShare Center idea and create a place where students could donate food that they didn’t need and exchange it for something else or

take food that they might not have otherwise.

The FoodShare Center is being set up in the Res Life office in Riverknoll with the goal of being as sustainable as possible. In an effort to reuse and recycle, other groups on campus have donated the shelving, and the ResLife office is being rearranged to maximize the usage of the center. To increase donations, boxes have been set up on campus and a number of events will collect and donate canned goods and proceeds for the center.

According to CNN and the Washington Post, other schools like Syracuse and the University of Missouri already have food pantries, and they are not alone. According to one estimate published by the Washington Post, the number of food pantries on college campuses across the country has increased drastically from one pantry in 2007 and just four in 2008 to 121 just last year. Most of these pantries are located on public and community college campuses, making RIT one of the few private universities with this resource.

Cardinal listed other reasons why the RIT center is different, too. According to her, none

of these other campuses have the social media notification system that RIT has. Typically, these pantries have restrictions such as required proof of need or a limited number of visits or coupons, and they create a record of who visits, which can deter many from using the services. The FoodShare Center plans to do things differently. “Our goal is to make it open to anyone and not make them feel like they have to justify why they need it,” said Cardinal. She also went on to say that St. John Fisher College is currently creating a system based on FoodShare, including the social media element.

As of now, the FoodShare Center is still being organized, but the goal is to open it after spring break. The FoodShare Facebook group already has more than 600 members. To learn more about the RIT FoodShare program, visit the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ groups/ritfoodshare, follow the Twitter at twitter.com/RITFoodShare and look forward to the FoodShare Center’s opening after spring break.

Leisure 15

THE

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

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or the average, full-time college student, there is a fairly standard list of concerns and responsibilities to take into account. That is, go to class, finish homework, keep up your GPA, hold down a part-time job in order to have money for weekend boozing, etc. These are responsibilities that are mostly universal on college campuses. Few students are stuck with the burdens of mortgages, investing in retirement funds or other typical “adult” responsibilities. That is due to the fact that though young students are exhibiting their first hours of independence and freedom from parental overseers, they are still not typically considered adults by society; they are considered young, naive, privileged and endowed, with four to five years of play time to discover where they fit in the world.

This is where students like University at Buffalo (UB) Business Management major Thema Frangias differ, where their responsibilities have expanded beyond these typical college woes to include changing diapers and finding the right nanny.

“I always felt that I was a bit mature for my age,” Frangias, 21, said while the sound of a child’s fussing echoed in the background of the phone call. “Most of those typical college things like going out and partying or getting drunk really didn’t interest me. I always felt like I was more motivated, more goal-oriented than my classmates, so a lot of those things that would really be difficult for another student mom to give up weren’t really an issue for me. But I will say that if you’re a student who’s planning on having a kid, or just about to be a mom in general I guess, you can forget about going out or partying for a while. Those aren’t an option anymore.”

Of course, every parent in search of childcare wants only the best, most attentive workers to be watching after their children.

Yet, there is the matter of price, an issue that is most certainly a crucial point for student parents. Margaret’s House offers a rate of $253 per five-day business week for a child of the same age as Frangias’, as long as the parent is attending a minimum of 12 credithours.

“I believe that’s a very fair price,” Frangias said. “Right now, we’re paying $80 per day for daycare, which is off-campus. This is the cheaper option, while [Frangias and her boyfriend] are considering getting a nanny, we have to consider that we’re basically paying another person’s salary at $10-15 an

funded directly by RIT’s administration and donations, resulting in an extremely well-equipped modern daycare capable of handling children ranging from the ages of 10 weeks to 8 years.

Formerly referred to as the Horton Child Care Center and located near the Greek Houses, Margaret’s House, named in honor of former RIT Vice President and donor Alfred Davis’ wife, opened its doors in 1996.

Margaret’s House’s accommodations have grown to a total of eight classrooms from its original two. Each classroom is equipped with a myriad of toys, teaching aids and individual cots for naptime, where children lay quietly, watched over by student-staff members who sit perched in chairs beside each door. On the wall in the hallway from which each classroom branches hang children’s drawings. One portion of the wall sports photographs of each student employee pasted onto construction paper cut-outs of flowers, all in all showing about a dozen faces, all of which are female.

“Ya know, we really do need to update that,” laughed Margaret’s House Program Director Roberta DiNoto. “We actually have four male employees now.”

When she enters the kindergarten classroom, DiNoto is greeted by a rush of children yelling over one another to try and show her their newest tricks and accomplishments. A blonde girl shouts, “Look what we found in our boots!” and holds up a penny for DiNoto to see. One boy kneels on the ground, holding a penny between his thumb and forefinger which he attempts to spin on the ground, all the while shouting, “Look! Look!”

“Wow!” DiNoto said as she kneeled down to the children’s level with a wide grin on her face. “Do you know why you have pennies, and not nickels or quarters? Do you know who’s on the penny?”

She prods the children slightly for an answer by leading with an “A” sound.

34 OF 81 CHILDREN ENROLLED IN MARGARET’S HOUSE ARE CHILDREN OF STUDENTS hour. The thing is, I was planning on going to school full-time online, which would give me time to look after my son and get my degree.

But it ended up getting switched up a lot, and my schedule ended up being thrown together so last minute that I just didn’t have the time to find the right nanny. I suppose if I found the right person it would be probably cheaper to have a babysitter, but I want the time to do a background check and really know the person I’m using.”

This is where places like Margaret’s House do hold a very big benefit for student parents.

Prices are able to stay extremely competitive by utilizing a workforce composed mostly of students who are paid at RIT minimum wage. Meanwhile, the actual facility is

“I WILL SAY THAT IF YOU’RE A STUDENT WHO’S PLANNING ON HAVING A KID, OR JUST ABOUT TO BE A MOM IN GENERAL I GUESS, YOU CAN FORGET ABOUT GOING OUT OR PARTYING FOR A WHILE. THOSE AREN’T AN OPTION ANYMORE.” Leisure 17

“It’s Abraham Lincoln’s birthday! That’s why you have pennies!”

Aside from simple, fun activities that could take place at any daycare, DiNoto helps her students get involved in RIT events. In the corner of the kindergarten classroom sits a small white chair adorned with stamps of differently-colored letters.

This is part of RIT’s CHAIRity event, a fundraiser for United Way where different chairs that have been custompainted by students are auctioned off.

Outside Margaret’s House sits a sprawling playground equipped with slides, jungle gyms and a large sandbox, all of course buried under 2 feet of snow. In the center sits a small tree reaching upwards.

“That tree used to be at our Horton place,” DiNoto said. She gestured toward a crayon drawing of a crude tree hanging on the wall and continued, “Children love this construction stuff, so when we moved to this location, we had the tree transplanted to this location. It was a fun project that the kids really enjoyed.”

All told, Margaret’s House is an extremely

well-equipped and fairly affordable daycare center — but the wide berth of issues young student parents face are ripe dilemmas that Margaret’s House is unable to handle entirely. Namely, there is the monetary issue.

In a recent data compilation by the office of New York state Senator Kirsten Gillibrand,

spending.

“I also run an Etsy site where I make different baby clothes,” Frangias said, “but that’s not something I’d consider a main source of income. It’s more supplemental income on top of my boyfriend’s earnings.”

Of course, not all student parents are in the same situation as Frangias, where there is sustainable income. Thirty-four out of a total of 81 children enrolled in Margaret’s House are the children of students, and there is always a chance that students do not have the means to provide their children with all necessities on their own.

“We try our best to provide our children with whatever they need,” DiNoto said.

“Sometimes we have international students who come from places where there is no need for winter clothing, and we try our best to give those children the things that they need. We have donations of clothing and food that we can provide to children that need it. We also, while RIT doesn’t directly work in conjunction with them, can help parents set up aid through Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and other state-social services.”

Alongside the problem of physical commodities are the trials of children with special needs, which Margaret’s House is thoroughly equipped to deal with.

“We do cognitive screenings and therapy for our children that require special care. If a parent wants their child to be screened, we can arrange for a test,” DiNoto said. “We also work closely with the Rochester Hearing and Speech Center to help provide the children with services they need.”

In general, the student parent does have a myriad of resources to turn to for assistance.

Even so, the responsibilities and costs can be more than one might expect, and can mean that the student’s priorities and perspectives will change drastically with the transition to parenthood. Frangias gave advice to students who are considering becoming parents over the sound of a baby crying in the background.

“The most important thing you need to do is make sure your expectations are realistic,” Frangias said. “You need to consider that you’re going to need drop a lot of these things, that all of a sudden you have this child that constantly needs your attention. The thing is, you need to focus on what you have. You need to not think about what other people have or what other people are doing. You need to not look at all of the privileges and benefits of the people around you and just focus on what you have and what you can do for your child.”

“WE TRY OUR BEST TO PROVIDE OUR CHILDREN WITH WHATEVER THEY NEED ...”

18 Leisure

the average yearly cost for childcare of an infant is currently $10,400 and rising at a rate of $730 per year. In Monroe County, that price is even higher, averaging $10,660 per year for a child under the age of 2.

This number is exacerbated by the expenses a student parent must pay to live on RIT’s campus. According to RIT Housing Operations, a freshman student is required to live in the dorms for their first year on campus. However, for students with children, a special application is required for a onebedroom apartment, as children are not allowed in dorms. While DiNoto said most students with children choose Riverknoll, the most cost-effective option, the price difference is still of note. For a single-person residency at Riverknoll, the price is $4,638 per semester, while a single-person occupancy in the Residence Halls is $3,886.

For an established adult already in the depths of their career, these differences in pricing and the cost of childcare may not seem incredibly unreasonable. However, for a full-time student, $10,400 may be more than they make in an entire year, without including the cost of housing, food and tuition. In fact, a data aggregation by Advisor Perspectives found that the median household income for those with heads of household between the ages of 15 and 24, as of 2013, is $34,000. This may seem like a high number, but keeping in mind that the data is skewed by the high amount of college graduates in that bracket as well as the lack of marker for students, the average income of college students is much likely lower than $34,000, which is already a far cry from the American median house income of $52,250.

Frangias, who is a stay-at-home mom on the days she is not in class, and whose boyfriend serves as the main source of household income through his job at Moog Inc., serves as the typical example of a young household with a child — one in which income is sustainable yet meager, and without much room for superfluous

LEAVING TRACKS WITH

PAWPRINTS

by Jake Krajewski | illustration by Kaitlyn Fitzgerald | design by Kuan-Lin chen

P

uppy rooms and nap stations — both sound wonderful, and both have PawPrints petitions that over 200 students have expressed support for via their electronic signatures. Although at a glance these petitions may seem almost as farfetched as rotating the new hockey arena 12 degrees to match the orthogonal grid of the rest of RIT’s campus, they actually aren’t that unrealistic. In fact, several colleges across the country already have at least one of these amenities. Both petitions are now listed as “in progress” on PawPrints, but how much progress has really been made on these or other petitions?

Since its creation, PawPrints has been a powerful outlet for students that want their voices to be heard by RIT’s administration.

Over 300 petitions have been made, and about

IN FACT, THE NUMBER OF PAWPRINTS USERS NOW EXCEEDS THE NUMBER OF RIT SUBREDDIT SUBSCRIBERS.

one-third of the entire student body has logged into PawPrints. In fact, the number of PawPrints users now exceeds the number of RIT subreddit subscribers. With this volume of input from students, it has become easier than ever for the demands of the students to be heard by Student Government (SG) and 20 Leisure

noticed by other bodies within the school.

Director of Student Relations for SG Nick Giordano said that he has been very aware of and enthusiastic about the site’s traffic.

He has been a member of SG since March of 2014, director of student relations since May of that year and in charge of managing petitions since PawPrints first launched. He described the implementation of PawPrints as a “stress test” on every aspect of SG, with the tidal wave of student input forcing the organization to change their entire way of doing things.

The original system for managing petitions was to form a committee to work on each petition that reached 200 signatures, but as more petitions passed the signature requirement, that system quickly became outdated. There were so many committees meeting at different times that it became difficult to keep track of them all and for members of SG to fit the meetings into their schedules.

A new format has been developed to address incoming petitions. The new system has a set number of committees to address a broader range of issues, such as the Facilities Committee and the Dining Services Committee. Now when a petition reaches the required number of signatures, a charge will be given to a corresponding committee. These committees consist mainly of members of the SG Senate and members of Major Student Organizations (MSOs), such as the Association for Commuter Engagement

and Global Union. Because of this, Giordano said that SG has seen more involvement from MSOs than ever before.

What Giordano seemed most excited about, however, was how much more student input SG is now receiving. Each petition is taken seriously, and Giordano tracks petitions as they gather signatures from students. If a petition is gathering signatures quickly or if its topic is very important, the senate will start thinking about which committee to send it to.

In fact, petitions don’t always need to hit 200 signatures before SG starts to work on them. Usually, if a petition gets close to 200 signatures or if the issue brought up in a petition is considered to be significant, SG will work on it regardless of the final signature count. “We’re not sticklers,” he said.

PawPrints has changed more than just the way SG is run: it has changed how the entire school looks for student input. In fact, some petitions are being completed before SG can even act on them. These petitions are being seen by RIT faculty and administration, and sometimes they start working on petitions before SG even comes to talk to

PAWPRINTS HAS CHANGED MORE THAN JUST THE WAY STUDENT GOVERNMENT IS RUN: IT HAS CHANGED HOW THE ENTIRE SCHOOL LOOKS FOR STUDENT INPUT.

them. One example Giordano provided was about a petition regarding a water fountain that needed to be replaced. Kory Samuels, executive director of Dining Services, happened to see that petition, and he looked at the water fountain himself while he was in the area. Soon after, he called his boss to put in an order for a new fountain; however, when he called in, his boss told him that the work order had already been submitted.

Currently, over 50 petitions are being worked on and 40 are complete. Thanks to these petitions, Sol’s is no longer Ozzi-only, the dress code at the Aquatics Center has been revised to accommodate transgender individuals and new water spouts are going to be installed in Gracie’s in the near future.

The topics of nap stations and puppy rooms, however, may be a bit more difficult to deal with. These would be fairly large expenditures for RIT. The University of Rochester (U of R) recently made plans to have some pod chairs for napping and studying installed in their library. A portion of these chairs were funded through something called the “5K Challenge,” where the U of R Students’ Association Government raised $5,000 and allowed students to vote on how to spend the money. After that, the library footed the rest of the bill. Our SG is working on it, but without a 5K challenge of their own, they are still trying to determine the feasibility of installing some sort of nap stations here.

Similarly, the puppy room comes with a fair deal of obstacles to think about. Aside from changing policies to allow pets in RIT facilities, many questions arise surrounding the idea: who will take care of the puppies?

Where do the puppies go when they grow into dogs? What happens if someone gets bitten? In cases where money and resources are involved, it seems there is much more work to do. While policy changes can be tricky, they do not necessarily cost money or resources.

Nonetheless, proposed changes

of any variety are worth voicing, and Giordano provided some pointers on how to make successful petitions on PawPrints.

Proofreading for spelling and grammatical errors is important, as it adds a layer of professionalism, and sharing petitions through social media such as Facebook is a good way to increase awareness of your petition. He said that he also wishes more students would come talk to SG face-to-face about their petitions.

Finally, he said it is important to understand that

working on these petitions takes time, but SG is more than eager to work with students.

If you’d like to talk to SG, you can find all of their emails at www.sg.rit.edu/aboutus, or you can talk to them directly at their office in the Campus Center.

Leisure 21

FIGURING OUT FITNESS

by Nicole Howley | photography by Sarah Ann Jump | design by Rachel Fox

22 Sports

A

ccording to a five-question Seventeen Magazine Quiz, I’m “fit and fab.”

According to the parents I tried to help at freshman move-in, I’m not the one they want carrying boxes of clothes and mini fridges to their kid’s dorm room.

Figuring out one’s physical fitness can be tough, especially when there are so many sources offering questionable input and sometimes saying contradictory things.

In order to get more reliable information, I signed up for a full fitness evaluation at the Fitness Lab in the basement of the Hale-Andrews Student Life Center.

When I got there, I was greeted by Seann McArdle, the lab’s coordinator, who explained how the evaluation measures five aspects of “health related fitness”: body composition or percent body fat, muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiopulmonary function and flexibility.

For me, though, we only measured four.

After telling McArdle about the limited time I’ve spent on strength training, he determined it would be better to skip the muscular strength section that day. “But the important part is, it’s something to consider.

So it’s not just that we aren’t going to do it, don’t think about it,” he said. “We’re not going to do it, but this is something you could consider maybe incorporating into your training or your routine,” Duly noted.

According to McArdle, the strength test I didn’t do is a one-rep-max bench press or leg press in which you see how much weight you can lift for a single rep by slowly building up to lifting your maximum level. This result is then scaled to body mass. “If you are lighter and can lift more weight, that demonstrates a better capacity,” said McArdle.

Moving on from the things I probably couldn’t do, we started with the section of the evaluation that anyone with a heartbeat was capable of measuring: my resting heart rate and blood pressure. Both turned out to be near average. Then we measured height, weight and body mass, all of which I had.

I asked McArdle if we were going to use these measures to determine my Body Mass Index (BMI), a commonly used measure of health, but he said we were going to use a measure of percent body fat instead. “[B]ecause it’s an index, it doesn’t really provide us a good idea of your overall body composition. It’s meant to be used on large populations, which is why even the federal government has considered using it as a way of tracking the [nation’s health],” McArdle said. “They don’t look at percent body fat, because it’s hard to measure percent body fat. It’s time consuming, whereas height and weight, you can see, we did in a brief time,

but it doesn’t always look at the full picture.”

In order to get the full picture, we took the extra time to measure my body fat percentage through the use of an ultrasound. Three measurements were taken on my right side at mid-thigh, mid-tricep and right above my hip bone. According to the ultrasound software, I was right between a fitness and athlete category, meaning I don’t have any excess body fat, but I have more than the 13 percent body fat that is essential for women.

The next measure of the evaluation required a bit more effort. As I strapped on a heart rate monitor and prepared to test my cardiovascular capacity, or lack thereof, I mentally prepared myself to jump on the treadmill I had spent such a large portion of my life avoiding.

As I stood on the sides of the machine, McArdle explained that every three minutes, the speed and incline of the treadmill would be increased. Every one and a half minutes, he would ask me to tell him my Rate of Perceived Exertion on a scale from one to 10, where one represents a level of exertion equivalent to lying down and not moving and 10 represents a point where I was at my physical limit.

During the first six minutes of the test, the treadmill is set at two different walking speeds with a progressively steeper incline.

The next three minutes is a fast walk, or slow jog. The next phase is when jogging becomes more necessary. I’m not sure if there are levels after that. I gave up not long after the nine-minute mark. McArdle monitored how quickly my heart rate recovered from the 196 beats per minute it reached while I breathed heavily, trying to recover from what little exertion I had managed.

We then moved on to another classic — the sit and reach — but the box was different from the one I had seen in high school. It allowed the zero mark, where you start pushing the slider, to be adjusted for each person based on where they could reach with their

are really going to give you results that are specific to you and that aren’t just an indicator of the general population.”

After setting my zero mark and taking the more accurate measure, the test was done.

McArdle entered my results into a computer.

“That’s going to give us the context we need to know where you are at in each of these categories … because, ultimately, okay, you ran on the treadmill for nine minutes, 35 seconds. What does that mean? And how does it fair next to other women your age?”

“Generally speaking it looks pretty good,” said McArdle, looking at the screen. “You are in a pretty good starting spot.”

My index score was 42 out of 100, which qualifies as average. “Of course, that doesn’t give you the full scope,” said McArdle, “because if you have some things that are really low and some things that are really high, being average isn’t really good because there are some things that really need improvement and some that don’t need improvement at all.” This is an accurate description of where I’m at.

Overall, I could use some work. Luckily, in addition to offering fitness assessments, the Fitness Lab offers exercise program creation and personal training. McArdle himself sees about five to 10 students during a busy week and two to three on a slow week for different Fitness Lab services, and he believes that the personalized fitness evaluations and programs can really help.

As for me, I now know specifically which areas of my fitness I need to improve. “That’s why this is so important,” said McArdle. “The fitness industry treats everyone like they are coming in at the same level, for the most part. If you buy P90X and I buy P90X and we both do P90X, we’re not getting anything custom tailored to our specific needs. We’re just getting P90X.” P90X may not know my fitness level, but at least I do now, and that’s something I can work with.

I’M NOT THE ONE THEY WANT CARRYING BOXES OF CLOTHES AND MINI FRIDGES TO THEIR KID’S DORM ROOM. back still 90 degrees to their legs.

“Maybe [the fixed bench test] gave you a sense of where you are compared to the general population … but it doesn’t really speak to the individual,” McArdle said. “That’s the difference between those types of testing environments and environments like this. We

Full fitness evaluations are offered at the Fitness Lab throughout the week according to evaluators’ schedules. The service is available to students for $10 and faculty and staff for $20. You can schedule an appointment online at www.rit.edu/healthsciences/fitnesslab/schedule.php.

Sports 23

BMI SCALE LET’S GET RID OF THE

C

hances are that you’ve used the Body Mass Index (BMI) scale at some point to calculate your physical health.

Chances are equally likely that what you calculated means next to nothing.

The BMI scale, which was developed between 1830 and 1850 by Belgian social scientist Adolphe Quetelet, was devised to measure the obesity levels of populations.

Through this quick-and-dirty method (weight divided by height squared), Quetelet’s scale was a tremendous success in helping governments decide how and where to allocate resources. Its success in terms of how accurately it measures the health of an individual, however, is questionable at best.

The BMI scale is still arguably one of the most prevalent measurements of physical health in Western culture. A troublingly simple act of division sends you in one of three directions: A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is defined as a “normal” weight, one between 25 and 29.9 is considered “overweight” and anything higher than 30 falls in the “obese” category. Following this logic, NFL players like Marshawn Lynch, who stands at 5’11’’ and weighs roughly 215 pounds, would be considered obese. The list of professional athletes who are unwittingly “obese” is far too long to print, but includes most of the NFL, Rob Gronkowski, Mike Tyson, Sammy Sosa, Donovan McNab, Joey Porter and Adam Archuleta. It’s also worth mentioning that outside of the world of professional sports,

24 Sports

decidedly not-obese celebrities such as Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson are all considered obese by the BMI scale.

Let’s also take into consideration that the BMI scale is a concept that was invented almost 200 years ago. Even if it was developed as a gauge for one’s personal health, there are dozens of physical aspects that it doesn’t take into account for the sake of convenience.

The BMI scale doesn’t calculate waist size or “the relative proportions of bone, muscle and fat in the body,” according to a 2009 NPR article entitled “Top 10 Reasons Why The BMI Is Bogus.” The article also shines some light on some of the shadier implications of the BMI scale’s more modern usage, stating that “Insurance companies sometimes charge higher premiums for people with a high BMI. Among such people are all those fit individuals with good bone and muscle and little fat, who will live long, healthy lives during which they will have to pay those greater premiums.”

It can be inferred that health insurance companies are well aware that the BMI scale is far from an accurate calculator of physical health, but as long as people are chalking up “obese” BMI scores without actually being obese and subsequently paying higher premiums, they can easily turn a blind eye to the whole thing.

Far more scientifically-sound obesitymeasuring scales do exist, and are readily

?????

by Alexander Jones | illustration by Halli Rosin | design by Halli Rosin

available to health insurance companies and physicians. These methods, such as the Body Adiposity Index, Hydrostatic Weighing and a simple waist-to-hip ratio are unpopular because they tend to be more expensive or more time-consuming than plugging some numbers into a question and plucking out a number from a chart.

In an article for PreventDisease.com, Maria Grazia Franzosi of The Instituto Mario Negri in Milan states that “BMI can definitely be left aside as a clinical and epidemiological measure of cardiovascular risk.” Her claim is based off of a “52-country study comparing four different tests — BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, waist measure and hip measure,” which ultimately found that the BMI scale is probably better off being left behind.

Using a nearly 200-year-old scale as a means to measure individual obesity is frightening, and it’s something this country, amongst others, does every day. Not only is the BMI scale not being used as it was initially intended, its inventor wasn’t even a physician.

Quetelet was a statistician and sociologist, and he had no hard scientific background whatsoever. It’s about time we start allocating our scientific resources toward something that isn’t so fundamentally flawed and easily exploited as the BMI scale — and hopefully something that was invented within the last century.

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

MORE THAN THE “WINTER BLUES”

by Bryanne McDonough | illustration by Annie Wong | design by Annie Wong

T

here are many different names for the “winter blues.” The disorder is officially recognized by psychologists as Subsyndromal-SAD, which is a subset of a broader disorder known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Donna Rubin, assistant vice president of Student Wellness at RIT, described SAD as “depression that is on a recurrent cycle. It occurs during particular times of the year.”

SAD can occur during any of the seasons, but it is most common in the wintertime. An article from the American Journal of Psychiatry conservatively estimated that 5 percent of the U.S. population is affected by SAD; 60 to 90 percent of those affected were women.

Depression and SAD share many of the same symptoms; the difference is that a person with SAD will feel better when the season changes. The key is to be “very mindful and understanding of your body,” according to Jennifer Lukomski, a psychology professor at RIT. Common symptoms of SAD are lethargy, apathy and changed eating and sleeping habits. Both Rubin and Lukomski emphasized a lack of pleasure in activities that the affected person had previously enjoyed.

“Things that used to be part of their life that

“THINGS THAT USED TO BE PART OF THEIR LIFE THAT THEY DON’T ENJOY DOING ANYMORE, THAT CAN BE A RED FLAG” they don’t enjoy doing anymore, that can be a red flag,” Rubin said.

A major cause of SAD is the change of light between the seasons. The lack of natural light disrupts the body’s natural circadian rhythms. A common treatment is light therapy, where patients sit under a special light designed to simulate natural light. On the other hand, other times of the year can cause different effects in some cases of SAD. “People can become more hyper, but that’s typically with SAD going into the summertime,” according to Lukomski.

People tend to be less active during the winter seasons, which can lead to a decrease in energy. One way to combat this is to get plenty of exercise. Eating properly and getting enough sleep are also important components of staying healthy for both mind and body.

Another symptom of depression in general is withdrawal from socialization; it is essential to continue to interact with and be around other people.

If you find yourself experiencing some of these symptoms, Lukomski suggested “[writing] a list of maybe 10 items that really give you pleasure, and then get those into your

life.”

Similarly, Rubin said that “instead of dreading [winter] and hiding from it,” she advises people to “find ways to enjoy it.”

Most people will find themselves affected by the seasons, to differing extents. There are a few things psychologists look at before diagnosing someone with SAD. “You want to see that there is a recurrent pattern for more than one calendar year,” said Rubin.

Lukomski advised, “Be aware of your own self. Is this something that you are prone to?”

When deciding whether to seek treatment, ask yourself how much your life is being disrupted. Are you missing classes and skipping club meetings or other activities you used to enjoy? If you decide to seek treatment, there are many resources available on campus. The RIT Counseling Center offers group and individual sessions in addition to many stress management opportunities. There is also a psychiatrist available on campus.

In the meantime, continue to participate in activities in which you have previously found pleasure. Maintain healthy habits and a positive attitude. Remember, spring is right around the corner.

News 25

SNOW N

DAY

NO DAY

by Kevin Zampieron | illustration by Halli Rosin design by Halli Rosin

26 Views

obody needs to tell you how abysmal the weather can be in Rochester — just step outside. Snow is just part of life in Rochester, and lately there has been little reason for RIT to have snow days.

As obvious as this seems, however, there is a serious disagreement on how the frequently dangerous weather should be handled.

After about a foot of snow struck Rochester on Monday, Feb. 2, a student posted a PawPrints petition which proposed that the school should have been closed for the safety of students and staff. At time of writing, 1,444 students have signed this petition. As a point of comparison, it only takes 200 signatures for Student Government (SG) to address the issue. The petition is the second-largest on PawPrints and the fastest-growing petition ever to be featured on the site. It’s obvious that some kind of chord within the student body has been struck — but just how legitimate are these grievances, and what do they entail?

The petition is undoubtedly pointed at the administration, but what are the details of this apparently controversial decision? John Zink, the associate vice president for Global Risk Management Services, is responsible for collecting data and recommending whether or not the school should remain open in bad weather. He considers how Monroe County and the Town of Henrietta are responding to

the situation, as well as the quality of county and town roads. On the Monday in question, Zink said that almost all of the universities in the area remained open. “We actually were very consistent with everyone else in that county and, of course, every business in the county was open,” he said.

School closure isn’t as simple as canceling classes, though. “It is a residential campus.

Even if we’re closed, many employees still have to come to work,” Zink said. Regardless of closure, dining services, maintenance and public safety employees still must come into work, and some of their schedules are very different from those of students or faculty members.

Although Zink said he can appreciate the concerns, he also doesn’t see an issue with the process that determines whether the school is closed for weather. “I think it’s a very sound process, and we consider a lot of information,” Zink said. This raises an important question, however: if the process is so sound, why are so many students making their voices heard?

This is just one of the many questions SG must consider. The importance of the issue is not lost on them, according to CIAS Senator Andrea Shaver, head of the Student Affairs Committee. “We represent the voices of all of the students, so if students feel it’s dangerous coming to class, we need to make sure that we can communicate to the administration,” she said.

Shaver spoke about the difficulties reported by students in wheelchairs in getting around campus, an issue echoed in a separate but related petition. In this particular case, a student who uses a wheelchair was stuck in the snow on that particular Monday. “If the conditions are so bad that people with disabilities can’t get around, we’re not an accessible campus,” Shaver said.

The issue of weather-related school closure affects everyone in the RIT community.

Naturally, something of this scale would be divisive; a commuter would have different opinions from a residential student who would have different opinions from a staff member. On one hand, it’s clear that many students are questioning RIT’s decision to keep the university open. However, when demanding change, we need to try to understand what that change entails. Saying that the administration needs to reevaluate its policies on closures is reasonable, but wanting the entire RIT campus to close because of a difficult commute is not. Both Zink and Shaver echoed the same sentiment in one respect: it’s Rochester. Issues like this come with the territory.

WOTS

Joshua Bonvissuto Third year Computational Mathematics

WORD ON THE STREET

“Belhaven Scottish ale.”

photography by Lloyd McCollough design by Morgan Reed

What is your favorite style of beer?

Aaron Larouco Third year Computational Mathematics “Wachusett blueberry ale.”

Jenna Riccardi Fourth year Interpreting “Corona with lime.”

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Tom Janosky Fourth year Mechanical Engineering Technology “Troegs Troeginator.”

Danielle Suzanne Smith Fourth year Graphic Design “Really darn cheap whiskey.”

Prof. Andrew Perry Senior Lecturer University Writing Program “Three Heads’ IPA ‘The Kind.’”

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

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FRIDAY, JAN. 23, 8:22 P.M. [TEXT] School hasn’t started and Booth already smells like Play-Doh.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 11, 9:59 A.M. [TEXT] How about I thank a donor when they donate enough so that I don’t have to pay $100 a year for [shifty] parking.

FRIDAY, FEB. 13, 7:26 A.M. [TEXT] I don’t know what RIT’s administration’s ego problem is, but it is appalling that they continually risk students’ lives to keep the school open when conditions are poor. If I get hypothermia or in an accident one of these days trying to make it to school in a blizzard, you all can best bet I’m suing you for all my tuition money.

MONDAY, FEB. 16, 9:26 A.M. [TEXT] PSA: Don’t tell someone that their major “sounds like fun.” You sound like a jerk. Everyone here works hard, not just engineers.

MONDAY, FEB. 16, 7:03 P.M. [TEXT] “Not Harry Potter-themed erotica, RIT-themed erotica.” #onlyatrit #overheardatrit #riterotica

TUESDAY, FEB. 17, 10:47 A.M. [TEXT] Walking out of LBR, I saw a beautiful bearded man and tried to do my fancy, hip-swinging walk to grab his attention until I nearly slipped and fell on that solid layer of ice still on the sidewalks. RIT, if for no other reason, please clear the ice so I can try to impress bearded boys without so much risk!

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