First Place Award Winners from the New York Press Association & American Scholastic Press Association
The Pace Chronicle Volume II, Issue XV
Inside News...........3,4 Feature...........2,4 Health...........5 Opinion.........6,7 Entertainment.....9,10 Sports...........11,12
News: Page 3
Leave the Loans
Feature: Page 2
Colleges Against Cancer
Health: Page 5
Pace University, Pleasantville/Briarcliff Manor, NY
www.PaceChronicle.com
Pace’s LGBTQ Student Body Struggles with Feelings of Acceptance Cecilia Levine
Feature Editor Cecilia.R.Levine@Pace.edu
What initially attracted you to Pace? For some it was the nursing program, for others, the close proximity to Manhattan and for most, it was the immediate sense of community that was evident, even as a guest. The ability to feel comfortable on your future college’s campus is essential in choosing a school that works for you. But what happens when you get to the school and it is not everything you had hoped it would be and more? This is exactly the case for many of the students in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) community here at Pace. “The Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) once hung up flyers for our mock wedding in which someone had crossed out the picture of the gay couple and circled the straight couple,” said junior journalism major, psychology minor and current President of GSA, Jonathan Calixto. “We also had multiple other flyers and signs torn down.”
Photos by (left) Christine Gramlich (right) Samantha De Lillo/The Pace Chronicle GSA’s equality poster was anonymously torn down last year. Vandalism like this asks the question: Is Pace as accepting as it claims to be? Pace graduate student Jake Knisely was one among many of his peers who felt that something was missing from his alma mater. “When I entered Pace the only
resource that gay students had was the counseling center,” said Knisely, who graduated with his Bachelors of Science in Nursing in the Class of 2011 and is current-
Sports: page 11
Setters Face Owls
ly a student in the Pace graduate Continued on Page 4
“Pace’s LGBTQ Student Body Struggles with Feelings of Acceptance”
Obama Online: White House Channels Social Media Emily Wolfrum Featured Reporter
Emily.Wolfrum@Pace.edu
Autism: Speak Out
Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013
This year’s State of the Union address sought a new demographic of tech-savvy social media users to participate in the event both in person and online. Through White House Social, active White House followers were given the opportunity to attend the address in Washington D.C. and participate in a question panel following President Obama’s speech. For those not so active or unable to make the trek to the nation’s capital, an enhanced live stream provided online viewers with supplementary graphs, statistics, and graphics to the president’s speech. Online viewers were encouraged to post responses and reactions with the tags “#WHChat” and “#SOTU.” These questions were answered throughout the week by White House staff members in an online segment entitled “Open for Questions.” Other online interactive features included Citizens Response, which allowed viewers to hone in on a specific quote from the
Photo from cmgdigitallocalsolutions.com
The White House used Social Media for the State of the Union Address.
speech and provide feedback, and an updated take on President Franklin Roosevelt’s fireside chats. President Obama’s “Fireside Hangout” took place on Thursday night. Through Google+, US citizens of various political and ideological backgrounds were able to video chat with the president and ask him questions regarding the State of the Union address. An abundant amount of time was spent covering gun issues, a topic touched on by President
Obama at the end of his speech. This topic was also immensely popular in terms of its Twitter mentions with over 23 thousand tweets per minute the night of the address. According to PolicyMic.com, Twitter saw a record-breaking number of tweets during this year’s State of the Union address with 1.36 million in comparison to last year’s 767 thousand. Twitter Government recorded that President Obama’s mention of “middle class opportunities
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and minimum wage” was the most tweeted about subject at approximately 24 thousand tweets per minute, while Marco Rubio’s sip of water topped the GOP response tweets at roughly 9,200 tweets per minute. In fact, the water sipping slip up received so much social media attention (and its own gif, for that matter) that Rubio reported on Twitter that his number of followers had increased drastically: “Picked up over 13 thousand new followers on [Twitter] since last night! [I’m] going to start drinking [water] in the middle of all my speeches!” he posted. He additionally advertised a Marco Rubio water bottle with the caption, “Quench your thirst for conservative leadership.” Such a response from a political figure, in addition to the overwhelming efforts made by the Obama Administration to digitalize this year’s State of the Union Address, shows an evident relationship between politics and social media. “From the election that hapContinued on Page 9
“Obama Online: White House Channels Social Media”