Singing for sustainability at Stony Brook Earthstock

After six months of hard work, a committee composed of academic departments and student programs opened Stony Brook University’s 10th annual Earthstock on April 19, a week of festivities to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. The weeklong program is designed to raise awareness among students as well as the public through informative academic and cultural events addressing environmental concerns, sustainability and healthy eating habits.

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.

Stony Brook University hosts own ‘Iron Chef’

The promise of fame and fortune has inspired many chefs to compete on Food Network’s “Iron Chef America,” a popular cable show that pits contestants against seasoned “Iron Chefs” for a name in the culinary industry.

Inspired by the show, Campus Dining Services at Stony Brook University decided to have their own version of the competition on Wednesday, April 28 during campus lifetime. In this version, though, the contestants were fighting for the charity of their choice, with $5,000 from Campus Dining Services going to the winning team.

University Chef Al Aberg, who helped oversee the event, announced the four teams with three people in each competing for the prize. To win one of the final four spots, these teams, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Team Swarley, Byahh! and Bull Moose Party, had beat out 20 other groups of contenders. Weeks before the competition, students had the opportunity to vote online for their favorite team to compete on the April 28^th competition. The represented charities, listed respectively, were the Sunrise Fund at Stony Brook, Stony Brook Long Island Children’s Hospital, Adapted Aquatic Program and the Library Collection Development Fund.

Stony Brook University’s 10th Annual Earthstock Festival

Stony Brook University students participating in a drum circle across from the Ward Melville Library

On Friday, April 23, hundreds of people gathered at Stony Brook University’s academic mall to prepare for the 10th annual Earthstock festival. Starting as early as 9 a.m., people began setting up their table’s hours before anyone would arrive. They brought bins, boxes, bags and whatever else they could find to help lighten their heavy loads. Within a couple of hours, when all the students come to the mall, all this hard work and preparation would be satiated.

At around 10 a.m., students began arriving. With 85-plus exhibits and people from all across Long Island piling in, the mall quickly became a labyrinth of human bodies.
Once a year, during the week Earth Day is celebrated, SBU opens its doors to any green organization willing to participate. This year, several high school and college clubs took part, as well as various non-profit and paid-for-profit organizations. Some groups in attendance include, Vegan Outreach, Nardy Honda, and Stony Brook’s Environmental club… all of which have a common goal to inform the people about their causes and explain what others can do to help.

Interacting with other races

23- year- old Salvadorian Edgar Artiga, is one of the 1,768 Hispanic students at Stony Brook University, New York. He came to the United States when he was 18 year old. He attended high school in Central Islip, Long Island. The school population was mostly Latinos, especially Central Americans, Puerto Ricans and a few Dominicans. The other majority was black and some white. “In my school there was segregation,” he said. “The immigrants were segregated from the other groups. And among the two groups blacks were also segregated.”

When was the last time you thought about the Boxer Rebellion?

I recently had to make a video essay for a broadcast journalism class. I sat down with Newsday writer Mitchell Freedman, who spent an afternoon telling me all about one of his hobbies– painting these teensy, tiny little soldiers, no taller than a matchstick. He pays meticulous attention to detail, adding gunpowder to their guns or splotches of mud onto their gear. When he’s done painting the little guys, he plays wargames with friends who also paint soldier figurines. Together, they reenact some of the biggest battles in history, right there on a tabletop.

The Nightmare Called ‘Room Selection’

For a while my friends and I had been planning on living together next year in a suite at Stony Brook. It was planned perfectly: we’d be living in Douglass College in Tabler Quad, have our payments in on time so we’d be sure to get housing, etc. Nothing could go wrong.

In the back of my mind though I remembered my not-so-wonderful experience with room selection last year, where three other girls and I tried to get a suite in Hand College. Somehow the school messed up our room selection process, we were kicked out from Hand, and ended up in Dreiser College. Whether it was ultimately our fault or the school’s I’ll never know, but living in 24-quiet the next year didn’t quite cut it.

That aside, I looked at this new room selection with an open mind. My roommate and I were just ending our sophomore year and so we would have greater priority than the freshman. The day came for our room deposits and our group put in the money as we were supposed to. Then the proxy of the group (my roommate) filled out the room selection form with where we wanted to live, if we’d be living in our current building, etc.

The Film Scene at Stony Brook University

Stony Brook University is known throughout the country- and even the world- for its medial and science programs. A program that often goes unknown is Cinema and Cultural Studies, which focuses on film rather than lab coats.

The program, which is administered by the Department of Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies, focuses on film as a form of expression, in relation to other disciplines like literature, art and theater.

Budget cuts in the Theater Art Department at Stony Brook University

When I was covering the story about “Figaro, Figaro” last month, I learned that the Theater Art Department at Stony Brook University was suffering serious budget cuts. Students from THR 321, the spring 2010 production class, where concerned about the cuts.

5,000 miles from Ghana

Boti Falls in the Eastern region of Ghana

In the fall 2009, I took MAP 103, a math class given at Stony Brook University. In this class, I met Abraham, a young Ghanaian boy who has refused to give his last name. In class, he always seemed to be eager to learn, more than the most of the students in the class. He takes his studies very seriously and tries to take advantage of the opportunity that studying in the U.S. has given him.