Ammerman Campus Veterans Plaza Polluted by Cigarettes

By Vin Olsen
The Ammerman campus quad is the nicest place to hang out with friends before or after class, you may notice the collecting dirty cigarette butts lying on the ground.
After a couple of minutes of walking around the quad you will see the thousands of dirty cigarette butts laying around the walkway, the piles of them collecting are a sore to the eye and makes the cement walkways look horrible. The quad is one of the nicest spots on campus and it is being tarnished by the hundreds of smokers who throw cigarettes to the side of the walkway when they are done smoking. No one wants to be sitting down waiting for class to start next to a huge pile of cigarettes, it really is disgusting and it would be nice if smokers were to clean up their act and use the ash trays located outside each of the buildings
Many of the students around the campus feel the same way about the thousands of disgusting cigarette butts laying around, sometimes you can literally look at some ones face and see the disgust in their eyes when they look at all the cigarettes outside each door way or throughout the walkways. When walking it is literally impossible to miss stepping on a cigarette but. Lot of students at the Ammerman campus wouldn’t mind this problem being fixed “Its gross that seems to be a problem at a lot of places but especially on this campus.” Said Daniel Sellick from Oakdale New York “When I was in California this problem was not as bad.” This problem may be going on at other places other than just the school but It will be easier to stop on a campus than to do on the streets.
The cigarettes on the walkways aren’t going anywhere they do not get cleaned up after they are thrown onto the ground they stay there for a long time. These cigarettes are just going to continue to keep collecting over time and it is going to get even more disgusting the quad should be a nice clean place for students to hang out and not have to be surrounded by pollution covering the walkways. A student from the Ammerman campus said “I skateboard around the quad all the time when going to classes and you can a even feel your wheels going over the cigarettes on the ground there all over the place, it’s disgusting and something I can really do without.” Says Tom Hengee from Lindenhurst New York. These cigarettes left everywhere is effecting everyone who walks around the campus not just the none smokers. Even as a smoker it is not a nice thing to see cigarettes around every corner of the campus.
Although the school does have ash trays located outside the door of each building there should defiantly be more. Most of the time when students are smoking they are walking throughout the quad and you will not see one ash tray in the middle of the quad. Ash trays in the walk ways connecting each of the buildings where student go to class would clean this campus up a lot. Security officers should enforce this by giving a littering ticket for throwing cigarettes on the ground, smokers should be forced to use the ash trays so this campus can stay clean. Since this campus is a controlled area it should not be too hard to enforce a littering rule against throwing cigarettes onto the ground by security. If students know that they are going to get a ticket if they mindlessly toss their smoke on the ground they will think twice and use an ash tray. As a smoker a fine for any amount of money would make me always make sure to dispose of the cigarette properly. If teachers and security officers enforced smoking in proper areas this problem would shrink.
Cigarettes Around the Ammerman Quad is not a nice sight for anyone, the quad is a place where students should be able to relax and enjoy a beautiful day and not be disgusted by cigarette butts laying around all around them. Even if we can’t stop people from smoking it is still possible to stop this problem. Many things can be done that are not being done that can really make this problem pretty much vanish. It would be great to see this campus be as clean and beautiful as it possibly can with the help of security enforcing rules this can become a reality.

2nd Years Prepare To Move On

By Nancy Azcona




           As the Spring semester comes to a halt, several Radio and Television (RTV) students are ready to move on to bigger and greater things.



The RTV students are graduating this upcoming May and are ready to move on with what they have learned. Most of our graduating students will be attending SUNY Oswego in the Fall of 2013. Others will be attending Brooklyn College. “I always planned to get my bachelors degree, but the program gave me more skills and confidence so I guess you can say it made my desire stronger” said Elissa Wallen, sophomore at Ammerman, when asked how the RTV program prepared her to move on. Students like Eric Ortiz will begin their first year ever away from home. “I’m just excited to start their program up there. It’s a new experience you know. It’s exciting.” Eric Ortiz, sophomore at Ammerman, exclaims about going to Oswego.

The RTV program has a joint admission program with each college. This gives a chance to each student when applying to Oswego or Brooklyn. Students can take all their liberal arts courses and classes that are required for those colleges here as well. This helps these graduating students with multiple aspects of transferring to another college. One of these aspects being money, credits are not cheap, even for a community college. A summer internship course from the RTV program is four credits and costs around 800 dollars. So students are able to save tons of money by talking courses here first, then having them all transfer to one of the two schools. “The reason I didn’t go to the other college I was accepted into was because they cost about 20 grand a year. I don’t know about you but I just don’t have the money to do that. Not even with scholarships. Suffolk is not the greatest but I am getting an education, which is what matters” Mary Hughes, freshmen at Ammerman, said. So with that being the case, people come here to get their start. As Hughes and many others say, Suffolk may not be the best, but it is a great way to start if you don’t have the money to spend; and the people that are in the RTV program say you get your bang for your buck.

 

The RTV program includes film classes, but focuses more on TV production. Al Bernstein, main professor of the RTV program, has been helping and training these students for the past two years, and they feel that everything they have learned will benefit them in the future. While your two years here you take several film/video editing classes, two TV production classes, radio production, and your choice of an internship class or advanced radio class. With this program you are able to gain connections with Al Bernstein that can lead to jobs and internships. Bernstein is connected with several programs, some of them being MSG Varsity, Cable Vision, and NBC. Many students feel that their future is secure due to what they have experienced. “So far with the internship I just got and the friends that I have made so far (alumni of the program) already doing well makes me very optimistic about my future. I have so much more confidence now than I ever had before. Hands on and being thrown into the lions is the best experience” Jessica Elena Chavarria, sophomore at Ammerman, shared. 



The fantastic thing about this program is that many students go in with the mindset of making movies. What they don’t realize is that there is a broader spectrum of jobs available to them. A student realized this through out his time here “It got me exposed to new types of jobs I didn’t know about in the industry that I would love to be” Anthony Varone, sophomore at Ammerman, said. The jobs that they are introduced to in this program are floor manager, assistant director, technical director, and graphics; graphics being one of the biggest growing jobs in this industry. Now that these graduating students start the “beginning to their end” they are confident to succeed and to be the best out of everyone they meet. “I’m more than ready to move on and tackle the next two years possibly four actually” Chavarria said. Wallen was also ready to take this challenge “Yes! No question about it. Confidence is through the roof!”.



Everyone in the RTV program are excited to see where this road takes these graduates, and excited for them selves as they see their time to graduate slowly approaching.

Parking renovation plans

By Sarah Casey-Auld
The ongoing issue of parking has baffled students on the Ammerman campus. Through persistent questioning and endless researching the many questions that hover the subject of parking has been found.
It is to nobody’s surprise that many students receive unwanted tickets every semester due to inconvenient parking spaces. Before speaking with the Director of Fire and Public Safety Baycan Fideli, it was assumed through an educated summarization of previous information that there has been $57,000 unaccounted for since January received by student parking tickets. “On average, approximately 4,000 tickets are issued during the fall or spring semesters” stated Fideli. Combining this new information with previously gained information that claims tickets run from “one-hundred to one-hundred and twenty-five dollars”, said Captain Tracy from the Public Safeties office. It is easy to see that there is around $460,000 collected from student parking violations alone. The overall sum of money that is collected from students has been acquired yet the question of where it goes is still up in the air. The honesty about the amount of tickets issued during the fall or spring semester from Fidel was refreshing although he did not directly state that the student ticket money was going towards improving parking.
The information gained by Fideli was an accomplishment because he continued on in an e-mail. In the e-mail Fideli goes on to express future plans for renovating the parking at the Ammerman campus.”Funding for the project construction phase has been included in …Andrew Cuomo’s proposed 2013-2014 Executive budget” said Fideli. The total cost of the 2013-2014 summer renovations is approximately three point two million. Although this statement does not directly address the question as to what student parking ticket money is being funded towards it does lead into the fact that there is hope to fixing the parking situation. The funding from Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Budget will cover “[reconfiguration] and expand existing parking fields to increase capacity and improve vehicular and pedestrian traffic flow…[and] the cost of grading, drainage, lighting, curbing, asphalt and striping” said Fideli while explaining the goals for the 2013-2014 renovation plans. The renovations proposed are assumed to add around 500 more parking spaces increasing the total over thirteen percent. These renovations are supposed to decrease uneasy parking situations such as dead ends, tight maneuvering and improve sight distances. If “funding remains allocate” as stated by Fideli, renovations will progress as planned.
With this newfound information, students commented on how they would change parking if they had the chance. Throughout the campus students believe that many positive changes can be made to decrease accidents. Christine Scherger is a freshman at the college and had some ideas of her own to share. “I get here 15 minutes early just to find a spot before class so I don’t have to walk too far and whenever I’m pulling out of the lot by the South Hampton building I think I’m going to get hit” stated Scherger when inquired about the colleges parking and driving situation. While renovating it would be wise to not make the bends as sharp. Whenever students are pulling out it is difficult to see and although the speed limit is 15 miles per hour, yet no one obeys the speed limit and students fly around the sharp corners without hesitation. Besides the dangerous bends within the campus, another concern of students is hit and runs. Joe Zerelli witnessed actually the opposite. Joe was waiting in his car for his next class when he saw a woman hit a parked car. The woman proceeded to write a note claiming it was someone else with a description different to her own car, and remained parked next to the hit car and went to class. This type of behavior should not be tolerated and the only way to prevent such acts of deceit would be to put cameras in the parking lots. Through student perspectives new ideas can be formed to accommodate the majority. Scherger, and Zerelli have two valid points concerning parking, whether or not these problems will be fixed is unknown.
The students should be able to participate in their college activities, especially ones that greatly influence them. A portion of the three point two million should go to fixing problems that the students feel occur most frequently. Secondly the fact that the question of where the student parking tickets has not gone unnoticed, yet the e-mail was a step forward due to the amount of information received by Fideli. The renovations to come will undoubtedly increase parking space and other minor and major issues associated with parking.

Campus Community excitment for Tartuffe

By Glen Conway

Tartuffe raising community college spirit and unity.

The play Tartuffe will open on Thursday April 18 at eight at night. The show will continue to run through Sunday 28. It is a play performed by students for the students. Tickets are free to students if you show your student ID card at the ticket window before the show. As the price of the ticket as well as many other costs are included in the student activity fee charged by the college. Additional information about tickets and availability can be found out either at the ticket office in Ammerman’s Shea Theater located within the Islip Arts building or by calling their phone number at 631-451-4163.While the play is free for students it will cost faculty and staff $11. Additional student tickets cost $10. For any other person wishing to see the play should call the box office.
The play is a French classic with many different variations and spins. The theater department is putting their own little spin on the play to make it that much more enjoyable. Tartuffe means “imposter” in French giving the play a comedic yet serious spin to it. After speaking with a few of the actors in the play for the previous article I learned how seriously they are taking the play and how proud they are of it. A lot of excitement can be seen throughout the cast. “It is going to be an awesome play but no I am not expecting it to sell out” said Danny Bua a theater major and one of the stars of the show. He also commented on how excited he is to perform the play in front of a live audience.
A play is something that can bring everyone together. On a community college campus events like these are rare since most students commute. Professor Eriksson of the English department is even going as far to offer extra credit to those who attend the play. He has been pushing for students to go see the play since the beginning of the semester. “The play brings a sense of community to Suffolk and a play acted by students is something that can bring everyone together” said Eriksson during one of his magical realism classes. He further pushed to say how important it is to bring a sense of unity to the campus. Eriksson also expressed his concern for students lack of attention to events going on around the Ammerman campus. As well as his concern about students lack of interest in various campus activities. Eriksson feels students watching a play put on by students is vital to their growth in culture.
After his announcement about the play there was a flurry of students asking all about the play. “Where is the play?” and “Does it cost me anything?” were common questions asked in the classroom. Students across the room muttered about not even hearing about the play or not knowing it was free to the student body. One of the girls even went as far to say that she didn’t know Ammerman campus had a theater in the Islip Arts building or a theater department at all. However after the professor mentioned extra credit the majority of the class said they would attend the play. “I was planning on going anyway but for extra credit I will definitely go” said one of the girls in the class.
However not all students were as enthusiastic. “Personally, I have to work and I have to come to school at early hours.” said Ariel Ransom, an aspiring fashion writer. She further explained how due to her job she has limited free time and does not want to spend it back on campus. “I’m always busy. But when I do have time I like to relax off campus” said Ransom. Which is understandable considering many students work as well as go to school. After giggling she said how the play was a nice idea but she just doesn’t have the time for it. Not everyone wants to come back after a long day at work to go see a school play. Yet she also commented on how a school play is a nice idea. As well as how a free play is good for the community.
The play opens tomorrow on Thursday, April 17. The play will be running for two weeks. If you want to reserve a spot its best to do it at least one day in advance. Each student gets a free ticket for themselves.

Suffolk Atheletics Influenced by Rutgers Abuse Scandal

By Jonathan Delafuente

Rutgers Basketball Program latest allegations affect all NCAA athletics programs even at the Junior College Level.

Recent firing of Head Coach Mike Rice resignations of the Athletic Director Tim Pernetti and other members of the Basketball coaching staff has even the Suffolk Athletic Board in high alert on spotting aggressive and violent coaching techniques. Throughout the NCAA, all programs are now award of what is expected and what is tolerated in closed door practices. Student athletes must be treated like humans instead of performance artist.

On April 2, videos of Rutgers basketball practice show Coach Rice and assistant coaches violently pushing and throwing basketballs at the players. Homosexual slurs were also screamed by the coaches towards and targeting the players. Foul language intended to be motivational for the players; increasing the intensity of practice and they play in regular season games. Pernetti previously has suspended Rice for abusive actions against his players. He was suspended for three games without pay and was fined $50,000. The Rutgers Basketball staff has resigned on every position. It is said they is already several possible replacements for the job. Rutgers will be looked as a tainted program for years to come said and reported by Yahoo Sports and ESPN.

Starting Middle Fielder for the Suffolk Sharks, Kevin Parker has said “We are not allowed to say anything disrespectful to anyone. Players, coaches, friends, family, just avoid saying anything that might hurt someone’s feelings. We avoid using social media as well to prevent ourselves from getting into any altercations. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram; they’re all pretty much off limit. All I have to do his keep my mouth shut and I can play.” Parker has been informed this information a couple practices ago. Punishment consist of loss of playing time, suspensions for certain amount of games, and severe case of getting removed off the team. “I have gotten kicked out of practice already because of cursing, it’s unfair but it happens.” said Parker. It is a discrimination free zone. This goes on for all sports in Suffolk Community College; all basketball teams, baseball teams, are expected to act in a mature manner through practice, games, and post games.

The Suffolk Lacrosse Team has had high expectations throughout the year. The team is well balanced with new incoming talent from all parts of Long Island. They are disciplined enough to play in the next level and talented enough to compete with any team in the NCAA. With the recent events in Rutgers, the lacrosse team has been impacted by it. Profanity and discriminatory terms are trying to be fully prohibited during practices to create a friendly less targeted play field. Players have been reported to get in trouble for saying homosexual slurs. No suspensions have been given out but it is not tolerated. Playing time will be cut for players that disobey the rule.

St. John’s University in Queens, New York also is prohibiting social media with their athletes. Sam Sealy, sophomore Center for the Red Storm Basketball Team said, “I’m not allowed on Twitter. If the coaches catch us, we can easily be kicked off the team. It too much work to be wasted just from one little thing.” Sealy is going to his junior year in St. John’s. He completely avoids social media outside the season as well to be extreme cautious. Rutgers and St. John’s are highly recruited schools for basketball and have been for many years. They have played in the Big East Conference but Rutgers has spent millions of dollars to move to the Big Ten Conference to make them a bigger marketed team. The Big East Conference is slowly decreasing. Several teams have already transferred conferences and it will take effect in the 2013 season.

Athletes are expected to act professional as they prepare to play for a higher level in the future. Players are highly recruited to Division I, Division II, or Division III schools from Junior College. They are looked as prospects for potential schools. Acts of disrespect and disobedience is not tolerated in any level and older players are looked as influences to the community. Rutgers has defined and opened the eyes of many from the acts of the coaching staffed. Beating, pushing, kicking, throwing balls at players should not be a source of encouragement and increases the intensity of the players. Players are getting full scholarships to programs where they expect to get a proper education and the fullest capacities to expressing their talents and basketball skills.

Dover and Suffolk made an agreement that caused problems for students and professors

By Vincent Figalora

For the fall and spring semester, Dover and our College had made an agreement that leads to problems for both students and professors.
The agreement that was made from both public places was Dover was supposed to provide the food and beverages at the Ammerman and the Grant Campuses. As Dover is providing the food and drinks to the students, the money that’s being payed from Dover, its all going to our College.
Our College is receiving over $270,000 for every semester. “This is ridiculous, if this college is making this amount of money then where is this money going to”. Josh Blake 19, said this quote in an angry mood. This is also beginning to have questions on students that are attending at the college, and this is also leading into problems for students that are commuting to school.
Most students that are commuting are paying over $20 for food and gasoline. Some students are taking the bus and only spending one dollar and 50 cents. For those students that are taking the bus everyday of the week, are paying a lot of money for going there and back.
Our college is part of the Suny system. After you graduate from this school, you will be able to transfer to a Suny school to earn your bachelor’s. Some Suny schools in Long Island and New York state are a two and a four-year school. But when you go to a Suny school that has a four-year degree will give you a lot of benefits that’s very grateful to have. One benefit is that students will be having a meal plan. This meal plan has three categories and they are Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Gold is the best one to have because you will have a lot of points to earn a free meal and beverage in the cafeteria.
“On top of this money, the college takes commissions between 11 percent and 12.5 percent from the total sales of food services. Then, they take 28 percent commission from the many vending machines around campus”. (The College Reporter paragraph 5) said by Pamela Grindson a staff writer on the College Reporter. This quote explains very clearly on how much the percent’s are rising from the vending machines. 28 percent is a big issue on vending machines because including the vending machines is part of Dover; students are still in control on how much money they want to put in the vending machines. These food prices that are inside the vending machines should have a discount because were already paying money for their food in the cafeteria, there’s no need on why we have to spend more money on the vending machines.
Some of the students like the different food varieties that Dover has to offer. But most of them think that they should give out more choices of food. “If Suffolk offered McDonald’s or Wendy’s to our college, than Dover’s food prices would have a huge decrease”. Mr. Chacon an Accounting Major student said this quote by explaining to us that if our college had more foods to choose from, then more students would buy their product. This college would be popular because they would have the top two best fast food restaurants that students and teachers love to eat. Dover will start to realize that they feel sorry for ripping off students on their foods. Now if they put a fast food place in the cafeteria, than more students wouldn’t have to make a complaint about them.
Our college is one of the best college’s for an education. For your brain to earn you a great education, then your brain has to eat the healthy foods to make the mind work for you. Dover supplies all of the healthy foods that your brain would need to become strong and smart. For example, Dover offers an apple at both the Ammerman and the Grant Campus for a reasonable price. At the Ammerman Campus it only costs only two dollars and 50 cents, but at the Grant Campus it only costs two dollars and 25 cents. Both of these prices are very reasonable but most of the students would buy an apple at the Grant Campus because it’s less money to buy and it’s all also a cheap price. A cheap price is great because it won’t be that difficult to complain to the manager about the price that he gave for the product. For students that buy foods with a cheap price are saving a lot of money. Buying products that are very cheap will save you for the next five years.

Gaming on school computers creates debate

By Neal Falcone
Library computers over taken by Student Gamers bothers students at Community college. An issue on the Ammerman and Grant campuses with student using library computers for things other than academic work. It has come to the attention of students and staff at multiple Suffolk Campuses that Library computers dedicated for research, essay writing and other academic related work have been improperly used by students on multiple occasions. This has students talking negatively about other students on campus, this is not a good thing because this causes controversy between students. Disagreement between students and staff is not good for the atmosphere on a college campus, already students are stressed about upcoming work and tests and for computers to not be available when they are desperately needed cause tensions to rise.

While interviewing multiple students on the Ammerman campus I have noticed first hand, students using the computers for leisure while other students wait patiently for an open computer to appear. Joseph, a student who requested to have his last name unpublished gave us his opinion about how not being able to get a computer in the school library interferes with his work schedule. He claims how being a full time student takes up most of his day. He goes to school from 8am to 4pm Monday through Friday and right after school Joseph drives directly to work where he is a waiter until closing time. By the time he gets out of work and makes his way home the public library is already closed. He only has common hour and Saturdays to do all of his work for his classes, which is not even close to enough time. He also spends Sundays working at the restaurant so doing schoolwork that day is out of the question. ” I spend half of common hour waiting for an open computer, by the time I get a computer and set myself up with my work I only have 20 minutes to do my homework, IT’S REDICULOUS!” states Joseph a student at the ammerman campus. He also said the days when he does get a computer in the beginning of common hour students are always talking, which makes it hard to concentrate. Being a full time student with a part time job makes it hard to keep up with your work says a student by the name of Nick Lasker. He has been a student at the Ammerman Campus for 2 semesters and is already tired of seeing students use the computers for leisure and waiting for open computers at the student library. ” I don’t have a computer at my house and the only way to type up my homework and essays is by using the Campus Library and my public library” Says Nick Lasker a freshman at ammerman campus. He states that the only problem with using his public library is that it closes at 9pm and he ends work at 7:30pm, which only gives him an hour to do his work. He is taking 15 credits this semester and keeping up in his classes has been harder than his first semester. “The past two times I was in the library looking to get some work done I saw 2 kids on computers playing online games, this isn’t fair and I feel like someone should do something about this” says Nick. While interviewing him he added that his professors have been piling on work the past couple weeks and its almost impossible to complete the assignments.

Students at the Grant Campus have also had the same problem when it comes to getting a computer in the Library. Nicole winter a freshman at the Grant campus has given her thoughts about the Library. She said that the only time she’s in the library is to print homework and essays because she does not have a printer at home.”I have asked multiple people playing games on the computer if I can plug in my flash drive and print something quick without a single person saying yes” says Nicole Winter a Liberal Arts Major at the Grant Campus, she then said to the students how she would only take a minute she just had to print something and that was it, still she had the same results. Nicole talked about how she only worked in the summer and going to a local library did not interfere with anything after school. She said “The only problem with going to a public library is that I don’t have my license and I would have to wait for my parents or siblings to drive me, plus I am paying all this money for tuition I should be able to use the school computers whenever I want to”. This problem has effected many students and with help from everybody who has been in this situation we can find a way to put a stop to the misuse of school computers.

Having thousands of students at community college reduces the amount of computers available for people to do work when it best for them. It’s even worse when some of the students are not even using them for work but for leisure and play.

Why are Students Paying so Much for Textbooks?

By Erica Matz

Every semester students make a trip to the bookstore where they may dump more money than they are able to spend on books for their classes. I always think: why is this line so long? Students pay more for textbooks each semester, and then when the semester is over and they no longer need it, returning them for a fraction of what they paid is the only option that pays back.

Students need textbooks for classes that they enroll in. Textbooks are an integral part of any scholastic course. Almost every course at the college recommends a textbook, regardless of whether or not the professor recommends it. Textbooks pose a huge burden on the student because of their price. The price of textbooks is outrageous, it is not uncommon for a science or math book to run a student around two hundred dollars. According to a study performed by http://www.OnlineEducation.net the average student pays approximately nine hundred dollars for textbooks in an academic year.

The market for textbooks is run in a different way from the market for any other product. A publisher puts out a copy of a book at any given price, and the consumers (professors and students in this case) buy it. The market for textbooks is unfair not to just collages and professors but to mainly the students. The students are the lifeblood of college and university institutions and yet their monetary options with their courses are outrageous. This method has very limited competition and can be argued to be monopolistic. It is a one-sided and unfair system and also it is straining on the students. Fortunately other options do exist for students who have this issue.

Students need to be more educated on their options on how to obtain textbooks. Buying online for used textbooks can absolutely reduce the price of the book. Students can find books on popular websites that they probably use often. These include Amazon and Ebay. Used books aren’t only just for sale online though, a student can check with their relative bookstore to see if there are any available for them to buy used. Also, buying an older edition of the book can be cheaper. The page numbers may vary but much of the time the different editions are virtually the same. Ebooks are also drastically cheaper than hardcopies. http://www.OnlineEducation.net states that they are 52% cheaper than their hard-copy counterparts. ‘Open books’ that come in an Adobe PDF file cost an approximated twenty seven dollars on average. They are not widely available but if a student does his or her research they may be lucky enough to stumble across one. Renting textbooks is a very widely used and costly way of obtaining textbooks. http://Www.Chegg.com and http://www.bookrenter.com are just two websites that one can use to rent textbooks each semester. Renting textbooks can bring the price down to a fraction of what you would pay for it in the bookstore. Also, you do not have to go through all of the trouble in selling your used textbook back for hardly the price you bought it at. There are some negatives to renting textbooks, such as having to wait for them to come in the mail. This can prove to be an issue if your professor jumps right into the course work. Also sometimes it could be while supplies lasts. Students have rented a book and discovered that it is no longer in stock. Students buying in the bookstore may like that they receive brand-new books almost immediately.
“If a student buys a textbook in the bookstore they are guaranteed all of the codes that the textbook comes with. Buying from the school store also provides significant benefits to the college itself.” Said Matthew Koget, a sales associate at the bookstore. The benefits coming with buying books from the bookstore include the benefits that the college itself gets from the revenue of the textbooks, as well as guaranteeing various codes and links to online homework if a course needs it. “The bookstore prices are unfair to the students, they don’t take into account the fact that we need these books for a course and that we cannot afford to pay 400$ alone on books each semester.” Said Travis Wood, a liberal arts student at the Ammerman campus.

Students need to be educated on their options when it comes to textbooks. Textbooks are essential and beneficial to a college course. The textbook can be utilized as a learning and studying tool, it can help a student get through their course and homework more easily and textbooks are integral in the learning process for students. However the knowledge of how to obtain textbooks for a lower price is not widely publicized where it needs to be. It is imperative towards a students’ wallet and wellbeing to be aware of their options as a student.

Ammerman Campus Students Share Views on Smoking Cigarettes

By Jonathan Delafuente

Smoking cigarettes on the Ammerman campus has led to controversy between smokers and non- smokers. Where should smokers go if they need to have one without producing second-hand smoke for non-smokers?

“The college has been declared a smoke-free environment, and this policy shall be strictly enforced in all college buildings and vehicles. Smoking is also prohibited within 50 feet of the entrance to all college buildings. Faculty are expected to follow and enforce this policy,” states the College Code of Conduct.

Most smokers stay within the entrance of the Islip Arts Building, Riverhead building, and the Huntington Library to smoke.

“The smoking problem is terrible and pathetic. People pack out the entrance of buildings and everyone is now exposed to second-hand smoke. It makes me truly sick,” said Ammerman student and Lacrosse team member Kevin Parker.

Despite smoking regulations on campus, some students choose to smoke where they want.

“I would not walk 50 feet just to have a cigarette. That is just unnecessary and inconvenient. If anything they should make a restricted area for smokers only,” smoker and liberal arts major Vincent Dizon said.

Secondhand smoking not only affects the smoker; it affects the surrounding people as well. Family, friends, and children are also influenced by the smoke. Secondhand smoke, also known as passive or involuntary smoke, is the combination of side stream smoke and mainstream smoke. Side stream is the smoke given off by burning tobacco while the mainstream smoke is the smoke inhaled by a smoker. There are 7000 known chemicals that are identified in secondhand smoke according to “Secondhand Smoke and Cancer,” a web site published by The National Cancer Institute.

Smoking is associated with disease and premature death in nonsmoking adults and children. In the United States, secondhand smoke causes about 46,000 heart disease deaths a year. People are exposed to the smoke in cars, houses, public places and other settings. Separating smokers from nonsmokers, cleaning the air, and ventilating buildings cannot completely eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke. Even at a low level of smoke is a health hazard. All smoke is dangerous. Clearly, smoking kills.

The usage of tobacco products has more disadvantages than benefits for the user’s body. Smoking harms nearly every organ in the body. Smoking and tobacco use causes many diseases and reduces the health of smokers overall. Stated in Cancer.org, Users are gradually destroying their bodies with each drag of a cigarette they take in. There are thousands of dangerous chemicals known to be found in cigarettes. Because of Nicotine, cigarettes are addictive and act as a depressant to the user said in “tobaccoatlas.org.” There is no safe amount of smoking. Clearly, smoking kills.

Suffolk County Community College is the largest community college in New York State and approximately enrolls 25,000 students at three campuses between Selden, Brentwood, and Riverhead. Smoking areas for students who decided to have a cigarette has become a major issue for everyone attending or working at the college. According to SCCC Public Safety, “The college has been declared a smoke-free environment, and this policy shall be strictly enforced in all college buildings and vehicles. Smoking is also prohibited within 50 feet of the entrance to all college buildings. Faculty are expected to follow and enforce this policy.” Unfortunately, this policy does not fall true and should be taking seriously. The students’ well being and health are now in danger.

Secondhand smoking not only affects the smoker; it affects the surrounding people as well. Family, friends, children are also influenced by the smoke. Secondhand smoke, or called passive or involuntary smoke, is the combination of side stream smoke and mainstream smoke. Side stream is the smoke given off by burning tobacco while the mainstream smoke is the smoke inhaled by a smoker. There are 7000 known chemicals that are identified in secondhand smoke. Stated in “Secondhand Smoke and Cancer,” smoking is associated with disease and premature death in nonsmoking adults and children. In the United States, secondhand smoke causes about 46,000 heart disease deaths a year. People are exposed to the smoke in cars, houses, public places and other settings. Separating smokers from nonsmokers, cleaning the air, and ventilating buildings cannot completely eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke. Even at a low level of smoke is a health hazard. All smoke is dangerous. Clearly, smoking kills.

Smoking is making the majority of people uncomfortable on the campus. Smoking is not illegal but it considered a hazard for everyone. The campus should be a smoke free environment to help protect the safety of students. Only negativity comes from these cancer causing products. The Ammerman campus should establish a stronger and more efficient policy to improve the safety of our students.

Bronies of Suffolk: New group on campus

By Michael Gormley

Within the walls of the Southampton building, a community built on love, tolerance and friendship has arrived. They are the Bronies.

Back in the month of February, student Thomas Lyman created this Brony meetup group as a chance for other students on campus to enjoy the ponytastic fun that has struck hundreds of other campuses across the state.

For those who are curious, a Brony is a term generally given to teenage / young adult fans of the newly popular adaptation of My Little Pony aired on the Hub network. Be warned though, My Little Pony is no longer solely focused on the younger demographic anymore. If anything, the show has become more open to being enjoyed by all demographics.

This new show in question is a reboot of the older generation cartoon based on the My Little Pony franchise that premiered back in October 2010 called My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The previous adaptations of the series were often formulated to focus on toy sales while often sacrificing the storyline for advertising purposes. This tired formula had begun undergoing a change once Lauren Faust, the show’s creator, decided to take on rebooting the franchise. Faust had previously worked on animated shows like the Powerpuff Girls and Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends as a producer and eventual head writer.

Taking influence from her past works, she designed this reboot to have emphasis behind the characters and their personalities along with a very colorful and vibrant world that focuses on the friendship lessons learned by the main characters. Her intention by rebooting the My Little Pony TV series was not only to make a show intelligent enough for younger kids but to also make a show that can be enjoyed by the parents. In a sort of unintentional way, this show has done much more that create entertaining kids programming. Some may even say that the show has helped create many bonding friendships that would have not happened without this show.

After the initial creation of the show, word soon spread around about a new adaptation of the My Little Pony TV series that treated its watchers with vibrant colors, enjoyable characters and a world filled with a sort of childlike wonder that many say is lacking in today’s cartoons. Once the show had become popular among smaller groups of animation fans, the popularity began to explode beyond what anyone had expected. Fans of the show began to write stories, draw artwork, create music and even start charity drives together as a community united by the ideals of the characters and their lessons behind friendship.

It goes to show that the Bronies have made an impact upon several creative areas that go far beyond the enjoyment of a TV series.

Now that this surprising group of animated fans has established an official group on campus, the group creator hopes that people new to the fandom are willing to express themselves through the actions of this club. As suggested by Thomas Lyman, leader of the Ammerman campus Brony meetup group, said people new to the fandom “experience different pieces of it outside of the show”. Even though watching the show alone is entertaining, he wants people to know that “there are extremely talented people in the fandom, and without them, the Bronies might not be what we are today”. Along with the usual discussion about the TV series and the fan-created works, there are also plans for travels to various pony conventions organized similar to Comic-Con but catered to Bronies and their creations.

One of these events in question was the most recent Big Apple Ponycon held in Brooklyn, NY, at the NY Marriot during the weekend of March 23. The convention in question had several interesting activities ranging from music performances, guest appearances from show cast members and a generally large venue that allowed hundreds of Brony’s to enjoy one anothers company. Only three members of the group managed to make the trip, but their experience was nonetheless enjoyable. As stated by Thomas Lyman, it was “great to see all the fans having fun in one major meetup”. The other two members, Kevin Barry and Arielle Joy Seus had previously worked at BronyCon back in June 2012 doing various jobs for the convention like event organizing and ticket sales, just to name a few. From the effort of the staff and the general happy atmosphere shared with the attendees, it was “like a mini BronyCon”. The convention itself was a notable success and has become part of the many successful conventions established in the past three years since the show’s inception.

For anyone that is interested in this newly formed group and wishes to become a Brony themselves, meetings for the group are held in the Southhampton building on Wednesdays during common hour in room 129.