Volume 105, Issue 8

The Spectator The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper

Volume CV No. 8

February 3, 2015

Cellphone Ban to be Lifted at Stuyvesant

Newsbeat

Two Stuyvesant seniors, Daniel Charnis and Kai Pacheco, were among those chosen as semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search (STS) on Wednesday, January 7.

Charnis was chosen for his project “A Novel Methodologybased on Hydrodynamic and Molecular Surface Dynamics for Predicting the Quaternary Structure of alpha-Kinases: eEF2K Structure Prediction.” It focuses on the discovery of the complete structure of a protein overexpressed in cancer cells. “This is pretty important [in cancer research] because if you know the structure of the protein, you can design drugs that help inhibit it, if it’s overexpressed,”

Features

City Council Discusses Changing the SHSAT

On March 2, the decade-old ban on cell phones in New York City schools will be lifted by Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña. This ban was originally put into effect because phones were thought to be a distraction in the educational setting. While not finalized, the new legislation will remove the obsolete total ban and, in its place, instate a much more lenient and modern set of standards.

The main reason for lifting the ban is that allowing phones will increase safety in schools. “Lifting the cell phone ban is about common sense, while ensuring student safety as well as high-level learning in our classrooms,” Fariña said. “As a parent and a grandmother, I know that families and children feel safer when our students have access to cell phones […] With today’s changes, we are demonstrating our commitment to student safety and community concerns, as well as our respect for principals, as we allow them to develop a cell phone policy that best addresses their individual school’s unique challenges and circumstances.”

On February 25, the Panel for

Charnis said.

Charnis developed the project as he worked at the City College of New York (CCNY) biophysics lab, with help from Nathan Will, a graduate student at CCNY. His project was based on computational biology, using professional software to help analyze the results given from his physical experimentation with proteins in the lab. “When proteins fold, they have certain domains. My project tried to find the total structure of a certain group of proteins called alpha-kinases,” Charnis said.

Using the software, Charnis was able to generate about a hundred random models of proteins, eventually narrowing them down to a dozen that fit the criteria he continued on page 2

Article on page 7.

Slam Poetry: A Catharsis of Emotions Read page 7 for an inside look into the life of senior and slam poet Frankie Li. Find out how what began as a fleeting idea has turned into a long-term passion for Li, who is currently looking forward to taking a gap year to pursue his dream of making it onto one of NYC’s top slam poetry teams.

Educational Policy (P.E.P) will vote on the reformed cellphone policy.

The panel consists of 13 appointed officials, 5 selected by the borough presidents and 8 selected by the mayor. If the vote passes, the new cell phone policy will go into effect March 2. “The change will better enable parents to stay in touch with their children, especially before and after school,” Zhang said.

The newly formed policy would remove cell phones and other electronic devices from the list of prohibited items in schools.

Under A-413, a newly created regulation, school principals will meet with their School Leadership Team (SLT) and decide among a range of options related to cell phone policy for their specific schools, depending on what they feel is best for their students, families and educators.

Stuyvesant’s SLT organized a meeting on Tuesday, January 13, in which members discussed a new cell phone policy that would be best for our school. A consensus was reached in this meeting concerning when and where phones would be allowed on school premises. If the P.E.P vote passes, designated areas for cell phone usage, open from 7:25 a.m. to 3:45 p.m, will be assigned starting March continued on page 3

A rally and press conference were held on the steps of City Hall at 10 a.m. on Thursday, December 11, immediately followed by a City Council hearing to debate the merits of the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) and to discuss the lack of diversity within the New York City Specialized High Schools.

The events were set forth in opposition to a bill that would replace the SHSAT with a multicriteria admissions standard similar to college applications, endorsed by Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Historically, the SHSAT has garnered its share of controversy.

In 2012, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense and Education Fund filed a complaint to the United States Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights, challenging the SHSAT as the sole criterion for acceptance into the Specialized High Schools.

African-American and Hispanic students currently hold only 11 percent of seats in Specialized High Schools, despite the fact that they comprise about 70 percent of the public school system.

With a decline in the number of African-American and Hispanic students enrolled in Specialized High Schools, De Blasio and NYC Chancellor of Education Carmen Fariña suggested that a multiple-criteria admissions system would increase diversity.

Policymakers, the Coalition of Specialized High School Alumni Association, and parents of students spoke out against changing the SHSAT at the December 11 rally. Others came to register to testify at the hearing, which was open to the public.

Representatives from Stuyvesant, like the Alumni Association Diversity Committee Chair Christina Alfonso, also attended the event. Aside from advocating within the Alumni Association, Alfonso is also working along-

side director Curtis Chan and his team on “Tested,” an upcoming documentary following students from various backgrounds preparing to take the SHSAT. She, along with many other members of the Alumni Association, believes that the exam is not inherently wrong, but that there are a number of external factors limiting the chances of a student being accepted into one of the Specialized High Schools. These include middle school performance, opportunities throughout grade school, and prior exam preparation.

“I am passionate about keeping the test as the sole criterion for admission into the specialized high schools,” Alfonso said.

Several prominent politicians also gave short speeches at the rally against changing the SHSAT. “I feel very strongly that the exam is unbiased,” New York State Senator and Bronx High School of Science alumna Toby Ann Stavisky said. Stavisky acknowledged her support in preparing students starting from younger ages, as opposed to changing the criteria for admission. Several factors that inhibit students from doing well on tests like the SHSAT were discussed at the rally.

Some agreed that access to advanced coursework in schools located in at-risk neighborhoods in the city is limited, contributing to the divide in the demographics of students who gain entrance to top-caliber high schools and those who do not.

Many of the magnet lower schools for high-achieving students no longer exist at the middle school level, leaving students who had previously been challenged in grade school without the proper support they need to pursue higher studies. In addition, pre-school programs are incredibly selective, and cater towards upper middle class families with the means to continued on page 3

Delay in Theater Renovations Pushes Back STC Winter Drama and SING!

By Joanne Ha and Julia Ingram

On a normal January day, the Stuyvesant Theater Community (STC) can be found in the theater putting the finishing touches on the Winter Drama for its performance right before finals week.

Recent renovations to the theater, however, have resulted in a change of setting for rehearsals of this year’s Winter Drama, “12 Angry Men,” and have pushed the performance to mid-February.

The renovations were enabled by the recent approval of a $300,000 grant by New York City Councilwoman Margaret Chin and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, geared specifically towards replacement of the upholstery and flooring. “The theater renovations include replacing the seats to look better, and [fixing] the carpet; kids were trip-

Justin Strauss / The Spectator

By Jonathan Buhler and Dhiraj Patel

Two Stuyvesant Students Named Intel Semi-Finalists

By Sharon Lin and Lindsay Ma

stuyspec.com

By sharon lin

Justin Strauss / The Spectator

• Fern Levitt and Arnon Mantver recently spoke to social studies teacher Robert Sandler’s Jewish History class about Operation Solomon, in which the Israeli military airlifted more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews from their war-torn country to Israel.

Levitt and Mantver were instrumental in making this operation possible.

• The Stuyvesant chess team won first place as a team at the Greater New York Scholastic Chess Championships, held on January 10 and January 11. Junior Alex Spinnell took the first place individual award.

• The school library will remain open until 5:00 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday until the end of the term.

• Social studies teacher Linda Weissman recently invited several speakers to her Criminal Law class, including two Manhattan Assistant District Attorneys from the Crime Victims’ Advocates’ Office and NYC Assistant Corporation Counsel Karen Seeman.

• The Stuyvesant Novice and Junior Varsity Policy debate teams won first place as a team at an Urban Debate League Tournament held at Brooklyn Technical High School on January 10.

• At the Columbia Invitational Tournament for Speech and Debate held from Friday, January 23 to Sunday, January 25, Stuyvesant had finalists in every single speech category, and won first place in team sweepstakes.

“The Pulse of the Student Body”

ping around it because its edges were very bad. Also, the partition is being cleaned, because it’s very dirty,” Principal Jie Zhang said.

The theater renovations started shortly before the December Article on page 20-21.

holiday break. While the theater’s renovations were originally intended to be finished by the time continued on page 4

A&E

Get Your Popcorn Ready: 2015 Movie Preview!

Looking forward to “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” the new Pixar movie, or the long anticipated “Mockingjay Part 2”? Check out editor-in-chief Lev Akabas’s preview of the can’t-miss movies set to come out in 2015.

The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Page 2

News 5 Semesters In: A Look at Zhang’s Policy Changes

By Giselle Garcia and Dhiraj Patel When Principal Jie Zhang first came to Stuyvesant on August 20, 2012, she entered with a wealth of experience as an educator, including five years spent as the principal of Queens High School for the Sciences at York College, another specialized high school. Keeping her experiences in mind, she has implemented several changes to the school’s policies. As her fifth semester here draws to a close, let’s review some of those changes.

Conduct and Discipline Zhang entered Stuyvesant in the midst of the 2012 cheating scandal. Because of this, many assumed that she would introduce stricter policies concerning conduct and discipline. According to Zhang, however, she merely has done what is required by the Department of Education (DOE).

“There’s a certain set of rules and regulations we have to follow,” Zhang said. “If anything is discovered that is not in compliance with regulations, I implement changes.”

One of the first changes Zhang implemented was to appoint Brian Moran as the Assistant Principal of Safety and Student Affairs. During the administration of former principal Stanley Teitel, no such title existed; the responsibilities that Moran currently holds were scattered across members of the administration.

Zhang has also taken more care to report all incidents to the DOE. These incidents range from student complaints about teachers to accidental injuries. Another focus of Zhang’s changes is consistency in disciplinary action in the case of behavioral issues and incidents of academic dishonesty.

School Culture Zhang is interested in Stuyvesant culture, and aims to improve and become a part of it.

“I’m very much about school culture,” Zhang said. “The alums who come back tell me that the culture is much better.”

“We’re here to serve the students. Sometimes there are growing pains, but our goal is to make you better.”

—Jie Zhang, Principal

Current students also agree that Zhang takes pride in our school’s culture. “She helps us do what we can with the absence of a COSA [Coordinator of Student Affairs],” Student Union Vice President Jonathan Aung said. “Especially with Moran, Pedrick, Tabone, and her help, we’ve been able to run things smoothly and even got a sale going.”

Zhang also hopes to create a more emotionally supportive environment within Stuyvesant by increasing communication between the staff and the students. To do so, she has established an opendoor policy, actively sends e-mails to students and teachers, and has encouraged the guidance counselors to take a more proactive role

in their students’ lives. “Students should feel less frustrated when they need help,” Zhang said. “I’ve been pushing for communication and an open-door policy to teachers, parents, and students.”

Some students also agree that Zhang is more emotionally supporting. “Ms. Zhang was a Stuy parent herself,” Katherine Oh (‘14) said. “I think she understood us more on a personal level, so she was much more open and amiable to us.”

Dress Code Zhang has also implemented changes in regards to the dress code. Although the DOE itself has no set dress code, many schools choose to have their own sets of regulations. During the previous administration, policies were strictly enforced: skirts and shorts were required to be no shorter than ends of the fingertips and the exposure of midriffs and shoulders was banned.

Former Assistant Principal of Guidance and Organization Randi Damesek served a significant role in this enforcement, often calling attention to students dressed inappropriately as they entered the school. “There were like two times where [Damesek] called me out on my shorts being too short,” senior Margaret Gutman said. “Ms. Zhang herself has never done that, at least not to me.”

Under Zhang, the dress code was made more lenient, if not nonexistent. Although she did express concerns over how certain clothing choices may affect student safety on public transportation, she wishes for the dress code to mainly be a student initiative. “Oh, I took that away,” said Zhang when asked about the previously severe school dress code. “It is my hope that our young ladies and men are responsible to know what is appropriate.”

She still retained the general guidelines for clothes to not be offensive and is willing to ask that students change into their gym clothes

in particularly egregious cases.

Frees Policy Zhang has updated Stuyvesant’s policy on free periods as well. Previously, the areas in which students were allowed to congregate during their free periods were clear: the first, second, and fifth floors. Although overcrowding was an issue, going outside was a privilege reserved only for lunch periods, a rule that applied to all grades. However, after noise complaints from fifth floor teachers, Zhang also restricted students from going to the fifth floor during their frees, further lessening the amount of space available.

“I think she understood us more on a personal level, so she was much more open and amiable to us.”

—Katherine Oh (‘14)

A recent DOE audit has also worsened this problem. Previously, seniors were allowed to take physical education daily for one

term and a double-period 10 Period Technology Lab, also known as “10 Tech,” class for the other.

This was determined to be a violation by the DOE at the start of Zhang’s administration, as students are required to take a physical education course throughout all eight semesters. Once this policy was removed, the number of seniors with an additional free period every other day increased, thus making space a larger issue.

Zhang’s attempt to handle this sudden increase of students with free periods was to allow juniors and seniors to leave the building during those times. Despite this, overcrowding in the first two floors and the library is still an issue, as it has been even prior to her administration. “We don’t have a solution yet,” Zhang said.

“We are very frustrated, [and] we are struggling with space.”

The General Consensus Responses to these changes in policy have varied. “In every workplace with a new leader, there are different philosophies.

You always have resistance, which is normal,” said Zhang, in regards to the reactions of some of her fellow staff members.

There are also positive responses. “Her doors are always open unless she’s out or in meetings,” Aung said. “She responds to emails on time and kindly. She takes an active role in the student body and its activities. She stored food for PACT’s collation for the homeless event.” Zhang has also reported great support from parents.

Even with the differing opinions on the changes she has made, Zhang wants to make the overall goal of her policies clear.

“We’re here to serve the students,” Zhang said. “Sometimes there are growing pains, but our goal is to make you better.”

continued from page 1 was looking for in his hypothetical protein. After he verified that his results were accurate, he purified the physical protein in the lab and obtained the final measurements.

From that, he computed and selected the model that lined up the closest with the physical data from the actual protein. Charnis used this information to produce the structure of the cancer protein.

Pacheco’s project, “The Automatic Detection and Therapy of Cardiac Arrhythmias Using a Simulated Cellular Automaton,” was similar in its use of interdisciplinary sciences, focusing on the simulation of arrhythmias, irregular patterns in heartbeats. “When I first [coded] the program, the [other scientists] had never seen anything like it,” Pacheco said. “So I went along and tried to figure out how the [simulated] cells were able to detect these patterns in the heart.”

Over the summer, Pacheco interned at Catheter Robotics Inc., a company that develops medical devices for use in surgical procedures. He studied the physiological aspects of the human heart, focusing on a project to simulate the behavior of the cells in an electrical heart.

Though Pacheco began his project using MATLAB, the conventional software used for simulations, he eventually settled on programming in Netlogo. “I wondered how I could create an infinite loop of a rotor through programming,” Pacheco said. He explained that he wanted to create a model of a heart that could run indefinitely, similar to the actual human heart. This led him to eventually settle with his project, which involved analyzing how the arrangement of virtual cells could allow the computerized

rotors to simulate cardiac arrhythmias.

Despite the success of the two seniors, Stuyvesant traditionally receives a far greater number of semifinalists from the Intel competition.

In 2014, 11 seniors advanced, and in 2013, 10 seniors advanced.

The difference in this year’s performance may be related to recent changes within the Stuyvesant research program. Dr. Jonathan Gastel, the longtime research coordinator at Stuyvesant, transferred to Pelham Memorial High School after the spring term of 2013 to work as the Science Curriculum supervisor.

“Dr. Gastel would wave his magic wand, and out of the ashes [would rise] a semifinalist.”

—Daniel Charnis, senior In past years, Gastel had been in charge of contacting labs on behalf of the students in the Intel research classes, securing positions for students with mentors who had experience with the competition.

“Students would go up to Dr. Gastel and say, ‘I want to do Intel,’” Charnis said. “Dr. Gastel would wave his magic wand, and out of

the ashes [would rise] a semifinalist.”

After Dr. Gastel left, physics teacher Rebecca Gorla filled in for the position of research coordinator. While Dr. Gastel had been able to receive a significant amount of time from the school administration in order to work on securing lab positions for his students, appropriating funds for the Research Department, and assisting students in their projects, Gorla was denied the same allotted time. Because of how crucial the free periods had been to Dr. Gastel, there was a decline in the efficiency of lab assignments for students participating in the Intel sequence.

“Under Dr. Gastel, presentations and reading scientific papers were a weekly occurrence. He was also [more] involved in his student’s projects because he had the time,” senior Jorge Reyes said.

Gorla soon left the position in the spring term of 2014, leaving the students without a research coordinator for the second time in a year. Assistant Principal of Chemistry and Physics Scott Thomas took over the position, but due to his prior commitments, he was unable to fulfill the same duties Dr. Gastel and Gorla had continued in their line of work. Thus, students received little guidance from the head research coordinator apart from regular e-mails reminding them of completing projects by certain deadlines early in the year.

This year, Biology teacher Jason Econome has taken over the position of research coordinator. While he has experience in research, his contact with students outside of his own classes has been through email correspondence, for the most part. “I don’t believe [his] schedule would have allowed [him] any extra time to go beyond that,” Reyes

Eva I / The Spectator

Two Stuyvesant Students Named Intel Semi-Finalists

Seniors Kai Pacheco (left) and Daniel Charnis (right) are the two Stuyvesant semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Research.

said.

Despite this setback, Econome has been working with his students to ensure that the effects of the change in research coordinators do not impact future students. “I’m new to many of these competitions but have worked with students on research projects and contests in the past; NYU-Polytechnique’s “Innovention” contest being one of them,” Econome said. “We’re working on getting the students the help they need.”

“Even after [the competition] was over, he e-mailed all of us to respond with the lab we worked at and who our mentors were, so he could recommend them to future Intel students,” senior Radhika Kaicker said.

The Intel STS competition had also initiated several unfortunate changes this year. For instance, rather than setting the deadline to midnight for the research paper, the deadline was set to 8 p.m., creating a major inconvenience for students hoping to finish last-minute cor-

rections after school. Some missed the deadline by a single minute.

“Even if someone’s computer was off by one minute, their application would not be accepted,” Kaicker said. As a result, students who had worked on their projects for months were not able to submit their final papers for the competition. “Econome was nice enough to personally call Intel, but they would not listen to him,” Kaicker said.

Students agreed that the combination of the lack of lab assignments, mentorship from a Research Coordinator, and early deadline contributed to a lower number of submissions and semifinalists. Nevertheless, Reyes is confident that Stuyvesant’s contest results will improve in future years.

“This year’s Intel results only represent a small blip in an otherwise high degree of performance,” Reyes said. “There [is] no reason why we shouldn’t expect a continuation of past accomplishments, [once] this year’s problems have been resolved.”

The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Page 3

News Cellphone Ban to be Lifted at Stuyvesant continued from page 1

2nd. Students can use their cell phones in these designated areas.

Teachers may also decide at their own discretion whether or not they will allow cell phones to be used in their classes.

Some proposed designated areas are the 3rd floor atrium, the senior bar, the lunchroom, and guidance counselor offices. “Guidance counselors would appreciate the flexibility [in the phone rules]; it’s helping not only the kids, but also the staff. The original policy does put all of us in an uncomfortable position,” Zhang said.

Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña suggested three options that principals could choose to follow.

The first option suggested that students store their mobile devices in backpacks or designated locations during the school day, such as lockers. However, the SLT felt that this would be counterproductive. “I feel like we are already following this first suggestion,” Zhang said. “Putting phones in lockers defeats the purpose of the new policy. The new policy is being created to increase safety but if the students’ phones are in their lockers and an emergency arises, kids would create more chaos trying to get to their phones.”

The second suggestion provided by Fariña proposed that students should be allowed to use their mobile devices during lunch or in designated areas only. The SLT was especially receptive to this idea. “Students who eat lunch outside already use their phones and so it is not fair to the students who eat in school and cannot use their phones,” Zhang said. “This policy can be a way to make things equal.”

However, Zhang also pointed out a possible consequence of this suggestion. “I am really worried that students will all be staring on their phones and not talking to each other.” They eventually agreed that cell phone usage in school from 7:25 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. would only be permitted in designated areas which are still to be decided.

Fariña’s final proposition is that students should be allowed to use mobile devices for instructional purposes in some or all classrooms. This suggestion was tossed around during the SLT meeting.

“Personally, I don’t see any benefits of a cell phone in a language classroom. Students are using computers and/or tablets today in class and honestly that’s enough,” Latin teacher Susan Brockman said at the meeting.

Another concern for teachers is that during testing days, this new cell phone policy might be inefficient. Assistant Principal of Guidance Casey Pedrick believes this can be remedied. “During testing days, teachers can run classrooms like Regents testing rooms; collect the phones in the beginning and distribute them after the examination period is finished. Alternatively, they can continue what we have today, allowing students to leave their phones in their pockets and if it rings, they shall be confiscated,” she said. However, in the end it was agreed that teachers would be allowed to decide whether or not they would allow the use of cell phones in their classes.

A recent Spectator staff editorial titled “The Ideal Cell Phone Policy for Stuyvesant High School” (printed on page 13) listed what The Spectator believes should be the ideal policy for all parties involved. The editorial stated that cell phone usage should be allowed anywhere in Stuyvesant as long as students use it before 8:00 a.m. and after 3:35 p.m. However, during the school day, cell phones are to be used in classrooms only

under teachers’ direct permission, allowing for discretion depending on the type of lesson. This suggestion is very similar to Chancellor Fariña’s second suggestion. United Federation of Teachers (UFT) Chapter Leader Mark Halperin disagrees with this policy. “Students still do things with teachers before 8:00 a.m. and after 3:35 p.m.

In fact, some kids take tests during that time range and if students are using their cell phones, it would cause a distraction,” he said.

Zhang also responded to this section of the Spectator editorial during the SLT meeting. “I don’t mind the use of phones during after-school activities. It’s one of the reasons why the policy was changed, but maybe push the time back to 4:00 pm,” she said. “I don’t mind the use of phones once kids get settled into their respective extracurricular activities and have entered the rooms. However, the 10 minute chaos of kids trying to make their ways to the rooms for clubs, that’s what I am concerned about.” Although the SLT has agreed that cell phones can be used in designated areas and in classrooms where the teachers allow it, a consensus has not yet been reached on the use of phones during after-school activities.

“Once it goes into effect, we will definitely connect with the student body to develop a written cellphone policy tailored for the unique needs of our students.”

—Jie Zhang, Principal

With the more relaxed regulation on cell phones, the question remains of what will happen if a student is found breaking the rules. “If a teacher decides this particular class does not allow phones and [a phone] rings, we will try to follow the current rules,” Zhang said. “The rules could be day-to-day, month-to-month, or forever.”

While in certain situations, phone use is allowed, enforcement of the rules will still be necessary. “It’s important that it’s regulated; it’s more for safety’s sake than anything else, for example the hallways and the escalators… it should stay tightly regulated,” said Assistant Principal of Safety Brian Moran.

People are also concerned that with the introduction of this new policy, the security personnel would spend a great deal of their time looking out for cell phone use in undesignated areas.

To this, Zhang says, “No one in the building focuses on only confiscation of phones. It’s a very small portion of their responsibilities.”

The Spectator editorial further states that students should be allowed to use cell phones in hallways as long as it doesn’t cause

a disruption. This topic caused heated debate during the SLT meeting. Many felt that cell phone use in the hallways should be strictly prohibited because of safety issues, and because they fear the phones will become a distraction to other classes. For example, kids in the halls could message other students who are in class and are now being disrupted in their education. “[The administration has] been very consistent with the hall policy over the last 3 years and we would like to keep it that way as closely as possible,” Zhang said.

Zhang and the administration decided that cell phones should not be allowed in the hallways at all, regardless of the time or period.

As with almost everything, there are various sides to the issue of cell phone usage. While on the one hand it presents exciting and new ways for teachers to interact with their students, on the other hand it also threatens the disruption of class if used irresponsibly.

“There have been teachers who are excited about the possibility of using phones for instruction purposes,” Zhang said. “Some math teachers are interested in the idea that certain software can be used to connect the phones to a central phone. Then the phones can then be used as clickers to answer questions on the spot and to provide an immediate feedback on how many students understand what’s going on.”

On the flip side of things, the liberal usage of phones in school might lead to an increase in disturbances. Zhang has two main points she wants secured, the first being that teaching is not disturbed by cell phones, and secondly that the integrity of test administration is maintained.

Moran agrees with Zhang’s concerns. “[Phones] may be permitted inside the building, but there is no reason [students] should be walking around using them,” Moran said. “We hope students are responsible enough to conduct themselves appropriately, not to be a disruption to their class. We want them to be paying attention so they are getting what they need out of the lesson.”

Several people have different opinions and reactions to this newly amended cell phone policy. Some think that since phones will now be more freely used in the school, it will result in some form of a negative consequence. “Kids on the in-betweenfloors floor are always talking to each other and even though people may not realize it, it is a very valuable thing,” Parents Association Co-President David Venderbush said during the SLT meeting.

“Here kids learn things, anything, just by talking to each other. These kids have enough phone-time elsewhere. In school they should talk to kids who are around them and are interested in talking to each other. This won’t be possible if the kids are constantly on their phones.”

Students are generally excited about this new policy and believe that there will be benefits. “I think it’ll be a great change to the school, one that I’ve been wanting to change for a long time,” SU Vice President Jonathan Aung said. “Of course I’ve lacked the resources and power to do so, but with De Blasio’s new plans, the SU can finally get something rolling.”

Over time, Stuyvesant’s administration will change and add to the new reforms in order to better suit our school. “Once it goes into effect, we have the right to observe how it is working, and if there are rules that are going in different directions, we will definitely connect with the student body to develop a written cell phone policy tailored for the unique needs of our students,” Zhang said

Po-Shen Loh Speaks to Math Team

By Jennifer Lee and Vanna Mavromatis Deputy leader of the USA International Math Olympiad team and Carnegie Mellon math professor PoShen Loh spoke to first period math team students in the Mary-Keller auditorium on Monday, December 15. He has lectured at Stuyvesant several times in the past few years.

“[Loh] manages to find a topic where the mathematics are not hard to understand […] and at the same time, he’s still showing [more experienced] students something new.”

—Brian Sterr, mathematics teacher

As a researcher, Loh specializes in the field of extremal and probabilistic combinatorics and thus focused on probability in his lecture.

Loh presented two problems. The first concerned two baseball players, Adam and Bob. Adam had a higher batting average than Bob in two seasons, leading many stu-

dents to agree that Adam should have the higher cumulative batting average. However, Loh showed that Bob could have the higher cumulative batting average, because the algorithm for adding fractions when determining a batting average is different from the standard method of combining fractions.

Next, Loh discussed a coin problem. In the majority of binary problems, or problems with two possible outcomes, the probability of yielding the same outcome, such as only heads or only tails, is one half to some exponent. Although coins only have two outcomes, heads and tails, Loh demonstrated that it was possible to yield a onethird chance of a specific outcome by flipping a coin twice. In his lecture, Loh created three different scenarios: if a student flipped a coin twice and got heads-heads, it would be considered a win (a 25 percent likelihood). A heads-tails or tails-heads sequence would be a lose situation (a 50 percent likelihood). The last scenario, tails-tails (a 25 percent likelihood), would call for the student to flip again.

The third possibility of being able to “try again” would increase the chance of winning to one-third.

Several students appreciated Loh’s approach to teaching.

“What I love about Po-Shen Loh is that he begins with the simplest examples—things that the average person on the street can understand. Then he slowly builds up to more and more challenging topics,” sophomore Shantanu Jha said.

However, other students expressed a preference for more complex problems. “The topic itself was a bit more simplistic than usual. […] I didn’t learn much,” junior Justin Skobe said. “I don’t think the level of difficulty was imperative, but it probably would have made it more interesting.”

Despite the varied responses, teachers and students alike admired Loh’s keen insights as a mathematician and a teacher. “One of the things he can do that I find really impressive is that he can lecture to an entire auditorium of over 200 math team students from freshman up to seniors, who have very different ability levels,” mathematics teacher Brian Sterr said. “[H] e manages to find a topic where the mathematics are not hard to understand […] and at the same time, he’s still showing [more experienced] students something new.”

City Council Discusses Changing the SHSAT continued from page 1

send their children to the best educational institutions in the city.

Others maintained that families unaware of the benefits offered by the Specialized High Schools are the most affected by the current policy. Outreach activities targeting families with children in at-risk neighborhoods were proposed by educational support groups at the rally, including CoalitionEdu, an organization focused on speaking out against legislation proposing to eliminate the entrance exam policy. City Council officials agreed that middle school guidance counselors ought to push the top 15 percent of their students to sign up for the SHSAT. City Council member Ben Kallos wants to improving the school system, not the admissions process. “We cannot get rid of objective criteria by adding subjective criteria [to the admissions process],” Kallos said. “Every student sits for the exam. Every student has the chance to be admitted.

Don’t mess with a test that works.”

Later, at the hearing, the City

Council tackled other issues of diversity within the schools, including a bill requiring the city to release more information about school diversity. Although passing the bill is a decision that will ultimately be strictly determined by the state, the hearing drew a lively discussion among the alumni and parents.

The Department of Education officials present at the hearing explained that they have trouble recruiting students for SHSAT preparation programs in the South Bronx, central Harlem and central Brooklyn neighborhoods, where familial constraints often take priority over academics.

“There are issues getting information out to students who qualify and keeping them enrolled in the test prep,” Executive Director of Program and Partnerships at the Department of Education’s Office of Equity and Access Ainsley Rudolfo said. “It’s a logistical issue that we have to solve before we can tackle anything else.”

No official consensus was reached at the hearing, but the event nonetheless generated widespread publicity in support of maintaining the SHSAT.

The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Page 4

News continued from page 1

school resumed, the renovations have yet to be completed. “The order of materials didn’t arrive on time. [The construction workers] misestimated the time [it would take for the project to be completed],” Zhang said. However, the renovations were also delayed for two days because of the toxic smell emanating from the glue underneath the new carpet. “Because there was the smell from the glue, we stopped working for two days to accommodate those concerns. But now they finished the glue, and so there is no more smell,” Zhang said.

As of now, the performances for “12 Angry Men” are scheduled to take place on Wednesday, February 4, Friday, February 6, and Saturday, February 7, two weeks later than when the shows would usually take place. In the mean-

Delay in Theater Renovations Pushes Back STC Winter Drama and SING!

time, rehearsals are taking place in various classrooms on the third floor, as well as the cafeteria.

Many members of the STC agree that the schedule change will have minor effects on the show. “The show has a relatively small cast and it’s very stationary. As a result of that, we don’t really need the space all that much. We can very easily have rehearsals in classrooms or the cafeteria, which is what we’ve been doing,” senior and STC Slate member Thomas Perskin said.

Senior and “12 Angry Men” director Jasmine Thomas agrees. “It’s a little bit difficult not to be able to be in the theater, but if there’s going to be any show that we would have had to not have the theater for, this is a good show for that,” she said. “The way this show is worked out, the blocking is all centered in one place. So it’s pretty easy to just adapt it by working in other areas.”

The delay in the performances

has also given the cast ample rehearsal time to prepare. “We’ve had so long for this production [and] we’re going to be getting the theater back next week, so I think we have enough time to set things up in the theater,” senior and STC Slate member Emily Ruby said. “I don’t think it’s going to negatively affect our show.”

The renovations have also had minimal effects on the sets for “12 Angry Men.” “The renovations currently being done in the theater are solely on the chairs and the carpet lining. Since no renovation is being done onstage, tech crew is not affected at all,” senior and STC member Danny Qui said. “We still have the back room to work in as well as the stage, including access to curtains and ropes.”

The theater renovations will also impact SING! performance dates. SING! traditionally starts during the first week of February and is performed in early March.

This year, due to the delay, SING! rehearsals will start one week after the “12 Angry Men” performances, on Monday, February 9, and performances will take place Wednesday, March 11, Friday, March 14, and Saturday, March 15.

However, the back-to-back nature of SING! and “12 Angry Men” is not likely to affect cast and crew members of SING!. “Every year the Winter Drama is generally at the end of the first semester, and SING starts at the beginning of the second semester, so anyone who’s heavily involved in SING! has already started to be involved by that time,” Ruby said.

In addition, the delays will affect the Stuy Squad performance, which usually takes place in late December or early January. This year’s Stuy Squad performance is scheduled for Friday, January 23.

The renovations have had minimal effect on Stuy Squad practices, since these do not usually

take place in the theater. However, the selected performance date brings academic conflicts for dancers. “The fact that the show will be taking place in the middle of a bunch of finals [may be an issue]. The SAT exam is the day after the show which also presented a problem,” senior and Stuy Squad co-president Josh Chan said.

However, STC and SING! performances, rehearsals and dress rehearsals have limited the options for the Stuy Squad performance date. “The 23rd was the only day we could secure because the theater was booked by STC and SING! the other days,” Chan said.

Despite the scheduling conflicts, the STC feels the new theater will be worth the wait. “The seats will be a nice bonus,” sophomore and STC member Winston Venderbush said. ”It’s been a long time coming, but it will be a huge quality-of-life improvement for us.”

Greez’s Students Lend Their Attention to Economics Speakers

By Sharon Lin

Financial aid, student loans, and futures contracts were only a few of the topics covered by Greenpath Community Relations Coordinator Chris Dlugozima and former futures trader Erik Hartog when they spoke to Economics teacher Victor Greez’s classes to provide insight into their careers.

Dlugozima visited Greez’s fifth and seventh period Economics classes on Tuesday, December 9, as the first of the two speakers.

He explained to the students how they could optimize their savings through services such as GreenPath, which provides information on credit scores to its clients. Dlugozima encouraged the students to pay attention to their finances, and to seek help whenever possible.

Dlugozima touched upon the college loans process as well, explaining that debt is likely in many students’ futures. After surveying the class to see how many of them were planning on taking out student loans, only a handful raised their hands. However, he explained that when presenting in front of a group of college freshmen and sophomores, nearly every hand went up.

“Whenever we’re using money, we’re using our parents’ money, but when we’re going to college and taking out huge sums of money from the government, it’s good to hear about what we can do and what options we have,” senior Eric Chang said.

“Dlugozima opened my eyes to how labyrinthine the college loans process is, and how much trouble you [can] get into if you fall behind on your payments,” senior

Edmond Loi said. “[This is] something seniors [are] going to have to get familiar with very soon.”

Later that week, Hartog, a former futures trader, spoke to the class about his work on Wall Street trading stocks and managing derivatives (financial contracts that derive their value from other products). He came to Stuyvesant on Thursday, December 11, and spoke to the first, fifth, and seventh period Economics classes.

Hartog spoke extensively on futures contracts, colloquially known as “futures,” which are essentially bets placed on where the market will be at some point in the future.

He also taught the class hand signals and other methods of communication used by futures traders. “[Hartog] did intrigue my interest in how there are far-reaching con-

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sequences to little tiny adjustments in prices in the real world, such as a rise and drop of mere cents [in] the price of a barrel of oil,” Loi said.

Not only did Hartog’s presentation intrigue the students, but it also provided insight for Greez himself.

“We spoke about derivatives beyond what [he spoke with the class about],” Greez said. “I wanted to learn about how to trade them, what their larger impacts were, [and] how they work in the stock market, so I told him my ideas and asked if he could fill in the blanks for me.”

However, the topics of derivatives, futures, and other technicalities within the stock market were more targeted towards students in the more advanced economics classes, such as AP Macroeconomics, especially those interested in working in financial markets.

Other students weren’t as engaged.

“I’m not very interested in trading, and even though Mr. Greez is having us do fake trading on updown.com, it doesn’t really interest me,” senior Miranda Truong said.

Although the speakers were vastly different in terms of the topics they covered, both managed to impact the students.

“How to manage funds and how to use our money in an economically sound manner […] is something we don’t often get in high school education,” Chang said, reflecting on Dlugozima’s lecture. Regarding Hartog’s presentation, Chang said, “[Hearing] from people [in the business world]—their methodologies and tactics—is like hearing the general in an army speak. It is always interesting to hear the opinions of [people] in the business.”

The Spectator â—? February 3, 2015

Page 5

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The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Page 6

Features

Christopher Liang / The Spectator

Dr. Wheeler’s Holiday Exclusive

By Geena Jung The audience starts clapping as soon as music teacher Joseph Tamosaitis and the symphonic orchestra enter the stage at 6:30 p.m. on December 19. After performing their pieces, Tamosaitis takes the microphone and says, “And now… I would like to introduce Dr. Wheeler to the stage.”

Dr. Raymond Wheeler strides across the stage with his professional “Grinch outfit.”

Dr. Wheeler’s Grinch out-

“It wasn’t until I got this position that I thought I should occasionally wear a suit and tie. And then it just became fun and started to become a habit.”

—Dr. Wheeler, Assistant Principal of Music, Art, and Technology

fit consists of a dark grey suit, a green shirt, his Grinch Santa hat, and a Grinch tie to top it off. His green tie, with little Grinch prints on it, was one of the first festive ties Dr. Wheeler ever purchased and is one of his favorites. “When I saw that Grinch tie, I knew I had to get it. It wasn’t even on sale; I paid full price for it!” Dr. Wheeler exclaimed.

Dr. Wheeler’s festive ties aren’t unusual—in fact, they are quite ordinary during the holiday season. His tradition is to put on holiday ties right after Thanksgiving and wear them until the end of the winter break. Unfortunately, when students come back to school in January, Dr. Wheeler’s ties are long gone, and his conservative outfits are back in style.

His tradition came into being when he first became the Assistant Principal of Music, Art, and Technology in 2002. In that year, Dr. Wheeler came across a variety of after-Christmas sales featuring many festive ties. He decided to buy a few just for fun, but did not think it would turn into a hobby.

Dr. Wheeler was used to wearing professional attire, so he thought it would be fun to wear these ties once in a while. “I enjoyed wearing these ties as a way to ‘spice up’ my look,” Dr. Wheeler explained.

“However, I only had three ties at the time, so the following year I found myself looking at many after-Christmas sales, and added a bunch of wacky holiday ties to my collection.”

Dr. Wheeler usually gets his festive ties as gifts from people such as faculty members, and sometimes even from parents and students. However, he occasionally heads up to Warren Street and Church Street to check them out for himself. These streets are filled with Korean boutiques that sell a variety of ties, including Dr. Wheeler’s famous holiday ones, such as his bright blue tie with small candy canes on its edges, and his red tie with Santa riding a sleigh. Other times, he likes to go to the Garden State Mall in New Jersey and get ties from the small shops there.

Dr. Wheeler’s years of collecting ties have resulted in his closet being filled with over 100 ties, all with matching shirts and pants.

“In fact,” Dr. Wheeler noted. “I’ve never worn the same tie twice in a year!”

His favorite ties are the green one with Grinches on it and the congressional tie he received

years ago. “I got that tie when the chorus sang for the Congress back in Fall 2002. It was the first time since 1812 that the Congress met outside of Washington D.C. They came to New York in commemoration of the World Trade Center.

After the performance, the gentlemen there gave me a congressional tie, and I still wear it to this day,” Dr. Wheeler explained. This patriotic congressional tie, which holds a great deal of sentimental value, has red, light grey, and blue stripes with the congressional seal at the very bottom.

Whether it’s the holiday sea-

“Sometimes I’ll wear a dark tie with a contrasting shirt, or maybe a shirt that blends in with the suit. It’s like a dress up game that never ends!” —Dr. Wheeler, Assistant Principal of Music, Art, and Technology son or Regents week, Dr. Wheeler always puts in the effort to match his outfits. “Sometimes I’ll wear a dark tie with a contrasting shirt, or maybe a shirt that blends in with the suit,” Dr. Wheeler explained.

In the future, Dr. Wheeler sees himself still wearing wacky ties, since they are enjoyed by mostly everyone in Stuyvesant. To the students and the faculty, it’s a way of bringing the holiday spirit to school itself. But Dr. Wheeler’s reason for loving the tradition is simple. As he puts it, “It’s like a dress up game that never ends!”

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10 Steps The following piece is a work of fictional writing.

6. Trust. I hate scary artwork, movies, and stories—anything creepy, 1. Possibility. He asked me out. basically. I avoid them at all costs.

A simple question and answer, However, I find myself persuaded nothing fancy. But his eyes by his soothing and encouraging showed it all. The desire, the love, voice to visit Blood Manor. I shiver, already feeling the dreary aura the flicker of doubt. surrounding the haunted house; 2. The beginning. My eyes shift to it doesn’t help that I have heard my right hand. His hand lightly terrifying stories about the differbrushes against mine. Slowly, I ent rooms—the zombies, the 3D sneak a peek at his face, but he section, the serial killer. It takes all stares straight ahead as we con- my concentration to keep my feet tinue to walk towards Central planted firm on the ground. But Park. I take a deep breath. One even so, I nod in surrender; I’ll step at a time. He already took give him a chance. We’ll move on the first step—I just have to fol- from the past and get out of this low through. Easy, right? I gently haunted house safe and sound. I interlock my fingers between his, trust him. the corners of my lips lifting upwards as I feel his grip tighten. 7. Reassurance. I glance back and Without looking, I know that his forth between him and his texttense expression has relaxed into book as he struggles to study for his environmental test. His previdelight. ously calm expression shifts. He 3. Little things. On the subway, writes down some notes, but then he offers to share his earphones. crosses them out; he attempts “Never ever seen somebody like to recite facts, but then forgets you / got me mystified, hypno- them. As his eyebrows knit totized, paralyzed.” As the music gether and his forehead becomes continues, I sing softly, well aware beaded with sweat, I put a hand that he has switched to my favor- on his arm, tracing the vein lines, ite song. When we arrive at Penn unsure how else to help.

Station, a guitarist gets on the train; I turn my head a little too 8. My turn. It’s his birthday. I give quickly to get a better look and him his gift—a dark blue sweater the earbud falls out. Beside me, and a matching knitted scarf, with he delicately picks it up and puts the addition of Ferrero Rocher it back in my ear. He doesn’t real- chocolate. His eyes widen, but beize how happy he has just made fore he can open his arms, I take the extra step forward to close me feel. the gap and give him a warm em4. Physical affection. Early morn- brace. He holds me tight, and at ing, I open my door to see him last, it feels just right. waiting to walk me to school. His hair is spiked up, and he’s wear- 9. Genuine confessions. I smile as ing his usual outfit—a plaid shirt I quickly rotate to the numbers on and khaki pants. But today, the the lock in anticipation. What will routine is different. He suddenly it be this time? A Twix bar? A small wraps his arms around me and keychain? A post-it note greeting? pulls me close. I lean in, putting No. I open my locker to reveal a my head on his shoulder. I smile, card filled with his small handfeeling the start of the connec- writing. He admits the nervoustion, but I can’t help but notice ness he had felt before asking me out, recounts our first date at Cafe how fragile it is.

Bench, and tells me how much 5. Secrets. As the moon rises out- I mean to him before concludside, I sit at home, video chatting ing with: “Baby, rain or shine, I’ll always be there for you.” Moved with him. Softly, I ask if I can tell him a secret. I confess by his thoughtful words, I slowly that I am hesitant in trusting peo- stand up. I’m finally ready to say ple because my friends constantly it. let me down—specifically the one who broke her promise of going 10. It’s time. My heart beats rapto a concert with me. He shakes idly as he looks at me intensely. his head sympathetically and ad- He takes my shaky hands in his mits that he too has trust issues, and gently rubs them. Silently, I ever since the day his friends had vow to show my affection more scattered when the middle school openly. I start with the words, “I bully started throwing stones at love you.” him.

By Karen Huang

The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Page 7

Features

By Lon Yin Chan But then, I met an angel So I tore her apart And tried to unlock her door with my heart seared her wings into my mind Love is codependency Throw me in a freak show as everyone jeers and cries

We are the main attraction because

we are in love He was the co-captain of the boys’ track and field team, but at that moment, senior Frankie Li was unable to walk, and could barely even stand, with his furiously shaking legs. He managed to propel himself into the spotlight and realized that he had also temporarily lost the ability to speak. “I closed my eyes and kind of block[ed] everything out [to get into the zone],” Li described. “I [took] a deep breath, and I start[ed] screaming, talking, releasing my emotions on stage, and everything passe[d] by so fast.”

At the end, when the audience erupted into exhilarated applause, Li became emotionally numb, not knowing what to feel. “The only thing that I can remember afterwards is finishing and never being satisfied with my poem,” he recounted. On still trembling legs, he walked back to his seat and exhaled. His first slam poem was a success.

Li is an enthusiastic slam poet who only became familiar with the genre last summer. Slam poetry originated in the 1970s as part of the civil rights movement, when many of the works concerned racism, sexism, and other activist topics. And unlike what the name suggests, slam poetry is not derived from poetry itself.

Whereas poetry focuses on content, slam poetry focuses more on aesthetics, such as the gestures, performance, music, and acting. “[Slam poetry] requires a stage presence and is interactive,” Li said. It is essentially viewed by many as a mix of poetry, theater, and rhythm.

“The feeling of being on stage” is what Li enjoys the most about slam poetry, he said. “It’s a release of emotions—a catharsis of emotions.” But what seems to be a lifelong and inborn passion of his is actually an interest Li picked up by chance last sum-

mer.

Li had always enjoyed English, and he wanted to do something related to writing over the summer. Despite the support he had received from various people telling him to pursue his passion, Li’s biggest obstacle was his parents; they wanted him to go into a steadier field, such as medicine or law. “I got into this writing program at Columbia University [at the end of junior year], and it would have [cost] a lot to go,” Li said. “Initially, [my father] said ‘yes,’ but as the deadline came closer, he told me ‘no.’ We got into this huge argument where he brought up how I wasn’t ever going to make any money as a writer. [...] My dad started crying and told [me] that we don’t have the luxury of learning about [humanity through writing] because we’re poor.” Regardless, Li still insisted on becoming a writer.

But, insistence alone was not enough for Li. He achieved much success in slam poetry with the help of his various mentors. One such person is English teacher Holly Schechter, who first taught Li in Freshman Composition.

“On my report card, she wrote as a comment, ‘Needs to channel energy into improving the class atmosphere,’” recalled Li, laughing. “Then I had her junior year [for creative nonfiction], and I wanted to show her that I was a different student.” He worked hard, participated, did well, and ultimately managed to prove to Schechter that he had changed.

Schechter claims to have recognized Li’s potential even during freshman year. “As a freshman, [Li] was an excellent writer. I recall vividly a memoir he wrote. I remember a scene on an airplane, and I remember giving him great comments [that] he needed to clean it up, but the making of a great writer was there. Frankie always had a ton of energy, which is one of his greatest qualities,” she said. In junior year, Li was able to channel “that same energy and enthusiasm” into class, something he had not done as a freshman.

In fact, it was Schechter who recommended the summer program that began a new chapter in Li’s life. He registered for a twoweek program in Ohio called the Kenyon Review Young Writer’s Workshop. Though he initially was not able to afford the tuition and the travel expenses, he was

offered a scholarship based on his writing submissions. “Now that I think back to it, that scholarship kind of changed my life,” Li said. “[This workshop] got me into poetry. We did this thing where we read what we wrote. I wrote a poem about my parents. Afterwards, a lot of people came up to me and said, ‘Wow, that was a great performance. Do you do slam poetry?’” Li recalled. Following the workshop, he decided he would attempt it once he returned to New York.

He carried out his resolution and progressed rapidly. Over the past few months, even with schoolwork and intense track practices, Li has polished his skills by attending a number of Open Mic events and several slam poetry competitions. Perhaps the most memorable of them all was the New York City Youth Poet Laureate, a large competition held two months ago at Lincoln Center. In order to qualify, Li had to submit five poems, a one-minute video of his performance, and a resumé. Out of several hundred applicants, Li was chosen as one of the 16 finalists to grace the stage at Lincoln Center.

“It was one of the most supportive communities I’ve ever been to,” reminisced Li, adding that the audience seemed awed by his “one syllable last name,” as he was the only Asian finalist there. “It was the first time I’d seen the entire audience react. I guess that’s what sets [slam poetry] apart from poetry—it’s interactive.” Here, he performed a piece about coffee, including allusions to political elections and sleep deprivation. The funny thing was that when a video of his performance surfaced online, “Stuy[vesant] kids connected [to] it, but with this other community, it just didn’t touch them,” noted Li, sounding amused.

When asked where he finds inspiration, Li replied, laughing, “Everywhere, all the time.”

It was not the first time he had heard that question—Li recounted one of his friends saying to him, “Frankie, I’m not like you. I can’t just fall in love with random people and write a poem about them.” To a certain extent, this is true. Li said that “after [he] meets someone, [he replays] that same moment over and over again in [his] head” until he is able to write something about it. “I’m re-

Justin Strauss / The Spectator

Slam Poetry: A Catharsis of Emotions

Senior Frankie Li presented a spoken word piece at TEDxStuyvesantHS 2014.

ally caught up with ideas of love and obsession and violence and what that all implies,” Li said. His first poem, titled “Dear God,” is a touching piece about falling in love and subsequent heartbreak.

His experience with slam poetry has influenced his decision to take a gap year once he graduates. “[At camp], I was around these kids who knew about all these poets like Richard Siken, Brenda Shaughnessy, Robert Frost, Tracy K. Smith. [...] And this other kid [and I] didn’t know anyone besides the [poets we] read at school,” Li explained. “That kind of hit me. Wow, we’re so behind, and that’s when I started thinking about a gap year.”

Li plans on using the year to “catch up” and further explore his interests. His main goal, however, is to participate in one of New York City’s top slamming competitions: National Poetry Slam or Brave New Voices. “In order to register [for] these competitions, [I] need to be on a slam team,” Li explained. “My job is to get on a team this year or during my gap year so I can slam [at these competitions].” The two most prominent teams in the city are Urban Word NYC and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Slam Team. As of now, Li has already advanced to the second round of Urban Word NYC’s tryouts due to his participation at the NYC Poet Laureate.

For the rest of the year, Li hopes to travel and, as he put it, “Do something really stupid like [hitchhike] across the United States.” One destination he has in mind is Paris. “They have this underground Poetry Slam club, and what they do is they slam in French and then afterward, in English.” In order to cover his

expenses, Li hopes to become a bartender or to be casted as an extra in a movie, a route inspired by one of Li’s mentors, Moise Moroncy. (Moroncy, Li said, is “a rapper, actor, [and] slam poet,” who has achieved immense success as a slam poet).

And while most of his family is okay with his decision to take a gap year, such is not the case for his father, who refuses to accept Li’s decision and constantly asks whether or not he has applied to college yet. Though the situation is frustrating for Li, he has come to terms with the fact that he and his father have differences that may be irreconcilable. “The way my brother explained it to me,” he recalled, “[is that] it’s not really a language barrier; it’s more of an idea barrier,” since writing and poetry aren’t exactly economically successful careers.

In whatever endeavors his interests may lead him to, Li said that he would always look to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s quote for guidance: “Mostly, we authors must repeat ourselves, that’s the truth.

There are two or three experiences in our lives, experiences so great and moving that it doesn’t seem that at the time that anyone else has ever been so caught up and so pounded and dazzled and astonished and beaten and broken and rescued and illuminated and rewarded and humbled in just that way ever before.

“Then we learn our trade, well or less well, and we tell our two or three stories—each time in a new disguise—maybe ten times, maybe a hundred, as long as people are willing to listen.”

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The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Page 8

Features The Double Life of a Stuyvesant Sub

Kimberlyn Cho / The Spectator

Stuyvesant. Try not to be too surprised if you randomly see Mr. Schechter and his wife at MOMA, as you desperately try to finish your art appreciation homework or global extra credit. Instead, consider it normal.

So whenever you hear the name Mr. Schechter, don’t only think about the substitute that wears oversized blazers. Consider the other half of him that lives a life out in the city.

By Geena Jung Let’s be honest; having a substitute teacher is one of the most thrilling experiences you can have at Stuyvesant. It gives you the perfect opportunity to catch up on sleep, do your trig homework, or finish the pages you were assigned to read for English. The teacher stands there proctoring the students, but there’s not much more to it. We’ve all looked down upon substitute teachers and scoffed whenever we heard their name.

Although they might not seem important or interesting, every substitute teacher lives a double life once they exit the main entrance of Stuyvesant High School.

Stuy’s Finest Alumnus Everyone’s seen Mr. Schechter, who does not wish to state his first name, at some point during their time at Stuyvesant—either in the hallways, global class, or, surprisingly, even in the gyms. He was wearing a camouflage-colored suit when I approached him by the sophomore bar, carrying his briefcase in one hand and placing his circular glasses into the other. As we walked to up to the 8th floor, he took a minute to reflect on his childhood.

Schechter was born in the Bronx during a time when technology was starting to be introduced at a rapid speed. “In [my] generation, there [were] not many electronic devices; the only staples of entertainment were the radio, the phonograph, and movies,” Schechter said. Although there was limited technology available to him, Schechter found entertainment through a passion for reading and movies.

Schechter’s childhood experiences revolved around Stuyvesant High School, where he studied the sciences, especially biology, intensely. He had to make a thirty-minute trip to 15th street each day, where the old Stuyvesant campus used to be. The day typically lasted from 7:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

“There was no lunch break, cafeteria, swimming pool, or girls!

The whole school was all about science. Nothing more, nothing less,” Schechter exclaimed.

As a young and inspiring student, Schechter thought that he and other students were going to become scientists. However, his exposure to different English classes allowed him to see that he wanted to pursue English literature instead. One of the teachers he was fondest of and respected most was Dr. Israel Selilan, who taught American Literature at Stuyvesant. “Selilan was a great inspiration to me. I enjoyed his open style of writing, and he inspired me to look past the sciences

and explore other fields such as English,” Schechter explained.

Through people like Selilan, Schechter found his passions in English, particularly medieval and renaissance literature.

Upon getting accepted to Brooklyn College, Schechter studied English in depth, taking various courses in literature.

He continued studying literature in graduate school, along with Frank McCourt, an IrishAmerican teacher and writer, who Schechter had not previously known. “Frank McCourt sat next to me in three of my classes. I knew him personally, but we weren’t close friends. He was in my classes on foreign influences on English Literature and Middle English Literature,” Schechter exclaimed. Despite the weak bond the two had, Schechter remembers McCourt as a “wild guy” with a huge personality.

After working outside of the public school system for twenty-five years, Schechter retired, and has been working as a substitute teacher ever since 1992.

Schechter started at Brooklyn Technical High School and was moved to Stuyvesant High School years later.

One of Schechter’s fondest memories at Stuyvesant involved a retired math teacher. “I remember being in the teacher’s room on the fourth floor when a fellow with a long beard, who was a teacher at the time, came up to me and said, ‘Mr. Schechter, did you ever sub at LaGuardia High School?’ I told him that I did, and asked for his name, and he told me it. I said, ‘Ah! I remember. You were majoring in drama, and your class was reading “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”! When I saw your hand go up, I said “Uh oh… that can’t be good…”’ Regardless, he gave the best reading of Shakespeare.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard a better one,” Schechter stated.

When Schechter isn’t subbing for a teacher, he enjoys spending time with his family— his wife, two children, and five grandchildren, who, conveniently, all live in the Tri-State area. “My wife and I have a very busy life. We’re New Yorkers! We still go to the movies and theaters at least once a week. We also go to concerts and museums,,” Schechter explained. His favorite hobby of all is to go to art and historical museums, such as The Frick Collection, Neue Galerie on 86th street, and the Museum of Natural History, with his grandchildren. When he has the time, Schechter travels with his family to countries all around the world. “We’ve traveled to London, but we’ve [also] been to Paris, Italy, Beijing, Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Greece,” Schechter said.

Without a doubt, Schechter lives another life outside of

The Aspiring Polish New Yorker As I waited outside room 437, I nervously watched the hands of the clock ticking. I had heard mixed responses about Ms. Urbanska when I asked my friends about her. While I was pondering what I should ask her, the door flung open and seniors rushed out into the halls.

A middle-aged woman with pale whitish-blonde hair and a rather heavy accent greeted me. After introducing herself with her name and the typical “nice to meet you,” she said, “If you couldn’t tell by my accent…

I’m Polish!” Urbanska grinned and after briefly explaining her background, she pulled out several photos of Poland when she was a child. I realized how prepared she was for the interview to discuss her nationality and her love for Poland.

Urbanska told me about her life in Krakow, Poland, where she spent her childhood with her closely bonded family. When she was older, she attended Jagiellonian University, one of the most prestigious schools Poland had to offer. A few years later, she taught Polish and European literature for six years at the same university. “I loved the nature of Poland, especially Krakow. It was a beautiful city that I took pride in,” Urbanska said. The scenery and open-heartedness of the people there were among the many things that she treasured.

Despite the evident beauty in her mother country, Urbanska explained that there was a lack of freedom, since Poland was a communist country at the time.

“I always had to think twice about what I was about to say, because if I said something that upset the government, I could easily get in trouble,” Urbanska said. In addition, Urbanska’s family struggled financially in Krakow. “Sometimes I would have to wait with my mom for several hours in order to get bread and eggs for our family,” Urbanska explained. The desire for freedom and independence was what motivated Urbanska to leave the country to come to America—the land filled with dreams. However, this choice was not easy to make. She loved Poland dearly, and all of her family and friends were there.

After being torn on the decision to leave Poland, Urbanska finally decided that she was going to move to New York and live with a close friend who lived in Manhattan. New York was the ideal place for Urbanska because its freedom and attractions had captured her interest since she was a little girl. “I’ve always heard how New York has action. It’s the city that never sleeps,” Urbanska said. Her mother did not completely approve of her decision but supported her regardless. In 1989, Urbanska arrived in Manhattan. Her first few years in America were tough since she did not have any family there and could not speak English.

In New York, Urbanska wanted to become a teacher and continue the education she started in Poland. She sent in her diplomas from college, documents, and an application along with it to an admissions office in Albany. After waiting six months for a reply, Albany accepted her teaching experiences for credits, but Urbanska still had to take a test to become a certified teacher. The test composed of two parts: basic subject studies and an essay. “The first part was relatively easy for me since I understood the concepts of geometry, social studies, and science,” Urbanska explained.

“However, the second part, the essay, which had to be a minimum of five pages, was what killed me. Learning English was extremely tough for me, especially since I was new to the country; I made a lot of spelling errors and grammar mistakes.”

After attempting to pass the test, Urbanska ultimately decided that it was too difficult of a task to complete and that she would have to improve her English-speaking skills first. Since she already had credits given to her from Albany, Urbanska became a substitute teacher at the East Village elementary school in Manhattan.

Urbanska went on to explain her first experience as a substitute in the East Village School. “My first day subbing [was] probably the most chaotic experience I’ve ever had. I was subbing for second graders; they didn’t listen to me at all and kept on screaming and crying. It was like a soap opera!” Urbanska exclaimed. Eventually, the teacher next door came in and tried hushing the children, but they could not be brought under control. “I wanted to give them nap time for the whole day […] but you know, I’m not allowed to do that,” Urbanska said. After a few months of chaos, Urbanska got the general gist of what it was like being a substitute teacher. After leaving the East Village School, she went to Chinatown for a year, eventually ending up at Stuyvesant.

Urbanska currently lives with her Greek husband and their two Bichon dogs in a small apartment in Manhattan. She met her husband at a restaurant years ago, where she was a waiter and her husband was the owner. Both Urbanska and her husband enjoy watching mov-

ies, operas, and ballet for relaxation. “I really don’t like movies or shows with violence in them, [so] instead I enjoy watching romantic and peaceful films,” Urbanska explained. Urbanska also invests a lot of her time in designing things, such as her apartment room, magazines, and flowers. During weekends, she goes to flea markets searching for antiques. Over the years, she has collected old paintings, porcelain, and china. Urbanska’s favorite activity out of them all, however, is spending time in her garden. Each summer, she goes to Poland to see her garden and her family in Krakow. “My garden in Poland is huge and beautiful. I love how the flowers bloom—especially the sunflowers. It is like a botanical garden, except even better,” Urbanska gushed. Urbanska also has a small garden by her apartment building in the city; she hopes it will become just as exquisite as the one in Poland.

Despite Urbanska’s love for Poland, she considers New York to be her home. “When I traveled to California and Arizona, within days I wanted to go back home. But I didn’t consider home to be Poland anymore; home meant New York City,” Urbanska explained. Urbanska never regrets her decision to leave Poland; instead, she considers it a blessing. Moving to New York led Urbanska to become a substitute, which was not something she initially planned on. Nonetheless, she loves her job, specifically being able to communicate with kids of all ages. In addition, Urbanska appreciates the fact that America was able to give her a second chance. Even though she wasn’t initially successful with her education career in New York, Urbanska still had the opportunity to work and support her family. “In America, there is no such thing as failing.

There are so many opportunities available that eventually you find one that suits you the most. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve stayed in New York for so long,” Urbanska explained.

Whether subbing at Stuyvesant, watching movies, or designing her room, Urbanska always takes the time to reminisce about her time in America and in Poland. She never ceases to share her love for both New York City and Krakow.

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“It’s Worth The Trip Down The Street!”

The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Page 9

Features Beijing Graduation, New York Integration The following is the first in a series of articles about students who immigrated to America.

By alice cheng It was the summer of 2011, a week before middle school graduation, when senior Qu Chen, who was living comfortably in Beijing, China, received an exciting revelation. Her mother, who had government business to attend to in the U.S., was bringing her daughter along for the trip.

Was it a surprise to Chen?

Yes. She had already finished all the entrance exams to attend the high school in her 6-12 school.

Her mother had showed no hint of them going to the U.S. up until this point. Was she sad that she would be leaving home for so long?

“Why would I be upset?” said Chen, looking at me curiously.

“It’s a new environment, but after you graduate from middle school, you’re going to go to some new high school anyway.”

So Chen excitedly packed her bags for the trip, wished all her friends farewell, and flew off with her mother to America. They landed in New York City in the middle of August, where, after talking it out with the Department of Education, Chen was to take a special Specialized High School Administration Test (SHSAT) meant for students who just recently came into the city. Not many other schools had seats available. If Chen did not do well on the test, she would have to go to another school where the education would be much worse.

The exam was approximately a week away. All Chen knew about the test was that it had a Logic, English, and Math section, and unlike most students, she merely chose to go to Stuyvesant because

of its short traveling distance rather than its high academic excellence.

Fortunately, the test was not as difficult as she thought. “Math and Logic are not hard at all, and English is OK,” she reflected. Soon after her first day at Stuyvesant, Chen decided to have a Western name, because her friends kept pronouncing her Chinese name incorrectly. “My parents decided to take Dorothy for me because they think it’s a cute name,” Chen said, and claimed it had nothing to do with the Wizard of Oz. At Stuyvesant, Chen took the opportunity to learn Japanese, a language she was interested in due to her love for manga and a trip to the country during the seventh grade. Despite her coming from another country, Chen found assimilation into Stuyvesant just as smooth as any other freshman.

But what if Chen had stayed in Beijing? In a parallel universe, Chen would probably have gone off to the high school where her studies would most likely be just as rough, as her school was one of the top three in the city (funnily enough, she also chose that school because it was closest to her house). However, based on her middle school memories, Chen noted there would be some distinct differences in her education and daily school life.

Back in Beijing, middle school went from seventh to ninth grade.

School started around eight in the morning, with a common morning drill being that all the students lined up in the school’s front yard to do warm-up exercises and say a country pledge, which usually last-

ed thirty minutes. Then, students would enter their classrooms and massage the muscles around the eyes for five minutes with a speaker voicing out commands through the intercom. This was suppose to relax the face and help blood flow better to the brain. Afterwards was when the classes really begun.

Except for her in-depth classes of math (they devoted three years to Geometry) and emphasis on beautiful language in Chinese class, Chen summed up her studies as relatively similar to Stuyvesant’s. School was not dismissed until four or five in the evening.

However, periods lasted around thirty minutes, and the breaks in between lasted ten.

Additionally, lunch was an entire hour, where students could go home to eat or order food from the cafeteria. Cafeteria food in China wasn’t any more appealing than the school food served in the states. Every day, the school would serve what was supposed to be a box of rice, two types of vegetables, and meat. Instead of milk or water, the students received soup.

“Did you know the Chinese have so many soups?” Chen exclaimed to me, but she honestly never ate much from the cafeteria. Most of the time she would buy food from nearby stands, and she tells me her friends in high school order lunch from restaurants.

Lunch was also what Chen termed as their “fun period.” During this time, Chen and her friends especially enjoyed playing badminton as a sport, while the boys in her school had a fondness for basketball and table tennis. Because students stayed with the

same homeroom for three years, the boys competed against each other as class teams. When they aren’t dribbling a ball or using a racquet, students played card games, especially poker. “Some really good players can memorize cards while they are playing,” Chen said. As for video games, games created by Blizzard Entertainment, such as Dota, World of Warcraft, and Starcraft glued kids’ eyeballs to their computer screens.

English class was mandatory for Chen even in elementary school, but her school was one of a small percent who included it in their program. Only certain schools in Shanghai and Beijing taught the language. However, when Chen arrived in the states, she realized how old-fashioned her classes were. “The kind they teach is British English,” Chen said with a snap of her fingers.“Do you use ‘How do you do?’ when you meet people?

No, right? You go like, ‘What’s happening?’ or, ‘How are you?’… I never used that in America.” Similarly, despite her teachers instructing them to use the word toilet, Chen claims that she hasn’t used the phrase “May I go to the toilet?” once since she first set foot in the United States.

After school, Chen and her friends spent their free time exploring the streets of Beijing for tasty snacks and cute accessories.

They enjoyed eating treats such as takoyaki, pork floss buns, and traditional yogurt with mixed nuts. Although New York City is known for its diversity of culture, Chen claims the Chinese cuisine is too monotonous to her liking. “They are mostly spicy dishes or dim sum,”

Chen said. Chen admitted, however, that Beijing lacked the skills to serve the high-quality Japanese food she desired, nor could they compete against New York City’s steakhouses. Coming to New York City also opened up her eyes to a new love for Broadway shows. She has already watched Mamma Mia, the Phantom of the Opera, and the Christmas Show Spectacular. Just recently, Chen also watched Les Miserables, which she rated as the best one she’s seen so far.

New York City and Beijing give her different auras. Due to the government building and Chinese traditional architecture that decorated the city, Beijing often made Chen feel like they were reliving century old history. She even felt Beijing was more serious and fastpaced. When asked which pace she preferred, however, she said she finds New York City’s to be more comfortable.

All in all, Chen predicts that she would have become a government worker like her mother had she not come to the U.S. As it is, her future remains open. “Coming to [the] U.S. gave me a chance to see lots of different things that captured me,” Chen said. “Now it is so hard to choose.” Nevertheless, she is grateful for the wide spectrum of academic possibilities Stuyvesant has to offer for her future, and when hearing about the treatment her friends in other states receive in school, feels additionally gratified for Stuyvesant’s respect for Asian culture. “Every time they complain about discrimination or customs they aren’t used to, I feel so lucky I’m in Stuy,” Chen said.

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Page 10

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The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Page 11

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The Critical Junior Summer: Make It Count!

By Michael Goran, J.D.

For example, a demonstrated level of interest in biology and the sciences by not only taking courses, but participating in and learning about research techniques, can make you a more competitive applicant to highly selective biomedical research programs that are available in the junior-tosenior summer. In the same way, participating in DECA or FBLA and engaging in entrepreneurial activities in 9th & 10th grades will help you become a more compelling candidate for selective summer university business programs as well as increase your attractiveness to businesses that take on high-school interns.

If you’re an 11th grader, the college application process is drawing near. What seemed to be in the far distance when you were a freshman is now right around the corner. You’ve taken or are planning to take the SAT and/or ACT. You’re taking a slate of AP courses to show you can handle the rigor of a top-tier college’s curriculum. You’re working hard to maximize your grades, so that you can continue to be at the top of your class or continue to demonstrate an upward grade trend. But, what are you doing about planning your activities for the all-important summer between junior and senior If you’re a Stuy junior year? with a passion for a particular field of study and a track Whether you’re a fresh- record of participating in man, sophomore or junior activities that augment your at Stuyvesant, this article interests, good for you! The provides invaluable advice, foundation you’ve built so read on. In the 9th and should help you get into a 10th grades, the activities competitive summer proyou participate in and the gram or, when combined classes you take both during with your junior summer the school year and over the activities, internships and/or summer can lay the founda- academic programs, demtion for future opportuni- onstrate to colleges that you ties. have a history of deepening

involvement in your area of interest.

ers – that will expose you to the field of engineering in a meaningful way. By attendOn the other hand, per- ing a program, most imporhaps you’re an 11th grader tantly, you’ll validate for who has just discovered that yourself that you truly want passion for physics and engi- to be an engineer. After all, neering. Is it too late for you? it’s a professional course of Not at all! Relax – the col- study, where you’re making leges understand that you’re a commitment to a particua teenager with changing lar career as an 18 or 19 year interests. The whole point old. You’ll also now be able of the educational process to make a strong case – with is to expose you to different passion and conviction – areas of study that may in- about why this area of study trigue you. is the perfect fit for you.

However…now that you’ve discovered your love for engineering, it’s time to do something about it! Engineering is a great example, because you’ll find that top colleges with engineering programs will have you write about why you want to be an engineer in their supplemental essays. Sure, that physics lab on quantum mechanics was cool, but that’s not enough to sustain a 500-word essay on why you want to spend the rest of your life as a chemical engineer.

As a professional college admissions consulting firm, IvySelect focuses on helping students differentiate themselves by translating our students’ passions into an overarching positioning strategy. Assisting students in finding the “right” summer activities is an integral piece of the strategic planning we do.

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The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Page 12

Editorials Staff Editorial

If We Could Change One Thing About Stuyvesant...

Behind the scenes of each staff editorial published by this editorial board include discussions brainstorming ideas scrawled across the blackboard, heated debates that go past the end bell deciding the side and angle that the board will take on a given issue, and multiple drafts written late at night before the final product goes to print. In the past year, the outgoing editorial board has written about a need for increased awareness of current events in the student body, Asian American identity at Stuyvesant, and a more accessible faculty. In the last issue for the outgoing board, seniors have taken the opportunity to write about issues that have been overlooked, in an effort to make their last mark on Stuyvesant’s student body.

The Spectator The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper

At some high schools around the city, guidance counselors perform the roles of both guidance and college counselors. These counselors have the responsibilities of helping students in need of academic, social, mental, and college application help. Since this requires counselors to consistently check in on their students, they are specially equipped to help them navigate the college process. Knowing a student on a personal level enables a counselor to give better school recommendations and tips for writing essays. Seniors at Stuyvesant, myself included, complain about the impersonal nature of the college office. None of the college counselors seem to really care about us as people; they can barely remember our names and faces. The lack of personal connection makes it difficult for them to give us helpful advice. E-mails that go unreplied and give conflicting advice only add to the problem. Students become frustrated and stop turning to their college counselors for advice, resulting in the feeling that many of us feel alone in the maze of college applications.

This situation could be amended if Stuyvesant replicated the systems used in other high schools around New York City and hired more guidance counselors, cut down the number of homerooms for which each counselor is responsible, and required them to take on the jobs of college counselors. Our guidance counselors pay more attention to us as students and even write recommendations for us. It would make more sense if they were the ones dealing with the logistical nightmares of the college process. Already, many students approach their guidance counselors instead of their college counselors with pressing questions about college. Merging the guidance counselor and college counselor departments will benefit the student body by personalizing the college process, and seniors will feel reassured knowing that there is a support system looking out for them. It is, after all, our future on the line.

Anne Duncan Justin Strauss Jin Hee Yoo

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Daye Shin

Anne Duncan While it’s shocking how many students at Stuyvesant struggle with depression and other mental illnesses, what is more appalling is both how casually Stuyvesant’s culture deals with the depression and stress that Stuyvesant students are prone to face in their years here. While most students do not deal with life-threatening depression, the poisonous environment and the resulting symptoms are common enough to be a serious problem.

Admittedly, the administration has taken some steps to combat this issue. By hanging posters in the hallway, students have the opportunity to bump into information regarding their elusive emotions. However, as depression often is accompanied by low self-esteem, what depressed child would stop to read in the busy hallway while their peers watch them?

I remember learning in Health class the procedure for how to help a friend who seems depressed. But where were the 10 Steps To Helping Yourself? As teenagers, reaching out to doctors and therapists is difficult without the involvement of parents. It is not always easy to find help without strings attached. Administrators and teachers are not supposed to be therapists, but they can implement methods to decrease stress, including allowing students to carry in a cup of tea in the morning, and offering more open office hours with guidance counselors.

While solutions are important, it would be better to combat the problem at its source. Most of the depressed students I know developed their disease as upperclassmen, usually as a direct result of the stressful school environment. The administration needs to take steps to prevent the manifestation of serious mental illness, in addition to allowing students to more comfortably reach out for help if they are already struggling with one.

As a Big Sib, it breaks my heart to know that my little sibs might already feel depressed, or might develop depression later in their time at Stuyvesant, simply as a result of being at Stuyvesant. If I could change anything at Stuyvesant, I would keep other students from dealing with the same ridiculous levels of stress and feelings of worthlessness that the current seniors have felt so strongly.

Shane Lorenzen I love Stuyvesant’s Murray Kahn Theater, and I’m excited to see the result of its recent renovations. However, I can’t help but think that maybe Stuyvesant should have poured that money into beefing up its Arts departments. In my mind, $300,000 is a bit much for a school with no dedicated theater department to spend on a theater. Certainly our Music departments, the student-run Stuyvesant Theatre Community, and SING! will make wonderful use of our renovated facilities, but it’s a missed opportunity since Stuyvesant will have no shows put on by dedicated student actors and staged by professional drama teachers. Schools like LaGuardia do not hold a monopoly on the arts, and it’s time Stuyvesant began to recognize that its students are not only gifted scientists and mathematicians, but also poets and thespians. Stuyvesant should invest in projects that properly nourish the creative energies of its diverse student body.

When teachers announce the breakdown of the grade in the beginning of the term, I’m often surprised by the high percentage allocated to tests and quizzes. Especially in math and science classes, it’s common to encounter tests accounting for a huge bulk of our grade, in some cases reaching up to 85 percent of the grade. As an underclassman, I did not care about this percentage and developed a rather apathetic attitude towards it. But when I realized I wasn’t doing so well in my physics class, I felt frustrated because there was nothing I could to bump up my grade. There was a final test that accounted for a higher percentage, but if I didn’t do well on the bi-weekly tests, what was the likelihood that I’d do better on the cumulative final exam?

When I saw my peers who found the material easy, didn’t do homework, and slept in class, I realized the fault in the grading system. I do my homework. I take notes and pay attention in class. I’m always present. The fact that attendance, class participation, and homework are no more than 10 to 20 percent of my grade irritated me, because my effort in class and outside of school simply did not matter. I’m only judged on my performance every other Monday when I’m given a written test.

I do think that it’s a bit hypocritical of me to complain about a system that I once enjoyed, being a rather introverted student in class. Before, knowing that I didn’t have to participate in class to get a good grade made me feel comfortable because there was no motivation for me to raise my hand and answer questions. But in retrospect, I’ve realized how I feel more distant and awkward saying “hi” to my math and science teachers in the hallways because, chances are, they have never heard me talk. Their classes aren’t so vivid in my memory either. This is in high contrast to my English and history teachers, who are fresher in my memory because of the discussions and personal assignments that were less machinelike.

I hear a lot of people talking about the “quiet Asian kids” in our school, and how there are so many of them. I feel like having a grading system that is less mathematical would be a good way in motivating these “quiet Asian kids” to make themselves more visible in class. So if I could change one thing about Stuyvesant, I would implement a more balanced, fairer grading system in math and science classes that incorporates teachers’ personal comments to improve the teacher-student relationship, which can be quite dry with the current system.

The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Page 13

Editorials Teresa Chen

Lev Akabas

As the outgoing editorial board prepares its final issue for publication, I’ve been finding myself rereading the staff editorials published years ago in a wave of nostalgia. And while it’s comforting to know that we were not alone in our critique of Stuyvesant’s glaring problems, I find it a problem that The Spectator has been reporting on recurring issues in its centennial of history. The inactivity of the Student Union, the overwhelming burden of homework and tests, the unhealthy academic competitiveness that accompanies the college process—it is unsettling to know that throughout time, these problems continue to plague Stuyvesant, and our progress with student culture seems to be stuck on a never-ending plateau.

The problem lies in Stuyvesant’s lack of institutional memory, defined by the collective set of knowledge, ideas, and memories held by a certain group of people. And while each year propagates a student culture rife with ideas for improvement and a passion that unites the school community, what we forget is the transmission of these ideas to the next group of students who enter the school. A few prominent examples include the idea of reopening the outdoor patio on the fifth floor and the need for transparency with the dress code. These issues gained traction among students of past years, but are now long forgotten, and this loss of persistence has stalled any administrative progress whatsoever.

Of course, the high school cycle doesn’t make for a very good system of sustaining institutional memory. Students spend only four years in Stuyvesant before scattering off to colleges around the nation. In four years, any remnants of what students cared about a few years back have been entirely erased and replaced by a repetitive set of worries and concerns. This is a problem, since institutional memory is the key to success and truly influencing Stuyvesant culture in more than just a trivial manner.

Learn from your mistakes; history is the key to the future—there is a reason why these clichés exist. In order to remedy the situation, the administration and faculty members are key to educating current students on what their predecessors were concerned about. Furthermore, the Student Union should continue the ideas placed in previous platforms, rather than coming up with a new agenda every year. Bullet points that aren’t accomplished by the end of the year should be left for next year’s president to pick up and build upon. And lastly, there should be a stronger level of communication between current students and alumni of the school. It doesn’t make sense for students to join the alumni association after they’ve graduated and left the school—by talking to previous students and asking for advice, current students can gain a better understanding of prior student cultures and can use the past as a tool to improve Stuyvesant significantly and permanently. The Spectator can only go so far as to write and repeat editorials as a record of institutional memory; it is up to those who remain to continue progress on existing problems.

Extracurriculars are what make Stuyvesant special for me.

With theater, dance, and music performances, more than 30 sports teams, academic teams like Speech and Debate, student-run publications, and over a hundred other clubs and pubs, there’s something for everyone. The enthusiasm and passion with which Stuyvesant students pursue their interests has never ceased to amaze me. It’s such a shame that many of us can’t put 100 percent of our effort into activities that we love because we’re bogged down by homework.

A study published in Issue 9 of The Spectator last year showed that the amount of sleep students get is inversely proportional to the time they spend on extracurricular activities, showing that we are forced to either sacrifice our health or devote less time to the hobbies that we enjoy. The two and a half hours of nightly homework that the average student receives is the major reason why we must choose between doing what we love and sleeping more than six hours a night, which less than half of us are able to do.

There’s no reason anyone should decide not to attend Open Mic on a Friday because they have a stressful project due Monday that will keep them inside all weekend; there’s no reason I should ever be sleep-deprived the night before an important basketball game because I have to answer textbook questions about material that was already covered in class; there’s no reason that, as an editor-in-chief of The Spectator, I should have to pull an all-nighter every time we send an issue to the printer because I can’t start working on the paper until I finish my homework at 10 p.m.

Ultimately, the experiences we gain and the friendships we make by participating in extracurriculars are more important than any fill-in-the-blank worksheet or lab report. It’s time for teachers to respect that by ensuring that a majority of the learning done at Stuyvesant takes place in the classrooms.

Teachers need to make a concerted effort to cap their nightly homework at 15 to 20 minutes per night, and allow us to both get sleep and participate in activities that we love.

Emma Loh

Alisa Su / The Spectator

Currently, when Stuyvesant students receive their report cards, they’re looking for one thing: their numeric grades.

But what’s more commonly looked over on the report card is the comments section. The majority of teachers do not use the comment section, and subsequently reduce a semester’s worth of hard work into a single number. Many students may be perfectly content with this grading policy, especially if they are already excelling in their classes. But what if students are looking to improve? What if they are not sure about where they went wrong? While students should take the initiative to ask teachers about the breakdown of their grades, it may be difficult to track down a single teacher in our 10-storied school building at the end of the term. Furthermore, while teachers give qualitative feedback during parent-teacher conferences, this is given early in the term, when teachers and students have not established a very strong relationship yet. If the majority of teachers took the time to give students written feedback, this would be a step closer towards grade transparency, and it would allow students to more accurately pinpoint their academic weaknesses and work to improve them.

The Ideal Cell Phone Policy for Stuyvesant High School Cell phone usage has long been a contentious issue at Stuyvesant and in New York City public schools. Following Mayor Bill de Blasio’s lifting of the cell phone ban in all NYC DOE schools, Stuyvesant should take this opportunity to change and update its own cell phone policy. The Spectator Editorial Board feels, noting the overall maturity of Stuyvesant students, that the following policy would be ideal for all involved parties: 1. Cell phone usage should be permitted before 8:00 a.m. and after 3:35 p.m. anywhere in Stuyvesant.

2. Cell phones should not be allowed in classrooms, but teachers should have the authority to allow cell phones for educational purposes as they see fit.

3. Students should be allowed to use cell phones during free periods and during lunch periods.

4. Cell phones should be allowed in the hallways so long as their use does not disrupt classroom activities anywhere on the floor. If students abuse the privilege of using phones in the hallways, any teacher who finds his or her class disrupted should have the right to confiscate the offending student’s phone.

5. Parents should not have to come to school to pick up confiscated cell phones; students should be allowed to pick up their own cell phones after 10th period if one of their parents e-mails or calls the administration granting permission.

Page 14

The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Opinions Putin’s Firm Grip on Russia

By Ryan Boodram The Russian government, although it may claim to be a democracy, is one of the most oppressive and corrupt governments on Earth, with one man in control at its center: Russian President Vladimir Putin. Recently, his rule was challenged when tens of thousands of protesters gathered near the Kremlin to protest against the politically motivated imprisonment of Russian political activist Aleksei Navalny’s brother.

Civil unrest, shown by these protests, is just the latest dilemma facing Putin’s government.

Other dilemmas include a rapid drop in oil prices and Western sanctions in response to the Russian annexation of Crimea, which have combined to cripple the Russian economy.

It might seem that, given the foreign and domestic pressures it is facing, Putin’s rule in Russia will soon come to an end. When one takes a look at conditions within Russia, however, it is apparent that Putin has the country well under his control.

While Russia may be experiencing economic troubles, Putin is masterfully handling the situation by feeding and exploiting Russia’s recent spout of nationalism. He uses events like the annexation of Crimea to distract Russians from their

economic problems and political oppression by giving them something to be proud of. As Dr. Ariel Cohen, a foreign policy expert at the Heritage Foundation, notes, “The only way such a regime can survive is to grab more territory through imperial aggrandizement while distracting its citizens through ultra-nationalist propaganda that celebrates Putin as Russia’s savior.”

Due to the nationalistic fervor in Russia, Russians support a strong leader like Putin who they see as increasing the glory and power of Russia through tough rhetoric against the United States and imperialist actions to take back former Soviet territory. As a result, Russians are willing to overlook Putin’s economic failings and take solace in the fact that their country is “protecting ethnic Russians” in Crimea and “reclaiming” land lost in the breakup of the Soviet Union. The problem is that Putin’s lies are being spread by the propaganda machine run by Putin himself in order to increase the nationalism that makes him so popular.

Arguably, Putin’s greatest tool for manipulating the masses is his control of Russian media, which he uses both to spur the nationalism on which he relies as well as to prevent dissidents from having their messages heard. As one anonymous

Putin’s greatest tool for manipulating the masses is his control of Russian media, which he uses both to spur the nationalism on which he relies as well as to prevent dissidents from having their messages heard.

political freedom organization, Freedom House, reported that the Russian government owns most of the nation’s media, controlling nearly two thirds of Russian newspapers and every news station. The Internet isn’t safe either—several webbased news sources, such as Navalny’s blog, were blocked in response to protests. Putin and his government even go to great lengths to pressure independent news outlets to tell the story that they want heard.

Their tactics include excluding opposing news sources from press conferences, giving preferential treatment to pro-Krem-

lin media outlets, threatening critical papers with legal action on trumped-up charges, and even outright purchasing hostile news sources.

This control of the media prevents people like Navalny from reaching the audience necessary to create a mass movement that could remove Putin’s regime from power. It also allows Putin to spread the propaganda necessary to gain support for his actions in Crimea. Russian media depicted the false narrative that the Ukrainian government had been overthrown in a Western plot, that fascists were threatening ethnic Russians, and that these ethnic Russians needed Russia to intervene in order to protect them. The Russian news also promoted Putin’s claim that the unmarked soldiers instrumental in annexing Ukraine were not Russian, despite clear evidence to the contrary. By lying to his people, Putin was able to justify spending money for military action in Ukraine despite the fact that Russia is experiencing a recession. By spreading false information, Putin manages to keep the Russian masses at bay.

The only group that might pose a threat to Putin’s power, were they not firmly under his thumb, are the supposed oligarchs, billionaire businessmen who control 35 percent of the country’s wealth. It was thought that Russia’s economic turmoil

as well as the Western sanctions specifically targeting these men would cause them to pressure Putin to change his policies or even remove him from power.

Far from being the agents of a future coup, many of these alleged oligarchs are actually personal friends of Putin, whom he helped put in charge of the (formerly state-run) companies from which they derive their wealth.

Putin has also shown that he is not afraid to arrest his followers and strip them of their assests should they step out of line. This was the case with Mikhail Prokhorov, who supported a political party opposing the Kremlin and suddenly changed his mind once his assets were threatened. Putin clearly controls these men, not the other way around. The seeds of change won’t come from Putin’s yes-men, whose wealth is safely stored in foreign currency in foreign banks, and who can always count on financial bailouts from the Kremlin.

The Russian people won’t be able to ignore worsening economic conditions and inflation forever, but Vladimir Putin’s reign is still strong. Putin is allowed to act with impunity as he goes on a quixotic quest to reclaim the lost glory and land of the Soviet Union, even as this pursuit hurts the people of Russia.

Yuchen Jin / The Spectator

Tanumaya Bhowmik / The Spectator

Kremlin official who personally knows Putin notes, “Whoever has control of television has control of the country.” The

Kimberlyn Cho / The Spectator

The Choice of Death

By Rahat Huda Brittany Maynard, 29 years old, was diagnosed with brain cancer on January 1, 2014. By April, she learned that her cancer had become more severe and progressed from grade II astrocytoma to grade IV glioblastoma. The doctors predicted she had six months to live and prescribed full brain

radiation in an attempt to kill the cancer.

Maynard and her family began researching death with dignity once they realized the suggested treatment would leave her bald, along with first-degree burns on her scalp. Death with dignity is a choice given to terminally ill, mentally capable adults to end their life by consuming drugs prescribed by a doctor. Advocates of death with dignity, also known as assisted suicide, believe that this choice gives those who are terminally ill a chance to be in charge of their own fate instead of letting their disease take over.

The Death with Dignity Act is currently legal in three states: Oregon, Washington, and Vermont. In these states, doctors are able to give their patients proper care and information about assisted suicide because they are protected by the law. It is easier for a patient’s friends and family to come to terms with the patient’s death when it is planned. The act allows patients to plan out their deaths with their loved ones.

Legalizing death with dignity would make terminally ill patients’ last days more comfortable.

“I do not want to die. But I am dying. And I want to die on my own terms.”

—Brittany Maynard

Unauthorized practice of assisted suicide is common in the United States because it is legally inaccessible to a majority of Americans. In states where the act is illegal, doc-

tors are not properly trained to aid in ending patients’ lives and cannot give their patients a complete understanding of what death with dignity is. It is critical that people are fully aware of what assisted suicide is, as this knowledge could potentially spare them from a painful and prolonged death.

It is inconvenient for patients to have to move elsewhere because they are being denied the opportunity to die on their own terms in their own state. Britney Maynard had to leave her home in California for Oregon and explained that “establishing residency in the state to make use of the law required a monumental number of changes.” The nationwide legalization of death with dignity would allow patients to pass away in the comfort of their own homes.

The controversy surrounding the legalization of death with dignity lies in the question of whether or not legalizing it will endorse suicide. Although death with dignity and suicide are both acts of ending one’s own life, they are differ-

ent in that the former is always a conscious decision, whereas the latter is often the result of mental illnesses that severely impair proper judgment. It is also important to note that one must be terminally ill in order to meet the qualifications of the Death with Dignity Act. Patients with terminal illnesses cannot be cured, but people with mental illnesses are able to seek help. Maynard made a clear distinction between death with dignity and suicide when she said, “I do not want to die. But I am dying. And I want to die on my own terms.”

People suffering from terminal illnesses should be able to legally end their lives. They should have another option if they are not able to tolerate the pain from their diseases.

Patients should be able to give their families peace when they are ready to end their life. After enduring months of seizures and migraines, on November 1, Britney Maynard chose to end her life in peace.

The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Page 15

Opinions

By Kenny Lin Nearly tripping over the wet floor, I hurriedly proceeded toward the sink. Unfortunately, the faucet was broken, and I was forced to switch to the one next to it. After pressing the soap dispenser, which, to my dismay, didn’t work, I stared at my reflection in the scratched mirror in front of me and wondered why nothing was functioning the way it should. Quickly rinsing my hands, I groped around for a paper towel, but found only air. The late bell rang, and I entered my next class tardy, desperately shaking my hands. Although hard to admit, the facilities within our bathrooms are constantly abused and are in an awful need of renovation. By taking steps towards replacing broken machines and communicating with the administration, we can improve the state in which we find our current restrooms.

One of the most important aspects of a bathroom is the soap dispensers. In a crowded school with more than 3,200

The Bathrooms - A Stuyvesant Horror Story students, it is easy to become infected with someone else’s germs, especially in the midst of the flu season. Hand washing is one of the most basic and imperative precautionary measures, yet faulty soap dispensers undermine its effectiveness. A look at our dispensers shows that many are either non-functional or devoid of soap. This wouldn’t be much of a problem if the dispensers were fixed on a daily basis, but many spend weeks without a single refill. Others remain in a perpetual state of disrepair.

We cannot let Stuyvesant turn into a disease center by denying students the simple right to wash their hands, especially when the problem has such a simple solution. By simply replenishing the supply of soap on a regular basis, we can strive towards a germ-free school. Broken dispensers,

Although hard to admit, the facilities within our bathrooms are constantly abused and are in an awful need of a renovation.

however, require greater attention and must be replaced by the administration. Each dispenser can be bought at a bargain price of less than $20,

resulting in a total commitment of only $150. Though spending money on such a

We cannot let Stuyvesant turn into a disease center by denying students the simple right to wash their hands.

simple thing as soap dispensers may seem frivolous, it will actually help to maintain the school’s general well-being.

Another problem within our bathrooms is the lack of paper towels. This is partly the administration’s fault for not refilling the supply, but the main problem lies with us, the students. Many students use an exorbitant number, throw them onto the floor instead of into the garbage can, and even push unused stacks off the dispensers. The resulting mess, which is caused by reckless students taking advantage of a faulty lock, prevents others from properly drying their hands. Fortunately, this situation can be easily addressed by installing paper towel dispensers with tamperproof locks. A second solution to this problem would be installing Xlerator hand dryers, which cost $400 apiece, or other eco-friendly hand dryers, thus saving both paper

and money. A study from Excel shows that an energy-efficient dryer would only cost only 50 cents per every 1,000 uses, compared to approximately $23 with the school’s current towel dispensers. By investing in electric dryers now, we will save money in the long run and ensure that our students leave the bathroom with dry hands.

Sinks are an essential part of a functional bathroom, yet we are even denied this basic resource, as an astounding one-third of our sink faucets are defunct. When this was brought to the attention of a member of the night-cleaning staff, he responded in shock and stated that the administration was not even aware of this problem. He then pledged to send a crew out to check the faucets later that night.

This shows that the lack of communication between students and the administration is one of the more prevalent issues behind the state of disrepair in which we find our current restrooms. Although little change has occurred, the first step, awareness, has been taken. By communicating with the administration, we

can work together and finally give our restrooms their long awaited renovation, starting with the sinks.

Confidently striding across the bathroom floor, I easily reach the sinks without any hassle. I press against soap dispenser and a big pile of soap falls into my waiting hand. Washing my hands, I stare up at the mirror in front of me and smile. I easily dry my hands with the new Xlerator dryer before happily exiting the bathroom with dry hands. It is our right, as students, to have a properly functioning bathroom. Those who claim it is a waste to update our bathroom facilities fail to see that the benefits of such an investment easily outweigh the costs. In fact, such a renovation would only cost approximately $5,000, a price that would eventually pay for itself. By finally updating our bathroom faculties, an operation that should have occurred years ago, we would truly be improving the school as a whole.

Alisa Su / The Spectator

Anne Duncan / The Spectator

Jessica Wu / The Spectator

The Stress Overload Caused by In-Class Finals

By Nadia Filanovsky and Stiven Peter It’s the last week of classes.

The projects you procrastinated all month are due, your teachers are rushing to finish the curriculum, and everything feels like it’s collapsing. You can feel the sleepless nights, and your brain seems to be holding itself hostage for a cup of coffee.

This end of the semester rush (universally referred to as “hell week”) is extremely stressful due to numerous se-

mester project deadlines and the added responsibility to perform well on in-class finals.

Final exams are given their own week to prevent students from having to study for exams and finish projects simultaneously. The fact that so many final exams are conducted while classes are still in session amplifies the stress of “hell week” to indescribable proportions.

The main issue with inclass finals is that they occur on the same days as classes. This forces instructors to condense a year’s worth of material into an exam lasting only 41 min-

utes. Such short exams cannot properly evaluate a student’s performance over the course of an entire semester.

Moreover, before and after in-class finals, students have classes to attend. Students struggle to find time to study for the next day’s exams, as they have to go to a full day of school instead of being able to go home early and focus on studying. Students also have a multitude of large projects and homework due during the last week of classes, which often take priority and significantly limit students’ available time to study for their in-class finals. Lastly, it is not uncommon that students have multiple in-class finals on the same day.

Departmental finals are distributed over an entire week, thereby solving many of the problems associated with the condensed scheduling of in-class finals. Because departmental finals occur after classes end, they alleviate stress since students have sufficient time to plan their study schedules. Students do not have to decide between finishing their projects and studying for their finals, and can put

more effort into both.

Furthermore, departmental finals incentivize a uni-

Departmental finals are distributed over an entire week, thereby solving many of the problems associated with the condensed scheduling of in-class finals.

versal curriculum set by the department and encourage teachers of the same course to

teach roughly the same material in preparation for a common exam. In-class finals, often personalized by teachers, allow for different sets of topics to be emphasized and tested in different sections of the same class. This results in students having an unequal knowledge base for that topic, which could be problematic if they decide to take advanced classes in the future or standardized tests at the end of the year. Additionally, the combined effort of many teachers will generate a better, more comprehensive exam than any individual teacher could make working alone.

All final exams should be given during finals week. The rush at the end of the semester for both teachers and students will be spread out, and students will have time to come up for air between projects and finals. Departmental finals should not be abandoned for a model that adds more chaos to everyone’s lives.

Page 16

The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Opinions Passing the Laugh Test

Anne Duncan / The Spectator

these men were elected with the mandate to provide a platform for the people’s voice. Instead, they have only given us reason to believe that we must keep the government under close scrutiny

By Zora Arum In David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Dom Grelsch, the editor of a fluff magazine that specializes in vacuous celebrity gossip, tells his employees, “Marketeers prove […] that every scientific term you use represents two thousand readers putting down the magazine and turning on a rerun of I Love Lucy.”

In a generation defined by social media, where sex scandals and gore are the only news topics that can hold a viewer’s attention for more than a couple minutes, it can be easy to overlook political issues in favor of those that are more entertaining. As a result, popular media often publishes less important information in order to satisfy the public’s craving for superficial gossip. However, when we choose to ignore the threats of problems that do not instantly enthrall us, we permit infringement on our democratic rights.

One issue that often goes un-

challenged by the general public is that of political corruption in New York State. Over the past decade, Albany has been riddled with political scandals, most of which involve the spending of government funds. In a recent interview with NPR, former New York state senator Seymour Lachman even went as far as to say that New York currently has “more corrupt officials than any other state.” Despite the significance of the issue, however, there has been little public outcry to rectify it.

The New York politicians most recently accused of dishonest operations include Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who has recently been arrested on charges of nearly $4 million in financial fraud, former Congressman Michael Grimm, who was primarily indicted for large-scale tax fraud, and, perhaps most importantly, Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is currently facing investigation around his actions regarding the Moreland Commission. All of

All of these men were elected with the mandate to provide a platform for the people’s voice.

Instead, they have only given us reason to believe that we must keep the government under close scrutiny if we expect our rights to be upheld. if we expect our rights to be upheld.

At first, Cuomo seemed to be taking steps toward amending the problem. On July 2, 2013, he appointed the “Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption” in order to, as the Commission’s public website states, “probe systemic corruption […] in state government, political campaigns and elections in New York State.”

Interestingly enough, according to The New Yorker, Cuomo disbanded the commission only nine months into what was supposed to be an 18-month pro-

gram. The call to end the commission came soon after it began investigating Buying Time, a media-buying firm that supported Cuomo’s advertisement campaign in 2010. When confronted with the accusation that he had interfered with the committee’s independence, Cuomo issued a statement, replying, “a commission appointed by and staffed by the executive cannot investigate the executive. It is pure conflict of interest and would not pass the laugh test.” There is no legitimate reason why investigating Cuomo would have decreased the commission’s efficiency, as it was simply doing its job. In fact, Cuomo was the one likely to have had a conflict of interest, as the evidence suggests that he was not only preoccupied with the commission’s success, but also with insuring his own political security.

Furthermore, Cuomo’s statement directly contradicted his earlier promise, made when the Commission was being formed, that “anything they want to look at, they can look at—me, the lieutenant governor […] any senator, any assemblyman.” This raises interesting questions, as it seems extremely likely that Cuomo disbanded the commission because he had something worth concealing, or out of fear that he could not pass his own “laugh test.”

This potential corruption is especially relevant now, with the recent decision made by Governor Cuomo and New Jersey Governor Christopher Christie to veto a bill proposed by legislators to reform the Port Authority, the agency responsible for monitoring transit between and within New York and New Jersey. The reforms pro-

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posed, which originally passed in both state Legislatures with overwhelming bipartisan support, would have allowed supervision of the Port Authority, creating a higher standard for its transparency and accountability. According to The New York Times, as of 2015, the Port Authority will have a budget of 7.8 billion dollars—a budget roughly equivalent to the GDP of Maine—financed by tolling and taxing citizens of both states, and yet the governors oversee it with practically no supervision. This allows politicians to utilize the agency’s funds for bribery and appoint unqualified connections to posts that require a broad scope of knowledge.

When I went to the Millions March, an organized protest against police brutality and institutionalized racism, one of the most frequently repeated chants was this: “Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!” As United States citizens, we have the uncommon privilege of being allowed to speak out against our government if we believe what they are doing is ethically reprehensible. This can be done through appealing to lower-level government officials and putting pressure for reform on Governors Christie and Cuomo through organized protest.

However, the first step in preventing political machination is staying informed. Sending men like Sheldon Silver to jail is a move in the right direction, but ignorance and apathy are unforgivable mistakes with dangerous consequences. By not addressing this lack of awareness, we are allowing further abuses to be committed without notice or redress.

The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Page 17

Arts and Entertainment Love Your Body Without the Shame

Alisa Su / The Spectator

Music

By Karen Chen

“Don’t—” She had already grabbed my arm and began to gape.

“Look, look! I can wrap my fingers around your wrists! That’s so weird… Are you anorexic?” A half-smile, a jerk of the arm and an uncomfortable-but-I’m-trying-to-be-as-polite-as-I-can “no” followed.

Being thin is a body size; it does not mean I have a disorder.

“Oh my gosh. You’re so skin-

ny—like a twig! Put some meat on your bones!” “Wow, you’re just skin and bones… How do you keep warm in the winter?”

These particularly common comments are not compliments.

They fall under the idea of skinnyshaming, a mostly unrecognized problem in which people with thin, less curvaceous bodies are called out and deprecated. “Thin” becomes redefined as “lanky,” “scrawny,” “skin and bones.”

While body-shaming is not a recent controversy, fat-shaming being ubiquitous but never truly

acknowledged due to the explicit impoliteness, skinny-shaming has just begun to catch light and spark fires. Skinny-shaming passes as a way to fight haters and not as a serious social offense (as fat-shaming is considered), with its growing presence in media as large rears are being glorified and skinny girls put down.

Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda,” which lasted on top of the charts for 16 weeks, is the most prevalent example of skinny-shaming in music. The song matches the feel of the samples it includes from Sir Mix-a-Lot’s 1992 hit, “Baby Got Back”—it features Minaj saying, “Fuck you if you skinny bitches.” Minaj has never been shy about her own body or curves. However, Minaj is not personally attacking a community of thin girls, but attacking the media that makes thinness the goal. In an interview with Billboard, she stated, “And those bigbooty dancers I have, they’re not going to hide. Black girls should feel sexy, powerful and important too.” Minaj presents the song as an attempt to empower women, particularly black women. Hiphop and rap, “big-booty dancers,” and portions of black identity are all interconnected. This is in no small part due to larger cultural narratives that assert the exact opposite, making thinner women more attractive.

Topping Minaj on the Billboard charts is new artist Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass,”

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which follows a similar message of taking pride in the artist’s body. The hit, like Minaj’s, uses the phrase “skinny bitches.”

The following line is: “No I’m just playing. I know you think you’re fat,” playing off the trope of an anorexic woman constantly seeing a “fat” woman in the mirror.

One of the top comments on Trainor’s music video on Youtube is: “What happened to everyone is beautiful?! Calling someone a skinny bitch is the same as calling someone a fat bitch… We’re all beautiful, no matter what size and we need to stop calling each other names or saying things like ‘only curvy girls are real women’ or ‘that girl would be pretty if she wasn’t fat.’”

In order to truly understand idea in music, the standpoints of the artists must first be observed.

It’s partially a form of retaliation against what the media has seen as an ideal figure for such a long period of time. For just a couple of the countless examples, the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch stated in 2013 that “cool kids”— presumably referring to his customers—did not wear plus-size clothing. Brandy Melville, another popular clothing chain, has a “one size fits all” clothing policy—effectively ignoring those with bigger bodies. Nobody can doubt the existence of stereotypes of thinner women as more attractive, more hard-working, and more “normal” compared to bigger women. Minaj and Trainor

preach about their self-love, possibly referring to “skinny bitches” as people from the past that had put them down for their size. In fact, the opening of Sir Mix-aLot’s “Baby Got Back” features two white girls trash-talking a black woman with a large butt.

Sir Mix-a-Lot defends the larger woman stating, “So Cosmo says you’re fat/ Well I ain’t down with that.” It should be noted that Sir Mix-a-Lot is an outside observer to the female fat-shaming process, unlike Minaj or Trainor, who may very have been the target of size-based comments.

Skinny-shaming is not a problem of individuals, but of societal pressures. Sir Mix-a-Lot may not represent all men, but he shows how the bodies of many women, large and small, are often plucked apart for analysis. (And his message is at least clothed in positivity). Society, in general, pinpoints what beauty is as well as what traits people should have, and in any form of art, experience is the ultimate inspiration. Thus, we hear songs on a regular basis that preach self-love but at the same time degrade others; the problem of size-shaming is that each side of the spectrum pushes each other, maintaining the demeaning dynamic rather than finding a better way. With either sexual innuendos or mixed content hiding the essential meaning of all the songs, it’s often hard to see that balance and realize the basic message: love your body.

The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Page 18

Arts and Entertainment Movie

Alisa Su / The Spectator

The Interview: Protecting Our Rights

By Sunjay Lee As Seth Rogen holds Digby, the precious King Charles Cavalier Spaniel, James Franco fires from Kim Jong Un’s war tank at Kim Jong Un himself, all while an acoustic version of “Firework” by Katy Perry plays in the background. Needless to say, this movie was a comedy.

“The Interview” is about popular entertainment talk show host Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his producer Aaron Rapport (Seth Rogen), who travel to North Korea

to interview Kim Jong Un (Randall Park). The CIA tasks them with the assassination of Kim Jong Un during their trip. To most Americans, the plot seems harmless and is merely satire of the notorious North Korean dictator. The North Korean government, however, did not understand the comical levity of the movie; North Korean United Nations ambassador, Ja Song Nam, asked the United Nations on July 11, 2014 to halt the production and distribution of “The Interview.”

Kim Myung-Chol, the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Af-

fairs, released a statement in June 2014 about the movie through the state-run Korean Central News Agency, saying that there will be a “resolute and merciless response” if the movie is released. A group called Guardians of Peace launched an aggressive cyber attack on Sony Entertainment in November and disclosed important passwords, along with exposing private emails to the public. The hackers continued their attack by threatening individual Sony employees and their families.

Initially, the U.S. government accused the North Korean government of being responsible for the cyber-attack, but it was later proven that the North Korean government was not involved in the hacking.

The wave of attacks scared potential moviegoers and cinema chains such as AMC and Regal Cinemas; the latter two and others ultimately pulled the movie from their theaters. In response, Sony decided not to distribute the movie to the public, since it believed it would not able to make profit if prominent movie chains were boycotting the movie. Many Americans, however, refused to yield to the threats. Presi-

dent Obama was one of the most prominent advocates for the release of “The Interview”; in a press conference, he said that it was “a mistake” for Sony to pull the movie from theaters.

After watching the movie on Christmas, I felt that the dramatic reactions from the North Korean government were unnecessary.

The over-the-top comedic performances, including crude comments and sexual innuendoes by Franco and Rogen, clearly asserted that the movie was satirical. North Korea’s claim on July 2014 that the movie was “an act of war” was dramatic and whimsical. The fact that they had not seen the movie accentuated the invalidity of their claims.

Although the cyber-attack and North Korea’s hostility towards the dissemination of the movie were concerning, they should not have frightened Sony to the extent that they did. Sony’s decision to pull movies from theaters opened another gateway for terrorists to attack by allowing them to obstruct our most basic rights: the freedom of speech and expression. Instead of cowering away and avoiding the problem, Sony should have confronted it and

protected the freedom of expression as a prominent entertainment company in Hollywood. While, to Sony’s credit, it eventually released the film online and in independent theaters, Sony’s initial decision to abstain from releasing “The Interview” was a mistake. With this precedent set, what’s to stop other terrorist groups in the future from abusing public fear to the extent that the media will start to censor itself? “‘The Interview’ did not mean to harm or seriously offend anybody,” Rogen said in a New York Times interview. “It’s surreal. It’s not something we expected at all.” He went on to explain that there have been other movies about the myths surrounding North Korea, and the fact that his movie gained so much media coverage and even caused a cyber attack against Sony is “crazy.”

No one expected North Korea’s reaction—the sole purpose of “The Interview” was to make the audience laugh. Although the argument against the movie is clear to due to its potential to be offensive, we cannot sacrifice the freedom of expression, particularly when comedy is the only purpose of this expression.

Alisa Su / The Spectator

A Mash-up of Fairytales

By Victoria Huang Imagine scouring the woods for the ingredients of a magic potion while bumping into all the most famous fairy tale characters. An alltime favorite, the Broadway musical “Into the Woods” has been wowing people of all ages for decades and now continues to expand its audience as a major Disney production.

Although some thought that Disney would ruin the movie and not follow the original plot because of its dark undertones, Disney’s “Into the Woods” succeeds in adapting to its audience while preserving the original play’s storyline.

In the movie’s opening, The Baker (James Corden) and his Wife (Emily Blunt) wish to have a child, but the Witch next door (Meryl Streep) has cursed the couple so that they will be barren forever.

The Witch, however, offers to lift the curse if the Baker and his Wife acquire the ingredients for her potion: a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn, and a slipper as pure as gold.

The Baker and his Wife search for these items, finding them among the classic fairy tale characters that we know so well: Beanstalk Jack (Daniel Huttlestone), Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), Rapunzel (MacKenzie Mauzy), and

Cinderella (Anna Kendrick). As these characters fulfill their various missions and search for their own happy endings, they collide in the dark depths of the woods.

It seems as though all will end well—everyone’s wishes get fulfilled, and for some time, the whole kingdom is happy. But halfway through the movie, when the audience is getting ready to leave, satisfied with what seems like the ending, a new problem comes along.

This throws all the characters into another disaster, causing them to re-evaluate their decisions and wishes. The movie picks up again with what, on stage, would have been the second act, making it feel like two movies in one.

The movie is a beautiful adaptation of the original musical written

by Stephen Sondheim in 1986. Although the violence is toned down a bit, Disney manages to incorporate the grimness and the brutality from the original Broadway musical into its movie, while keeping it PG. Such is highlighted in a scene in which Jack’s mother (Tracey Ullman) gets hurt. In the musical, she is purposefully hit by a club, but in the movie, she only gets slapped and falls. Regardless of the method, she dies, and one more tally mark is added to the number of deaths in the movie.

Perhaps one of the best aspects of the movie is its soundtrack,

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which follows viewers everywhere for the next day or so after watching. The movie begins with its famous prologue, which introduces all the characters and their motivations for going into the woods. They all start by singing, “I wish…”, and the song then blends into a mashup of 10 people singing about their different situations at the exact same time. It sounds like a happy, busy parade, and the tunes are very catchy and refreshing. The movie continues with other stunning songs and pieces that enchant and intrigue the audience.

One of the audience’s favorites is definitely “Agony,” which is sung by the two princes in a highly comedic and melodramatic fashion about their relationship issues. The two argue—in song, of course— over who is experiencing the most pain from not being able to be with his maiden of choice, Cinderella or Rapunzel.

Another impressive number is “The Last Midnight,” in which Streep directly addresses the consequences and the mistakes of all the remaining characters left alive in the woods. She initially sounds annoyed by the “goodness” of the other characters, but soon the song builds into more intense anger as her voice rises in power and volume. This song is characteristic of Streep, who is very expressive in her acting throughout the movie.

Although Streep’s performance is sensational, other leads are not nearly as capable. Their singing is phenomenal, but because their faces are devoid of expression, their emotions aren’t palpable. This is partially a result of the hues in the woods—because the setting is in the middle of the night, director Rob Marshall chose to use darker shades, occasionally making it difficult to discern the actor’s facial expressions.

“Into the Woods” is also flawed in that there are simply too many plotlines going on at one time, which makes it hard to focus on any individual story. While Cinderella is running away from her prince, for example, Jack is fighting a giant, the Baker is finding a cow, and Rapunzel is searching for her prince.

Despite its flaws, “Into the Woods” is an incredible film whether one is familiar with the original musical or not. Although it may seem a little messy and unorganized at times, the casting and music make watching it a very enjoyable experience. And underlying it all is a very important, yet somewhat cliché, lesson: be careful what you wish for, because you may not be ready for the consequences.

The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Page 19

Arts and Entertainment Play

Sunny Chen / The Spectator

Struggling to Find the Real Thing

By Liam Elkind Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Thing” is a play about infidelity, lust, and the complexity of romantic relationships. The Roundabout Theater’s latest production of the play stars Ewan McGregor as Henry, an obnoxious, self-involved author who, as we slowly learn, has more heart on the inside than he originally lets on. It quickly becomes clear that Henry is cheating on his wife with his friend’s spouse, Annie (Maggie Gyllenhaal), which quickly increases the dramatic tension among this small group of friends.

Through his interactions with Annie, we slowly discover the facts in a tangled web of love and lies. But despite having an undoubtedly talented cast, the production ultimately produces an over-the-top

drama that is unable to provide any authenticity.

McGregor’s performance lends itself to a heartwarming climax, and gives us a character to root for.

He begins to give a satisfying arc to the play, and his pretentious, petty dialogue is a source of comic relief.

However, unsupported by most of his fellow actors, even McGregor is unable to fully convince us of his character’s motives and emotions.

Instead, most of the supporting characters’ dialogue is infuriatingly pretentious, filled with obnoxious, charged arguments. There is a 10minute scene in the second act in which Henry sees his daughter for the first time in years, and while the dialogue tells us what the characters feel and what their motivations are, the actors themselves do little to convey that.

Not all the dialogue is dramatic though. In another scene, Henry discusses with Annie the importance of being able to write well. In what is perhaps the most famous scene in the play, Henry compares a strong writer to a cricket bat: a well-developed use of language and writing can propel an idea forward, but an inexperienced and untalented writer is similar to a large plank of wood. While it may look similar, it is insufficient and will ultimately cause the ball to thunk.

While fun, witty conversations and monologues like this do provide entertainment, the play lapses into repetitiveness. Frustratingly, Gyllenhaal never reaches her full potential in portraying Annie, instead seeming like a character that can easily fade into the background. Additionally, our protagonist Henry never really shows a change in character, failing to complete his dramatic arc.

The show, however, does excel at providing dramatic tension.

It always gives us a reason to remain interested in the characters, no matter how much they annoy us. Stoppard’s plays are filled with intriguing characters we can’t help but feel drawn to. Throughout the play, subtle character interactions give us a glimpse into the honesty the actors are trying to deliver, even if they are unable to provide it consistently. The integrity of the play comes from the well-written dialogue, not the actors themselves.

The cricket bat may be well-made, but it still needs a strong player to swing it.

Playlist “In the Cold, Cold Night” The White Stripes Alternative Rock “The Wolves (Acts 1 & 2)” Bon Iver Indie Alisa Su / The Spectator

“Pine Moon” Feist Indie “Retrograde” James Blake Electronic

“Winter Song” The Head and the Heart Alternative “Skin Warming Skin” Laura Gibson Alternative “Winter” Albin Bruns NAH Quartet Modern Classical “Child’s Play” Sza R&B

“Blue Lips” Regina Spektor Indie Folk “California Dreamin’” The Mamas and The Papas Folk Rock “That Dress Looks Nice on You” Sufjan Stevens Folk “Snowballed” AC/DC Rock “February” Dar Williams Folk “Condor Ave.” Elliott Smith Singer-songwriter

“Here, They Used To Build Ships” Johan Johannsson Modern Classical

“Fine and Mellow” Billie Holiday Jazz

“Warm On A Cold Night” HONNE Electronic

“A Hazy Shade of Winter” Simon & Garfunkel Folk

The integrity of the play comes from the wellwritten dialogue, not the actors themselves. play-within-a-play, the husband remains calm and logical, seemingly illustrating Henry’s ideal thought of how a husband should act. However, Henry’s own reactions to infidelity show how even the cold and humorous author has a deeper, emotional side. Once again, however, this development was mostly carried by McGregor’s superb acting, rather than by the quality of his fellow actors.

The transitions between scenes are particularly strange and unsettling, despite the attempt to keep a lighthearted mood. At the begin-

ning of each act, the full cast comes onstage; they play a few minutes of music on the guitar and sing. “The Real Thing” wants to be a fourperson play, but has a much larger cast of supporting actors that are only present for a few minutes. As a result, the music scenes try to give the minor parts more stage time but fail to develop the play any further or give us an understanding of its significance to the story.

McGregor and Gyllenhaal provide an intriguing relationship that is certainly humorous. So what went wrong? To start, the humor is too overbearing and completely dominates any dramatic undertones, making the play feel awkwardly off-balanced. The believable relationship between McGregor and Gyllenhaal is left largely ignored as more time and attention was given to the supporting actors, who fail to bring any form of honesty or truth to the play. Henry’s marital issues are the most engaging part of the show and begin to get at “the real thing,” but the honesty is so overshadowed by small subplots that the show never really takes any direction. Instead, it lingers between authentic and flat-out strange. The set and transitions are clunky, the directing mediocre, and the dramatic tension greatly overwhelmed by a constant stream of attempts at cheap humor. Despite having wonderful leads and an undeniably intriguing script, the latest production of “The Real Thing” ultimately fails to live up to its title.

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Winter Songs

A playlist for the snowy days you spend indoors under a thick blanket with a good book and hot chocolate.

And for the cold subway rides when you are wrapped in an oversized scarf and a bulky coat, but still shivering.

Hopefully these songs can at least warm you up a little before your next trek back into the cold.

The play begins with a scene from one of Henry’s plays, in which a husband discovers that his wife has been cheating on him. Slowly discovering that this scene is itself a fiction within the play was a refreshing surprise hinting at further secrets. As it turns out, this scene is echoed several times, as Henry discovers other instances of marital infidelity in his own life. In the

“Goodbye Blue Monday” Little Green Cars Indie “This Will Be Our Year” The Zombies Pop/Rock “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?”

Pete Seeger Folk “The A Team” Ed Sheeran Indie Folk/Pop “Winter Wonderland” Colbie Caillat Pop “It’s Not For Me To Say” She & Him Indie Pop “Brain Cells” Chance The Rapper Hip-hop/Rap “Vanilla Twilight” Owl City Pop

Page 20

The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Arts and Entertainment Get Your Popcorn Ready: 2015 Movie Preview

By Lev Akabas

Fast & Furious 7

April 2015

Run All Night

Synopsis: Deckard Shaw, a dead man’s brother, seeks revenge on Dominic Toretto and his crew.

Genre: Action Starring: Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Paul Walker, Jason Statham From the trailer, it looks like... the producers sat in a conference room for a week, brainstormed things that are physically impossible with cars, and then settled on parachuting cars out of a plane from 10,000 feet in the air as the most realistic idea.

My only concern is... nothing. Absolutely nothing. Give me Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, and five other atrocious actors, and I’m at the theater.

Synopsis: An aging hitman is forced to take on his brutal former boss to protect his estranged son and his family.

Genre: Action, Thriller Starring: Liam Neeson, Ed Harris From the trailer, it looks like... “Taken.”

My only concern is... that it won’t be enough like “Taken.”

Release Date: April 17, 2015

Release Date: May 1, 2015

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Lydia Wu / The Spectator

Synopsis: When Tony Stark jumpstarts a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry, forcing Iron Man, Thor, the Incredible Hulk, and the rest of the Avengers to reassemble.

Genre: Action/Adventure Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson From the trailer, it looks like... it’s a little darker than its predecessor, and may stray from the laugh out loud banter that made the first Avengers movie so entertaining.

My only concern is... these superhero movies (especially sequels) sometimes fall into the trap of needing to outdo previous films until the plots become over-the-top. But I think Marvel’s earned the benefit of the doubt at this point.

Mad Max: Fury Road Synopsis: Though determined to wander the post-apocalyptic wasteland alone, Mad Max joins Furiosa, a fugitive trying to escape a savage warlord.

Genre: Action Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron From the trailer, it looks like... the entire movie is a two-hour car chase in the desert. Cool.

My only concern is.... director George Miller might have gotten a little special-effects-happy. It also looks really weird.

Release Date: May 15, 2015

Release Date: May 1, 2015

Inside Out Jurassic World Synopsis: A dinosaur theme park, Jurassic World, creates the Indominus Rex, a genetically modified hybrid dinosaur, to boost visitor attendance, but it soon wreaks havoc on the island.

Genre: Science Fiction Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard From the trailer, it looks like... CHRIS PRATT IS BACK! My only concern is... they basically just remade “Jurassic Park” with significantly better special effects and threw in Chris Pratt. Wait… that sounds amazing!

Release Date: June 12, 2015

Synopsis: The five emotions inside a girl’s head vie for control after a lifechanging event.

Genre: Animation, Comedy Starring: Amy Poehler, Mindy Kaling, Bill Hader From the trailer, it looks like... the funniest animated movie that has ever been made.

My only concern is... Pixar is currently in a slump. “Cars 2” (2011) was their least original movie, “Brave” (2012) lacked Pixar’s usual humor, and “Monsters University” (2013) was a funny but cliché sequel to the imaginative “Monsters Inc.” I’m glad that Pixar appears to be moving back towards the out-of-the-box ideas that made our childhood favorites like “Toy Story” and “Finding Nemo” so popular. The premise for “Inside Out” is hilarious, and the studio is releasing two movies this year, the second of which will be “The Good Dinosaur” in November, so Pixar may be on an upward trajectory.

Ant-Man

Black Mass

Synopsis: With the ability to shrink in size but grow in strength, a con man must help his mentor protect the secret of his Ant-Man suit and pull off a heist that will save the world.

Genre: Action/Adventure Starring: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Corey Stoll From the trailer, it looks like... Ant-Man has really cool powers. Paul Rudd may or may not be able to pull off a superhero role, but he did get ripped to play this part.

My only concern is... how this movie will fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which, by the way, has planned out its movies through 2019, including “Doctor Strange” with Benedict Cumberbatch (yes!), “Black Panther” with Chadwick Boseman (Yes!), “Guardians of the Galaxy 2” (YES!), and ultimately culminating in “Avengers: Infinity War Part 1” and “Avengers: Infinity War Part 2” (YES!!! and YES!!!), which will basically involve every superhero ever.

Synopsis: Whitey Bulger, the most infamous violent criminal in the history of South Boston, becomes an FBI informant to take down a Mafia family invading his turf.

Genre: Crime Starring: Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon There’s no trailer yet, but I’m excited because… Benedict Cumberbatch should probably win an Oscar this year for “The Imitation Game,” and he pretty much never makes bad movies.

My only concern is... who cares?

It’s Johnny Depp!

Release Date: July 17, 2015

Release Date: September 18, 2015

Alisa Su / The Spectator

Release Date: June 19, 2015

The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Page 21

Arts and Entertainment Spectre

The Hateful Eight

Synopsis: A cryptic message from James Bond’s past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization.

Genre: Action, Thriller Starring: Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Ralph Fiennes There’s no trailer yet, but I’m excited because... Christoph Waltz was born to play a James Bond villain.

My only concern is... I, unlike most people, hated “Skyfall,” the previous Bond movie.

It wasn’t a Bond movie — it was a two-anda-half-hour drag that turned into “Home Alone” for the last 30 minutes.

Release Date: November 6, 2015

Mockingjay Part 2

Synopsis: In post-Civil War Wyoming, bounty hunters try to find shelter during a blizzard but get involved in a plot of betrayal and deception.

Genre: Western, Directed by Quentin Tarantino Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Bruce Dern, Tim Roth, Channing Tatum There’s no trailer yet, but I’m excited because... it has a stacked cast and a complex plot, two great aspects of Quentin Tarantino movies.

My only concern is... it will be overly bloody and violent, an often criticized aspect of Quentin Tarantino movies.

Synopsis: The final installment of the Hunger Games series (I’m not giving anything away. Read the books!)

Genre: Action/Adventure Starring: Jennifer Lawrence There’s no trailer yet, but I’m excited because… I hope that watching the two-hour trailer for this movie (“Mockingjay Part 1”) wasn’t a complete waste of time.

My only concern is... Jennifer Lawrence is 24. Katniss Everdeen is 17. I’m sorry.

Release Date: November 21, 2015

Release Date: November 13, 2015

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens The Martian

Synopsis: Star Wars Genre: Star Wars Starring: Star Wars characters From the trailer, it looks like... that moment at the end when the famous John Williams music kicks in made approximately 30 million nerds around the world drool like a dog looking at a bone. The scenes appear to be shot in natural environments (desert, forest, etc.), which is reminiscent of the original trilogy. The prequel trilogy’s CGI big city setting — among many other things — ruined the classic Star Wars atmosphere.

My only concern is... people will continue criticizing the new perpendicular bisector lightsaber from the trailer.

Just stop it. That thing is awesome. You want one, and you know it.

Synopsis: An astronaut left behind on an alien planet uses his experience and knowledge to survive in the hopes that one day he will be rescued.

Genre: Science Fiction Starring: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain There’s no trailer yet, but I’m excited because… this seems like a sleeper Best Picture candidate. The early favorite, if you’re wondering, is the untitled Steven Spielberg Cold War drama written by the Coen brothers and starring Tom Hanks.

That’s gonna be tough to beat.

My only concern is... this is basically just “Gravity” with a dude.

Release Date: November 25, 2015

Joy

Release Date: December 25, 2015

The Revenant Synopsis: In the 19th century, Hugh Glass, a frontiersman, sets out on a path of vengeance against those who left him for dead after a bear mauling.

Genre: Western, Thriller Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy There’s no trailer yet, but I’m excited because… the last movie DiCaprio and Hardy appeared in together was “Inception.”

My only concern is... Leonardo DiCaprio inexplicably won’t win an Oscar. Again.

Release Date: December 25, 2015

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DECEMBER 2015

Synopsis: A struggling Long Island single mom becomes one of the country’s most successful entrepreneurs.

Genre: Drama Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro There’s no trailer yet, but I’m excited because… director David O’Russell is sticking with the formula that got him Oscar nominations for “Silver Linings Playbook” and “American Hustle”: an emotional, down-to-earth film featuring two likeable actors in Lawrence and Cooper.

My only concern is... a late December release can often dramatically decrease a film’s Oscar nominations, as “Selma” found out the hard way this year.

Release Date: December 18, 2015

Page 22

The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Arts and Entertainment TV

Yujie Fu / The Spectator

The Immortal Career of Stephen Colbert

By Danielle Eisenman Outfitted in an old-fashioned doctor costume, the kind easily obtained at an upscale Halloween store, Stephen Colbert stands with one foot on a slain Grim Reaper (a “lifelong friend and colleague” of Colbert, affectionately referred to as “Grimmy”) and the other on the ground. He grasps a plastic samurai sword and thrusts it in the air while blue lightning zaps around this way and that, forming something of an electric halo around Colbert, who is screaming maniacally. “I have killed Death,” says Colbert. “So I must be immortal!” Melodramatic music swells, and a goofy cacophony erupts from all around. This segment of the last episode of “The Colbert Report” then surrenders itself to a commercial break.

The late-night news satire known as “The Colbert Report” (pronounced Cole-bear Re-pore) came to a close on December 18.

Four days a week for the past nine years, Stephen Colbert has presented himself to the nation as a

violently right-wing and laughably clueless parody of a Fox News-type pundit, named “Stephen Colbert.”

(Interestingly enough, he and his fictionalized self share a name, although the Colbert on television makes the “t” at the end of his name silent, and jokingly claims it’s French, even though he’s Irish.)

Colbert, the character, throws his outrageously conservative (and sometimes, just plain outrageous) actions and opinions at the show’s viewers, whether he’s discussing the downsides of having a female president or teaching children’s book author Maurice Sendak how to sniff Sharpies.

The format of the show was not dissimilar to its counterpart “The Daily Show,” created and hosted by Jon Stewart, and aired on Comedy Central in the time slot right before Colbert’s program: in both shows, each episode presents (in Colbert’s case, presented) prominent news stories peppered with tongue-incheek commentary, occasionally broken up by recurring segments or reports from satirical correspondents, and ends with a conversa-

tion with a celebrity guest.

At the show’s start in 2005, critics were doubtful whether Colbert’s overwhelmingly facetious caricature could sustain itself. Critic Adam Sternbergh once wrote that “The Colbert Report” “[had] problems so intrinsic as to be potentially unfixable.” This vigorously conservative blowhard, whose existence and act were catered toward liberal-minded young people, came off as being stupid and simplistic, and at times, annoying. The task of dealing with Colbert for 22 minutes on a nightly basis deemed itself to be repetitive. Colbert, however, not only managed to stay in character, but also excelled in doing so. Colbert’s character is eternally clever— the stark ridiculousness with which he offers his outlandish opinions is consistently maintained, and consistently hilarious, all the while taking on legitimately serious ideas and offering astonishingly intelligent commentary. For this, “The Colbert Report” won Emmy and Peabody awards, a cult following (called the Colbert Nation), and even its own Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor, Americone Dream.

The last episode, however, was eclectic in a way that felt disorienting and a bit disappointing. It was a collection of noncontiguous pieces cobbled together and then thrown at its viewers. The episode began with a story about Syria, which segued into a report on the auctioning off of Colbert’s desk and mantle piece, and then came to a segment of “The Word” (in which Colbert would speak to the camera whilst being accompanied by a sidebar of witty remarks), followed by the “Grimmy” bit previously described.

After that came a performance of the Dame Vera Lynn classic, “We’ll Meet Again,” a song that

properly voiced Colbert’s jolly farewell. Colbert began singing on his own, but was soon joined by his buddy, Stewart. Then, small clusters of other celebrities began to sing along, until practically the entire studio was packed with glitzy stars—a group that included everyone from astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson to New York City mayor Bill de Blasio to actor James Franco to TV personality Big Bird.

The presentation of this collection of people felt somewhat boastful in a way that was neither characteristic nor endearing, as if Colbert’s main motivation was to show off all of his cool, famous friends.

The show ended with a meeting with Santa Claus, accompanied by a unicorn horn-bearing Abraham Lincoln and Alex Trebek, “the man with all the answers.” Playing the part of the inexperienced and puerile mentee, Colbert sputtered questions at Trebek, who replied that Colbert was correct—all of life’s uncertainties are answered with questions (a nod to “Jeopardy,” hosted by Trebek). This joke wasn’t particularly spectacular and was followed by another joke that fell flat, in which Colbert expressed his disbelief in the validity of Trebek’s dual citizenship. It felt like a forced reminder of Colbert’s already wellestablished conservatism. Before riding off into the distance, Colbert faced the camera and doled out his gratitude to those who worked with him on the show, all the guests who have ever been on the show, and his viewers—all the usual contenders.

In this moment, his genuine thanks overrode his caricature mask, although he mistakenly tried to save it by jokingly asking singer Mavis Staples to thank the rest of the guests for him. His last line, which served as an underwhelming, but humbly honest bona fide, was

simply, “That was fun! Okay. Okay, that’s the show. From eternity, I’m Stephen Colbert.”

An entire show done with the same sense of simple candor would have been a solid way to cap off a solid series. It was expected that Colbert would bring back past guests for the sake of reminding viewers of old jokes and spreading the warmth of nostalgia. However, the excess of memories was not expected or preferable. Colbert’s character is all about excess, but the flashiest, most unexpected thing that could be done in this situation would be to tone down the flashiness—which, for the most part, he failed to do.

Comedy Central’s 11:30 p.m. time-slot was taken over by Larry Wilmore on January 19 with “The Nightly Show.” Wilmore has produced and/or written for numerous popular shows (to name a few, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “The Bernie Mac Show,” and, recently, “Black-ish”). He was also the “senior black correspondent” on Stewart’s “The Daily Show.” Wilmore has discussed his plans for the show, which will offer commentary on current events and news stories, while focusing on offering a variety of perspectives that are usually underrepresented on television. So far, it appears to be cosmically different and quite intriguing.

Colbert is heading to CBS and will be succeeding David Letterman in becoming the host of “The Late Show.” The satirized, blockheaded pundit is no more, but Colbert will re-engage with the public late next summer or early next fall as a new character, a hybrid of Stephen Colbert, himself, and Stephen Colbert, the effervescent caricature. Although Colbert has stepped down from “The Colbert Report,” his career is alive as ever.

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The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Page 23

Humor These articles are works of fiction. All quotes are libel and slander.

Administration, SU: Suck It Up, You Big Babies

By Winton Yee

A blizzard, the likes of which had never before been seen, hit New York on Tuesday, January 27, 2015. As a result, all public schools were closed and finals that were scheduled for that day were pushed to Friday. Tuesday afternoon, however, the administration sent out an e-mail stating that the finals had been rescheduled once again: “Actually, your Trigonometry and Pre-Calculus finals are tomorrow. And I don’t want to hear any of your, ‘But you didn’t give us a 24-hour warning!’ or ‘I already rescheduled around your rescheduling, and you can’t just reschedule again’ logic. Suck it up, and deal with the fact that life is cruel and unfair,

and that the people you deal with in life will occasionally be incompetent.”

Student Union vice-president Jonathan Aung, who had sent the e-mail to Principal Jie Zhang that resulted in the change of test dates, defended the decision. “I fought for this,” Aung said. “Like, if you expand your definition of ‘fighting’ to sending an e-mail. But still. I did something!”

When asked how changing the date of the finals from Friday to Wednesday, with short notice and after the fact that many students had already changed their plans to make the Friday final, would help anyone, Aung said, “Holistically, we have to work together.

Think about the holistics. We’ve

got to holistically do this, and by you guys holistically arguing against me now, you’re just holistically not understanding the situation.”

Many students were outraged by the rescheduling of the rescheduling. “Wait…our final is tomorrow?” said junior Sam Greenburg, before running off in the direction of his house.

Teachers, too, were perturbed. “Wait, does this mean I have to come in to proctor tomorrow?” Pre-Calculus teacher Brian Sterr said. “Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

As of press time, Zhang was reportedly debating rescheduling the finals to 6:00 a.m., just to let those kids know who was in charge here.

Alisa Su / The Spectator

Graduation Keynote Speaker: Jaden Smith

By Alec Dai Principal Jie Zhang: Our next guest is the greatest philosopher this world has had in years. At only 16, he has taken probably zero AP classes, but is still changing the world with his innovative ideas and thoughtprovoking literature. This handsome young man has been featured in many movies, including that sci-fi one two years

ago that sucked. Please give a warm welcome to renowned actor and ground-breaking intellectual Mr. Jaden Smith!

Jaden Smith: Now, many speakers may start this off by thanking people. But I’m not about that life. Let me start off by reading some of my tweets: “How Can Mirrors Be Real If Our Eyes Aren’t Real” “Most Trees Are Blue.”

All you kids are really smart, and I want these tweets to teach you something. I tweet for a reason. I have 5.6 million followers for a reason. I want every single one of you to know that you shouldn’t be afraid to think outside the box.

Don’t just accept what teachers tell you. How do we know that trees aren’t actually blue? My green might be someone else’s blue. We all might not even see the same colors. Thus, our eyes aren’t real. If our eyes aren’t real, then our mirrors aren’t real. This is the type of thinking we need. We need more brains like mine.

But, my brain doesn’t just think, it also spreads positivity. For example, you know how Asians are often ridiculed for their eyes? The tweets I read earlier are there to remind 70 percent of you here that eyes do not matter because they do not even exist. My tweets solve people’s problems and put smiles on everyone’s faces. So, when you’re out there and the real world knocks you down with that long bamboo stick, just look at my tweets once in a while.

Back to you, Jie-Z.

Student’s Huge Average Draws Attention

By Adam DeHovitz

When junior Lucas Weiner walked down the third floor hallway on Wednesday, January 14, he was shocked to find that, for the first time ever, kids were noticing him. “I was so confused. Popular kids who have never even bothered to bully me were falling silent and staring at me as I ran to my comp sci class,” Weiner said.

What Weiner didn’t know was that, only the night before, his best acquaintance, junior Daniel Kodsi, had let a rumor drop about Weiner’s massive GPA on the highly reputable college recruitment website ask.fm. “People used to think

that I was an un-socialized loser who was heading to BMCC, but now, overnight, people think that I’m an un-socialized loser with a 98.3 average!” Weiner exclaimed. “I had this cute girl ask for my number to help her review for an AP Calc BC test, and underclassmen keep coming up to me, asking for my ‘secret.’

Today, I was even invited to an exclusive ARISTA party!”

Weiner is now famous throughout the school. “During a free, my girlfriends and I were talking about the news. I know that at least two of us are going to try to schedule a study session with him this evening,” said one junior girl, giggling. “I only hope he says yes!”

And yet, not everyone was happy for young stallion Weiner. “When I saw the news about [Weiner], I was sitting in my dark room with tissues in one hand and my report card in the other,” senior Jeremy Atos said.

“I immediately googled ‘tips for a higher average’ and clicked on a link promising me five tips to ‘impress all my teachers,’ but all it did was download four different viruses.”

At press time, a terrified Weiner was seen running out of junior Lucy Liu’s apartment after one of their ‘study sessions,’ during which Liu supposedly brandished a whopping 99.1 GPA.

Freshman Reveals Secret to Bagging

By Ling Dong and Jason Mohabir Every generation has its fads. The greatest singer to ever grace the earth, Rebecca Black, was just a fad. So were jeggings, sagging, memes, and Pokémon, to name a few more. We’re just kidding about the last one.

Pokémon is forever.

Another thing that will remain forever is what we now know as bagging. Every year, thousands upon thousands of high school students look for that one special person to be their significant other, vowing to be with them until death do them part. Or at least, until the tragedy of college violently separates them with miles of obstacles impossible to overcome even for those clearly fated to be together.

One anonymous freshman has recently made a gamechanging discovery that will undoubtedly change the field of bagging. According to the freshman, his bagging skills have given him benefits at his part time job as well, as even his employer is dying to figure out how he bags.

The benevolent freshman in question requested to hide his name because he wants to “give everyone else a chance.”

He also said that he does not “want to drown in ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) [sic].”

Nevertheless, The Spectator has managed to acquire an exclusive breakdown of the secrets to bagging. There are just three simple rules to follow: “One, learn to identify those who are fragile, and treat them with special care. Like bananas, for example. People are like bananas, because they are soft and get bruised easily.

“Two, spend your time carefully, as they may get impatient and move on. I would know—a lot of girls leave me for the next cashier.

“And three, don’t get them mixed up with someone else.

Give the wrong person the wrong thing, and you’ll be blacklisted. Then nobody will line up for you.

“That’s it. The rules are completely foolproof,” the freshman said. “I would know—I’ve bagged over a hundred times!”

A recent poll revealed that less than half of the Stuyvesant population has ever bagged, yet over 420 percent claim they know the secret to bagging, which, according to statistics teacher Dr. Bernard Feigenbaum, doesn’t statistically make sense. On the contrary, however, a local supermarket attested to the trustworthiness of our source, citing that they have previously awarded him cashier of the month for his exceptional skills in bagging.

This Article Has Not Been Fact-Checked

By Miki Steele Stuyvesant High School— and the entire world, for that matter—has been buzzing about sophomore Lowell Weisbord’s recent successes across the international curling circuit.

He just may be the best teenage curler in the world, having won 72 million tournaments since he started curling at the age of nine.

“I cannot confirm these results,” Weisbord said. “From a quick look, though, they seem a bit off. The number of trophies in my house definitely exceeds the high-eight-figure range.”

None of the aforementioned information has been fact-checked. Yet there is little reason to believe that this is an issue, because Weisbord told The Spectator the information himself, and he’s probably telling the truth. Friends of Weisbord say that they have never seen him curl and that he has never mentioned the sport, but these are all blatant lies.

“I don’t even know what curling is,” sophomore Solomon Menditz said. “Don’t publish any of this nonsense.”

These comments indicate that there is some sort of coverup going on. Menditz must be trying to hide the star curler’s accomplishments, which, in addition to being a successful curler, include curing cancer, according to an unofficial document produced by Weisbord that a Spectator reporter looked

at for 0.01 seconds.

Seeking corroboration from another source, The Spectator asked the International Curlers Association for a statement.

“We have no record of that person ever competing in any tournament in the history of international curling. Furthermore, it seems extremely unlikely that a 15-year-old boy has won 72 million tournaments, especially seeing as there are only seven curling tournaments held each year.”

“Don’t publish any of this nonsense.”

—Solomon Medintz, sophomore The numbers simply add up too well for Weisbord to have fabricated them. An unknown source even claims that he saw the sophomore wearing a curling hat on the street one afternoon, thus confirming Weisbord’s success in the sport.

This article was written with help from New York Magazine.

The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Page 24

Humor Humor Writer Bravely Puts Life at Risk by Writing Something About The Interview Others believe that Yee does not deserve to be recognized.

“Oh, come on,” said an anonymous citizen who Yee referred to as “Vladimir Stalin.” “The article doesn’t even say anything about

“What an intellectual, well-written, handsome individual.

Someone should give this guy a medal or something.”

—Barack Obama, President

Many patriotic Americans, however, have expressed their support for Yee. “What an intellectual, well-written, handsome individual,” President Barack Obama said. “Someone should give this guy a medal or something.”

The Interview. It’s like a self-referential loop of unfunny metastupidity.”

Yee, however, defends his statements. “I’m just trying to promote democracy and maybe get some girls in the process, bro.”

Yujie Fu / The Spectator

Esteemed Spectator Humor Editor Winton Yee published an article on Friday, January 23, about the controversy surrounding the film The Interview, immediately making him North Korea’s Public Enemy Number One and catapulting him into national-hero status.

“Is this article sort of stale, given the long distribution periods of The Spectator and the fact that the movie came out a month ago? Sure. Is this the second self-referential humor piece in the last three issues? Yes. Am I basically copying my underling Jordan Hodder’s style? Some would say so,” Yee said. “But I’m striving for something greater here. I’m making a statement.

Screw the commies.”

North Korea has already taken drastic measures against Yee, officially making him a hero.

“You’re not a true hero until you make controversial, inflammatory statements supporting your own fundamentally narrow views of the world and greatly offend others in the process,” filmmaker Michael Moore said.

Yee has been barred from entering the extremely safe and desirable tourist destination Pyongyang without an even

longer, more arbitrary application status than the one average Americans must complete.

Dennis Rodman has also stated that he will “never play a pickup game against Winton.”

Stephanie Chen / The Spectator

By Winton Yee

Students Struggle with Limited Planner Space

Teachers assigned so much work over winter break that there was insufficient space in students’ planners to write down all of the assignments.

By Wasif Zaman Freshman Josh Zheng stumbled upon a disastrous revelation on the morning of Monday, December 15, 2014.

He discovered that the planners distributed at the beginning of every school year do not contain enough space to record homework assignments the week before the holidays.

“You know that guy in ‘Memento’ who wrote those weird tattoos all over his body? That’s what I’m resorting to now. So far, it’s working pretty well,” said Zheng. He went on to showcase these self-imprinted notes. They included, but were not limited to: “Bring wildlife photos for Tarsiers Aren’t Monkeys Club,” “Ask Mrs. Hall out,” and “Get new planner.”

Major issues lie in this seemingly effective solution to copying down homework. “Two words: lead poisoning,” school nurse Danielle Karunadasa said. “We have students coming in left and right requesting a full-body scrub-down to rinse off homework assignments from the previous day.”

Assistant Principal of Health Education Brian Moran (unfortunately, due to lack of space, his full title cannot be printed here) pointed out additional flaws with this method. “Tattoos could be used as a cheating mechanism on big exams,” Moran said. “While I was a warden on Rikers Island, I learned that prisoners often tried to use body tattoos to devise escape plans. Treat the students like prisoners, and all is well.”

Matters are made even worse by the fact that even the bodies of students themselves do not contain enough space to

hold all of the necessary information. “Sometimes I have to borrow skin from some of my friends,” Zheng said. “We come home together and closely inspect each another’s bodies to try and find our homework assignments. It might seem wrong, but it’s all in the name of a high average.”

“You know that guy from Memento that wrote those weird tattoos all over his body? That’s what I’m resorting to now.”

—Josh Zheng, freshman

The school administration is looking into possible solutions. “If only there were some sort of electronic device that all students already owned that had, like, an electronic notepad application with unlimited space that students were free to use,” principal Jie Zhang said.

“If only.”

New Self-Esteem Initiative Tells People with Increased Likelihood of Heart Failure, “At Least You Are Still Beautiful”

By Jacob Faber-Rico Several weeks ago, an initiative to raise people’s self-esteem was launched on social media, with its message summed up in one word: #atleastyourestillbeautiful. As any avid Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or amishdating.com user knows, it’s been nearly impossible to escape the flood of posts with heartwarming statements ending in “#atleastyourestillbeautiful.”

One insightful tweet read “real women have diabetes.

#atleastyourestillbeautiful.”

A high school girl posted a picture of herself on Facebook wearing nothing but a blood pressure reading device and a sign saying, “If your 120/80 is beautiful, then my 180/120 must be gorgeous. #atleastimstillbeautiful.”

An Instagram post showed a picture of an unconscious man sprawled out on a hospital bed, with the caring message, “no matter how many coronary bypass surgeries you have, at least you are still beautiful. #atleastyourestillbeautiful.”

And the only amishdating. com user added to his profile that, even if you weigh over 1,000 pounds, you are still beautiful. Amish dating experts, however, suspect that this may have been written by a cow.

The movement has extended beyond social media. The New York City Girls’ Project has changed their “I’m a Girl” subway advertisements to depict only overweight girls, who are more likely to contract a variety of diseases related to their body mass, and has changed the text

from “I’m a girl. I’m smart, a leader, adventurous, friendly, funny. I’m beautiful the way I am” to simply “At least I’m beautiful the way I am.”

Of course, the movement does not just target obesity— the Department of Health has added the text “At least you are still beautiful” to the bottom of their NYC Quits posters.

This initiative is even spreading to include people who do not have a plethora of health issues. “The unfortunate truth is that there are many men and women—even

healthy men and women— who most other people find to be unattractive,” said one anonymous proponent of the movement. “Society shouldn’t be able to tell these people whether or not they are beautiful. Everybody has a beautiful body.”

The movement’s supporters have yet to mention anything other than physical appearance, ignoring all admirable character traits and extraordinary abilities held by human beings.

The Spectator â&#x2014;? February 3, 2015

Page 25

Winter

By The Art Department

The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Page 26

Sports The Bulk of Physical Education: Part 1

By Rayyan Jokhai The countless banners and trophies that he’s helped Stuyvesant win can be found decorating the fifth floor, but our school’s humble and most celebrated coach can be found tucked away in the Pool Office planning physical education lessons and practices for his teams. Since 1998, physical education teacher Peter Bologna has coached an astounding eight sports teams at Stuyvesant High School including both junior varsity and varsity football and baseball, boys’ and girls’ swimming, girls’ bowling, and boys’ lacrosse. As a former baseball player himself, who also enjoyed playing touch football and bowling in summer leagues, Bologna seized the first opportunity he could to coach at Stuyvesant.

Bologna did not come to Stuyvesant as a physical education teacher; rather, he originally coached the junior varsity football team. He recounted the time he was first offered the job at Stuyvesant, describing, “I was pulled off to the side by a teacher in [the] school [I was working at]. I was a new teacher so was focused on planning my lessons, but he said, ‘Why don’t you just go for the interview.’ I asked what school it was, by the way, and he said, ‘Stuyvesant.’” After meeting with the head football coach and the Assistant Principal of Guidance at the time, Bologna decided that he wanted to be a coach here. “After talking with them, I was definitely willing to work as a coach here, and I haven’t turned back since,” he said.

Since, as a kid, he played most of the sports he coaches, motivating students to give their all during practice is natural for Bologna. Year in and year out,

Bologna uses the same fundamentals to help his teams reach their maximum potentials. “It starts with hard work and dedication, absolutely. You have to be dedicated to your sport,” he said. “Have integrity and pride in what you do each and every day.

That’s not just with games and matches, but practice as well.”

As a coach, Bologna has made a mark on all of his former players and finds it easy to list memorable moments for each of his teams. Whether it be leading the junior varsity baseball team to an undefeated record, holding teams to zero points as defensive coordinator of junior varsity football, implementing a new, successful special team at the varsity level, or keeping his team during nail-biter bowling matches that came down to the last frame, Bologna has forged countless memories with each of his teams. His favorite memory comes from the team he has coached the longest, the boys’ swimming team: “The Daily News was posting articles from the Bayside High School perspective during the playoffs one year, saying that the team was glad to be facing us since it’d be an easier road towards the finals.

It came down to the last event… my boys did exactly what they had to do and I’ll never forget the faces on the coach and the Bayside swimmers. They were totally dumbfounded that we had come back and they had lost,” Bologna said.

As a clear motivator of Stuyvesant students outside of the academic setting, Bologna has done an outstanding job with all eight of the teams he has coached throughout the years, and, with his formula for success, is likely to bring more banners and trophies to the fifth floor.

Believe It Or Not, It’s His First Job

By Grace Lu Most people would groan at the thought of getting up at 5:20 a.m. to begin working at 7:25 a.m. by greeting groggy high schoolers. Most people also go through at least a couple unpleasant jobs until they settle down after college. But dean and physical education teacher Vincent Miller is not most people. It has been eight years since Miller began his first job out of Queens College, and he is still working there. “I wake up, and I look forward to [going to work],” he said proudly.

Teaching was not always on Miller’s mind growing up, but sports were; his favorite sport was always baseball. “In my first at-bat on my varsity high school team, I hit a grand-slam homerun off a future major league pitcher,” Miller recalled. “Trotting around the bases after the grand-slam was my greatest sports feeling.”

At Queens College, Miller continued to play baseball on the Division II team. He started off learning physical therapy because he wanted to study something in the sciences, “but then I took this education course—phys ed course—and I really liked the professor a lot,” Miller said. His professor, Dr. Bob Hoover, taught him the importance of physical education, and the fun in teaching it. Hoover pushed him to take more physical education courses, until finally Miller began teaching at Stuyvesant in February of 2007. “I always thought that if I loved my job half as much as [Hoover], I would be happy,” Miller said.

Anyone in Miller’s class knows how much activity goes on in 30 minutes. “I don’t like anyone standing around too much,” he said. Throughout his eight years here, the constant motion has never changed, and Miller hopes it never does.

Anne Duncan / The Spectator

A Jack of All Teams

Beyond teaching, Miller has been a dean since 2010, and has met many students through his time patrolling the halls. “I wanted to see how another aspect of our school operated, and I thought I could do a lot of good [as a dean],” Miller said. He teaches two fewer classes than other teachers in his department, but because there are almost 50 students in a class, he has had the chance to meet many students, and that is his favorite part of working here. “You get to know everybody’s personality, and how they move and things like that.

And that’s pretty awesome,” Miller said.

The most defining moments of his time at Stuyvesant, however, are with his teams. As an avid sports lover and athlete, Miller has worked with many coaches and knows what styles work. He takes a more laid-back approach, only tensing up occasionally.

In particular, he remembers one game with the girls’ softball team two years ago. “We’re down maybe seven runs and fourth or fifth inning, and like I said, I’m a laid-back person, and I—probably one of the three times in the

last eight years I’ve yelled—got really angry,” he said, chuckling.

“I think it sort of sparked them a little bit because we came back and won that game like 8-7. We scored eight runs! And then we won the next 14 games. And we came in first place [in the division].”

Outside of school, Miller also plays sports, including softball in a league in Brooklyn with colleague Howard Barbin. Barbin is a pitcher and Miller is an outfielder, and the two have won together on the same team. “Mr. Barbin is one of the toughest athletes I’ve ever met. [But,] I am way better than Mr. Barbin,” Miller said, laughing. But Miller’s two-year-old daughter Lila is the highlight of his life, and he is already looking out for her future.

“Hopefully, one day she can get into a little sports, if not dance or a little ballet,” he said.

Whether he’s being a teacher, a dean, or a coach, anyone can see that Miller loves what he does. “I don’t consider what I do work. I don’t even consider it a job. It’s just something that I love to do.”

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The Spectator ● February 3, 2015

Page 27

Sports Boys’ Swimming

Farewell!

Getting Closer to Their Goal

By Grace Lu The Pirates huddled into a group, chanting “Pirates!”, as they prepared for their swim meet against James Monroe Campus on Thursday, January 8. Three hours later, the Pirates stepped out of the pool with the fresh feeling of victory; they had defeated James Monroe Campus with a score of 41-34. It had been nearly three weeks since the Pirates last had a swim meet against any school in their division because the last scheduled meet of 2014 against A. Philip Randolph Campus High School had been cancelled due to a forfeit.

During the three weeks without a meet, the Pirates had been pushing through their practice with extra effort in hope of regaining their title as city champions after losing for two consecutive years to the Brooklyn Tech Engineers. The Pirates now incorporate dryland training (conditioning outside of the pool) and more intense practice sets on shorter

intervals. “During practice, I work a lot on my technique and things I didn’t have prior experience in, such as flip-turns, head rotations for breathing, and finishing my stroke,” junior Stepan Berezhnyk said.

This new practice regime proved itself worthy when the Pirates placed first and second in every event in the meet against James Monroe Campus. Even without tight competition, many swimmers dropped times in their events, further testifying to the value of recent practices. Senior and co-captain Andrew Guo was one of these people. He reached his goal time of 53.03 in his leg of the 400-yard freestyle relay. This time places him as one of the best 100-yard freestyle swimmers in the city. “I told myself that I was going to do a low 53 before diving in, so I focused on keeping my stroke in line with my goal time in mind,” Guo said.

Also in the 400-yard freestyle relay, sophomores Kevin Zheng and Simon Chen both swam their

personal best times for 100-yard freestyle. Though Zheng feels satisfied with his time of 58.39, he is looking forward to working harder for an even better time. “I saw that I was capable of improving and my goal is to get even faster,” Zheng said.

Chen broke the one-minute barrier, a time that all swimmers strive to break, for his 100-yard free leg of the 400 yard free relay, with a time of 59.51. “Although I felt great because I finally broke a minute, my third flip turn was too close to the wall, so I know I am capable of doing better,” Chen said.

Regarding the upcoming meets with the more competitive teams in the Manhattan/Bronx division such as Bronx Science and Hunter, coach Peter Bologna believes the Pirates are ready. “I know they have been working hard during practice, so they’re going to get good results. My boys are prepared for the challenge.

We are ready to beat them,” he said.

Indoor Track

A Short But Meaningful “Day” continued from page 28

an invitational mile either next week or in two weeks [and] there wasn’t really a reason to have a full-out race.”

The Greyducks also entered freshmen Chauncey Lau and Min Hein Htet in the 1000 meter run. They placed sixth and fourteenth respectively with times of 3 minutes 20.28 seconds and 3 minutes 34.55 seconds. While Lau and Htet have a lot of work to do if they hope to compete with the best in the city, it is encouraging for their coaches to see the two improving from previous meets. “[They] are some up-andcoming athletes […] who I see great potential in,” coach Jeff Teta said. “Their slow and gradual improvements will be key to improving times.”

The girls’ team also featured a small turnout, with most runners participating in the 4x800 meter relay. One team was entered in the freshman-sophomore competition, which finished seventh, and four teams were entered in varsity competition, finishing

7th, 10th, 20th, 27th, and 48th.

The female Greyducks only participated in two field events: sophomore Michelle Efthimiou competed in the long jump and junior Tiffany Lam competed in the pole vault. Out of 61 participants in the varsity competition, Efthimiou finished in 22nd place with a distance of 11 feet 3.5 inches. In the varsity pole vault competition, Lam finished second place as she cleared an impressive height of 6 feet 6 inches.

“Honestly, I’m not very pleased with my performance,” Lam said. “I’ve been on a plateau since the end of freshman year, and I need to search for ways to improve. I’ve recently had an internal struggle where I’m starting to doubt if I have reached my peak.” Although she has yet to surpass her personal best of 6 feet 6 inches, the height is impressive by the city’s standards.

In fact, with her performance at the Day of Distance, Lam met the qualification height of 6 feet 2 inches for the city championships, her third straight year doing so.

Teta is still new—he’s in his first year of coaching the team.

He was quite pleased with the Greyduck’s performance in the meet. He was especially pleased with Hoffman and Lam’s performances, which qualified them for the championships. “One of my goals is to have as many athletes as possible qualify for cities and state championships […] thereby elevating the status of track and field in Stuyvesant High School, as well as throughout the rest of the city,” Teta said.

Teta also expressed some thoughts going forward in his first year of coaching. “Stuyvesant [had] a great history of winning Manhattan Borough Championships under coach Mark Mendes, and […] I have high expectations and ambitions for the team and the school,” Teta said. “I am [still] learning how to apply my knowledge to best train the students, as well as all the nuances that come with being a coach, such as the paperwork, administration, planning, etcetera. But, overall, my experience thus far has been wonderful.”

continued from page 28

only report on sports games, but it’s so much more than that. These last two and a half years, I’ve openly stated my opinion on our new athletic director (“Who is Galano to Us?”) and interviewed Mr. Moran on his thoughts on whales, dolphins, and juggling (“Two Minutes with Mr. Moran”).

There is literally no other department that would allow for such range.

2. Be respectful. It’s called Physical Education (P.E.), not gym, Jim, or any other pun that sounds like the word “gym.” Our P.E. teachers are some of the most understanding teachers in the school (except for when they turn on dean mode and patrol the senior atrium), and I’m very grateful for P.E. every other day because that’s when I can blow off some steam and get a little passive-aggressive during a bout of soccer or volleyball. (Shout out to Mr. Choubaralian and his ninth period B day class and the ever-enthusiastic senior Nick Perrotti.) Besides for my sanity, the P.E. teachers are also partially responsible for the existence of the majority of our sports teams. I’m sure it’s not always fun for Mr. Miller to travel to Randall’s Island just to watch the boys varsity soccer team play, nor is it fun for Mr. Choubaralian to get hit in the face by one of his gymnasts and get a black eye. But our P.E. teachers coach because they love their sport and they love seeing how much fun their team members have. For that, we owe them a bit more respect and decency.

3. Have courage. When I was a writer, I realized that traditional sports were always written about, but sports like cricket, bowling, and my own, cross country, were either under-reported or never reported on at all. So I fought

with my editor for more representation. Now, as an editor, I pride myself on ensuring that all sports at Stuyvesant are covered at least once a season (Lemurs, Felines, and Spartans, you’ll be in Issue 9).

A big thanks to not only my staff (especially seniors Eric Morgenstern, Rayyan Jokhai, Jason Lee, May Chen, Jeffrey Zheng, Jeffrey Su, Zhe Lee, Anthony Cheang, and Erica Chio) for taking on more articles to write, but also to my fellow sports editors, Grace Lu and Chris Kim (and editor-intraining Louis Susser) for editing two to three more articles per issue. I didn’t cure cancer, but achieving more representation was a moment when I felt brave. Still, I wish I had been more courageous in following through with my other goal: creating a better environment for the Stuyvesant sports community. I know of student athletes at Stuyvesant who are uncomfortable with or scared of their coaches, and of managers and captains with an unfair amount of responsibility being put on them; insurance books and running meets are duties that belong to coaches.

To these student athletes, I say: if you have a concern, do something. Write a letter, even if it is an anonymous one (“A Letter to the Stuyvesant Sports Community”). Get your parents involved, as the girls swim team did (parents of the Penguins spoke about issues regarding the 2013 coach at a Parent’s Association meeting), or speak privately with Mr. Galano. Don’t let a certain aspect of your team ruin your sport entirely. Don’t just quit.

Be proactive!

That ends my farewell.

My time as a reporter, columnist, profiler, EIT, and editor is something that I will cherish forever because my high school experience would have been absolutely incomplete without it. Thank you to The Spectator and of course to the 2014-2015 Editorial Board.

Sports is the best!

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February 3, 2015

Page 28

The Spectator SpoRts Boys’ Basketball

Senior Lev Akabas attempts a shot during a game against the Norman Thomas Tigers.

By Eric Morgenstern “They play streetball,” coach Philip Fisher told his team in the huddle prior to the Rebels’ game against the undisciplined Norman Thomas Tigers on Tuesday, January 6. The Rebels, who had won just their second game of the season the day before, were about to play the 1-6 Tigers to try to keep their playoff hopes alive. It was a mustwin for the team, as the Tigers were the easiest opponent of the season.

The game started off balanced; both teams played very sloppily. The Rebels lost possession of the ball a few times, and the Tigers failed to take advantage of the Rebels’ mistakes by missing layups. Late in the first quarter, the Rebels finally got into a groove, making some nice drives and passes to get wide open layups, and took a 17-8 lead by the end of the quarter. “We [were] definitely playing as a team and [were] moving the ball well,” senior and co-captain Noah Brook said.

The Rebels continued to show their dominance in the second quarter, as the team gained momentum. “[Senior] Roman [Szul] stepped up [and] went hard to the hoop,” Fisher said of the team’s second leading scorer this season. Szul hit a buzzer-beating three pointer at the end of the second quarter to help the team take a 31-17 lead at halftime.

The Rebels were able to extend this advantage through the beginning of the third quarter and brought the score to 36-19 four minutes into the period, forcing the Tigers to use a timeout. The Tigers, however, seemed to come out of the time-out with new determination and made two consecutive baskets. But the Rebels came back to close out the quarter on a run to bring the score to 46-28. “We were definitely really intense on defense, creating a lot of turnovers that led to buckets,” Szul said.

With an 18-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, the Tigers seemed to be down by too many to try to mount

a comeback, and the Rebels thought so, too. As a result, the team came out sluggish, and it cost them—the Tigers made three three-pointers in a short period of time.

With four minutes to go in the game, the Tigers had cut their deficit in half and the score was 52-43. “We looked lackadaisical in the second half.

That can’t happen. We need to get more stops, and keep the lead when we can,” Brook said.

Fisher called a time out, and the Rebels responded by finishing the game strong and winning by a respectable margin, 64-47.

The win made two in a row the Rebels, who improved their record to 3-4 and still have a chance for a playoff spot. “We definitely have a lot of intensity,” Szul said. “It feels great to win back-to-back games.

We can definitely keep this up.” The team must accrue an 8-8 record or better in order to make the playoffs, but the road to do so will be tough. Many of the Rebels’ remaining games are against teams with winning records.

If the team wants to play postseason basketball, they need to show an ability to beat much better teams, as their current playing level has led to mixed results. “[We have to] execute, be more physical, and box out. We don’t have height, but [we] need to get rebounds,” senior Arlex Gole said.

The team believes they can make the playoffs, but Fisher’s primary goal, however, is for his team to continue playing the right way. “I take it one game at a time. I’m not one of those prediction-makers,” Fisher said. “If my kids keep improving and play good basketball, that’s all I’m worried about. The wins and losses take care of themselves.”

By Joshua Zhu

Taking place in the middle of winter vacation, the Day Of Distance on January 2 had an understandably low turnout. Despite the large number of members of the boys’ and girls’ track and field teams, few people showed up because many athletes were away vacationing with their families.

But this would only go to show that those who showed up at the Armory on 216 Fort Washington Avenue were some of the most devoted members of the Greyducks. Despite the low turnout, the meet was a great opportunity to compete in a relatively relaxed atmosphere and was especially important for two Greyducks who qualified for the city championship.

One such Greyduck was junior Jacob Hoffman, who was pleased with his performance in the 55 meter high hurdles. Placing sixth with a time of 8.37 seconds in the varsity race, Hoffman qualified for the finals, in which he placed seventh with the exact same time of 8.37 seconds. His time of 8.37

seconds also surpassed the 8.73second qualifying time for the city championship, which will take place on February 22.

“I was happy that I qualified for the city championship, but it was disappointing that I couldn’t decrease my qualifying time in the finals,” Hoffman said. “My goal is to run a 7.94 to qualify for the state competition and hopefully I can [decrease] my running time in future competitions.”

Although they usually do not see much success in the 4x800 relay, the male Greyducks entered two teams in the event. The teams finished fifth and seventeenth with times of 8 minutes 48.68 seconds and 9 minutes 39.63 seconds. Senior Eric Chen led the fifth place team, composed of himself, senior Reda Ramniji, and sophomores James Chang and Harvey Ng. Chen ran a split time of 2 minutes and 7 seconds.

“I ran a 2.07, but I’m capable of running much faster,” Chen said. “[However,] I’m running in continued on page 27

• Stuyvesant’s girls’ basketball team, the Phoenix, beat Thurgood Marshall Academy 53-31 on Friday, January 16. The team is in first place in its division with a 11-1 record.

• Stuyvesant’s boys’ table tennis team is undefeated, having won all ten of their matches 5-0.

• Congratulations to senior Eric Chen for winning the PSAL Wingate Award for cross country!

• Stunt is now an official PSAL spring sport.

SPORTS CALENDAR Tuesday, February 3

Thursday, February 5

BOYS’ BASKETBALL vs. Bayard Rustin Educational Complex @ Stuyvesant

BOYS’ GYMNASTICS @ Stuyvesant

BOYS’ GYMNASTICS @ Stuyvesant

Friday, February 6

Monday, February 9

BOYS’ BASKETBALL vs. Seward Park Campus @ Stuyvesant

GIRLS’ AND BOYS’ INDOOR TRACK Manhattan Borough Indoor Track & Field Championships @ Armory Track

Farewell!

Indoor Track

A Short But Meaningful “Day”

• Stuyvesant’s boys’ basketball team, the Runnin’ Rebels, defeated Washington Irving 62-55 on Tuesday, January 20. The Runnin’ Rebels have a 5-8 record and are in fourth place in their division, but they are still in the playoff hunt.

By Annique Wong After turning out forty issues with The Spectator Sports department, I hoped that my last column would be the easiest to write. But it’s not, not even a little. In fact, this article has taken me over a month to finish (sorry, Lev)—the result of either a serious case of senior blues or a serious case of sadness as I realize this is the last thing I’ll write for the back pages of The Spectator. So as tradition calls, here are a few words of farewell from your Sports editor.

1. Join Sports. And I mean this in every single way possible. Stuyvesant has 45 sports teams. There are interest meetings and tryouts for every single one of these teams.

Go to them. Try out. Walk on.

It will be the most rewarding decision you’ve ever made. If you make the team, you will be part of a family that you can depend on in every aspect of your life. Take it from me, a three-season runner, a Greyduck for life. There is nothing

Anne Duncan / The Spectator

Jacob Brimberg / The Spectator

Rebels Climb Back into Playoff Contention

Sports Wrapup

more comforting than knowing I have a group of girls who I can sweat at practices with, celebrate my personal records with, mourn my injuries with, and stuff my face with after a grueling meet. And hey, if you don’t make the team, do some conditioning and try out again.

And if that doesn’t work, you can always join The Spectator Sports department. There will always be a spot for you.

Always. Student athletes don’t really have time to travel to games, interview players, and

write a SIB (Sports In Brief ) in time for the next-day-deadline. But student sportswriters do (as well as some student athletes of course). It’s really the best of both worlds: you get your name printed in the newspaper and you still get to be part of the vibrant environment of a sporting event. But the best thing about being on Sports is the freedom. People automatically assume that we continued on page 27