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After break: Harlqeuin, Yorick premiere shows

Trailblazer reflects on career at MCLA

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Volume 80 ◆ Issue 5

Beacon@MCLA.Edu413-662-5535

Mark Hopkins Room 111

By Nick SwansonSenior News Editor

Massachusetts State Gov. Charles Baker and his administration discovered a budget gap of $768 million with four months still le� in the 2015 � scal year. Baker responded to the de� cit

by putting forth a large amount of reductions in state spending through areas such as institutions of higher education and other state sections. In result of the budget gap, the

college must rescind 1.5 percent of its state appropriation, which is equivalent to $222,000, according to James Stakenas, vice president of Administration and Finance. “We have to look across all

campus divisions to determine how we are going to make up this dollar amount,” Stakenas said. “We want to be able to preserve programs that are important to students which primarily are academic.”Gov. Baker issued an emergency

Section 9c cut to address the budget de� cit. � e de� cit is equal to 1.6 percent of the $36.5 billion total state budget. According mass.gov, the de� cit is

made up of a number of elements, the biggest element of that is the ongoing issues associated with managing the state’s Health Connector. State representatives believe this represents about a $230 million piece of the puzzle.Baker’s emergency Section 9c

letter states the government pledges to not raise taxes, to preserve local aid, and to not draw down on the Stabilization Fund. A� er the adjustments, the � scal year ‘15 budget will rise nearly 7.7 percent over � scal year ‘14. Stakenas said resources would

be drawn from putting a hold on certain purchases and utilizing several cost saving initiatives the college has invested in over the years.“For example, last year the nine

state universities purchased an advertising campaign, Stakenas said. “� is year we were asked to budget money for a similar campaign, but the conversation now is to reduce it signi� cantly in an e� ort to save resources speci� cally because of this 9c cut.”“3 years ago we put new light

blubs across campus to save energy, so, we will use some of those energy savings as well,”

Stakenas said. In addition, senior o� cers were

asked to question all expenditures in their divisions and to not complete any discretionary spending, according to Stakenas. He said the vice presidents of all

divisions have a responsibility to look at what all the departments submit; the college needs to have a balanced budget in place by July 1.“Our long term concern is

keeping education a� ordable, we � nd middle-ground so we can maintain a� ordability and access to academic programs on campus,” Stakenas said. He said there are also a number

of open positions on campus and any time there is an open seat there are representative savings that are also being put towards the gap. Stakenas explained the college is

advancing to � ll the positions but until then, there are some small savings. “Between discretionary

spending, open positions, and other resources that we have we

College adjusts spending a� er $768 million state budget de� cit

Feature photo

BUDGET DEFICIT,continued on page 3

Club budgetsto rise in 2015-16

By Gionna NourseSta� Writer

As of Feb. 23, all faculty, sta� and students have been required to participate in an online training regarding sexual violence. � e trainings are designed to educate and create awareness among the campus community.� e training is required for

all members of the college community as part of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization, and the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination (SaVE) Act. � ere are two separate versions of the online training, one for faculty and sta� and one for students. � e student course takes roughly

30 minutes to complete, and provides a multitude of resources one can access if they or someone they know is experiencing sexual assault, or is having issues related to sexual violence in any way. One of the most accessible and most commonly used resources among college students is the National Sexual Assault Hotline, and the number is 1-800-656-HOPE. According to Mary Ellen Olenyk,

Director of Human Resources and title nine coordinator, the training educates participants about who to report information about an act of sexual assault to, and what to do if you see an act of sexual violence happen. “We are educating about by-

stander intervention, if one sees something happening, intervene if safe, [or report the situation]” Olenyk said. “We want to create safety on campus for all.”

Olenyk also mentioned that there will be additional trainings for speci� c faculty and sta� members a� er they have completed the

ASSAULT TRAINING continued on page 3

“

“

� ere are many myths that revolve around this topic...

treating it like a taboo will not help

prevent it.

Ashlyn Copeland

College implements training for sexual assault

By Nick SwansonSenior News Editor

� e SGA’s Budget Finance Committee (BFC) has recommended a Fiscal Year ’16 budget that increases club allocations by an average of 152%.� e total budget

recommendation is $410,000 with $279,209 allocated for clubs, $117,000 for SGA operating budget, and a $10,000 SGA supplemental budget. “Clubs are going to be excited to

hear about the average increase of (club) budgets,” SGA President Brendan Peltier said. “Last year we had a few more (active) clubs, so a small amount of additional money became available for clubs next year.”Overall, the club budget

allocations will increase 12.3% in FY ’16 but most budgets will only show an increase between $1,585, and $4,658.� e factor causing this high

average is an increase spike that gave signi� cant increases to only a few amount of clubs.

Clubs recommended for most signi� cant budget increases are Cape Verdean Student Alliance with an increase of $3,088, Society of Physics Students increased $3,073, Ski Club $2,800, Rugby Club $2,575, Student Activities Council $2,435, Nexxus $2,328, Latin America Society $2,200, and WJJW radio station $2,106. Students Taking Action Against

Gender Equality (STAGE) received the highest budget increase of $1,418 from $545 to $1,963, about 360% increase. Along with Society of Physics Students budget increase of 193%.

In FY ‘16 SGA used an enrollment � gure of 1,500, compared to 1,471 in FY ‘15. With an 85% collection rate from $300 per student the total equals to $384,000.One element contributing to

increased budgets is an extra $10,000 that was gained from student fees, according to Hernigle.

Photo by Agnella Gross/The BeaconGaby Brown, Alexander Lopez, Lindsay Maselli and Sam O’Brien at the 2015 Sextival event.

SGA BUDGET,continued on page 4

� e Board of Trustees is meeting today at 5 p.m. in Murdock 218 to announce the selection of the new MCLA president.Please visit beacon.mcla.edu tonight for full coverage of the announcement.

Thursday, March 5, 2015 Campus News Beacon.MCLA.edu2WeekendWeatherThursday, March 5

Friday, March 6

Saturday, March 7

Sunday, March 8

CloudyHigh: 21°Low: 1°

Prec. Chance: 20%

Partly Cloudy High: 24°Low: 9°

Prec. Chance: 10%

Partly CloudyHigh: 38°Low: 15°

Prec. Chance: 10%

Partly CloudyHigh: 36°Low: 20°

Prec. Chance: 0%

SGA’s Food Committee � nally meets

By Idalis FosterSta� Writer

Due to multiple snow days and holidays, the Food Committee could not meet with Aramark until Mon-day, March 2 at 3 p.m. � ese meetings are open to all students who wish to attend, but an email RSVP to Ex-ecutive Vice President Alexandra Kadell is preferred. According to Kadell, the new Executive Chef Tony

Fiorentino is planning on bringing more southern comfort food to the menu being that he previously worked at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “He says he will be focusing on presentation,” Kadell

continued, “to make sure students are seeing the qual-ity of the food even if they don’t necessarily try it.”In response to complaints of students who want

breakfast before the Centennial Room opens on weekends, the co� ee kiosk will be open from 9 to 11 a.m. and will have a co� ee and bagel combo for one cafeteria swipe. � e kiosk will be adding small cups for co� ee since right now they only sell medium and large.

Late Night Grill changed their days from � ursday, Friday, Saturday last spring to Wednesday, � ursday, Friday in the fall and has found that Wednesday has become a very busy day for them.“� ey are looking to expand Late Night Grill with

di� erent menu items,” said Kadell.Coordinating Vice President Ama Bemma Ad-

wetewa-Badu suggested adding Saturday back on to the days since a great number of students have asked for them to have it open those nights.An idea proposed last semester to have a recipe box

where students can submit a recipe that they would like Aramark to add to the menu is being put into e� ect. � ere will now be a box by the register of the Centennial Room where students can leave the recipe and their contact information so that they can be con-tacted and consulted before their recipe is used.� e snowboard in the POD market will be won by

one lucky student who purchases anything from the POD and enters to win. � e name will be pulled be-fore Spring Break and the winner will be contacted.

Club E-Boards Need to Send in Inventory Lists

CVP Adwetewa-Badu is asking that all club e-boards send in their inventory lists for SGA by April 24. � is includes all microphones, speakers, and other sup-plies that need to be accounted for.Adwetewa-Badu advises that e-board members read

the newsletter she sent out this past weekend to make sure they are up to date with the announcements for clubs.

Christian Fellowship Gets Support For New Orleans Trip

� e supplemental budget for Christian Fellowship to be able to go on their New Orleans Service Trip has been approved.� e amount of the budget was reduced by the club

from $1,186 to $186 since the amount of members going has gone down to three in order to be able to a� ord the trip between the expenses for both SGA and

Work-in-Progress: Dance PerformanceWork-in-Progress: Dance Performance

Friday, March 6, 8pm | Saturday, March 7, 8pmSunday, March 8, 3pmHunter Center / $18 student + advance / $24 day of / $30 preferredGroup pricing availableThis program is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Porches Inn.

AVAILABLE LIGHT

Choreographer Lucinda Childs, composer John Adams, and set designer

Frank Gehry remount their triumphant, seminal piece.

Tickets: massmoca.org / 413.662.211187 Marshall Street, North Adams, Mass.

Pitts� eld (South Street)Pitts� eld (Allendale)Great BarringtonNorth AdamsGreen� eld

the club members themselves.

Inquiry About Buildings Closed Be-fore Midnight Addressed

Adwetewa-Badu inquired as to why only the Campus Center Building is open until midnight while other buildings on campus are locked a er 11 p.m.SGA President Brendan Peltier asked

� eresa O’Bryant, interim vice-president of Student A� airs, to attend the meeting to address questions about the requirements of the buildings to be accessible until mid-night.

“� e Campus Center is a public building so that is required to be open until mid-night but classroom buildings are closed at 11 p.m.,” said O’Bryant.Senator At-Large Colby Harvish men-

tioned the accessibility of campus build-ings to go through the tunnels during snow days as well.“Unfortunately, sometimes Campus

Safety does not get to all of the buildings to unlock them during snow days,” said O’Bryant. “But if you contact them and ask them to unlock a building for you they are more than happy to do so.”

Food Committee meets with Aramark, inventory lists are required from clubs, and Christian Fellowship gains support for New Orleans

“ “

He will be focusing on presentation to make sure students

are seeing the quality of the food

Alexandra Kadell

Thursday, March 5, 2015 Campus News 3Beacon.MCLA.edu

will manage this 9C cut,” Stakenas said. (Take 1.5 percent from anything, the amount you have for leisure activities or a food budget, it’s manageable.”) – Pull QuoteAccording to Stakenas, until the governor’s

budget recommendation comes out on Mar. 4, administration does not know what cuts the 2016 � scal year will include. According to mass.gov, Baker must issue his � rst

budget plan by Mar. 4 for the ’15 � scal year that starts on July 1 and hopes to balance the de� cit by that time.“� ere are rumors that the level funding that we

were hoping for will be reduced by the 9c amount but we don’t know yet,” Stakenas said. A� er the governor submits his budget

recommendation, the house budget will submit one, and then the senate, and until all of the budgets are on the table, the college will not know speci� cally what resources they will be granted next year, according to Stakenas.

BUDGET DEFICIT,continued from page 1

online course. “We have a number of other

things planned throughout the year, and we are working with the SGA as well,” Olenyk said. “� is is just one piece of our entire awareness campaign about it,” she added. “I think that sexual violence and

assault is a very real thing, and that everyone should know about it,” said junior Ashlyn Copeland. “� ere are many myths that revolve around this topic, and treating it like a taboo will not help prevent it.”Olenyk explained that if students

do not participate in the online training, a hold will be put on their registration for classes next semester. If faculty and sta do not participate, the situation will be treated just like any other failure to comply with employee requirements is treated, and dealt with accordingly. “It is required, and we hope

people understand that,” Olenyk said. “It will help increase awareness of this issue on campus, and people need to do it for their own good,” she said. Olenyk also noted how pleased

she has been with the response she

has gotten from faculty and sta already, regarding the training. “I am so pleased with the

response, as to how members of faculty and sta have completed the training with little to no question,” she said. Copeland has already completed

the training, and found it somewhat helpful. “I knew some of the information

already,but it was still bene� cial,” she

said. “Sexual assault and rape are issues that some people deal with daily, and I think that it is good that the school is trying to educate the students,” she said. “Knowing what to do in those situations can help saves lives and prevent abuse,” Copeland added. “What we want people to know

is that reports all have to end up [in my hand] and I have to make sure that we are investigating the issues properly, and getting them solved,” Olenyk said.A few schools in the

surrounding area have hired external investigators to handle their sexual assault cases, such as Williams College. According to an October 29 NPR article by Tovia Smith, “colleges across the country are under pressure to overhaul how they handle cases of sexual assault.”

ASSAULT TRAINING, continued from page 1

College reacts to state budget de� cit

War on drugs doesn’t work

By Rominda DeBarrosSta� Writer

Last week a small group made up of college sta , administration, and students gathered to discuss ways to make MCLA more envi-ronmentally sustainable. � ey call themselves the Green Team.� e Green Team, also known

as the Sustainability Committee, was developed in accordance to former president Mary Grant’s pledge to climate commitment. In 2007 Grant signed the Ameri-

can Colleges & Universities Presi-dents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), an initiative dedi-cated to encouraging institutions of higher education to reduce and eventually neutralize greenhouse gas emissions on their campuses.According to the initiative’s pro-

gram overview, institutions of higher education have the most potential to reverse global warm-ing because of their societal reach and purpose of producing the world’s next great minds.� e Green Team formed in Sep-

tember 2007 following Grant’s signature. � ey were tasked with making sustainability on campus a priority and determining the college’s carbon footprint.� eir last report on greenhouse

gas emissions was dated in 2009, it stated that the campus in total released 10.5 per 1,000 square feet metric tons of Carbon diox-ide equivalent (CO2e), a unit of measurement that describes the global warming impact a green-house gas has.According to ACUPCC the cur-

rent average emission total for four year colleges is 13.73 metric tons CO2e.In 2012 the College released

their last progress report stating that they had successfully imple-mented 15 projects to reduce

greenhouse emissions on campus since signing the commitment. � ey also reported using solar and geothermal energy.� e Green Team has not been

active since 2012. James Stakenas, Vice president of Student A airs and chairman of the Green Team, stated that he thought people just got busy. He himself was worried about

opening up the Science Center.� e college had hired a sustain-

ability coordinator in 2012 using funds from a grant that has since expired. “I think people ran out of time.

We thought others would sustain. We knew the Environuts were ac-tive,” Stakenas said.Environuts president, junior

Josh Reynolds stated that he ap-preciated the ideas the Green Team o ered the club. Last week’s meeting was his � rst introduction to the Green Team.“As of right now I’m really not

sure what to think of the Green Team, since I’m just starting out with them,” Reynolds said.One of the large objectives de-

tailed in previous Green Team notes was engaging students. � ere were only three students at last week’s meeting.Stakenas stated that he contacted

faculty members and CSSE, ex-pecting them to spread the word, and gave people information about the meeting in the Presi-dents Newsletter.“We look for students that are in-

terested,” Stakenas said. “Students have to self-select. People will self-identify.”Stakenas started last week’s

meeting in asserting that the pur-pose of this � rst meeting was to see “what we understand about environmental concerns.”“� ere’s a lot of experts at the

table who want all of this work, to

serve MCLA,” Stakenas said.Among MCLA’s accomplish-

ments, Stakenas listed MCLA’s power plant, the cogenerational (the simultaneous production of heat and electricity, where both energies are used) project, and single stream recycling.Chuck Kimberly, Director of Fa-

cilities, stated that single stream recycling was meant to make re-cycling easier on campus.“� ere’s no looking around to

� nd the right can” Kimberly said, “just recycling.” � e college currently has no data

on the amount of trash reduction in recent years.According to Kimberly, mainte-

nance is still receiving more trash than recycling.According to Hoosac Residen-

tial Director Gri� n Labbance, residence halls don’t have a list by each trash receptacle listing items that can be recycled instead of thrown away. In residence halls maintenance

does not take recycling. � e re-cycling is located on � rst � oor of BT and Hoosac, making recycling more inconvenient for students than simply throwing something away.Kimberly discussed why mainte-

nance doesn’t take recycling with RPS.“� ere seems to be a desire to

have that piece be student driven,” Kimberly said.Labbance stated that in town-

houses recycling receptacles are not provided, but that he o� en sees students buying them them-selves and initiating recycling on their own.� ere are a few students on cam-

pus who’ve gone even further with e orts to improve sustain-able residence living.

Green Team resurrectedGroup to peruse sustainability options

Training to help sexual assault awareness

The Beacon wants to publish your work!

Submit poetry, photos and short stories to the Beacon email!

beacon@mcla.edu

Photo By Jay Tocco/The BeaconJack Cole speaks at SSDP event.

By Idalis FosterSta� Writer

Jack Cole, one of the founders of Law Enforcement Against Prohi-bition (LEAP), spoke about the “War on Drugs” on Wednesday.Cole, a retired detective lieuten-

ant, worked in New Jersey, New York City and Boston during his 22 years in law enforcement, 14 of which were spent in narcotics. Cole described how undercover

narcotics o� cers would form close relationships with young students to catch them doing drugs, no matter how small the amount. He described the “War on Drugs” as the reason for the current drug problem, not the solution, stating that only so� drugs were common at the time while hard drugs were “virtually unheard of.”According to Cole, when Presi-

dent Richard Nixon began the War on Drugs back in the 1970s, it was not about drugs but was a political move by Nixon to have a strong backing and win the presi-dential election.“If these drugs were legalized,

the drug violence would end, overdose deaths would end,” Cole said. “If we regulate it and control it, we can keep these people alive.”Cole also shared that the amount

of drugs seized has gone up from ounces and pounds, to tons. Drug purity has gone from 1.5 percent

to 60 percent, and drug use has gone from 2 percent of the popu-lation to 46 percent. All of these increases occurred since the 46 years of drug prohibition.“Today the amount of tax dollars

spent � ghting this ‘war’ amounts to 1.5 trillion, including money spent on the 50 million arrests and counting for nonviolent drug o enses,” Cole said. “Heroine is probably the most expensive commodity on the face of the earth, only because it’s illegal.”Cole shared statistics from coun-

tries where all drugs have been decriminalized, such as Swit-zerland where, because of their free methadone and providing citizens with clean needles, both crime rates and deaths are down.Senior Victoria Patnaude was

drawn to the event being that she’d heard about it from friends and had seen similar speakers.“He was really poignant

and raised a lot of valuable points,”Patnaude said. “He also shares a unique perspective.”

Thursday, March 5, 2015 Campus News Beacon.MCLA.edu4

By Caitlin O’NeillCopy Chief

Last Thursday the MCLA stu-dent chapter of the Wildlife Soci-ety held its first official meeting.Attending students introduced

themselves with the usual name, year, and major, along with why they were interested in the club and what their favorite animal was.Once introductions were com-

plete, club president and founder TaylorJae Taber gave a presenta-tion detailing her goals and ideas for the club. “[The club will be] an outlet for

students who are interested in wildlife to meet wildlife profession-als and gain experience in, or get a sense of, the field of wildlife man-agement, rehabilitation, fish and game, animal care, and conserva-tion,” she said in her presentation.She expressed plans to coordi-

nate field trips to locations such as the New England Aquarium and the Ecotarium in Worchester, Mass., and other wildlife rescue or research facilities in the Berk-shires and beyond. Other ambitions for the club

include getting members trained and certified in various methods of animal research, and helping members find jobs or internships working with wildlife.“I want everyone to be able get

hands-on experience with animals through this club,” Taber said.Taber spent the fall 2014 semes-

ter studying abroad at the Uni-versity of Alaska, Fairbanks, and was inspired to start the MCLA Wildlife Society chapter by her time there.“Alaska is all about wildlife and

conservation,” she said. “While I was in Alaska I was part of the Fairbanks chapter of the Wildlife Society, and I thought, hey, why doesn’t MCLA have a Wildlife So-

ciety? So I thought I would be the Trailblazer for that club.”Taber is also a member of the

Environuts and plans to collabo-rate with that club, and others such as the Photography Club or Outing Club.“I was a part of the Environuts

and I felt that a lot of their stuff is about renewable energy, recy-cling, and environmental stuff, which is great, but I really want-ed to be involved in wildlife and conservation, and I noticed that there’s not a club on campus that really fits that interest, so I decid-ed instead of trying to change the Environuts I would just start my own club,” Taber said. Many Envi-ronuts members also attended the first Wildlife Society meeting.Taber was surprised by the im-

mediate interest in the Wildlife Society. Within a few days of an-nouncing the first meeting and making a Facebook page for the club, she said she had heard from about 30 interested students.“It happened really fast!” she said.According to its Web site, wild-

life.org, the Wildlife Society is “an international non-profit scien-tific and educational association dedicated to excellence in wildlife stewardship through science and education.” There are student chapters on

many college campuses around the country.The Wildlife Society holds annu-

al conferences, which the MCLA chapter hopes to attend at some point in the future.The MCLA Student Chapter of

the Wildlife Society meets again tonight at 7:00 p.m. in the Science Center, room 124. Students inter-ested in the club can attend, or get more information by joining the Facebook group “MCLA Student Chapter of the Wildlife Society,” or by emailing TaylorJae Taber on Outlook 365.

New club gets students involved with wildlife

SGA BUDGETS, continued from page 1FY16 the SGA will use $26,000

from the reserve account to help the budget; in FY15 it only used $910.Thirty-seven clubs and

organizations will be funded by SGA throughout the next fiscal year compared to last year’s 42 clubs.“I thought it was a good idea

to help increase clubs that are doing really good things for the campus,” Hernigle said. Book Club and Queer Student

Union are new clubs that requested a FY ‘16 SGA budget for the first time. Three clubs that became inactive are chamber ensemble, society of music, and aikido club, according to Hernigle.“The political science club was

tabled because only five members are still in the club with three that are graduating,” Hernigle said. “A full e-board must consist of more than two individuals.”Hernigle said only four clubs

were recommended for a budget decrease.

This included Dance Company decreasing $1,483, Multi-Cultural Student Society (MCSS) decreasing $2,020, Mathematics club decreasing $293, and Writers Guild decreasing $23. “We didn’t cut from (Dance Co.)

their shows, there were other things we just simply felt that we didn’t need to fund, like a door-stop” Hernigle said. “Baseline things we cut from all

clubs this year were requests for items that were e-board specific,” Hernigle said. “Some clubs wanted t-shirts or sweatshirts for e-board (members) but we decided we aren’t funding that.”Hernigle said he implemented

using excel sheets to fix issues with handwriting and math that many times caused problems during the budget process. According to Hernigle, there was

a $100,000 difference between what clubs requested this year to last year.SGA is reviewing the BFC budget

recommendations and will give a final budget approval next week.

Three clubs will receive budget cuts

Students reflect on Model UNBy Juanita Doss

Features Editor

Brendan Peltier ’15 reflects on his hard work after bringing ‘The Best Delegate’ award back from the North American Model Unit-ed Nations (NAMUN).“I didn’t think I would win any

award because there were bet-ter delegates,” Peltier said. “I was shocked to find out it was me; it’s a nice way to be rewarded for working hard.”NAMUN is a conference that

takes place at the University of To-ronto, which draws delegates from around the world. The conference was held Feb. 19 through Feb. 22. Peltier was one of 12 students

who attended the conference, along with Political Science Pro-fessor Ben Taylor.Each delegate was assigned a state.

Some were assigned to give debates on historical and ‘crisis’ within that state. Over the course of three days, students debated and passed reso-lutions dealing with the issues be-fore their committees. Peltier served on the International

Monetary Fund Crisis Committee, where he represented the United Kingdom (UK). While conducting research, he learned a tremendous amount of information about the stance on economic policy as well as the European debt crisis and the Arab Spring crisis.Taylor helped Peltier with his

research, which allowed him to gather all the stances of the UK on economic issues.“When I got there, I just pretended

I was the UK fighting to demand that the Euro are hurting economic growth, the support of Euro Zone countries and making sure there were no military action taken in these countries,” Peltier said. The Model UN is one of Peltier’s

favorite conferences to attend. Last year when he attended, he repre-sented Mexico’s illicit drug trade.“Being able to work with other

students on a particular interest and solve the issue such as the Unit-ed Nations is fascinating,” he said.Taylor Krowitz ’15, who is major-

ing in political science/ public poli-cy and history, represented Bangla-desh in the Legal Committee.

“I had a great time at the confer-ence,” Krowitz said. “You can only learn so much through reading about how the United Nations operates.”Participating in the lively de-

bates and working with other delegates taught Krowitz what to expect at the Model UN. This was his first time attending the confer-ence and he said he would love to go again, but serve on a different committee because each one op-erates in a different way.“I highly encourage any stu-

dent who has an interest in the [Model] UN to attend a confer-ence through the school or on their own,” Krowitz said. “You don’t have to be a political science or history major to appreciate the work of the United Nations.”

Photo courtsey of Professor Ben TaylorModel UN students come from many majors and paths of

study, not just political science or history.

Full service hospital could be financially sustainable

By Harmony BirchStaff Writer

A report done by Stroudwater Associates in September found that a full-service hospital in North Adams would only be fi-nancially possible if it were to receive critical access status (sta-tus that gives hospitals additional government support if they are located in rural areas). However Berkshire Health Systems (BHS) has yet to apply for critical ac-cess status, leaving the citizens of Northern Berkshire County with-out a hospital until further notice.“We are still in the process of

looking to see whether or not crit-ical access status is a wise move,” Michael Leary, the media repre-sentative for BHS, said.North Adams Regional Hospital

(NARH) applied for critical ac-cess status after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2011. They were turned down because BMC is lo-cated 25 miles away.It seems strange to some, however,

that BHS has not tried to apply.“It’s important at the very least

to go through the process,” said Senator Ben Downing, who has been working with BHS since be-fore NARH closure on addressing community healthcare needs.Another report released last

month by the Massachusetts Nurs-es Association (MNA) claims that critical access status, while ideal, might not even be necessary for a full-service hospital.The report details why a hospi-

tal is needed in North Adams, a claim no one’s denying.“Inpaitent care should and can be

in the mix up there,” Downing said.The controversy comes when

addressing the financial means

to do so. The Stroudwater report and BHS are of the opinion that NARH’s closure was in part a problem with its location. They couldn’t make enough money to support themselves.Leary explained that Northern

Berkshire Healthcare (NBH), the parent company of NARH, applied for bankruptcy twice. In 2011, during their Chap-ter 11 bankruptcy, a significant amount of debt was wiped away and NARH was forced to reor-ganize their financial structure. This suggests that no matter what they did, NARH would have gone bankrupt again. However, the 2012 tax BHS filed

for NARH showed that they were making a significant amount more than they were spending. In 2012, NARH spent $39,874,267; this number included expenses for inpatient care, outpatient care, and emergency room expenses. These are the only three health-care services NARH itself pro-vided. That same year they made a total of $62,752,359. The MNA report suggested that

it was because of poor investment choices on NBH’s end. NBH went into significant debt with the pur-chase of the Sweet Brook Transi-tional Care & Living Centers and the Sweetwood Continuing Care Retirement Community. These facilities do not relate at all to the money or services NARH provided. This would mean that NARH closed

because its parent company made poor investment choices that had nothing to do with the hospital itself.The Stroudwater Associates de-

clined to comment on the MNA report.Eric Shell, the lead principal on

the Stroudwater study, said in an

email, “We are not under contract with the Commonwealth to pro-vide any additional services and it would be inappropriate for us to comment any further.”BHS is very aware of the report and

its findings, but Leary stated that he had “no interest in reading the report.”He did, however, “scan it” and

questioned whether or not the data was credible.Nykole Roche, the MNA report’s

author cites her data, footnoted throughout the report, from, a va-riety of state agencies and health care organizations.According to Leary, the main

obstacle standing in the way of an inpatient hospital in North Ad-ams is expense. “New MRI’s aren’t free,” Leary

said, “the latest surgical material is expensive.”“It would be wonderful, if in an

ideal world, we could make that work,” Leary said but according to him a full service hospital, “does not look to hold financial liability.”Roche’s response to Leary was,

“read the report.”To Roche, Leary’s response to

why BHS refuses to commit to opening up a hospital in North Adams is inadequate.“BHS bought a hospital in North

Adams, and refuses to provide full service care in North Adams,” Roche said.According to Roche, if they were

prioritizing their duty to provide healthcare they would apply for critical access funding, they’d “do whatever it takes.”“BHS hasn’t shown any real

commitment to this hospital at all,” Roche said.

For the extended version of this article, check out The Beacon

online.

Thursday, March 5, 2015 Features Beacon.MCLA.edu 5

Schildkraut joins the department of graduate and continuing education

Todorski helps with undergraduate research projects

Mina Beeler studies abroad in LondonBeeler visited Whitby Abbey, the prominent location of her favorite novel “Dracula”

By Juanita DossFeatures Editor

Dana Schildkraut is a true country girl who was trapped in the suburbs outside of Boston. The beautiful mountains and diverse art that sur-rounds North Adams drew her to MCLA.

Schildkraut, who is a new full-time employee in the Department of Graduate and Continuing Educa-tion, earned both a bachelor of fine arts with a concentration in sculp-ture and a masters in art education at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y.

After receiving her bachelor’s de-gree, she applied for a full-time po-sition at Manhattanville College, which paid for her grad school. She found the job opening through post-

ings in her email from career services.“Prior to working at MCLA, I worked in

higher education at a liberal art college and it was my favorite job,” she said. “I love work-ing in higher education.”

Schildkraut was hired this January through a grant given to MCLA from the Common-wealth’s Department of Higher Education. The grant was the Improving Teacher Qual-ity program, which improves teacher quality through graduate partners with local school districts enable teacher’s continued learning.

Schildkraut acts as a S.T.E.A.M coach where she works with teachers to develop team les-sons that marry art and science.

“Teaching art through science in integrated lessons gives an experience for students,” she said. ”Students who are bad at science and enjoy art will learn to like science through these lessons.”

Schildkraut loves working with lower el-ementary students. She is currently working with the school districts in North Adams, Adams, Cheshire and the Northern Berk-shire Union. She also works with the Child-care of the Berkshires and Headstart. The students she works with range from Pre-K to second grade.

When working with young children, Schil-dkraut noticed that they don’t like to sit still for a long time, so she incorporated her vi-sual art skills into lessons.

“Creative movement and dance is a very fun way for them to learn, focus is there with movement,” she said. “Forming our bod-ies like a tree is one of my favorite things to teach when educating young students.”

Schildkraut loves being a part of a college community again, she loves the constant learning that’s always occurring.

“Being on a college campus is such a big en-vironment for learning,” she said. “Learning is so much fun and is a great way to explore. I encourage students to stay curious and be a lifetime learner.”

Anne Todorski, new biology faculty member, admires liberal arts schools

Photo by Liz Quirk/ The BeaconMina Beeler ‘16 studied abroad in Lon-don, England at Queen Mary University last semester.

Photo courtesy of Mina BeelerBeeler spent four days in Whitby Ab-bey, the prominent location for Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”.

By Kaliegh HayesFeatures Writer

Junior Mina Beeler was able to step into the setting of her favorite book last semester when she studied abroad in London, England.

Whitby Abbey is the prominent location in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”, and Beeler was able to

stay on the Abbey grounds for four days dur-ing her semester abroad.

“It felt like I was living in a reality of what I know,” Beeler said. “I would get up early every morning and stand in the graveyard which is a cliff that looks over the harbor,” she said. “The Abbey was always in sight, kind of looming, and I felt like the stars were closer.”

Beeler has always wanted to travel abroad. The decision to study in London came to her last spring while talking with a group of friends.

“Someone was talking about London and I was like ‘I’m gonna go to London!’” she said.

With the help of Staff Assistant of CSSE/Career Services Ashton Darrett, Beeler was able to quickly hop on a plane and travel to London’s Queen Mary University (QMU) in the fall.

When she arrived she was introduced to a different style of teaching. Beeler was shocked at the curriculum.

“Here at MCLA we have to take classes in different majors,” said Beeler. “Over there the major is called a course and they’re not allowed to take anything out-side of it.”

Beeler took history classes, which con-sisted of lectures and films. One thing that shocked Beeler was that they didn’t give out any assignments.

“If I had taken English, maybe I would have gotten more assignments. But I was all history when I was there, so I did a lot of reading.”

When she wasn’t hanging out with her suitemates or reading, Beeler was out and about exploring England and travelling to places like the House of Parliament, Big Ben, and even went on a Jack the Ripper Tour.

Thrilled that historians guided the ma-jority of tours that she went to, Beeler looked up to the guides. Her dream is to be an Archivist and Historian working in Romanian history with a focus on the Dracula mythos.

When asked if she would go back, Beeler said, “Yes,” in a heartbeat.

It felt like I was liv-ing in a reality of

what I know“

”Mina Beeler

“I think about it everyday, it was really hard to come back,” said Beeler. “My flat mates want me to stay with them for a while.”

Beeler hopes to attend grad school in England, and if not, she wants to move there shortly after graduating.

Photo from sportzin.comSchildkraut was hired in January through a grant called Improv-ing Teacher Quality (ITQ).

By Kaliegh HayesFeatures Writer

Over the river and through the woods to MCLA she goes. Com-muting everyday from Grafton, N.Y., Anne Todorski is one of MCLA’s new-est faculty members in the Biology Department.

However, Todorski wasn’t always into science. She entered Hartwick College as an art major, and then switched to biology her sophomore year.

“I feel like art is one of those things that I can learn at any time in my life,” said Todorski. “But with science, if I wasn’t at an institute where I could sit down in a classroom, I probably wouldn’t go and pick it up on my own.”

After talking to a biology professor, who had also changed majors when he was in college, Todorski took a chance and took a biology course. She has stuck with that field of study ever since.

After graduating from Hartwick with a liberal arts degree, Todorski then moved on to Rensselaer Poly-technic Institute for graduate school.

Todorski was looking for a job in the area after finishing her Ph.D in biol-ogy last year, and eventually found a place in MCLA’s biology department.

“I spent about a year as a contractor for a very large academic educational company,” said Todorski. “But I really missed working with students, being in classrooms and laboratories.”

Though she isn’t a Professor Todor-ski still teaches. Her responsibilities include teaching, supervising, and

managing lab setups. She also helps with the undergraduate research projects.

“I really like the emphasis on STEM education here,” said Todorski. “I think it’s a really wonder-ful focus for a liberal arts college.” She said she admires the way of liberal arts schools.

“Having that liberal arts background really helps me as a scientist,” said Todorski. “I’m not so rigid in the way I think about things, I can bring a lot of creativity to projects.”

Photo from Vebidoo.com Todorski enjoys the emphasis on STEM education and believes it’s a wonderful focus for a liberal arts college.

“”

Having a liberal arts background really helps

me as a scientist

Anne Todorski

Thursday, March 5, 2015 Arts & Entertainment Beacon.MCLA.edu6“ILSSA: It’s about Time”: a key to time

By Shirin HijabA&E Editor

“ILSSA: It’s about Time” is an experiment that attempts to un-derstand time, and if it doesn’t achieve that goal, it certainly catalogues the use of time and the feeling of time.Members of ILSSA (Impractical

Labor in Service of the Specula-tive Arts), including one artist and creator of “ILSSA: It’s about Time” Emily Larned, sent out about 100 workbooks with a series of ques-tions to be completed. All pages had the option not to be complet-ed. They received around 50 back and those are the ones hanging in PRESS, next to Gallery 51. One of the most interesting en-

tries under the question of “What is the best advice you’ve been giv-en about time?” was something like: A friend once told me that a definition of anxiety was when a person keeps worrying about never getting enough done even though it’s impossible to do more in the present moment. Not all the advice was good ad-

vice in these sections, because of the relativity of time and how each person functions with differ-

ent time, but it was possible to see how such advice could work. This mutual understanding between the readers and people who most of the readers didn’t know was evident and shows the success of this project. And a comforting, mutual understanding under the oppressiveness of time isn’t some-thing to look away from.Art professor Melanie Mowin-

ski was equally optimistic and ex-cited about the project, and it was easy to tell that even though this isn’t her project, she is passionate about this kind of work. “North Adams as a city that has

had a big, strong history of people working in unions. And this is a different way of thinking about a union,” she said. “What happens when people join together for a similar cause? And in this case our cause is that we all work in obsolete technologies, but what kind of support do you get from people who do that all over the country?”Mowinski agreed happily that

the ideals of the project and that of ILSSA were very socialist and was going to recite a communist quote that she thought best fit the project but couldn’t remember it

exactly. Emily Larned remem-bered feeling lonely when doing graduate work in her craft; she and her friend both want to have a set of values, like process over product and the reuse of discard-ed objects, and a group of people who practiced similar crafts. It makes perfect sense for a group of letterpress printers to make a collective project that involves the troubles and slight successes of communication and the relation-ship of all this to time.“It’s iterative,” Larned said as she

organized printing blocks with inky hands. “What I mean by that is each thing we do then suggests something else to do, but we kind of never have one long, continu-ous plan in which we’re kind of checking things off.”Larned said that she and some

others sent out a survey to the ILSSA members to determine to what degree they were alienated or happy workers. This idea and principal starting point for the whole project is entwined with the concept of time, which is largely based around emotions. Time in this project is almost al-ways seen as the enemy, but may-be we should start reinventing the

notion of time or at least look at it more critically. Michelle Daly, director of Gal-

lery 51, said she wishes she could be more philosophical when thinking about time but then con-cluded hesitantly: “Time isn’t lin-ear but we describe it like it’s lin-ear. I think everyone should come see [the exhibit]. It’s the perfect conversation, getting to add your own.” (there are blank workbooks visitors can alter).In a similar sense, Melanie

Mowinski endorsed the idea of “providing the space for people,

and the community, to come try something. Just even this “Tell us why arts matter”, that poster that we have up there, just that it in-vites people to add something but also the sense of being a catalyst and a reminder and an advocate for the importance of the arts.” Don’t we all wish for something like that? The old model in art of the solitary worker or artists is falling down and allowing for this more community-based work. This kind of work is what makes the 21st century artistically inno-vative and invigorating.

Review of dress rehearsal by Matt Hotaling

A&E Writer

The fine and performing arts de-partment opens the constantly twisting mystery “Catch Me If You Can” this week, Thursday through Saturday at 8:00 p.m., as the first show of the spring sea-son. The play was written by Rob-ert Thomas and adapted by Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert.

The driving conflict of the play is that Daniel Corban’s (Marcus Ne-verson) wife has gone missing on their honeymoon. When a pastor (Jake Bonenfant) brings Daniel his wife (Julie Cimaomo) back to him, the newlywed insists that the woman is a pretender.Neverson gives an incredible per-

formance, his character exploding in energy again and again, each time seemingly to reach his limit and then exceed it.“[Daniel’s] a different person

from the beginning of the show to the end of it,” Neverson said.The change in Daniel’s character

is shown not just by his actions, but also through his costume, which becomes more disheveled as the play progresses and Never-son’s energy grows wild. Other performances are equally

as excellent. Inspector Levine, (Breana Gladu) the detective over-seeing the investigation, brings a deadpan sarcasm that plays an excellent foil to Neverson’s manic

energy. Cimaomo’s performance as Elizabeth is mysterious and full of venom, she leaves the audience guessing about her true motive.“I like Elizabeth because she’s

different from myself, she’s re-ally bitchy,” Cimaomo said. “I feel like I can use the frustration from my regular life and take it out on stage.”The set design for the show excel-

lently emulates the rustic charm of a mountain cottage. Actors make their way back and forth

from a bar at one end of the stage and telephone table on the other, often resting in the middle on a pair of couches. As the show reaches its climax

the energy of the actors is only amplified by its audience.“As I build my way up there, hav-

ing people watching makes it even more intense,” Neverson said. I’m really proud of this group,”

Doug Jenkins, director and FPA professor, said. “They worked re-ally hard.”

‘Catch Me If You Can’ has explosive energy

By Mitchell ChapmanA&E Writer

Upon first entering Gallery 51, one will be greeted by row after row of greenery captured in can-vas, photography, or in the form of everyday house plants. The dis-play, part of Gallery 51’s “Winter Greens” exhibition, is a product of Gallery Manager Julia Morgan-Leamon.“This show provokes an instant

response that has to do with feeling a warm, green space in the middle of winter,” Morgan-Leamon said. “It’s an intersection of botany and art.”Morgan-Leamon said the idea

came from her connections with people in the sciences, who knew of “visually compelling” phenom-ena in nature. A good portion of the work was made by people Morgan-Leamon knew person-ally, such as artist Venessa Nesvig, who, according to destinationwil-liamstown.org “researches, draws, and further engages her imagina-tion to create round-format paint-ings of sea gardens” by examining

samples of seawater under a mi-croscope. Nesvig was looking for a place to showcase her work. “I have known Julia for several

years and had sent her a proposal for a show at the MCLA Gallery 51,” Nesvig said. “I have found her to be easy and professional to work with.”

Morgan-Leamon’s fascination with the arts began as a child, but saw fruition while attending col-lege in Mt. Holyoke, where she was inspired by one of her profes-sors. “It can be hard to make a living in

this profession sometimes,” Mor-gan-Leamon said. “A lot of people have to piece together a living, but it’s worth it to do something you

really love.”She has also been to Egypt six

times, where she ran a program that took students from Williams and Egypt-based Luxor College to look at the culture and politics of the area, much of which has in-spired her art. “It’s just so different, going there

as an artist, rather than a tour-ist,” Morgan-Leamon explained. “When you know people under that service, they know hotspots for experiencing that culture. We spent time in cafes, markets, and

studios. It is incredibly hard to get to know women who are college-aged though.”The last time she brought stu-

dents over, it was amidst the Arab Spring movement. “The last day we were there was

the first day of the revolution,” Morgan-Leamon said. “I ended up staying behind a few weeks. What I saw was incredibly mov-ing.”Morgan-Leamon documented

her experiences through water-color.“I just started recording daily

life as I was experiencing it under those situations,” she said in a vid-eo interview with Time. “But as I was painting this one landscape or cityscape, I just started to see the water cannons going to tear gas to smoke. And, as I painted, I was just trying to add in this feel-ing of onslaught. This is such an ongoing situation, and these peo-ple who have been just working and taking care of their families, have just found this voice. I just want them to come through this.”Morgan-Leamon has taught both

at Williams and at MCLA. Her favorite part of teaching has been

what students bring to the table. Her associates, such as art profes-

sor Melanie Mowinksi, agree that Morgan-Leamon has a talent for fostering new ideas through her experience managing exhibitions. “Julie guides artists, encourages

them, coaxes out their vision,” Mowinksi said. “The work I ex-hibit in Wintergreen happened because of conversations back and forth between Julia and I. She listens to artists, reflects back to them their vision, and then helps them realize it. It was incredible working with her.”

Gallery manager recounts diverse experiences

Photo from mcla.edu/news from Astrid HiemerMorgan-Leamon (right) has contributed a lot to the Gallery.

Photo from ILSSA It’s About Time Preview flickrThis set-up of views on time demonstrates both anonymity and connectiveness.

It can be hard to make a living in this profession

sometimes. A lot of peo-ple have to piece together a living, but it’s worth it to do something you really love.

Julia Morgan-Leamon

“”

Thursday, March 5, 2015 Arts & Entertainment Beacon.MCLA.edu 7

Review by Shirin HijabA&E Editor

On an extremely cold night, a group of MCLA students, got in vans to go see a performance by Shantala Shivalingappa and her band of musicians. It was an ex-traordinary performance, not usually seen in the Berkshires.Sivalingappa practices classi-

cal Indian dance that goes with Carnatic music, which is found in southern India. In contrast to Hindustani music

Carnatic music allows for slightly more improvisation (around 80 percent of the dance is set and the rest is improvised) but is still very structured. In its structure, however, Carnatic music has an infinite set of possibilities, such as having 72 possible scales accord-ing to one of the musicians. Oddly enough, the mridangam

(the main percussion instrument) and the tambura (the stringed instrument that provides a kind of drone) used the performance sometimes sounded similar to dubstep bass beats or electronica atmospheric music.Sivalingappa noted that in the

songs they compose together, she’s very picky and specific about what notes go where and how she can interpret them. Her kind of style of dance is called kuchipudi which uses a complex footwork while the rest of the body often mimics the percussion. The most interesting example of this was when one of the musicians was playing the mridangam rapidly and Sivalingappa was only mov-ing her hand in quick, almost stagnated movements to the beat. The dance style is made up of two forms of movement: nrrta is the more abstract form, while abhi-naya is a form using the body to convey the story very specifically

with body movement.Throughout the performance,

there was a voiceover that told a vague story, a classical tale like one would hear in “Mahabharata” which includes the “Bhagavad Gita” or the “Ramayana.”They played only about five

songs but they were all long in duration with complex parts. Some of the songs were literally taken from the original and were unaltered. And the dance doesn’t so much interpret the narrative as accompany the music which, Sivalingappa noted, is part of the abstractness of the title of the per-formance: Akasha. Akasha means light or sky but more specifically a light that shines and lets one achieve different levels of con-sciousness, similar to how a guru gives a student light. Sivalingappa noted how helpful her own guru, who taught her classical dance, was for her.Sivalingappa has a philosophy

geared more torwards feeling than to logic.“If we could try to not understand too much with our minds but with our hearts,” Sivalingappa concluded in the discussion section. This philoso-phy is evident in her dance which uses a much more physical and emotional approach to conveying abstract feelings. Her approach is in itself a kind

of homage to the abstract quality of music that is, perhaps, not ex-perienced so much today where so many things in dance or music, at least in the west, are assigned meaning. It would’ve been fantas-tic to see two different styles, one abstract and one based on con-veying specific ideas to compare how they work and what forms they use. But everyone was left, still, with a feeling of amazement, and a lot about music and dance that they still didn’t understand.

By Matt AcetoA&E Writer

With show times right around the corner, both the Harlequin and Yorick clubs feel confident about their upcoming productions.On Thursday, March 26, the

Harlequin club will premiere their rendition of “Carrie the Musical”, which will run through March 28 in Venable Theater. Reservations will be available the week of the play in the Amsler Campus Cen-ter. Two weeks later, the Yorick club will perform “Macbeth” in the Church Street Center Social Hall, from April 9 to April 11. Harlequin Director, Benjamin

Baylon, is impressed with his cast’s effort thus far.“The past few weeks we’ve been

drilling the music scenes,” Baylon said. “The cast is working very hard.”“Carrie the Musical” first de-

buted in 1988, and is roughly based on Stephen King’s book

“Carrie” which was published in 1974. The plot revolves around a group of high school girls prepar-ing for prom, who girls often bully the main character, Carrie. “It’s a lot of fun, it’s college kids

playing high school kids,” Baylon said. “Bullying is a huge theme.”The musical has 14 cast members

who all enjoy working together. In between running scenes, they playfully tease each other and crack jokes. Though they like hav-ing fun behind the scenes, Baylon believes the cast is well-suited for the big stage.“They’re definitely a bunch of

hard workers. There’s a level of professionalism that is surpris-ing,” Baylon said. “People are ex-cited.”Yorick Director Josh Baker is

also satisfied with his cast’s per-formance thus far. “Practice is going amazingly,”

Baker said. “We are three weeks ahead of schedule.”As one of Shakespeare’s most

recognizable works, “Macbeth” is

a relatively quick play stuffed with drama. Baker believes the thick plot is challenging to fit in a single show. “Macbeth is Shakespeare’s short-

est and darkest tragedy,” Baker said. “It’s hard to fit every moment in an hour and a half play time.”

Fortunately, Baker is working with many talented cast members. Students from all four classes are featured in the play, which adds to the group’s unity as a whole.“The cast is dispersed evenly be-

tween freshmen and upperclass-men, all ranging from different majors,” Baker said. “It’s a really cohesive group.”Backed by much enthusiasm, ex-

pect both the Harlequin club and Yorick club to be well prepared for their upcoming shows.

After break: Harlequin,Yorick premiere shows

Photos by Liz Quirk/The BeaconDanielle DeLamater in Harlequin’s “Carrie” practice dancing.

Carnatic musicin the Berkshires

Review by Matt HotalingA&E Writer

Last Friday, Netflix released the third season of its critically ac-claimed political drama “House of Cards”“House of Cards” is set in an al-

ternate version of the present and follows the scheming career of a fictional politician named Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey). Over the previous two seasons

Underwood clawed his way up from a lowly member of the party leadership all the way to the presi-dent’s office. The third season focuses on his difficulties with maintaining the office, difficult foreign affairs, and winning re-election with incredibly low pub-lic approval.Much of the show’s success

stems from Spacey’s performance as Underwood. Francis ‘Frank’ Underwood is an incredibly com-plex character who seems to be made of contradictions. He is the quintessential two-faced politi-

cian. He wears a glib smile while he undermines his opponents, and explodes with anger when fate throws a wrench in his plans. Underwood is as ruthless as he is cunning. His actions seem almost sociopathic, at times showing no sign of human empathy and will-ing to go as far as murder to tie up loose ends.

Season three reveals facets to Underwood’s character that have not been seen before, most notably weakness. Spacey’s per-formance is filled with a number of stand-out moments where the show presents the monument of Frank Underwood crumbling at its corners.“I was lucky to get into film at a

time that was very interesting for drama,” Spacey said in interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “I look now, the most interesting plots, the most interesting charac-ters, they are on TV.”The other stand-out perfor-

mance of the season is by actress Robin Wright in her role as first

lady Claire Underwood. Wright’s performance is reserved, but powerful. She serves as an excel-lent foil to Spacey’s Underwood; both characters are strong when they work together, but any rift between them weakens them both.Netflix put up all of season three

online for viewers to binge-watch.“The captive audience is gone,”

David Fincher, series director and executive producer said in an in-terview with the Director’s Guild of America. “If you give people this opportunity to mainline all in one day, there’s reason to believe they will do it.”

‘House of Cards’ third season escalates drama

Photo from NetflixFrank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) up to his usual schemes of breaking the fourth wall.

There’s a level of pro-fessionalism that is

surprising. People are excited.

Benjamin Baylon

“”

[Frank] wears a glib smile while he under-mines his opponents,

and explodes with an-ger when fate throws a wrench in his plans.

“

”

Photo by Liz Quirk/The BeaconJosh Baker, director of Yorick, looks on as Yorick rehearses

“MacBeth.”

Thursday, March 5, 2015 Sports Beacon.MCLA.edu8Westfield and Bridgewater claim MASCAC Championships

By Jesse CollingsSports Editor

It was a day of victory, and a day of defeat for Westfield State. Their Men’s basketball team claimed victory over Bridgewater State in the MASCAC Championship on Saturday, however, they failed to claim both the Men’s and Wom-en’s Championships, as Bridge-water State upset Westfield in the Women’s bracket to claim the MASCAC Championship.

In the Men’s final, it was a clash between arguably the league’s two best teams, as Michael Lofton of Bridgewater State squared off against Grant Cooper of West-field. Lofton was named the Mas-sachusetts State Collegiate Ath-letic Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Year on Wednesday, and Cooper was named to the All-Conference team. Lofton fin-ished the season as not only the top scorer in the league at 18.9 ppg, but also as the top rebound-er, averaging 10.5 rpg. Cooper finished second in the conference in scoring at 17.3 ppg and third in rebounding at 9.1 rebounds per game.

Westfield (20-6, 12-1) was the number one seed in the tourna-ment, granting it home court ad-vantage over the number two seed Bridgewater (18-8, 10-3).

The Owls jumped out to a 39-30 lead in the first half, thanks to dominant play by Cooper. Coo-per finished the first half with 12 points and 9 rebounds, while guard Andre King supported him with 10 points. Westfield shot 48.5 percent from the floor dur-ing the first half while holding Bridgewater to just 35.7 percent shooting for the half, according to mascac.com

The second half was the Michael Lofton show, with Lofton scoring 23 of his game-high 33 points in the second half on 11-15 shoot-ing. However, Lofton received little support from his teammates, as the rest of the Bears managed to shoot 6-27 from the floor in the second half.

By contrast, Westfield featured a balanced scoring attack, receiv-ing 10 points from Cooper and 9 points each from Andre King and Robby Jones. It was enough for Westfield to hold off Lofton and Bridgewater, as they claimed vic-tory and the MASCAC Champi-onship with a 78-69 victory.

Lofton led all players with 33 points while also hauling in 9 rebounds. Cooper led Westfield with 22 points and 14 rebounds, while also adding 3 assists, 3 steals

and 4 blocks. King had 19 points, and Shane Pasquantonio came off the bench to score 11 points on 5-6 shooting.

Neither team was very effec-tive from outside, as Westfield converted just 1-14 three point attempts, while Bridgewater shot only 1-17 from beyond the arc. Westfield finished the game with a slim rebounding edge (48-40) and outshot Bridgewater for the game (44 percent to 38.6 percent).

“I thought our kids played well,” Westifeld State coach Rich Sut-ter told d3hoops.com. “I didn’t think we shot the ball great, but we played tough defensively and that covered up a little bit. Coo-per was outstanding for us all day

on both ends of the floor.”With the victory, Westfield

reached 20 victories for the sec-ond time in three seasons. Despite that past success, Westfield had yet to win the MASCAC Cham-pionship in the 24 year history of the tournament. In an interview with d3hoops.com, Sutter talked about how rewarding finally win-ning the championship felt.

“I feel like we are vindicated in a way,” said Sutter. “We’ve always tried to do things the right way

with our program, and maybe that takes a little longer to get to the top.”

Westfield will meet Babson College in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday.

In the Women’s final, Westfield State was upset by Bridgewater, as the Bears toppled the Owls in Westfield, 60-57.

Westfield, which entered the game unbeaten in conference play and riding a school-record 16 game winning streak, falls to 22-5 (12-1 in MASCAC) while Bridgewater improved to 16-10 (9-4) on the season.

The win further cements the dynasty that Bridgewater has cre-ated in the MASCAC under head

coach Bridgett Casey. The vic-tory is the fifth straight MASCAC championship for Bridgewater, and their sixth in the last eight seasons.

The game began with Westfield appearing to cruise to a perfect season in MASCAC, as the Owls opened the game with a 9-2 lead. Bridgewater would quickly put any ideas of a route to rest, an-swering with a 9-2 run of their own to tie the game at 11. The two teams would trade baskets for the

rest of the half, with Bridgewater holding a slim 21-20 lead at half-time.

Neither team could get much going on offense in the first team, as both Bridgewater and West-field shot under 35 percent from the field.

Things would pick up dra-matically in the second half, as Bridgewater shot 60 percent from the field, while Westfield shot 55.6 percent.

Bridgewater caught a break early in the second half when Westfield guard Jen Ashton, the MASCAC Player of the Year, went down with an apparent in-jury with 17:10 left in the second half. Bridgewater would take

advantage of Ashton’s absence, opening up a 32-25 lead. Ashton would check back into the game with 15:22 remaining, and West-field would scramble back into the game, cutting the lead to one with 11 minutes remaining.

Things began to look grim for Bridgewater when senior forward Megan Boutilette, who had scored 16 points for the Bears, fouled out with 9:52 remaining in the game and Bridgewater nursing a 45-43 lead.

Bridgewater hung tough as Boutilette watched from the side-lines, but Westfield tied the game at 53 with just under four minutes left in regulation.

Bridgewater would answer with a Vanesa Conceicao three pointer to put the Bears up 56-53. After a couple scoreless minutes, Ashton converted a layup and junior For-basaw Nkamebo nailed two free throws to give Westfield the 57-56 lead with 59 seconds left.

After a time-out, Bridgewater senior Rachel Kusz hit a critical three pointer to give the Bears a 59-57 lead with 37 seconds left to play.

Despite getting two offensive rebounds and benefiting from a Bridgewater turnover, Westfield was unable to convert in the final 30 seconds. Ashton appeared to have tied the game with a layup with seven seconds left, but the basket was waived off as Ashton was whistled for an offensive foul. Chelsea Saucier would hit one of two free throws for Bridgewater, and Westfield would turn the ball over as desperation crept in, and Bridgewater sealed the 60-57 vic-tory.

Bridgewater was led but Bouti-lette’s 16, and Conceicao added 11. Westfield was led by Jill Val-ley’s 21 points on 9-13 shooting, and Nkamebo, who finished the game with 13 points and 8 re-bounds.

Bridgewater will face Salisbury University in Maryland on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

By Tyler BaconSports Writer

With spring training finally upon us, The Beacon’s Tyler Ba-con breaks down the preseasons top five teams:

1.Washington Nationals- The Washington Nationals have prob-ably the best starting pitching in all of baseball. Max Scherzer, Jordan Zimmermann, Stephen Strasburg, Doug Fister, and Gio Gonzalez are going to be fun to watch (unless you play in their division).

They have a deep lineup, and if Bryce Harper can stay healthy, their lineup will be one to be reckoned with. Their bullpen will be the only question mark with them trading away Tyler Clippard to the A’s but they have the pieces in the Minor Leagues to make a trade, if necessary. This doesn’t

guarantee the Nationals a World Series ring, but it puts them in a prime position to win one.

2. L.A. Dodgers- The Dodg-ers still have the best pitcher in the game, Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke is a solid number two pitcher. Their lineup should be solid with Yasiel Puig continu-ing to develop and lead the team. The development of Dodgers top prospect, Joc Pederson, will be crucial to how the Dodgers click as a lineup.

The Dodgers also have the pros-pects and financial means to im-prove their team if they find holes in their team. The biggest obstacle the Dodgers will have to winning the NL West will be the improved San Diego Padres.

3. St. Louis Cardinals- The Cardinals play in possibly the hardest division in baseball, with

the Cubs much improved, so that hurts their ranking ever so slight-ly. Their top two starting pitchers, Adam Wainwright and Michael Wacha, have dealt with some in-juries recently. Wainwright had minor elbow surgery over the offseason and Wacha dealt with shoulder injuries last summer. Another obstacle the Cardinals have to overcome is the death of their once top prospect Oscar Taveras’ tragic death. Their lineup is one of the areas that needs the most work and they tried to ad-dress their lineup by trading for Jason Heyward. He should re-ally help the top end of the lineup for the Cardinals. Until someone in the National League Central proves they are better than the Cardinals; I’m taking them to win the Central.

4. Detroit Tigers- The Tigers championship clock for their core

players is running lower every day. Their core got considerably weaker by the departure of Max Scherzer.

There are a couple of big ques-tion marks for the Tigers entering this season. Can Justin Verlander reinvent himself as a pitcher with-out his overpowering fastball? Can Miguel Cabrera be the MVP candidate he once was after com-ing off major ankle surgery? Can Victor Martinez have a duplicate season of the one he had last year coming off knee surgery and be-ing 36 years old? Will the bullpen improve after being a complete disaster last year? This season, like every other season, will be “World Series or bust” for the Ti-gers.

5. L.A. Angels- The Angels sea-son has not started off on a high note so far this spring with the information that Josh Hamilton

recently had a drug relapse. He may not even be ready for Open-ing Day with offseason shoulder surgery. This is a distraction the Angels do not need and I even question if Josh Hamilton should play again until he figures out this drug situation again. He needs some serious help.

On a positive note, having Mike Trout makes any team better. They will need a strong season from Garrett Richards when he comes back healthy. Yahoo Sports reports that Richards will not be ready for Opening Day after tear-ing his patella tendon in his left knee last August, so that is a big blow for the Angels, who have not had a great pitching staff to begin with. The bullpen might be a much needed strong point of the team, with a pen loaded with former closers eager to contribute for the Halos.

Nationals sit atop MLB spring training power rankings

Photo from MASCAC websiteWestfield State got 22 points and 14 rebounds from senior Grant Cooper, as they earned their first MASCAC Championship in school history.

Thursday, March 5, 2015 Sports Beacon.MCLA.edu 9Schedules

Friday, March 13

BaseballMCLA vs SUNY-IT@ Winter Haven, FL1:30 pm

MCLA vs SUNY-IT @ Winter Haven, FL4 pm

Saturday, March 14

So� ballMCLA vs Smith@ Clermont, FL9 am

MCLA vs U. of New England@ Clermont, FL11 am

Sunday, March 15

So� ballMCLA vs Southern Maine@ Winter Garden, FL9 am

MCLA vs Lesley@ Winter Garden, FL11 am

BaseballMCLA vs Lesley@ Auburndale, FL3:30 pm

MCLA vs Lesley@ Auburndale, FL6 pm

Tuesday, March 17

So� ballMCLA vs Endicott@ Clermont, FL9 am

BaseballMCLA vs Bard@ Auburndale, FL9: 15 am

So� ballMCLA vs Luther@ Clermont, FL11 am

BaseballMCLA vs Bard@ Auburndale, FL11:30 am

LacrosseMCLA @ Mitchell3:30 pm

Wednesday, March 18

BaseballMCLA vs Utica@ Winter Haven, FL9:30 am

So� ballMCLA vs UMass-Boston@ Clermont, FL3 pm

MCLA vs Western New England@ Clermont, FL5 pm

Delrosario brought big game to MCLABy Jake Mendel

Sports Writer

When guard Ruben DelRosario � rst visited MCLA as a senior in high school he didn’t see himself becoming a Trailblazer. He didn’t enjoy his � rst visit at MCLA, no-ticing how cold the gym was and that he didn’t like the court.

“It just wasn’t a good experi-ence,” said DelRosario. “But then I came again [the following year] and I talked to an assistant coach and he made me want to come here. He said that I was a special player and that I could make an impact right away.”

Ruben never believed that he would put up the numbers he did though, but the assistant coach was right, he made an instant im-pact.

“I remember it like it was yes-terday,” said DelRosario reminisc-

ing about his � rst basket. “It was a home game against Nichols. I drove to the basket and got called for a charge. � e next possession I drove to the basket hard and a blocking foul was called. I missed the � rst free throw but then made

the second, it was the only point I had in the half.”

In the second half of the game DelRosario went o� . He went 4-8 from the � eld, scoring a team high

16 points in the half while adding in two rebounds and two assists in just 13 min-utes.

In his 79 games at MCLA, DelRosario made 211 shots over three years. One of the most signi� cant baskets came Janu-ary 31st in Bridge-water. With about � ve minutes le in the game he made a layup that put the team up 56-55, it was also his 1,000 point. He became one of 21 people to ever score their 1,000 point at MCLA.

“I was actually one point away and I missed a free throw

the game before and I didn’t know [� at I was near my 1,000 point],” said DelRosario. “One of the coaches from the other team asked me if I got my 1,000 and I was confused. I looked at my coach and he wanted to surprise

me. Going into the game I just wanted to get it out of the way.”

DelRosario was a member of a high school team that won back to back state champi-onships and believed that the transition from high school to college basket-ball was an easy one.

“� e transition from high school to college was easy for me because in high school the game slows down, in college the game is very fast, making things easier for me,” said DelRosario.

In high school he wasn’t much of a scorer, he fo-cused on getting everyone else on his team involved. Once he made the transi-tion to college, he became more of a scoring threat.

As a freshman, Ruben played at Holyoke Community College and was o en the leading scorer for his team, but would al-ways be sure to make sure he got his teammates involved.

“I’m more of a whatever the team needs type of guy. I can score, but if the team needs me to defend the opponent’s best player, I’ll defend the other team’s best player. What-ever it takes to win,” said DelRo-

sario. DelRosario was a senior captain

for the 2014-2015 season and was a starter for two of his three sea-sons at MCLA. He � nished his MCLA career averaging 8.2 points a game while shooting 44 percent from the � eld and averaged 2.2 as-sists a game.

“I think I was put into a good situation,” said DelRosario. “For me to leave behind a 1,000 point legacy, top ten all time in assists, top ten all time in steals, it’s just surreal for me, I’m blessed to be in this situation… I’d de� nitely give up 1,000 points for a conference championship though, that is a dream of mine.”

DelRosario knows that a lot of work goes into becoming a good player but he still sees it as fun more than anything.

“I don’t look at it as a job, I don’t look at it as work, I just go out on

the court and have fun,” said Del-Rosario.

Ruben isn’t sure if he wants to continue playing basketball as he has a few opportunities including an invite to a combine and it will be interesting to see if he can build o� the legacy he has put together at MCLA.

Photo by Agnella Gross

Photo from MCLA Athletics

Photo from MCLA Athletics

Duke under fire for misconductBy Mike BianchiOrlando Sentinel

KRT Campus

It might be a good idea if Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzews-ki gives FSU football coach Jimbo Fisher a call on how to handle the damage control.

Sadly, it seems that the vener-able Coach K is about to enter the Jameis Winston zone when comes to accusations of sexual assault against one of his players.

According to a report, pub-lished Monday in the Chronicle _ the Duke student newspaper _ former Blue Devil player Rasheed Sulaimon was accused of sexual assault by two female students, who didn’t go police or � le a com-plaint with Duke’s O� ce of Stu-dent Conduct.

Sulaimon became the � rst play-er ever dismissed by Krzyzewski at Duke _ 10 months a er sources told the Chronicle that Krzyzews-

ki and others were made aware of sexual assault allegations against Sulaimon during 2013-14 aca-demic year.

� e Chronicle story seems to suggest that Krzyzewski dis-missed Sulaimon only when it became apparent that the accusa-tions were going to become pub-lic.

Krzyzewski was asked multiple times Monday during an ACC teleconference if he knew about the sexual allegations against Su-laimon and each time responded, “I don’t have any comment on that.”

� e university released a state-ment Monday, saying: “Duke is prohibited by law from disclosing publicly any particular student’s con� dential education records,” the statement said. “� e universi-ty takes immediate action when it receives reports of alleged sexual misconduct or other violations of the student conduct code, which

includes investigation and refer-ral to the Student Conduct O� ce for review in a timely manner as required by law. Duke also takes every possible action internally to ensure anyone who raises a com-plaint of sexual misconduct is supported and the campus com-munity is safe.”

It will be interesting to see how the national media _ the New York Times, the Washington Post, ESPN, etc. _ handle these allega-tions that involve a revered icon and the winningest coach in col-lege basketball history. Will the media go a er this story as ag-gressively as it went a er FSU during the Jameis Winston inves-tigation?

Read the Chronicle piece your-self right here and tell me what you think. � e story, at least in my opinion, makes it appear as if school o� cials and coaches knew about allegations of sexual assault and didn’t react until they

thought a former employee might go public with the accusations.

Hopefully, this is not the case.Anybody _ whether it’s a coach,

an administrator or just a random person on the street _ should al-ways report a potential sexual as-sault to authorities whenever they � rst hear about it.

Anything less is irresponsible and unacceptable.

As FSU fans well know, the rea-son the Seminoles are being in-vestigated by the federal govern-ment about the allegations against Winston is because there are many legitimate questions about whether the university did its due diligence in investigating the mat-ter in a timely manner.

Even if the alleged crime is not reported to the police, universi-ties are federally mandated by Title IX to look into any accusa-tions or indications of sexual as-sault involving its students.

Thursday, March 5, 2015 Opinion Beacon.MCLA.edu10� e Beacon

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Sports Editor Jesse Collings

A&E EditorShirin Hijab

Copy Chief Caitlin O’Neill

Photography Editor

Agnella Gross

Design EditorMeg Gugarty

Managing Editor

Makayla-Courtney

McGeeney

Web Editor Osakpolo Igiede

Senior News EditorNick Swanson

Features EditorJuanita Doss

Editorial Board

Sta� Writers

Gionna NourseRominda DeBarros*

Harmony Birch*Idalis FosterTyler Bacon

Kaliegh HayesJake Mendel

Mitchell ChapmanMatt Aceto

Matt Hotaling

Photographers

Isabel McKenzieLiz QuirkJay Tocco

Copy Editors

Darien QuickRominda DeBarros

Harmony Birch

VideographersKaleigh Anderson

Advisers

Nikki Kratonis

Jenifer AugurGillian Jones

Jim Niedbalski

Editor-in-Chief Brittany Gallacher

Design Team

Osakpolo Igiede*Shauna Gilardi

Sta�

*Holds more than one position

What are you looking forward most once Spring arrives?“� e nice warm weather.”

-Abigail Hart, 2018 “Being able to sit outside and not worry about the snow anymore.”

-Emily Young, 2018

“Debuting my t-shirt line “House of Geon” in the Spring FSO fashion show, and working on releasing music. I’m also looking forward to going to China for Spring Break.”

-Giovani Dulcio, 2016

“Nice weather, I’ll actually be looking forward to walk-ing to class. I’ll definitely be spending more time outside.”

-Jacob Kennedy, 2018

Photos compiled by Isabel McKenzie

Advertising

Sam StuhlerShauna Gilardi*

Health & FitnessBigger than biceps

By Makayla-Courtney McGeeney

Managing Editor

If you’re on Instagram then I’m sure you’ve seen several #trans-formationtuesday pictures of high school buddies who dropped weight. Great, that’s awesome. Usually the post begins with “I usually don’t post stu� like this but…” and then you feel happy for them so you show some love.Is putting your progress or snip-

pets of it on social media a posi-tive or a negative thing? Whatever happened to journal entries and manually writing down what you ate for every meal then reviewing patterns of good or bad habits? All of this change happened right before our eyes and we didn’t even � inch. Why? because we’re always tuned in anyway. We’re all on our phones, tablets and com-puters 24/7 looking at whatever we look at and when a few half naked muscle bodies or yoga pos-es pop up, we never thought twice but ‘wow how do I do that?’I sometimes see this new move-

ment as a silly thing because on Facebook there are 50 or 60 year olds posting that they’re at the gym, which is awesome. But a er interviewing a 28 year old the oth-er day on � tness trends, she said her and her friends are moving away from publicizing everything

because they’re having kids and doing grown up stu� and that’s not cool anymore. But then… the 50 and 60 year olds’ kids have moved out and their bored so why not better their health and let the world know?� ese stages are funny to me be-

cause no matter how it’s looked at, publicizing progress is just anoth-er form of support and what mes-sage boards used to be. Whether the person posting is looking for attention or not, they’re damn proud of their 2-pack abs and they want everyone to appreciate that. By announcing achievements,

that person receives a psychologi-cal satisfaction and is more likely to continue to advance. � ey � rst had to gain the con� dence to post something in the � rst place, so why not follow through? Con� -dence can’t always be faked. When does the progress posting

go too far? Well, when every sin-gle picture and status is you � ex-ing your bicep. Unless of course, you claim to be a part of the In-stagram � tness community, in which that’s what every � t person does on there, along with funny meme’s about not being able to walk a er leg day. It’s not awful to publicize your

healthy trends, but don’t overload people’s feed because that’s an-noying and not what social net-working is for. In the end, you’re going to end

up just giving other people advice and come o� sounding too cocky because their way is the wrong way and you do everything per-fectly! I’ve been working out for-ever and my form still sucks, so don’t be a hot head!

� e social media motivation movement

Cartoonist

“My best friend Julie Cascarano’s birthday- it’s always a good time.”

-Sara Melendez, 2017

“Flowers.”

-Maxwell Teplansky, 2018

By Shirin HijabArts & Entertainment Editor

Some places on earth seem to be forgotten, at least their histories or what happened there. What can we say happened in Abkha-zia? Over the years since the fall of the USSR, there have been many con� icts and ethnic ten-sions between Georgia and Ab-khazia, the � rst being an actual country that claims the second as its own. It’s in a similar situation to the Israeli-Palestinian con� ict and both are ironically su� ering the long-term e� ects of imperial-ism; in Abkhazia’s case, it is Rus-sia’s endless search for resources and unity within its subjects.� e Georgian � lm “In Bloom”

lightly touches on this con� ict. � e � lm is set in 1992 and the in-tensi� cation of the con� ict hasn’t really started but the ethnic hatred is extremely palpable. � is isn’t the focus of the � lm though; two young women become friends and one of them leaves school to marry a man, it seems, because he asks her to. He, Kote (Zurab Gogaladze), originally gives her, Eka (Lika Babluani), a gun for her own protection. One of the most fascinating qualities of this � lm is that this gun, though it shows up several more times in the � lm, is never used.Eka’s friend, Natia (Mariam

Bokeria), tries to convince her

not to marry Kote and sees the � rst dangerous signs of obses-sion, jealousy, and control. Kote eventually kills a man who Eka barely knew, and this crime born from jealousy, born from sex-ism, brings what would’ve been a moderately survivable existence to something neither of the wom-en can cope with.� e � lm is shot in the beautiful,

innovative style of the Romanian New Wave with cinematographer Oleg Mutu using his trademark bleak, ghostly, but crisp imagery as seen in “4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days” or “Beyond the Hills.” His cinematography has made � lms with very simple sto-ries masterpieces, to put it mildly.It’s easy to imagine where the

� lm goes and ends but that’s not the point; the � lm now has me thinking more and more about Georgia and where the post-Soviet con� icts are going and what this means for the cinemas of Central and West Asia where some of the ex-Soviet territories remain in a postcolonial state of trauma. Still, as things change or stagnate

in the post-Soviet era, there’s a great deal that we don’t know. It’s easy to generalize; but that doesn’t help us or the things or people we’re generalizing about. � e Ab-khaz-Georgia con� ict still goes on and the ethnic hatred makes absolutely no sense. It seems, de-pressing that all we can do is learn the history. But history won’t help the dead and the unhappy living. And in this � lm, there are many people living in unhappy condi-tions. � ere need to be more � lms like this, exploring the history deeper until we � nd some mean-ingful for understanding.

Back to the USSR

Art & Politics

Notes on Unknown Places

Thursday, March 5, 2015 Opinion Beacon.MCLA.edu 11Check it Out!

Upcoming events on campus

Today, March 5Anime Club Bake SaleMarketplace1-5 p.m.

Green Living SeminarMurdockFitzpatrick4:15-7 p.m.

Pennie for PatientsMarketplace5-7 p.m.

What Would You Do?CC 324A7-9 p.m.

Friday, March 6

International Women’s Day TablingMarketplace11 a.m.-2 p.m.

SAC MeetingCC 324A3:15-4 p.m.

Anime Club Bake SaleMarketplace1-5 p.m.

Saturday, March 7

Anime Club Swap MeetSullivan Lounge1-4 p.m.

Saturday Night ChatSullivan Lounge7-9 p.m.

SAC Release PartyMarketplace7-10 p.m.

Sunday, March 8Get ConnectedMurdock 2031-4 p.m.

Intramurals6-11:30 p.m.

Keep us updated on club events!

We want to cover you!

Email your press release and

information on O� ce 365

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Training Classes for March and April

Now Hiring: Relay OperatorsNo Experience Necessary - will receive 3 weeks paid training

Relay text and voice telephone calls to and from individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or have difficulty speaking.

Preference for excellent typing, speaking, spelling and reading skills, and High School Diploma or GED is required.

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ply.orgMarch 31st deadline

MASS PIRG:Taking Back TextbooksDear Editor: I am writing on behalf of

MASSPIRG here at MCLA, and I would like to spread the word on our lead campaign this semester: Taking Back Textbooks. Our goal is to get as many people as pos-sible across the state informed about costly textbook alternatives.According to College Board, stu-

dents spend an outrageous $1,200 per year on books and related course materials. � is is due to textbook costs increasing over 4x the rate of in� ation during the past 20 years. As a student here at MCLA, I know � rsthand how

stressful it is when it comes time to purchase books each semester, and that is why I am pushing for MCLA to embrace open text-books. Open textbooks are free to view online and hard copies cost just $20-40. � e best part is that there are open textbooks al-ready available for most classes to switch over to by next semester.I was pleasantly surprised that

my science class this semester had embraced an open textbook, making it the only class I did not have to spend money on materi-als.MASSPIRG students at MCLA

welcome anyone who is interested

in open textbooks to reach out to us via our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/mclamasspirg, tabling events, or me directly through o ce 365 to learn how you can get involved to start the open textbook revolution here at MCLA!

Sincerely, David RobertBusiness StudentMCLA Class of ‘16

High snow creates driving dangersDear Editor,

� e parking lot for commuters outside of Murdock Hall at the College is a danger to exit. When leaving the parking lot, whether you’re turning le� or right, you cannot see past the cars parked on the side of the road. In the past the College had removed parking spots close to the exit to improve visibility. It was helpful, but un-fortunately it was not enough. Parking is scarce as it is around

MCLA, so I do not believe that the college should eliminate more parking. My solution is to put a tra c mirror across from the exit. � is would allow drivers to clear-ly see the up road, and safely exit from the parking lot. � e costs of such a mirror are much less than the medical expenses and auto-motive repairs as a result of an accident. In the winter, with high snow

banks and low visibility, it is es-pecially dangerous because you cannot see until you are already into tra c. If that weren’t enough reason, if the roads are slick as a result of snow or ice an approach-ing vehicle will not be able to stop in time. Don’t wait until there is an accident to take action. Please, � x this problem now.

Nathan Carter

Next president needs motivation, stamina� e new president of MCLA will be announced to-

night at 5 p.m. in Murdock 218, which has prompted a campus-wide discussion of each applicant and his or her quali� cations.� e Beacon sta� favors two candidates, Dr. Paula

Krebs and Dr. Jane McBride-Gates, based on the Q&A sessions held over the last few weeks.Krebs spoke about her 20-year experience at Whea-

ton College, which showed commitment and devo-tion toward her position, but failed to provide more insight about what she will give back to the MCLA community if elected president.However, Krebs has a background in English, a

popular department on campus, and those skills could help strengthen Communications at the Col-lege.Gates also spoke passionately about her experiences

at Western Connecticut State University (WCSU) where she served as Provost, and expressed inter-est in pursuing sponsors and donations for MCLA

through big business. � is shows strong initiative in a new position, though it may be di cult for her to adapt to MCLA’s close-knit community.Dr. Greg Summers, the third candidate, also comes

from a large school, but did not give a great descrip-tion of his background, nor any reasons why his ex-perience would make him an adequate choice.Despite who is chosen, the Beacon sta� hopes

MCLA’s new president is thinking long-term and will want to be part of this community for a while.� e person elected should reach out to the campus

and surrounding area, and it is important that he or she is progressive and forward-thinking. � ere’s no place for old-fashioned attitudes and approaches at this school. � e student body is very diverse, and we all strive for positive change and progress.While each candidate may have a di� erent vision,

it is essential to have the motivation and stamina to continue improving the characteristics and reputa-tion of the College.

Editorial

To the Editor:

A lot of students including my-self have been complaining about the quality of Aramark’s food. I understand that Aramark has an agenda they must follow, but it is still unfair for students who pay over $2,000 for the meal plan to not be provided with satisfying food. We deserve to get our mon-ey’s worth.� e in-state tuition, board and fees at MCLA is over $20,000 and there are about 1,250 full-time students that go here. � is means MCLA makes over $25 million a year. I do not believe that money

is an issue at MCLA, but it is, per-haps, the unwillingness to change their agenda. I understand change can be scary and di cult at times, but in order to increase students’ satisfaction at MCLA and im-prove the school’s reputation, change is necessary. � e only issue at this school is the quality of the food. Aramark does not provide kosher meat for Jews or halal meat for Muslims. � ere are not enough varieties of fruits, vegetables, cereals, ice creams, soups, breads, sweets, pastas and the sauces that go along with it. � e recipes that Aramark uses are just too plain and lack � avor.

I understand that Aramark might not be able to modify its agenda completely because of the cost or whatever the reason may be. I would suggest that Aramark change or improve the recipes with foods that have more vari-ety and � avor to them. If that is too much to ask for then at least give the students the option to pay for the meal plan instead of being forced to. I believe this endeavor to make a change would make this school that much better.

Yunus UmarovClass of 2017

Students unsatis� ed with Aramark’s agenda

Thursday, march 5, 2015 Photo Essay Beacon.MCLA.edu12

Julie Cascarano takes a quick selfie with her new friend.

BARN

BABIES

Paige Brosofsky, ‘17, holds a cat and it tries to escape.

Freshmen Rachel Cronin and Jessica Sawicki look on as two of the smaller puppies touch noses.

Sam O’Brien ‘16 smiles with her new friend Snowflake.

Photos by Osakpolo Igiede

Sara Peck, ‘17, cuddles with one of the smaller puppies.

Sponsored by SAC

Khalill Dancy ,‘16, rocks a baby bunny.