Roth Pond Regatta 2010

On Friday April 30, hundreds of people from the Stony Brook University community flocked to Roth Quad to uphold a 21-year-old tradition, Roth Pond Regatta.

Usually towards the end of the academic year, Roth Regatta allows contestants to indulge in some friendly competition and promote student “unity and ingenuity,” as teams race homemade cardboard boats across Roth pond.

The races are broken down into two categories; speedsters and yachts. Speedsters qualify as one-person boats, while yachts include two, three and four person teams, each captain must pilot the boat at the Regatta.

As with most events at SBU, the Regatta is highly structured. “The Constitution of the Roth Pond Regatta,” is composed of  eleven sections that lay the foundation of the event.

Only students, staff, alumni, faculty and previous contestants are eligible to compete. Identification is required, and each team must register their boats with the student activites department.

Southampton students empowered by innovation of local legislators

Defiant Southampton students along with local legislators are battling the cuts at their campus with a multi-pronged strategy, as the August 31 official axe date looms.

Lawmakers had immediately requested an investigation into President Samuel Stanley’s early April decision to scrap much of the college. Now, other options are being explored: the town where the campus is nestled has offered to buy the rights to it, legislators are asking that the elusive state budget contain a measure to reverse the cuts, and the displaced students are planning a legal battle to keep their campus fully operational.

Breathing East-A Long Island Band Trying to Break into the Music Industry

After playing countless shows in front of dedicated Stony Brook fans, Breathing East will have the chance to play a bigger stage.

The Long Island based band, Breathing East, has graduated from smaller campus shows to playing shows like Bamboozle Hoodwink, an outdoor music festival in New Jersey, on April 30^th. The festival lasted all weekend but Breathing East shared a stage with around 20 other bands on Friday alone, some of those bands included Say Anything and Motion City Soundtrack. This was nothing like the band had ever seen before.

“It was an amazing experience,” said William Stevens, bassist and back up vocalist for Breathing East. “We handed out nearly 600 of our CDs. You never know what it will be that will give you a big break. That’s why I don’t like turning down even the smallest shows.”

Southampton’s Saga: Mourning Turns to Action

Faculty and students at Stony Brook University’s condemned Southampton campus have mobilized to save it since university president Samuel L. Stanley’s announcement on April 7 that undergraduate and residential programs are to be cut next fall.

“I had students crying in class,” Southampton professor James Corrigan said of the day after the news broke. “Your future is dead. Your community is dead. It’s absolutely reprehensible the way they’ve done it,” he said.

Stony Brook gives red light to it’s green campus in Southampton

Last week, Stony Brook president Samuel Stanley announced plans to slash most programs at the university’s satellite campus in Southampton. The small, eco-friendly, east end school, where studies mostly center on the environment, currently houses approximately 525 students who will be forced to transfer elsewhere.

The closure comes as an unwelcome deja-vu for most of Southampton’s faculty and students. The campus used to be part of privately-owned Long Island University, who was forced to sell the school in 2005 for financial reasons. At the time, students, teachers and local representatives initiated a massive Save the School campaign to preserve the south fork’s sole institution of higher learning. That campaign proved successful when Stony Brook purchased the campus for $35 million in 2006.

When segregation surrounds us

Taking a walk through the streets of Smithtown may seem relatively safe, but may prove dangerous for a person of color.

Welcome Back ABC!

Who knew that people cared about the Oscars so much?  Following a heated debate and power struggles between Cablevision and ABC, ABC went blank for 21 hours Saturday night into Sunday.  ABC who originally wanted $1 more per customer, is instead settling for an increase between 27 cents and 65 cents per user.

Potential Closing of Caleb Smith State Park

The financial woes of New York State might impact the public in a big way.  To make its budget, Albany needs to cut $8.2 billion.  One proposed cut by the State Parks Department is to close a number of state parks and historical sites.  Caleb Smith State Park, located in Smithtown, is one of those parks.  The park has over 500 acres of undeveloped land and also an environment and wildlife museum.  Parents and fans of the outdoors looking for some entertainment on a budget may soon have to look elsewhere if these budget cuts become reality.