The Spectator ● October 31, 2013
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News Why Don’t They Work? continued from page 1
straps and shoelaces caught at the top or bottom of the escalators. In some cases, they are the result of deliberate vandalism, when students place their ankles between the closing steps. The escalators also have weight sensors, which bring them to a halt if students jump at the top or bottom. Though these account for a majority of escalator stoppages, they rarely last longer than a day and are usually fixed by the turn of a key. Sometimes, however, these two categories of breakdowns intersect, as major structural damage can be and has been done by individuals in the building. In November 2011, then-freshman Saif Zihiri’s shoe got caught in the escalator connecting the fourth and second floors. Pulling his foot out just before the shoe disappeared into the inner-workings of the escalator, Zihiri saw the escalator come to a grinding stop, where it would stay until becoming operational again in September 2012. “If everyone is careful keeping bags off steps, not accidentally losing control of sneakers, and [not allowing] loose clothing [to get] caught, then the escalators should stop working less often,” Assistant Principal of Security, Safety, and Student Affairs Brian Moran said. Each day, the school’s 12 escalators are turned on at 7 a.m. by the school’s custodial staff. “We turn them on early to make sure there aren’t any kids on them yet,” custodial
engineer Fred Arnebold said. “But after that, the students are on them so we can’t keep turning them back on. It’s dangerous, and I know I don’t tell my staff to do that. That’s when the students start screwing around with [the escalators].” The third factor in escalator stoppages is a result of a combination of a school policy decision made in 2006 and a unilateral custodial policy decision. The keys for restarting the escalators used to be given to a wider body of faculty members. “As I recall, they were restarted rather frequently,” Stuyvesant alumnus Eli Cohn (‘05) said. “There would rarely be more than one or two not working in a given day.” However, in 2006, one assistant principal gave these keys to three favored students. The students then made copies of the keys and sold them to other students. After a key was used to turn on an escalator undergoing maintenance, nearly harming one of the men working on it, the locks for all the escalators were changed, costing the school upwards of $10,000. Only Levigion, certain deans, and members of the custodial staff currently have access to the keys. “I turn them back on if I ever happen to pass a broken one with no one near it,” Levigion said. “But some students think it is funny to just break one that they know they won’t have to use again that day. And if that’s the way certain students will act, it’s obvious what the results will be.” “It’s too bad, because it’s not as if every student does
stuff like that, but a few kids ruin tons of escalators for everybody else,” senior Spencer Weiss said. “They have seemingly no reason to, but I guess they just do it for fun.” Some students see a clear solution to the issue of having escalators that never seem to work. “There should just be a set time, say in the middle of seventh period, when the custodial staff goes around and turns all the escalators back on,” junior Isaac Gluck said. “If everybody knew what that time span was, they could just avoid the escalators, allowing the custodians peace of mind to turn them back on.” But for others, the state of escalators at Stuyvesant seems beyond repair. “It’s become an almost expected sight to me now,” freshman Mariya Gedrich said. “It’s not that big and a deal and I’m just grateful we have them. I wish there was something we could do about it, but there really isn’t.” Though cognizant of the problems with the escalators, the administration may not be able to address them right away. “I’m aware of the issues,” Principal Jie Zhang said. “They are definitely on [the administration’s] mind.” Zhang explained that funds for projects like upgrading the escalators do not come out of a school’s budget, but instead from grants coordinated by the School Construction Authority. She has spoken to the Stuyvesant Parents’ Association (PA) about applying for a grant to improve the escalators this year, and the proposal to do so is still being considered.
Administration Plans to Improve Computer Science Internet By Rebecca Chang and Scott Ma Though the popularity of StThough the popularity of Stuyvesant’s computer science classes has skyrocketed over the past few years, the quality of their technology has not. The monitors are used and outdated. Their Internet connection is just as old, and definitely not made to be used by hundreds of students at any given time. Currently, the Computer Science department runs on a Transmission System 1 (T1) line, a connection that was considered fast in the late 1990s. Today, however, it is typically used only in small office settings, where the primary aim is general web browsing. It does not allow many users to simultaneously download large files, posing a huge problem for many of the computer science classes. In Software Development, a senior computer science elective, many students forgo the T1 line entirely and choose to bring in their own laptops to connect to the school’s wireless connection. Senior Christine Xu recalls one incident she had with the department’s Internet during her classes. She said, “We spent the entire period trying to download Python. You couldn’t do anything without the program.” Computer science coordinator Michael Zamansky has repeatedly asked the administration to help fund a faster connection for his department.
Last autumn, he approached then-Interim Acting Principal Jie Zhang about the matter. At the time, however, Zhang was in the process of dealing with the aftermath of the June cheating scandal. “I was here to wrap up the investigation of the scandal, which took me about three months to actually finish,” she said. “When you’re Interim Acting [Principal], you try not to make a lot of big decisions.” She further explained that she looked to the Department of Education for assistance regarding the technological issue, but their answers were not concrete and only complicated the situation. This autumn, however, Zhang was intent on fixing the problem. She decided to meet with both Zamansky and Assistant Principal of Organization Saida Rodriguez-Tabone as soon as possible to find a way to improve the connection. “We’re definitely picking something computer science teachers will be very happy about,” Zhang said. Rodriguez-Tabone was assigned to look into possible Internet providers for the computer science department, of which she found several. These provider options were presented to Zhang and a board of administrators whose names Rodriguez-Tabone was not permitted to disclose. The board decided on a highly modern Fiber Optic line, which carries about 40 megabytes per second, in contrast with the current 4.5 megabytes per second the T1
connection carries. The installation of the improved connection is expected to take place around Thanksgiving of this year. The Fiber Optic line, however, also has a substantial price tag. Zhang estimates that the upkeep of the Fiber line will cost $15,000 every year, which would take up a considerable amount of funding. However, she is confident that the change will be well-received and supported. “Mr. Zamansky has a lot of support from his world, and we have the Alumni Association, we have the [Parents’ Association],” Zhang said. “We’re all going to be happy with this new software coming in,” said junior Chris Kim, who is currently enrolled in AP Computer Science. “I don’t know how many minutes I spent waiting for my e-mail account to upload, and send a document I finished typing up in class because of the slow connection.” Despite the significant improvement in Internet speed coming to the computer science department, Zhang believes that there are still areas in which Stuyvesant can improve technologically. Computer science teacher Samuel Konstantinovich remembers the T1 connection from his days as a Stuyvesant student. “If we’re giving our students a competitive and highlevel education in computer science, imagine how much better it would be if our hardware was up to date,” he said.
Administration Removes Students from Half-Floor continued from page 1
lowed outside during free periods, but this is restricted to the senior class at the moment. According to Moran, removals can only begin once administrative staff either receive noise complaints from teachers or use their judgment to determine if noise levels are too high for overall school decorum. Security guards are also allowed to initiate these removals. When asked why it seemed that students on the half-floor were being disproportionately removed, Moran said, “We receive the most noise complaints about the half-floor; that’s why we’ve had to remove students [from it] occasionally.” When a complaint is lodged, everybody—not just the noisy students—in the area is removed. Moran said that prior to removal, administrative officials must first try and quiet down the students. This protocol appears to have been followed. Before sophomore Jason Lin was evicted, “we were told to be quiet and no one talked for
a minute… After a few minutes of [resuming] normalleveled talking, we were told, ‘All right, it’s time to get off the half-floor,’” Lin said. A security guard who requested to remain anonymous further explained that while they usually wait to act until after receiving complaints from teachers, most commonly from music teacher Holly Hall, they will take the initiative if students get too noisy. Moran said that this leeway, on the judgment of the security guards, is fully supported by the administration. “They are security guards; it is in their job description to follow school directives, and it is their priority to address safety concerns, including noise complaints,” he said. Consequently, if the halffloor is deemed overcrowded, or if any students are blocking the stairwells, then safety concerns will automatically provide the grounds for a removal of any and all students there. “What students don’t realize is that any noise they make on the half-floor is amplified due to an echo, which means that things will always appear quieter than they actually are,” Moran said.
Final Weeks Before Early Admissions Face Common Application Glitches By Ada Mui
Every year before the early college application deadline in November, high school seniors scramble to finish their applications and essays to be submitted through the Common Application. The Common Application, colloquially known as the Common App, is a nonprofit organization and a free online undergraduate application system accepted by over 500 colleges and universities. The Common App was established in 1975 and has since eased the application process for students by allowing them to apply to multiple schools at once. At the start of the 20132014 school year, a newly updated Common App was released. The updates included a new visual look, the removal of the previously used “topic of choice” essay prompt and the short answer activity essay, as well as a new word limit of 650 words for the personal statement. Along with these new changes, however, came technical malfunctions. Students have been facing problems with logging in, inviting teachers to the Common App, and accessing their dashboard of deadlines. “On top of the amount of homework I have every night, which is stressful enough already, I haven’t been able to log into my Common App account to make sure I have all the components of my college applications such as teacher recommendations and supplements,” senior Junpei Taguchi said. But log-in problems are not a recent ordeal. “I’ve been having some trouble logging in since the Common App opened to students in August, but the Columbus Day weekend was when it gave me the most trouble. I tried logging in many times and
even tried resetting the password—none of that worked,” senior Thoasin Bari said College counselors and teachers are facing problems as well,, as many have been unable to upload their recommendations to the website. College counselor Casey Pedrick created a fake account to see how the students viewed the website. “There were bursts of problems here and there since it started in August. But it was not bad at all in August. The problems started mounting in September when school started and there were more people using it. This past Monday, all recommenders were not able to get in, which was terrible, because a lot of us were trying to use this Columbus Day as a day where we can upload what we’ve finished,” she said. News of these glitches have reached most college admissions offices. As a result, some colleges have extended their deadlines. Colleges that had early action or decision deadlines of Tuesday, October 15, such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Georgia Tech, have extended them to Monday, October 21. Some colleges that had early action or decision deadlines of Friday, November 1, such as Columbia University, Duke University, and University of Chicago, have extended them to Friday, November 8. These deadline extensions also apply to QuestBridge Finalists. Common App representatives maintain that their goal is to make the college application process easier for applicants, and that glitches are the result of a “spike in activity.” The organization is working to fix the technical problems and is offering advice for users facing problems.