By George Verity

After a series of student forums held in January of 2010 and the hiring of college-wide Athletic Director Samuel Braunstein in February of 2010, the college has officially changed their logo-mascot to the Sharks.

According to Braunstein, the nominations for the new logos-mascots were presented by students, faculty, alumni, and administration.

“Each group or so came up with 10 ideas each and then we put them in a hat and selected a few as finalists; from there we voted,” said Braunstein. “We wanted to make sure we could distinguish ourselves’ as one college, like Nassau Community College and Stony Brook University.”

To follow through with the design of the new logo, the athletic and recreation department filed for a RFP. An RFP is a Request for Proposal, where companies non-affiliated with the college bid for work.

“We were told to keep our bid under $10,000,” Braunstein said. “Our lowest bid came from Phoenix Design Works at $9,950.”

Phoenix Design Works is an agency that offers designs for brand development, advertising and promotion, campaign development, and brand identity design; based out of Maplewood, NJ. Phoenix Design Works has designed numerous logos-mascots for other colleges and professional sport teams across the U.S.

The company designed three logos for SCCC. The logos were placed on MYSCCC student portals for two weeks where approximately 4,500 students college-wide voted for their favorite design, Braunstein said, although no records were available for verification.

Although only approximately 200 students participate in athletic sport teams and 2,000 students participate in athletic/recreation programs college-wide, this change affects the wallets of all students enrolled at the college.

The athletic department is student fee-funded and its entire income comes from a portion of the $84 student fee that each student pays per semester. The amount given from the fee to the athletic and recreation department is approximately $1.75 per credit for all part-time and full-time students enrolled; so the average student that takes 12 credits a semester pays the athletic department approximately $20 every semester enrolled.

According to Braunstein there has been nothing but positive feedback; however, while some voiced their support in forums, some athletes and students are concerned about the changes.

“I was never informed that the college was condensing their campuses logos into one,” said 19-year-old Bradley Krill, a liberal arts major on the Grant Campus. “The college should have publicized the change to more students rather than just having it posted on the student portal for two weeks, which never even works to begin with, because the design and the name of logo could be so much better than the Sharks. It’s kind of silly to be honest.”

Former baseball player for the Longhorns on the Grant Campus, James Postiglione noted “I was disappointed when I heard the news that they were changing the logo.”

“There was so much tradition behind the name the Longhorns and even the Clippers for that matter,” said Postiglione. “Not to mention the name the Longhorns is 10 times more intimidating than the name the sharks; even the color scheme for the Longhorns was nicer.”

Including the $9,950 RFP to design the logo, the total transformation implemented college-wide will approximately cost $55,000 to $65,000. It will cost $35,000 to purchase new uniforms with the new design developed on it. In addition, the athletic equipment will have to be remodeled with the proper logo on it. The old uniforms will be donated to Pronto, a non-profit community outreach center in Brentwood NY and the old equipment will simply be reused, Braunstein said.

Braunstein also noted that approximately an additional $10,000, also funded from enrolled student fees will be spent on miscellaneous items in regards to the logo. The completion of this process will not be finalized until Sept. 1; when all duplicate sport teams from each campus will be eliminated.

According to Suffolk Community College Association Inc., the 2010-2011 SCCC budgets will collect a projected revenue of $1,728,711.00 in student fees on the Ammerman Campus alone and $3,263,377.00 college-wide. Its total projected revenue is estimated at $3,681,233.00 college-wide (this excludes tuition costs and money received from the government); so the college’s projected revenue is funded by 88.7 percent through student fees. From the $3,681,233.00 collected by the college from the $84 fee, $871,599 is projected to be given to athletics; that is 23.8 percent of all student fees collected.

With all that money distributed college-wide, some students are concerned if their own money is properly being distributed and used.

“I don’t see the point in spending so much money on uniforms and other miscellaneous items,” said Krill. “There are so many other needs here at the college that need to be addressed and that are not addressed. Only a select number of students are benefiting from the change but it’s costing everyone. I just don’t understand it.”

By Taylor Baker

Students are finding themselves in trouble more and more often for traffic tickets. Sometimes, they do not feel they have committed the violation in question. What does the head of public safety have to say about it?

Issues such as traffic fines are taken seriously at Suffolk County Community College if there’s a just cause for giving the ticket. The SCCC handbook mentions that traffic and parking regulations are designed for the safety of all members of the College community, and that any questions should be directed to your campus public safety office.

The Ammerman public safety office can be reached by phone. The telephone number is (631) 451-4212. Leave a message, and they will receive the call. The Guard Booth is located off of College Road near the bus stop. To appeal a summons, you must complete and submit a Summons Appeal Violation form online. The link for the form is located online at MySCCC for students. Appeals must be submitted within seven days of the date on the summons.

“There’s a time line and if you don’t match it then you’re going to get billed automatically and you’re going to have to pay for it,” Baycan Fideli, the director of fire and public safety, said.

If you don’t physically receive the ticket you are given or take steps to appeal it, it will still show up on your tuition bill.

“It’s good to get to the bottom of how legitimate these tickets are and what the fines are depending on who is being ticketed,” commented Eric Santucci, age 19.

When asked how the appeal process is handled, Baycan Fideli replied, “We just review it, basically the captains and I will sit down and review the cases and see which ones make sense and which ones don’t… A lot of times I think the attitude out there is, people will appeal anyway.” One of the more common appeals is for tickets regarding improper use of handicapped tags. “Then we find out a lot of times the handicap people are using dead grandma’s tags,” Fideli explained. “We know all our handicap people and there’s not that many.”

For all of 3 SCCC campuses, white-lined parking spots are for students. Visitors use red spots. Blue spots are for anyone who is handicapped. Motor vehicles must be parked between the lines. Parking along any roadway or in restricted areas is not permitted. Fire Zones are in yellow areas within 15 feet of a fire hydrant. Each loading zone is also a fire zone. No parking is allowed in fire zones at any time. No parking or standing is permitted in these lanes at any time.

“Some people are in a rush and they park in fire (zones), they park in handicap and they chance it…Some students see it as a cost to accept. So I guess the fines are too low, so I’ve asked to increase the fines… The idea is that if 10 percent abuse the system and the rest do it the right way, I want to protect the rest,” Fideli stated.

The public and fire safety fees for tickets at SCCC range for from $10 up to $100. In the student handbook, failure to register a vehicle with the college is $10. So is parking in a non-designated area. Parking in a fire zone, fire lane, or within 15 feet of a fire hydrant will cost a student $50. The most expensive fine is $100 for parking in a handicapped spot. The amount of tickets issued for the spring 2011 semester amounts to 500 to 600 violations.

Fideli mentioned that he does not have the final figures for the year yet, but it will not add up to a lot. There are also other expenses, such as equipment for the department and software costs. The money for parking fines doesn’t go to the security guards. “It goes into the general fund and bits and pieces get budgeted out, so it’s not direct,” according to Fideli.

“In the beginning of the semester we don’t ever ticket, we don’t even ticket in the first two months…because we know…you’re trying to get to class and after the second month there’s plenty of parking… The other issue is, if your class is at 9:00 a.m. and you show up here at 8:56 a.m. … (there are byproducts),” he explained. Byproducts include speeding, texting, and poor driving which leads to car accidents. This won’t stop you from having to hike to class.  Fideli does want to try to add more parking for students.

At SCCC, all students, faculty, staff and administrators must have a valid parking permit in order to park on the property. Permits can be obtained online through the portal feature. Permits are transferable to other vehicles. For those people who do not have access to a computer at home, computers are available at all campus libraries and in computer laboratories.

All permits are to be displayed in the front windshield on the lower right passenger side. Failure to properly display a permit may result in a summons being issued. The permit decal can be moved from one vehicle to another, so long as the new vehicle has been properly registered with the College. Parking permits obtained through misrepresentation or other unauthorized means are void, and appropriate disciplinary action will be taken against offenders. Parking permits are issued to the person and not to the vehicle.
The speed limit is 15 miles per hour while on the campus. Pedestrians have the right of way in all marked and striped pedestrian roadway crossings.

“Next year we will have a software program that’s going to run your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles and we’re going to find who you are (if you are violating a rule)… We just crossed data bases and it’s not going to cost any more money and it’s actually the cheapest of operations,” said Fideli.

If your vehicle gets into an accident or is not operating properly, notify Public Safety. A disabled vehicle must be removed from the campus within 24 hours or it will be considered abandoned. If a vehicle is abandoned, it will be removed at the expense of the owner.

Keeping your vehicle in line with SCCC requirements will help keep campus safe and stop unwanted tickets.

by Pamela Ginsberg

Suffolk County Community College is a commuter college, but there are still questions revolving around in the dining hall. Students are not on a mandatory meal plan, as occurs in the SUNY schools where students tend to board, but there is still money coming out of their pockets and into Dover, the catering company for the Ammerman and Grant campuses.

“I feel like I give the school so much money to able to come to school. Then, when I get here, I have to give even more money to eat,” said Jessica Ginsberg, 19, a student on the Ammerman campus.

How much money is being spent? Four out of 10 students polled said they spend between $6-$10 each week, four students said they spend between $3.50-$5.00 a day and two students spend less than $6 a week. These meals add up for students. Lisa Scheiber, 22, said the poll opened her eyes to how much money she loses over time to the dining facilities. It is generally cheaper not to eat out, but because Dover is not factored into our semester bills early on, eating at school proves to be another expense.

Dover pays SCCC to be the primary food and beverage company for the college. The College also gets a certain amount of revenue from Dover’s sales via commissions.

The hard numbers, obtained from the Dover and SCCC contract which can be found on SCCC’s website, revolve around a contract that was first signed and valid from 2005-July 2010. They have since renewed and updated the contract, according to an amendment, also posted on the website.

Essentially, Dover pays $270,000 for capital improvements with annual payments of $25,000. 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 money we pay in the cafeteria and vending machines is therefore split between the College and Dover. However, we are in control of how much we give them because this money is not taken out of our accounts.

The agreement between Dover and SCCC is a license agreement, not a lease. Dover is only allowed to serve the College according to their guidelines. Dover is also responsible for cafeterias on both the Ammerman and Grant campuses, as well as each vending machine in any SCCC-issued building.

Within the cafeteria itself, students have noticed small discrepancies that seem to go against the amount of money the College and Dover are raking in. According to section 6 of the contract (Accounting and Record Keeping), Dover must “obtain and display a New York State sales tax authorization certificate and indicate on its menus whether or not the posted prices include sales tax.” However, it is not mandatory to put calories next to menu items.

A recent law was passed in New York City, forcing chain restaurants to list calories in the same font and size as the prices. This has helped consumers make healthier choices, according to an article titled “New Yorkers Try to Swallow Calorie Sticker Shock on http://www.msnbc.com. This law clearly has no weight in the SCCC cafeteria, but some students find it frustrating.

However, if you ask, the workers will be more than happy to look up nutritional information for you. There is not a lack of funds or any conspiracy to keep the nutritional information out of view. It is a lack of a strong voice from the students.

Butch Yamali, the president of Dover, allowed several legislators to hold a press conference at the Nickerson Beach Dover Caterer’s concession stand in 2009. The goal of the conference was to push for a similar law regarding the posting of calorie counts.Yamali showed how many calories are in everything. A hot pretzel from Dover has over 800 calories-something students should want to know.

Several students from the earlier poll mentioned that the fast food (French fries, chicken tenders, etc) is cheaper than the healthy food. This isn’t necessarily true. Chicken tenders and French fries are $3.50 while salads are $5.00. This isn’t such a huge difference-and the fresh fruit (apples, oranges) is only $1.

While Dover and the College certainly seem to have a tightly woven contract, it is important to remember that you can still raise your voice as a student to any discrepancies you see, and to get the full story in order to understand how the discrepancy came about. Keeping informed about the money behind an operation is an easy way to see the inner workings of it, and to determine if the company’s goals are really aimed towards you.

By Thomas J. Johnson

On Thursday April 28, 2010, the theatre department of Suffolk County Community College’s Ammerman campus opened their final production for the spring 2011 semester, “The Icarus Project,” which will conclude its run in the Shea Theatre on May 8.

“The Icarus Project” is an original work created by Suffolk County Community College Assistant Professor of Theatre Andrew Wittkamper and College Director of Theatre, Assistant Professor of Theatre and Academic Chair of Theatre Arts Charles T. Wittreich Jr. over the course of 7 years, since the conception of the concept in 2003.

The work is a take on the classic Greek myth of the titular Icarus with influences from more modern theatrical works like Cirque de Soleil’s “Varekai,” “Avenue Q,” “The Magic Flute” and the Handspring Puppet Company’s “War Horse.” The intention was to present audiences with a fresh and unique experience, which they did.

“The Icarus Project” differs from the College’s previous productions in many regards. “The Icarus Project” is the first of the College’s productions in recent years, if ever, to be almost devoid of dialogue, and instead rely on those on stage to convey the story through their actions.  While many of the performers gave flat performances and were unable to effectively do so, Robert Doyle, the actor of the main protagonist Daedalus, gave an exemplary performance.

The other big staple of “The Icarus Project” is in its use of puppets. Puppets play numerous characters, and for the most part it works. For most of the production the titular Icarus is played by a puppet, which, while mildly effective in a story telling sense, ultimately fails to provide a good sense of immersion by having it’s two puppeteers tower a good 2 to 3 feet over it, due to the puppet’s short stature.

The larger puppets, however, are a completely different story. The design and construction of the White Bull and full-grown Minotaur are especially notable, with the latter standing at 10+ feet tall and controlled by several performers.

While the acting mostly falls short, everything else is spectacular as far as production goes. The lighting, sound and costume design are among the best the department has done in recent years. The costuming for Daedalus in particular is exquisite and shows the skill of the staff, due to his elaborate garb, one even sports electro-luminescent wiring, giving it a similar look to that of the design in the “TRON” films.

A combination of prerecorded sound effects; music and live drums set the mood nicely, especially when the live drums are used to convey a sense of panic and terror. The lighting employed is similarly effective, with a myriad of different lighting used to convey atmosphere and tone in lieu of dialogue queues.

For all of its shortcomings, “The Icarus Project” is certainly a unique experience, the likes of which haven’t been seen at the Shea Theatre in recent memory. The production certainly isn’t for everyone, as it’s more of a performance art piece, and will certainly turn some patrons off with its pretension and showiness, but if you think you may enjoy a production like this, why not give it a whirl?

By William VonFricken

The world’s largest and most talked about manhunt ended on Sunday May 1 with the death of Osama Bin Laden, mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World trade Center.

Osama Bin Laden was considered to be face of terror. He was the leader of the terrorist group of Al-Qaida and known to be the master mind of the Sept. 11, 2011 terrorist attack. His death was wished for by many Americans.

“Its about time we got him. I’m glad he is finally dead” Smithtown resident Jaclyn Lazio replied about his death.

Osama Bin Laden was born on June 28, 1957 in the city of Jidda. He was one of 52 children. His father Mohammed Bin Laden opened a construction business and became one of the richest men in Saudi Arabia. As a teen Osama attended the King Abdul Aziz University in Jidda. In 1979 Bin Laden graduated with a degree in economics and management. In January 1980, several weeks after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Osama joined the anti-Soviet resistance movement. Bin Laden eventually became in control of 2,000 Islamic fighters. He created several guerilla training camps in Sudan Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Osama’s threat to America really began back in 1989 when he founded his international terrorist organization known as the AlQaeda. This is where many were trained to fight for global “Jihad” against America. Over the next few years Osama Bin Laden gathered Afghan veterans from around the world and set up three terrorist training camps. In 1993 his people made their first attack on America coordinating the first World Trade Center bombing. Two years later Bin Laden’s operatives planted a car bomb, one that killed five American, and another that killed 19.
At this time the United States became focused on Bin Laden as a primary threat to America. Osama became the largest wanted bounty in history after his Sept. 11 attack in 2001. He is known to be the man behind the attack that destroyed the World Trade Center and killed roughly 3000 people.

The Sept. 11 attack really impacted America. Many people, siblings and loved ones were lost, fathers and mothers were gone and the gruesome memory of the attack was embedded in everyone’s heads.

“I will never forget that day; I was sent home from school early and was told there was an attack. I didn’t understand its significance until later on” said Lindenhurst resident Jacob Rubin.

Osama went into hiding for nearly a decade until he was killed by United State troops in a 40-minute firefight in Pakistan on May 1. This for many people became one of the greatest days in America.

People from around the world gathered, to celebrate the death of Bin Laden. Towns and Universities engaged group riots with relief and happiness that the man who affected all Americans on Sept. 11 was dead.

“USA all the way,” said Oakdale resident Stephanie Grose. The internet icon facebook.com exploded with posts and status’s that supported and craved about Bin Laden’s death. Post’s such as “we got him”, “take that Osama” and “today is the greatest day ever!” Many people who were in grief of the deaths they encountered were finally at peace knowing that Osama was finally found and killed.

Others are enraged that we have not found him earlier, and believe that his death is a conspiracy. “We couldn’t find him for years and now we find him and we can’t even see a picture proving it’s him?” asked Kings Park resident James Nileson.

A very controversial act was taken after the death of Osama Bin Laden. His body was not shown to the public nor was their any photographic evidence of his death. Now his body rests somewhere at the bottom of a sea where no one can find him. This was done because the United States followed the Islamic Law and buried the body within 24 hours of the victims death. His body burial was unknown to insure that many of Osama’s followers would be able to build a shrine upon it. Many hope that the government will leak a picture to help others cope with the idea that he is actually dead.

No matter what; May 1, 2011 will always be remembered in American history. It is up to you to decide in what you believe.

By Stephen Overbeck

The whole world tuned in to the Royal Wedding this weekend to see the matrimony

President Obama announces the death of Osama bin Laden.

between William and Catherine, but here in America another telecast broke that viewer count wide open.

As many can tell we are of course talking about President Obama’s speech concerning “a national security announcement that all should hear”. President Obama’s speech Sunday night announcing the death of Osama bin Laden drew twice as many viewers as the weekend’s Royal Wedding and outpaced his recent policy addresses.

This address by the president can be seen as a definite rise to shine in his popularity. It shows the fact that all of America is still highly interested in the addresses made by the president concerning the ever continuing threat posed by terrorists. Americans throughout the world tuned in and all began to feel the sense of accomplishment and relief that was the main point behind this address to begin with. Despite being hastily scheduled and aired during a late hour on the East Coast, the President’s telecast was watched by 56.5 million viewers.
That’s more than Obama’s recent scheduled and promoted primetime addresses, such as March 28’s speech on Libya (25.6 million) and his August speech on Iraq (29.2 million), as well as more than doubling the audience of the supremely hyped, though early a.m., Royal Wedding (22.8 million). The networks carrying the address included ABC, CBS, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, CNN, Fox News Channel, HLN and MSNBC.

According to site (http://www.geekosystem.com/osama-bin-laden-news-social-media/) the speech “Only twelve hours after the news first broke, Sysomos found that there were over 40,000 blog posts and news articles about Bin Laden’s death, as well as over 2.2 million tweets delivering the news in the limited-character arena. Twelve hours may seem like a long time to allow the world of social media to do its thing, but at midnight last night, not even an hour after the President delivered his speech, there were already over half a million tweets and nearly 2,000 blog posts and news articles released into the wild regarding the subject.

“This indicates to everyone who can analyze this well enough that the news of Osama’s death rang clearly through every American’s mind and relaxed them all to the point where they simply had to address it to the internet world through their private sources, be it blogging, surfing the web, or tweeting it it spread like wildfire. This speech overall will most likely go down as one of the top hits for the month of May and will continue to be talked about in every venue of media for quite some time, and as Obama stated

in the end of his speech, “God Bless America!”.

By Stephen Allard

Would you like the opportunity to save a person’s life? Your chance is finally here with the blood drive on May 4 which is asking for volunteers.

 “One in three people will need blood sometime during their lives. Close to 2,000 men, women, and children in our community, including cancer, transplant and surgery patients, trauma victims, newborn babies, and many others need blood transfusions each day” reads the Donate Blood Now pamphlet. According to the official site of the Red Cross, a blood donation “is when a person voluntarily has blood drawn and used for transfusions or made into medications.”

You must be at least 16 years old with a weight of at least 110 pounds. On the day of donation you must eat regular meal times and drink plenty of fluids. If you meet this criteria, there is other important information you need to know before donating. According to the Donate Blood Handbook, there are many reasons, some temporary and others permanent, that you won’t be able to give blood.

Some of the temporary reasons are very minor like if you got a tattoo or a piercing in the past year, you have a sore throat or cold upon the day of donation, you traveled to a place where malaria is a problem, or if you were pregnant or had an abortion recently. However, other temporary reasons can be serious like if you have Syphilis or Gonorrhea or you previously have had certain forms of cancer.

The permanent reasons you can’t give blood are if you’re a hemophiliac, have ever tested positive for HIV, you used illegal drugs with a needle even just once, if you have had sex for money or drugs any time since 1977, or you are a man who has had sex with another man sine 1977 even once. There is also certain types of medication that if a person is taking they cannot donate blood. Medications such as Antibiotics except for acne, Accutane, Propecia, Proscar, Avodart, Soriatane, Coumadin are medicines that can hurt your risk of being eligible to give blood.

There are other reasons as to why you can’t give blood so if you would like further information on this subject such as ineligibility based on other medications taken or your length of time you need to wait before giving blood for the temporary reasons because the length of time can be anywhere from a couple of days to months or years, there are pamphlets in the Kreiling Hall in the Health Services room or call 1-800-688-0900. Most people with diabetes are also eligible for donating blood so for further information about this subject call 1-800-933-2566.

The Blood Drive will be taking place in the Eastern Campus in Riverhead between 9 am to 3 pm in the Peconic building, room 100.

“This is the opportunity to save a person’s life,” said Dillon Paparelli, a liberal arts major at Suffolk County Community College. Paparelli donated blood at the previous blood drive event and was satisfied at how it turned out. “I got to potentially save a person’s life, and I was getting paid for sick time at work” he said. “I felt light headed for a couple of hours, but after eating lunch I felt back to normal.” The only negative was the wait to get blood drawn, “I was waiting for nearly three hours and the procedure only took about 10 minutes, but I would do it again if I had to.”

After you give the donation, your blood will then be tested for blood type to match the donor, hepatitis, HIV, HTLV which is a retrovirus associated with a repressed immune system, Chagas, West Nile, and Syphilis. It is then separated into components, such as red cells, plasma, and platelets which they all have the potential to save patients and their lives.

“Long Island is facing a serious blood shortage and the college urges all who are able to participate in this endeavor,” said Mary M Feder, Director of College Relations. “It is also a great reference when applying to a school or job because it shows initiative, responsibility, and empathy.”

If you have given blood in recently, it is required to wait 56 days when you a eligible again. The procedure should all together takes only about 10 to 15 minutes to donate blood, so if you have the heart and the time to donate then it will be appreciated by the entire community and life you can save.