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Fall

09

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Plus:Plus:Health Care 15Health Care 15Emergency Care 8Emergency Care 8We Need to Care More 13

2Think Magazine

In the months since our very first—call it... experimen-tal—issue, the landscape of progressive politics has shifted substantially.

Back in February, we were still celebrating the momen-tous inauguration of Barack Obama, a president who many thought would usher in a new age of progressive leader-ship.

Today, the mood is very different. The unification that liberals enjoyed in the months leading up to President Obama’s election is all but gone. And the far-right fringe dwellers, who were once kept at bay by cooler heads in the GOP, have now overwhelmed what’s left of the moderate Republicans.

As a progressive, its hard to sit back and watch as charicatures like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, a couple that would seem more at home on a daytime TV court show rather than atop a political party, attract increasingly larger and more radical crowds wherever they go. Harder still is reading, watching and listening to the rhetoric emerging from these crowds: ignorance, intolerance and, on more than one occasion, hatred.

The question then becomes, what can we do in the face of such unrepentent, thick-headed stupidity? How can we possibly counter the unapologetic lying taking place nightly on Glenn Beck’s show? How can we possibly tame the waves of vitriol and bile pouring over the botoxed lips of Michelle Bachmann?

Fear not, for there is a way. Often times we have forces like truth, history and, yes, even public opinion on our side. What we need to learn how to do is wield these forces effectively.

And that starts right here at Stony Brook. Don’t think for a second that college students are incapable of affecting change. History has proven that some of the best, most forward-thinking social and political movements can be harvested on the quads of our country’s top universities. Stony Brook is no exception. And as it happens, we find ourselves today surrounded by a community torn in two over the debate on health care.

Long Island is New York’s battleground for reform. Rep. Tim Bishop’s town halls this past summer attracted some of the most publicized “tea partiers,” and Republican Rep. Peter King has long stood firmly opposed to true reform.

As students at the largest university on Long Island, we must vocally defend a robust public option in any way we can. Call our representatives. Write letters. Engage in con-versations with naysayers and set the record straight. We cannot afford to sit this round out, when the opposing team is mounting a full court press. It’s time to suit up.

Trying Times

Think Magazine is the student-run, progressive publication at Stony Brook University. We support progressive policies by providing quality, informative journalism, thought-provoking opinion pieces and enlightening interviews with progressive leaders.

Support for Think comes from Campus Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress. We are one of more than 50 publications nationwide af-filiated with Campus Progress. Visit them online, at campusprogress.org

www.campusprogress.org

Editor-in-ChiefAdam Peck

Managing EditorMoiz Khan

News Editor:Campus/Long Island

Darla Gutierrez

News Editor:New York/National

Lindsay Woodruff

Culture EditorBrian Lee

Features EditorSasha Mishkin

Contributing Writers

Katie ManninoDavid Mazza

Sasha MishkinDoug Newman

Tim PaulesAdam PeckKarl Sharma

Katie WattLindsay Woodruff

James ButlerNick EatonT Geckle

Darla GutierrezAlicia Kanauer

Moiz KhanDominic LaMaison

Tim LampasonaBrian Lee

WebmasterDavid Mazza

Recycle this magazine when you’re done. Or we’ll find you.

Letter from the Editor

Copy EditorAlicia Kanauer

Copy EditorT Geckle

3thinksb.com/

(what the f#%k?!)WTF?!

News Features Culture

WTF?(Where To Flip)

“Student Activities” can include many things. But does emergency care and an ambulance ride really qualify? According to your activities fee, yes. by Doug Newman

8| Emergency Funding

Plans for an on-campus hotel have been met with criticism. Not over the idea, but rather over the proposed location. by Adam Peck

11| Hotel Reservations

Where did our college go? Budget cuts, impend-ing tuition increases, privitization in the form of a hotel: all that’s missing is vocal opposition.

by Nick Eaton

13| Time to Get Angry

Some students are staying in or returning to col-lege not so much for the education, but for ac-cess to affordable health care. by James Butler

15| Insuring the Invincible Part 1

President Obama’s decision to scale back a Eu-ropean missile shield was praised and criticized with equal ferocity. But everyone can agree that his decision reveals a lot about the Obama ap-proach to foreign policy. by Karl Sharma

17| Missile Shield

Barton Gellman’s Angler sheds new light on the puppeteer behind the most dangerous and dam-aging presidency in history. by Brian Lee

21|Cheney’s dismantling of the Vice Presidency

Under review in this issue: HBO’s new comedy Bored to Death and Kirby Dick’s documentary Outrage.

21| Under Review

Also in this IssueSarah Palin’s book tour | Tea Baggers! | ACORN4| Outside the Box

23| ThinkAhead

22| Opinions&Editorials Obama’s Czars; Our Thoughts on the Hotel

Mor

e th

ana

Mag

azin

e Log On to our award-winningwebsite: www.thinksb.com

Tune In to our weekly radio show Think Out Loud. Mondays 10am-11am, WUSB 90.1fm (or online at wusb.fm)

34%of college graduates spend time without insurance within a year of graduation.

of them have gone without medical care because it cost too much.

66%

As the university begins to turn to local agricul-ture and compostable & reusable dishware, our impact on the environment is receding. by Sasha Mishkin

10| Going Local

Three years after CBGB’s shut its doors, the Bowery area of Manhattan remains as hip and happening as ever. by Lindsay Woodruff

20|The Bowery

24| The Afterthought Glenn Beck

4Think Magazine

Ou

tsid

e 1.SarahPalin

Book Tourthe

Box 2.

HealthCare

Debate

3.Tea PartyProtesters

4.ACORN

5.Tuition

Protests...in CA

Tea Party Protests

1. Like grassroots activism, but sponsored and organized by corpo-rations and/or Fox News, and com-pletely devoid of grassroots activism.2. A rally attended by individuals who do not have the mental capac-ity to form their own opinions outside what Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh tell them to think.

[tee pahr-tee proh-tests]

@senatus: Sen. Bennet says he’ll back health reform even if it costs him his seat.

@EzraKlien: Sherrod Brown: “My friends on the other side of the aisle typically do the bidding of the insurance companies.” Well, former friends.

@CWAHealthCare: Texas leads the nation with an uninsured rate of 25%. Should we really be looking to them as a model for the country?

@PoorMansLobby: Children with #autism and patients with #cancer can’t wait on the politics of Sen. McConnell

Powered byFollow THiNK on Twitter @ThinkMagazine

#healthcare

1. ACORN is accountable for $45.8million of Twilight: New Moon’s $140.7 mil-lion opening.

2. 63% of US lemonade stands are money fronts for ACORN.

3. As many as half of all mall Santas are ACORN undercover agents.

4. ACORN stole the Young America’s Foun-dation sign from The Patriot’s 9/11 memo-rial.

5. ACORN stole the election for Barack Obama in 2008 and Bill Owens in the NY-23 special election in 2009.

5FACTS

Disclaimer These facts all have the same degree of truthfulness. For exact degree, ask your conservative buddy.Outside the Box

Page 6

CONSERVATIVE to ENGLISH DICTIONARY

More OtB, pages 5-7

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So just how doomed are we?

FATEof the

UNIONSanta Barbara, CA The announcement that the UC col-lege system would be increasing tuition rates was met with anger and protests by students. At UC-Santa Barbara students occupied an administration building for three days in protest. On the other side of the country, SUNY students are bracing for more budget cuts and the threat of drastic tuition increases as well. The question becomes whether similar protests will spring up in New York.

New York, NY Dana Perino, the last press secre-tary under former President George W. Bush, appeared on Fox News to discuss the Ft. Hood shooting. She and Sean Hannity claimed that the attack constituted a case of terror-ism, so as to claim that the Obama Administration was in power during a terrorist attack, and that’s when Perino made a startling claim. “...We did not have a terror-ist attack on our country during President Bush’s term,” she said. So the Ft. Hood tragedy is terrorism, while September 11th, 2001 was...what, exactly?

Chicago, Il At a town hall meeting to discuss health care reform with Congressman Dan Lip-inski, tea party “activists” shouted down a woman who was telling the story of how her daughter-in-law and unborn grandchild died because they couldn’t afford their medical bills of about “$22,000 a day.” The protesters “moaned and rolled their eyes and interrupted,” according to the local paper. Video footage shows the tea partiers laughing as well.

Casper, WY Dick Cheney, native son of Wyoming, has been on the tip of conservative tongues as a potential presidential candidate in 2012. His daugher Liz made an appear-ance on Fox News Sunday alongside Bill Kristol and Chris Wallace and made mention of “Cheney 2012,” to which Kristol added “Cheney/Palin.” God help us all.

Minneapolis, MN Best Buy, the retail electronics gi-ant based in the Twin Cities, is facing criticism from conservatives who take issue with the weekly circulars put out by the company that, in ad-dition to Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, wishes shoppers a Happy Eid Al-Adha, a Muslim holiday that occurs this year in late November. The company continues to stand by their decision to run the greet-ing, despite calls for a boycott by the right-wing fringe.

Washington, DC Despite initial reports to the contrary, President Obama will in fact be attending the United Nations’ Climate Change Con-ference in Copenhagen in early December. President Obama also outlined his goals for cutting the US’s emissions, to roughly 17% below 2005 levels. Many speculate that the announcement was delivered only after Obama met with Chinese and Indian leadership over the last few weeks, as similar commitments from those two nations will be crucial to the passage of a significant climate change resolution.

All in all, the fate of the union is good for this issue. Obama’s trip to Copenhagen is huge. We can practically taste the cleaner air. Though that Cheney thing scares the shit outta us.

75%Chance of S u r v iva l

6Think Magazine

The RighT... Long Island’s own Peter King (R., NY-3) tried to claim that the Republican alternative to health care reform deals with insurers who reject people with pre-existing conditions.

...Is WRONG. One of the most egregious tactics used by insurance companies is denying people coverage based on “pre-existing conditions.” Oft en that means refusal of coverage for illnesses like diabetes or cancer, which would alone be reprehensible. But there are too oft en instances where a mother is denied coverage because she is pregnant. Or of an infant denied coverage because he or she is too fat or too skinny.

As part of the ongoing health care reform debate, the plans that house and senate democrats have put forward include wording that would prevent insurance companies from abusing their “pre-existing conditions” clauses. And coverage would be guaranteed regardless if a public option is indeed included in the fi nal version of legislation.

But Republicans have put even this simple piece of re-form, supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans, in the can. Instead, they off er insurance pools that people who have been denied coverage can buy into, at costs of up to 50% more than the average rate that others will pay under a GOP plan.

President Obama is proposing a similar “high risk” pool, but the very big diff erence is that Obama’s plan acts only as a temporary stop-gap through 2013. Th e GOP plan is their permanent solution.

And it’s one that the American people can’t aff ord, in more ways than one.

The RighT... On Fox News, Sarah Palin weighed in on the tragedy at Fort Hood, suggesting that the Army should engage in racial profi ling

...Is WRONG. “Profi ling, in the context of doing what-ever we can to save innocent American lives, I’m all for it, then.” Th ose were the exact words used by Palin on Sean Hannity’s show.

She is referring to Nidal Malik Hasan, the shooter who killed 12 soldiers at Fort Hood in Texas. Palin, along with dozens of conservative congressmen and commentators, wasted no time labeling the tragedy an act of terrorism car-ried out by another member of radical Islam. Whether the Fort Hood tragedy can be accurately labeled terrorism is an issue in and of itself, but Palin’s solution, urging people to rely on racial profi ling, is nothing short of open racism.

Profi ling has the unfortunate—and dangerous—side eff ect of increasing the frequency of hate crimes. When you are told to be on the lookout for people of a certain skin color, suddenly everyone who fi ts the bill is deemed a potential threat.

What really makes Palin’s remark so abhorent however, is that she uses it specifi cally towards a Muslim individual. Palin was noticably silent when James von Brunn, an 88 year old white supremacist, opened fi re at the National Holocaust Musem. Or when Scott Roeder, a 55 year old white man, murdered abortion activist George Tiller.

If profi ling is really what Palin wants, then let her start by turning the authorities on the audiences that accompany her wherever she speaks. Th at’s where you’ll fi nd the real threat to America.

Outside the Box

7thinksb.com/

Hate Crimes are Acts of Terrorism

ThinkFast

On October 28, President Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, expanding the federal government’s power to prosecute hate crimes to include crimes committed on the basis of gender, gender identity, sexual orientation and disability. Certainly, social conservatives pushed hard against this legislation, arguing that LGBT people didn’t deserve “special rights” based on what they see as immoral, sinful or even evil behavior. But it is not merely the purveyors of

hate who oppose hate-crimes laws. Others argue that these laws eff ectively criminalize certain thoughts or opinions, and that they undermine the prin-ciple of equality before the law. Th ose who argue this may be well intentioned and legitimately concerned about civil liberties and legal equality, but they ignore the fundamental purpose and nature of hate crimes. Hate crimes are not merely ordinary criminal acts; they are acts of terrorism.

-Doug Newman

GOP.com Showcases Common Tactic: RevisionismTh ere’s a spreading trend that has me worried as

a history major: historical revisionism. Th e practice has been around forever, from the Spanish-American War to the Gulf of Tonkin. What’s most alarming is that it’s done most frequently by people who re-ally don’t know anything about history, like people who claim that taxes are at unprecedented levels (Th e top tax rate is currently 39%, it was 50% under Ronald Reagan).

Revisionist history can have serious implica-tions, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t, from time to time, be delightfully entertaining. Prime example: the brand spankin’ new Republican National Com-mittee website GOP.com, which claims on its “Heroes” page that several prominent black fi gures were Republicans, even if they, well, weren’t.

-Tim Lampasona

Media Matters’ Karl Frisch on the War on Fox NewsTh ink sat down with Karl Frisch, a senior fellow at the media watchdog

group Media Matters for America. He spoke about the ongoing confl ict between Th e Obama Administra-

tion and Fox News, and did not mince words. A sample:Karl Frisch: “Th is war has been waged frome day one by Fox News

against the White House, against Obama as a candidate, even. And the idea that there stifl ing of the press sometimes presumes that Fox News is a

legitimate news outlet. Fox News is no longer simply a conservative outlet with conservative programming and news throughout the day. Th ey are a political communications arm of the conservative movement; that is what they are. Th eir defense that ‘well, if you look at primetime, that’s where our opinions are. It’s kinda like the Op-Ed page of the newspaper. Th e rest of the day we’re full of just straight news..’ Th at is, to put it mildly, bullshit.”

Th e full interview and podcast, available now on thinksb.com.

Read the full articles online, only at thinksb.com Subscribe to ThinkFast.

Bi-weekly. Tweet@ThinkMagazinefor the latest.

The Marburger InterviewFormer University President John H. Marburger

stopped by the Th inkPad for an exclusive interview with Th ink Magazine.

Over the course of an hour, he touched on a wide range of topics, including current university President Stanley’s desire to pursue a fl exible tuition model at Stony Brook and the proposed university hotel, which was fi rst conceived under Marburber’s

presidency.Marburger also served as science advisor to

George W. Bush, and discussed climate change and the shortcomings of the Bush presidency. He also of-fered his opinions on the upcoming Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

You can watch the interview in its entirety online, only at thinksb.com.

.com/thinksb .com/thinkmagazine .com/thinkmagazine

The best from our award-winning website.series of tubes.

8Think Magazine

Your professor is in the middle of a lecture when he sud-denly begins having severe chest pains and fears he is having a heart attack. Someone dials 911. An ambulance is dispatched, and within minutes, he’s on his way to the hospital. Everyone in the lecture hall probably took it for granted that a 911 call would receive this response. But whose ambulance responded, and who paid for that ambulance ride? The ambulance was likely operated by the Stony Brook Volunteer Ambulance Corps (SBVAC), and as for who paid for it, that answer may surprise you: if you’re an undergraduate student, it was financed in large part by the Student Activity Fees you and your classmates pay every semester.

The idea for this article came into my mind as some friends and I, all relatively familiar with the Undergraduate Student Government budget, were casually discuss-ing the issue of club funding before a USG Senate meeting. We were talking about which clubs received the largest budget allocations when someone mentioned SBVAC. Founded in 1970 and staffed by fully qualified student volunteers, SBVAC is not only our

primary emergency medical service but also one of the largest and oldest student organizations on campus, and one that consistently receives some of the largest budget allocations from the USG. My friend opined that SBVAC provides a vital service to the entire campus community, not just undergradu-ate students – after all, someone had to respond when your

professor was having that possible heart attack – and that it was therefore unfair for USG to bear the burden of being the organization’s primary source of funding. USG serves not only undergraduates, but graduate students, faculty, staff, visitors and anyone else who happened to need emergency medical attention while on campus.

I’d seen the USG budget many times before, and was aware of the large size of SBVAC’s budget allocation in comparison to those of other student clubs. In 2008-2009, it was the only club that allocated

more than $200,000, or around 13% of the total allocation for club budgets, which was spread over 98 clubs. But I’d never given it a second thought; after all, as my friend had

Why is SBVAC treated not as a public service but as a student club, and why are undergraduate students disproportion-ately responsible for it’s funding?

Emergency Funding

Students are footing most of the bill for just about everyone’s emergency care.

by Doug Newman

Author Doug Newman is a staff writer for Think. He can be reached at doug@thinksb.com.

News

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pointed out, running the primary emergency medical service on a campus with a population in the tens of thousands is an important job, and one that inevitably costs a lot more money than the operations of a typical club. Perhaps I hadn’t seen the ‘forest for the trees’: sure, SBVAC deserves to be well funded, but why was it treated not as a public service but as a student club, and why were undergraduate students disproportion-ately responsible for it’s funding?

A bit of cursory research on the web site of the National Collegiate EMS Foundation, of which SBVAC is a member, revealed that this arrangement is not terribly uncommon, but there is a wide variety of funding arrangements for college and university EMS groups. For example, similar organiza-tions at Binghamton University and the University at Albany are funded in the same way as SBVAC, by their respective student governments. The ambulance service at SUNY New Paltz supplements funding from the college by billing the patients it transports, unlike SBVAC, whose services are provided free of charge. Outside the SUNY system, Columbia University’s ambulance service again relies both on funding from the university and on reimbursements from patients’ health insurance; Rochester Institute of Technology’s ser-vice is funded entirely by its Student Health Center; and at Cornell University, emergency service is funded much like SBVAC, through the student government. So despite the array of funding options on display, money from student governments seems to be a very popular way of paying for

what seems more like an important public safety function than an activity for students (even if the organization is made up of student volunteers, as SBVAC is).

When I spoke to SBVAC President Christine Larose about her organization’s funding, she lamented the instability inherent in the USG budget allocation process, but did not necessarily welcome a change in its funding structure. She noted the large fl uctuations in the size of budget allocations from year to year, and that it has been “lately, more down than up,” but was not particularly enthusiastic about the prospect of being funded by the university.

A direct fi nancial relationship with the university “would have its pros and its cons,” Larose explained. “It might be fi -nancially benefi cial, but we would lose some of the autonomy we have now.”

Direct funding from the university, of which SBVAC currently receives none, would mean more direct control by the university’s administration and less fl exibility for the organization, a situation of which Larose is understandably leery. For now it seems that SBVAC is content to sacrifi ce a bit of fi nancial security for greater freedom in conducting its operations. Besides, with rampant budget cuts always loom-ing on the horizon, university funding might barely be less volatile than that provided by the USG.

So that leaves me where I started, with the issue of fairness to those of us who, as undergraduates, are mainly responsible for funding SBVAC. For

Info Graphic Figures based on latest enrollment numbers. Percents are rounded to nearest full percent.

!

84% paid byUndergraduates

1% paid byGraduate Students

15% paid byNew York State

$9.85 Amount each full-time undergraduate student contributes to SBVAC

/column/news/

Continued on Page 16

10Think Magazine

Goi

ng L

ocal

by S

asha

Mis

hkin This semester, Stony Brook Uni-

versity is making it easy to get on the green scene. In an effort to create a more sustainable way of life, Stony Brook is re-cycling old habits into new ideas. China First, a program being implemented in dining venues at H Quad, reuses the plastic dishes and stainless steel utensils that automatically come with orders unless a student specifically asks for disposable containers. This program is just a single carbon-reducing footprint in Stony Brook’s trek to an environmen-tally friendly utopia.

Other changes that can be seen across campus are the use of unbleached napkins, biodegradable cups, organic snacks, abundant recycling bins, fair trade coffee, and tray-less brunch at Kelly Dining. Buying locally grown fruits, vegetables and horticultural items is also part of the agenda. Not only does this help support the local economy, it’s healthy too. According to Kevin Kelly, Executive Director of the Faculty Student Association, “Lackmann Culi-nary Services will create an integrated culinary program, new recipe develop-ment and empower local chefs to create fresh, new menu items based on regional preferences.”

Lackmann Culinary Services is a local food service that provides custom-ized restaurant-quality food services to a multitude of New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island private clubs, educational and corporate institu-tions, and government agencies such as Hofstra University, the New York Stock Exchange and Kennedy Space Center. One of its goals is to increase the uni-versity’s commitment to ensuring envi-ronmental sustainability by purchasing produce from local Long Island farmers. The contract with LCS started in July and will run for five years.

Abundant sunshine during the warm months and proximity to fresh water have helped make agriculture one of

Long Island’s largest industries. Accord-ing to the Long Island Farm Bureau, a member organization of the New York State Farm Bureau, Long Island is one of the most important agricultural re-gions in the state of New York. Suffolk County alone is the state’s largest dollar producer of agricultural products.

Enhancing this sense of local flavor is just one of the positive steps the Campus Dining Services management team is taking to ensure a more enriching experi-ence for students. The team, including Corporate Executive Chef Christian Fischer and Director of Marketing Vincent Gentile, do their best to ensure university-wide satisfaction. They hope that “the culinary program meets and exceeds the expectations of the Stony Brook University community,” accord-ing to Gentile.

The team seems to be sizzling, with students already noticing the distinct improvement in the quality of food on campus. The only improvements that have yet to be acknowledged are the eco-friendly progressions.

Diana Feng, a resident sophomore at Stony Brook, “…noticed that they use biodegradable cups but nothing else. They could try sending an email to everyone to advertise the changes,” she said.

Awareness is a major factor in achiev-ing the university’s goals. In addition to China First, there are other programs designed to make students aware of be-ing environmentally conscious. The Re-usable Mug Program allows students to save 35% on refills when they purchase a mug for $4.50. Last year 10,000 cups were saved from entering the landfill with the help of this program, and as awareness grows among the student body, hopefully more can be saved this year. Nurturing the seeds of understand-ing on campus may take time, but each one is a carbon-free step in the right direction.

Author Sasha Mishkin is the Features Editor for Think. She can be reached at sasha@thinksb.com

Photo Stony Brook University is in-creasingly turning to local vendors in the dining halls. ((by-sa) Flickr User: Jill Clardy)News

11thinksb.com/

When Stony Brook University President Samuel Stanley announced at a university senate meeting on October 5 that plans for an on-campus hotel would be moving forward, he became just the latest champion of an issue that has already outlived two lengthy administrations before his own.

Most of the controversy and complications associated with the hotel can be traced back to the fact that Stony Brook is a public university, and is therefore subject to any number of state regulations and restrictions.

John H Marburger, Stony Brook University’s president from 1980 to 1994, was the fi rst to suggest a hotel be built within the boundaries of the university.

“I started the whole thing and I worked with the Stony Brook Foundation,” he said. “Th ey established a realty sub-unit to deal with this.”

Th e establishment of Stony Brook Foundation Realty Inc in 1979 and its activation in 1987 was solely for the purposes of, in the words of the Stony Brook Foundation, “facilitating the development and operation of a conference center/hotel on the Stony Brook University campus.”

Now, almost a quarter century later, plans have been drawn up to construct a fi ve story, 135-bedroom hotel on a 13-acre plot of land by the main entrance of the univer-sity, complete with a 5,000 square foot conference center, indoor pool, exercise facility and

/column/news/

Photo/Illustration There is little opposition to the idea of a hotel on campus, but plenty to the suggested location of one. Credit: Rendering from Howard Digital. Photo by Adam Peck for Think

Bulldozing a few trees to make way for a corporate ho-tel, as unfortunate and unnecessary as it may be, is nothing new.

Bulldozing a publicly funded classroom at one of the na-tion’s best public universities to make room for a corporate hotel is another matter entirely.

But in a manner of speaking, that is exactly what is be-ing proposed here at Stony Brook. Th e “classroom” doesn’t have walls or desks, but the woods by the main entrance of the university do serve as a living laboratory for thousands of students.

Caitlin Fisher-Reid is one of those students. She is a PhD candidate in the Department of Ecology and Evolu-tion whose dissertation on the evolutionary processes of the terrestrial woodland salamander will be signifi cantly impacted should construction on the property begin before she completes her research in two years.

Th e 13-acre plot of land appropriated for the hotel is one of Fisher-Reid’s most successful fi eld sites for her research, out of 30 other locations across Suff olk County.

“I consider it one of my high quality sites because every

The Hotel Seen First in Think

That’s the usual reaction to the news, first reported by Think, that Stony Brook will be getting an on-campus hotel. Adam Peck has two articles explaining why.

Checking In Do Not Disturb

“I consider it one of my high quality sites because every

Continued on Page 23Continued Next

12Think Magazine

restaurant. The only point of access to the hotel will be off of Circle Road, across the street from the Administration building parking garage.

The hotel will be operated and managed by a private cor-poration. Hilton Garden Inn, a subsidiary of Hilton World-wide, is currently the front-runner in ongoing negotiations, but a final decision has yet to be made.

The construction project has been contracted to Harbor Construction Management, an affiliate of Harbor Financial Management based in nearby Port Jefferson. Its CEO Rob-ert Frey is a research professor at Stony Brook and a former trustee of the Stony Brook Foundation.

The design of the building and its surroundings has yet to be finalized, but Frey says that it will likely fit in with the campus décor.

“In terms of design, the general target is the Humanities building,” he said, referring to the brick structure nearby.

Marburger is also unconcerned about a corporate build-ing interfering with the aesthetics of a university as large as Stony Brook.

““I’m not too worried about the intrusiveness onto the architecture or the traffic of the campus,” he said.

Harbor Construction Management will ultimately be taking orders from the Foundation, which will have “final authority” according to Frey.

Once the building is completed, Harbor Construction Management and SBFR will turn the property over to a pri-vate hotel manager and operator. SBFR is in final discussions with Hilton Garden Inn to manage the hotel, according to Hilton Garden Inn spokeswoman Dawn Ray.

Those discussions may take longer than expected because both Stony Brook University and Hilton are in uncharted territory.

According to Ray and Scott Carman, spokesman for Hilton Worldwide, a hotel built within the boundaries of a university would be a rare move for the company.

“I don’t know of any instances,” said Ray, speaking about Hilton managing hotels on college campuses. “None come to mind,” added Carman.

For Stony Brook as well, there is little precedent to look to. No other SUNY school has an on-campus hotel, with the exception of Cornell’s School of Hotel Management, which runs its hotel internally and uses it for educational purposes.

In order for Hilton or any other corporation to be granted access to the campus—which, as a state school, is public property—Stony Brook Foundation Realty Inc had to ac-quire a ground lease from the State University of New York and New York State, which it did in 1990 using $450,000 provided by the Stony Brook Foundation.

News

“When will you address the esoteric and psychological needs of the faculty and students with the same enthusiasm?” -Charles Perretti Stony Brook Community Member

“A great university has aresponsibility to set an example as a protector of environmental

quality.”-Charles Wurster, Professor Emeritus and co-founder of the Enviromental Defense Fund

In turn, the operators of the hotel will pay an annual lease payment of $100,00 with a 3% hike annually to SBFR.

The purpose of the hotel, however, is not to make money, says Marburger.

“It probably won’t make money. Let’s hope it breaks even,” he said.

Frey echoed the sentiment, saying that SBFR would probably be saddled with some costs.

“They would probably incur some costs, like inspec-tions,” he said.

But the biggest concerns about the hotel have nothing to do with the financial implications of a private corpora-tion operating at a public university. Instead, students, faculty, community members and even local legislators are concerned about the aesthetic and environmental impact that the hotel could potentially have.

The Stony Brook Environmental Conservancy, an or-ganization with no formal ties to the university, has begun a campaign to dissuade the university from building a hotel—or any other structure—on the land currently al-located for the project.

“Our position is that SBEC supports a genuine campus conference facility with commensurate accommodations; but we are adamantly against the construction of a com-mercial hotel on state land at the campus entrance,” said SBEC President Malcolm Bowman in a letter sent to sup-porters. Bowman is a Distinguished Service Professor at the university’s Marine Sciences Research Center.

The SBEC is encouraging

The Hotel Seen First in Think

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Why does it seem as if Stony Brook students are unaffected by measures which so clearly impact them in a direct way?

There are three areas in which our campus is clearly de-ficient: awareness, community and opportunity. Organizers on campus, though well intentioned, have by-and-large relied on cookie cutter techniques and quantity-based recruitment efforts which have resulted in disappointing event turn-out and a greater deal of stress and responsibility falling on the shoulders of a few, dedicated activists.

Awareness

In the hectic college environment it’s difficult enough to figure out which classes you still need to take in order to graduate, let alone to understand the full ramifications of

our campus’ food service contract. Part of the problem is that there exists an information bubble living alongside an information vacuum. Details tend to float around the activist community via word of mouth. Someone from the Press will tell someone from the Dems about something she heard from someone from Think Magazine. That guy at Think Magazine learned about it from a group of kids in SJA who were talking about it with some of the Stony Brook Freethinkers. This is the information bubble. Rarely is the rest of the student body made privy to the information and when they are it is not in the same, meaningful way. This is the information vacuum. And so, we find ourselves engaging in incestuous activism. Certainly there are the occasional tagalongs and recruits but for the most part the people at the

campus severely lacks the activity that should be expected of a SUNY school under siege.

Between budget cuts and tuition hikes, exploitative food contracts and private sector encroachment on our campus in the form of a hotel, it’s surprising that the Administration building hasn’t been occupied by infuriated students.

The Stony Brook

Author Nick Eaton is studying abroad in Mexico. He can be reached at nick@thinksb.com /column/news/

Continued Next

Photo Will we be seeing these kinds of signs on campus any time soon? ((by-sa) Flickr User: Thomas Hawk)

14Think Magazine

rally in front of the SAC are the people you eat lunch with.There needs to be a concerted effort to reach out to non-

active students in a real and engaging way. Handing out an informational flyer may be effective, if the framing is right, the information is succinct and the content is pertinent in the context of the students’ daily life. Addressing entire classes is a more personal and effective method of disseminating in-formation. Awareness raising events, too, can be effective but beware of soap-boxing with a tiny group of supporters. Five people holding signs and shouting about something at the fountain can actually work to marginalize your cause, raising awareness only of the fact that you couldn’t mobilize more people to help out.

Whatever the process, we need to work on bursting the exclusive information bubble.

Community

Have you set up a Facebook event, invited people en masse, gotten a positive response but been sorely disappointed at the actual turn out? The problem is that we’ve learned to try to reverse engineer the inspiring social action we’ve seen in the past. We see thousands of people flooding our nations capitol and we want to emulate it. The problem lies in the way we attempt to do so.

Quantity-based recruitment efforts have been the priority of recent social movements. Large scale social network solic-iting, mailing list sign up and indiscriminate outreach have mostly resulted in one hit wonders, unreliable recruits and most of all: frustration. The reason? A lack of interpersonal responsibility. We are not drawing recruits from a commu-nity built on trust and interconnectedness. It costs no social capital to accept an event request and never show up. There is no motive for a faceless recruit to follow through and for that reason we must never expect the person who took two seconds to write down their e-mail address to ever read them, let alone to act upon them.

If our first function as social actors is awareness raising, our other first function is community building. We must facilitate

the construction of horizontal connections among students and faculty. One very effective example of this has been the interconnectedness of organizations such as the Stony Brook Press, Think Magazine, the Stony Brook Democrats and the Stony Brook Freethinkers. While there may be no official relation between these entities, the students involved have developed an intricate network through which information is quickly and efficiently disseminated and acted upon.

Another great method of community building is through interactive, non-action based events. The Freethinkers have successfully built a non-religious community by gathering individuals with a common interest and simply asking them to engage in conversation. You may not be filling out petitions or writing letters to your Congressman but you are establishing a personal and emotional foundation which is indispensable.

Resource allocation is something to consider when com-munity building. People arrive if you announce that there’s free food but if you give that food too freely you fail to take advantage of the circumstance. Forcing people to listen to a little speech before getting their food, too, is hardly effective as it’s simply the delivery of information with no personal engage-ment. There needs to be an element of mutual exchange.

Opportunity

Finally, informed students in the Stony Brook activist com-munity must feel that there is a real ability to effect change. This means retooling our strategy to what is effective rather than what is habitual. Protests are neat exercises in community building but without direct action do very little to actually change the status quo. Even the most apathetic students under-stand this. Letter writing and petition signing can be effective but is also quite difficult to mobilize considering that they’re, to be honest, boring.

Most of all, though, opportunity entails having a say. Top down “astro-turfing” may be easier for an organization but will lack the fire and effect that grassroots action will have. There needs to be a democratic way in which activists participate in planning.

News

Photo If done right, a grassroots campaign at a university with over 20,000 students can do a world of good. Credit: Adam Peck for Think.

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Over the last few months, the most prevalent issue in the national political discussion has been President Obama’s crusade to reform our broken health care system. As one of the only developed industrial nations without a universal health care system, the United States ranks shockingly low on many international health rankings. Whether one is a single parent, a small business owner, or a college student, the fi ght to provide suitable health care coverage is a salient issue for most Americans.

Fortunately, legislation has recently been proposed in Congress to remedy this problem. Although not perfect, the proposed health care bill recently put forth by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nevada) would expand coverage to 94% of all Americans, and would simultaneously reduce the federal budget defi cit. Rather than fi t the ste-reotype of an intrusive liberal program, this bill allows those Americans who are happy with their coverage to keep it as is. Th is bill will clearly be a boon for our federal government, for many Americans struggling to provide their families with proper health insurance, and not least of all for businesses weighed down by the overwhelming costs of providing their employees with health coverage. Here at Th ink, we wonder whether these expected positive results will also translate to college campuses.

Many of the uninsured are college students or recent college graduates. Cur-rently, college students are usually covered by their parent’s health plans, but upon graduating they are left to fend for them-selves. Th e proposed health care bill would extend the afore-mentioned privilege to include young adults as old as twenty-six. Th is would ease the burden on college graduates, who are one of the most susceptible demographics to health care prob-

lems. Already saddled with student loans and the pressure of fi nding gainful employ-ment, the news that health care will be provided for college graduates is a good sign that the Obama administration has remembered that even college graduates need assistance at times.

While it is true that many young Americans do choose not to purchase health insurance, believing themselves to be invincible, this is not as widespread a phenomenon as the opponents of universal health care would like the public to believe. To hear conservatives tell it, the vast majority of the uninsured are arrogant young people in their twenties who distort national statistics by refusing to purchase coverage that they could easily aff ord. In fact, a majority of the uninsured truly are those who cannot aff ord it, including a great number

of college graduates who do not possess the fi nancial means to insure themselves. Furthermore, there are an unknown, but substantial, number of college students who are electing to intentionally delay their graduation in the hopes of remaining on their parent’s insurance. Th e resulting glut of college students has had a negative eff ect on the college experience, most pal-pably felt by students who are now strug-gling to fi nd housing on campus. Many of these older students have conditions that can only be treated using the health care available to them as college students.

I recently spoke with Dr. Raymond Goldstein to discuss the Baucus health care bill and its pro-spective eff ects on college students, and on the country as a whole. Th e following are a summation of his thoughts on the issue, prompted by three overarching questions I asked him during my interview with him.

Insuring the Invincible

by James Butler

The idea of the so-called young invincibles is not as widespread a phenom-enon as the opponents of universal health care would like the public to believe.

Part Oneof a Two Part Series

column/news/

Photo The Stony Brook University Medical Center is home to the best ideas in medicine, save for one: universal health care. At least not yet. Credit: Stony Brook University

Continued Next

16Think Magazine

the 2009-2010 academic year, SBVAC requested a budget allo-cation of $182,000 from the USG. Combined with a projected $2,000 in funding from the Graduate Student Organization

and $25,000 from New York State – the latter being the only funding SBVAC receives that is not directly from student fees – it projected a total income of

$209,000. In this situation, undergraduates would have provided 98.9% of SBVAC’s student-provided funding, with graduate students paying just 1.1%. Th is, despite the fact that undergradu-ates make up only 76% of full-time students and 66.4% of total students at Stony Brook according to the Fall 2009 enrollment fi gures provided by the university. And despite the service also being used by its employees, visitors and others, the university contributes nothing at all.

Regardless, SBVAC does not appear set to receive the $182,000 it requested from the USG; while budgets are still subject to

revision, its current allocation for 2009-2010 is $145,209.30. Based on Fall 2009 enrollment figures, that’s approximately $9.85 per full-time undergraduate. (Part-time students don’t pay the Student Activity Fee.) Th is is signifi cantly less than the $201,000 it received in 2008-2009 (when it requested $199,410), but far more than the $98,189 it received in 2007-2008 (when it requested $131,419.20). Even with the lower contribution, if the GSO contributes the projected $2,000 (which works out to about $0.42 per full-time graduate student, or about 4.3% of what each full-time undergraduate pays), USG will be responsible for 98.6% of the student contribution to the SBVAC budget for 2009-2010 and, assuming a $25,000 contribution from New York State, 84.3% of the total.

Even at this relatively high cost, SBVAC is still clearly an asset to the Stony Brook University community. But that is the entire community, not just undergraduates; and whether the burden of funding it is distributed fairly across that community is another matter, and certainly a debatable one.

N ews

What effects, if any, will the proposed health care bill have on college students?

Th e health care bill as it stands right now will not do enough to remedy the current situation. Rather than excise the harmful inclusion of insurance companies in our health car system, the Baucus bill will be a windfall for these same companies who have so badly harmed our nation.

In regards to college students, Dr. Goldstein’s prognosis is hardly more promising. Although he predicts that the stipula-tion in the bill that young adults can remain on their parent’s coverage until the age of 26 may result in short term improve-ments for our demographic, he believes that this is only on the margins of our age group, and that this part of the bill will also help the companies. Th e lack of regulation in the bill will allow insurance companies to charge higher premiums for the young adults remaining on their parent’s plans.

Dr. Goldstein believes that real reform would be a boon to college students, but that any bill without a strong public option included will do nothing to alleviate any current or potential suf-fering that we experience. Without a public option, or at least clear regulations on predatory practices by insurance companies, this bill may exacerbate current problems in our system, rather than cure them.

Does the University Medical Center have an official position on the proposed legislation?

Th e University has not offi cially weighed in on the issue, al-though the individuals in the medical center obviously have their own strong opinions. Dr. Goldstein referred to Dr. David Brown as being a strong proponent of a single payer system, although he assured me that most doctors on campus are opponents of any progressive health reform.

Are there any common myths and misconceptions about health care

that you would like to dispel?

It is important to stress that Americans should look to Western European health care systems for guidance, rather than demonizing them for simply being “un-American”. Dr. Gold-stein thinks that our pervasive ideology of what he calls “rugged individualism” has harmed us in this area, and that this mode of thinking is responsible for the insurance companies being able to maximize their profi ts at the expense of public welfare. In an interesting side note, he also submitted that the current state of our health care system in relation to Western Europe’s is a defi nite contributing factor in the continuing weakness of the US dollar compared to the Euro.

SBVACContinued

In the next issue, more from Think on students and the health care debate

Author James Butler is freshman staff writer for Think Magazine. He can be reached at jcbutler@thinksb.com

Top

Part Two:

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The recent decision by the Obama administration to cancel and overhaul the so called “missile shield” in Poland and the Czech Republic has drawn both praise and criticism in the United States and around the world. Supporters believe that the shield, a system of ten ground-based interceptor missiles and a radar system designed to avert a long range missile strike by Iran, caused unnecessary tension with nearby Russia and feared that it would lead to a resumption of Cold War hostilities. Critics believe that the cancellation of the anti-missile interceptors is a form of appeasement towards Russia, and a failure to support our NATO allies. Russia’s rising aggression, they believe, has to be curtailed and the missile defense against Iran also serves as a buff er against a resurgent Russia. Regardless, the cancellation of the missile shield gives the fi rst real glimpse on what the Obama Administration’s policy toward Eastern Europe and the Caucuses will be, and how it diff ers from the Bush Administration’s.

Th e missile shield was conceived by President Bush in 2007 and was meant to be a deterrent against a future Iranian threat to Europe. However, the planned placement of the shield in the former Warsaw Pact states of Poland and the Czech Republic served to antagonize Russia, who believed that the system was planned against them.

“If we see that the facilities pose a threat to Russia’s security, the facilities will be objects for plans of our forces. Whether strategic, nuclear or otherwise, that’s a technical question,” said Gen. Yuri Baluyevksy, the Russian military chief of staff , signaling a possible Russian military strike on the Eastern European countries in response. Growing eff orts by the United States and Western Europe to bring the former Soviet states of Ukraine and Georgia into NATO, as well as the Western world’s recognization of Kosovo, further compounded Russia’s growing fears. In the fi nal months of the Bush presi-dency, Russia invaded the country of Georgia on the pretext of defending the semi-autonomous territory of South Ossetia against Georgian aggression. Th eir victory and subsequent recognization of South Ossetia sent a message to the world that Russia was still a potent power and that it would not tolerate foreign infl uence in its sphere of infl uence. Th e brief war also made clear to the United States that it would have a lot of work to do to reach out to Russia to secure its further cooperation in

Up in Smoke

What the Missile Shield Tells Us About President Obama’s Foreign Policy

by Karl Sharma

column/news/

Photo President Obama’s decision to scale back a European missile shield has supporters and critics. And it definitely answers some questions. Credit: www.thinkorthwim.com

Continued Next

18Think Magazine

preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. The Obama administration’s new plan for missile defense in

Europe, however, does not eliminate the missile defense entirely. The ten ground-based long range interceptors and the radar in-stallation in Eastern Europe will be cancelled, but in their place, it is believed that the United States will place more short-range and mid-range interceptors on its ships in the Mediterranean by 2011, with a possibility of revisiting the placement of land based missiles in other portions of Europe. Despite this, there are critics of the policy who see the new plan as a betrayal of our allies.

“It shows a willful determination to continue ignoring the threat posed by some of the most dangerous regimes in the world,” said House Republican leader John Boehner. Other critics give more mixed reviews. The former Undersecretary of Defense under President Bush Eric Edelman praised the decision to immediately boost short and mid-range missile capabilities but warned that the cancellation would “raise questions about American commitments” and could backfire if Iran developed more long-range missiles.

This isn’t the first time that the United States and Russia have tangled over the placement of missiles or missile defense systems. The Cuban Missile Crisis was started by the placement of Russian missiles in Cuba, and aggrecvated by the placement U.S. missiles in Turkey. Russia and the US have also agreed to cut their nuclear stocks in the past, with the SALT I and II trea-ties during the late 1970’s. For its part, Russia has been positive on the change in foreign policy, with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin saying the decision “has positive implications” and that he “very much hope(s) that this very right and brave decision will be followed by others.”

As of this time, Russia has signaled that it would support some sanctions against Iran, albeit very reluctantly.

“Sanctions rarely lead to productive results, but in some cases sanctions are inevitable,” said President Dmitry Medvedev. Russia has also pledged, along with the U.S. and the rest of the UN Security Council, that it will seek further cuts in nuclear weapon stockpiles.

This is not a surprise, according to Stony Brook political sci-ence professor Theodore Roussis, as it is not in the interests of either side to restart an arms race.

“You can’t take out the fact that economics is involved,” explains Professor Roussis. “The Russian economy has been hit hard, and the U.S. is in a much better position economic-wise.”

There is little reason for either side to increase their defense spending, particularly as both sides aren’t hostile.

“Both sides are conscious of the fact that they don’t encroach on the spheres of influence of the other,” says Roussis. Since Poland and the Czech Republic have historically been in the sphere of influence of Russia, but are in NATO, the decrease of tensions between the U.S. and Russia in this region is a positive step forward for Eastern Europe.

The consequences of the Obama Administration’s decision for the future foreign policy for the United States will be interesting to watch. The pullback from placing the shield on our allies’ soil could have effects as wide ranging as Japan, where it signals that the U.S. will gradually cede Japan’s defense over to the Japanese, according to Professor Roussis. A concerted Russian/American effort toward Iran could further delegitimize the Khamenei/Ahmadinejad power structure and secure some semblance of peace in that tortured region.

News

Author Karl Sharma is a staff writer for Think. He can be reached at ksharma@thinksb.com.

Courtesy: www.armybase.us

19thinksb.com/

its members to look into irregularities in the ground lease, pos-sible conflicts of interest and a lack of a State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) as grounds for impeding the construc-

tion of the hotel.“A great university has a

responsibility to set an example as a protector of environmental quality,” said Charles Wurster,

Professor Emeritus of Environmental Sciences and a founder of the Environmental Defense Fund. “Any more deforestation is too much. Stony Brook must protect in perpetuity its remain-ing forests.”

“Every effort should be made to preserve the remaining green spaces on this campus,” said Godlind Johnson, the head of the Science & Engineering Library on campus.

For its part, Harbor Construction Management will have an eye on energy efficiency during the construction.

“It will be LEED certified,” said Frey. LEED certification is the industry standard for measuring the environmental friendliness of construction projects.

That guarantee has not quieted calls for the university to find alternative locations to the hotel. In letters penned to President

Stanley and local newspapers, community members offer up dozens of other locations on campus, some more feasable than others. One person, Michael Meltzer, even went so far as to sug-gest that the hotel replace LaValle Stadium, which he describes as “ridiculous, unnecessary [and] overly-lit.”

Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld, who represents Stony Brook Univer-sity and the surrounding community on the Brookhaven Town Council, suggested a few alternative locations as well in a letter to President Stanley.

On land near the hospital, on land near the South P lot, and north of the Wang Center, near Mendelssohn Quad were just three suggestions put forth by Fiore-Rosenfeld.

Perhaps the most interesting suggestion, however, centers on the Student Union. Fiore-Rosenfeld joins a number of faculty and community members who call for the Student Union build-ing to be replaced entirely with a new multi-story building that would feature a hotel, shops, restaurants and, as now, offices for student organizations.

“This site would be a better fit for both on-campus activity

and off-campus concerns,” said Fiore-Rosenfeld.But Marburger argues that the current location is the only

truly viable option.“There’s a reason for it being where it is. It has to be close to

a main road, otherwise you can’t make it work,” he said.“It would be difficult to get financing for it if you couldn’t

more or less guarantee a certain occupancy rate,” he added. Expo-sure to a main road, in this case Nichols Road, would help offset the fact that the university would likely only be able to provide the hotel with consistent business eight months out of the year, when classes are in session.

Exposure to Nichols Road is the exact thing that other com-munity members fear.

“The university has an obligation to be sensitive to the con-fines of the property and the aesthetics of the property,” said State Senator John Flanagan, who represents the university and the surrounding community in Albany.

To date, the university has upheld a long-standing commit-ment with the community to maintain a buffer between Nichols Road and the campus. Members of the community fear that the construction of the hotel within this buffer of trees will violate that commitment.

“The deciduous trees that will be planted will not provide a sufficient screen for six months of the year,” said Muriel Weyl, a Stony Brook community member for 42 years.

“The green strip on both sides of Nichols Road is a very important and irreplaceable aesthetic asset,” said Carl Safina, President of the Blue Ocean Institute and a faculty member in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. “It would be our shame to violate this lovely campus greenbelt, especially for a commercial building.”

Despite the expressed concerns by community members and lawmakers, the university has shown no signs of slowing down their plans. It will likely take significantly more pressure by stu-dents, faculty and community members to derail the proposal.

Pressure may be something Charles Perretti is willing to pro-vide. He is the father of a student in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, and he’s prepared to stop construction on the site at all costs.

“I am even willing to lay my body down in front of the pay loaders,” he said.

HotelContinued

/column/news/

The Hotel Seen First in Think

1990: SBFR acquires ground lease for 13 acres by main entrance.

1979: Stony Brook Foundation Realty Inc. Established

1980 1990 2000 2010

1987: SBFR activated to pursue an on-campus hotel

1994: President Marburger leaves office; hotel plans on hold.

2007: President Shirley Strum Kennypledges LEED standards for new buildings.

2009: President Stanley reaffirms commitment to the hotel.

Author Adam Peck is the Editor-in-Chief of Think. He can be reached at adam@thinksb.com

20Think Magazine

What We’re Listening To in the ThinkPad.

1) TFO by Harlem Shakes 3) We Will Become Silhouettes The Shins4) Empire State of Mind Jay-Z and Alicia Keys2) Fake Empire The NationalCulture

On the Bowery in New York City in the 1970s, a crappy little bar would become a monument in the his-tory of rock & roll. For 33 years, CBGB & OMFUG, or Country, Blue Grass, Blues, and Other Music for Uplifting Gormandizers, was located at 315 Bowery & Bleecker Street. The club was founded in 1973 by owner Hilly Kristal, who originally intended to host artists in the genres that the title implies, but in bands like The Ramones and Television, who were the first punk bands to play the venue, Kristal found a pleasant surprise – not only a new breed of rock music, but a new anti-establishment attitude and a fashion and perfor-mance style that would be remembered and emulated for decades to come.

Other groups like The Talking Heads, Blondie, and The Patti Smith Group made the club famous, but as punk died CBGB still functioned as a popular venue for emerging artists up until it closed down.

Kristal owed tens of thousands of dollars in back rent to the Bowery Residents Committee, and after a legal battle ensued and rent was eventually doubled, keeping CBGB open was simply unaffordable. On October 15, 2006, the club hosted its final show, and on October 31, the CBGB store closed down, eliminating an important landmark from the Bowery forever.

Ideas to reconstruct CBGB in Las Vegas were not materialized, as Hilly Kristal passed away in 2007 from

lung cancer at the age of 75. The original awning and many other artifacts from the club, such as some sound equipment, some of the walls, and a urinal can be found at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex NYC, located at 76 Mercer Street, about a ten minute walk from Bowery & Bleecker. The website, www.cbgb.com, is still up and running, and provides interesting information about the history of the club, links to the online store, a cool 360 degree virtual tour.

Today, 315 Bowery & Bleecker Street is home to a John Varvatos store, which opened in 2008. It’s a great place to go if you’re in the market for all things leather and grossly overpriced, or if you just want to take in what remains of the walls of CBGB, which were covered in graffiti, fliers, stickers, and possibly a decent amount of blood and other bodily fluids (rock & roll!).

Though the infamous club no longer remains and the street seems to have mellowed over the past three years, Bowery & Bleecker Street is still a highly recom-mended area for the music fanatic or the modern day beatnik looking for something to do over the weekend. Some of the gems in the immediate vicinity include the Morrison Hotel Gallery of music photography next door to the Varvatos store, he Bowery Poetry Club across the street, and Think coffee shop, a quaint shop with Fair Trade shade grown and organic coffee that is open daily until 11:30 p.m.

3 Years After CBGB’s, the Bowery is asHot and Hip

as Ever.

by Lindsay Woodruff

21thinksb.com/

What a DickA Journalist Peels Back the Layers of Cheney’sRole as Puppeteer-in-Chief

Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidencyby Barton Gellman 384 pages The Penguin Press

Barton Gellman’s “Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency” presents a scathing look at Dick Cheney’s omniscient role in the Bush Administration. Gellman, a Washington Post journalist whose series of articles on the Vice President formed the crux of the work, delivers a harrowing account of Cheney’s active influ-ence in the executive branch.

The title of the work, “Angler,” refers to the Secret Service codename given to Cheney, but it is also a fitting pseudonym given the calculated and clandestine nature of the former Vice President. Cheney adamantly denied an active role in governance, stating, “Well, the Secret came up with the code name. The code name I had in the Ford Administration was ‘Backseat.’ Maybe I should go back to that one.” The statement seems disconcert-ing as Cheney was a fierce proponent of the ‘unitary executive theory’, which established a unilateral and mostly unchecked presidency.

The strength of Gellman’s work lies in his extensive research and probing interviews. Readers are left to their own devices to construct a representation of the former Vice President, and one

of the overarching conclusions that can be drawn is that Cheney proved masterful in his ability to circumvent traditional legal proceedings.

In one well-documented episode, Cheney’s predisposition to obstructionism resulted in his non-compliance to disclose FBI transcripts pertaining to the leaking of then-CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity.

Gellman also highlights the delicate balance that Cheney struck as Vice President and top advisor to President Bush. Act-ing Chief of Staff Josh Bolten in an interview with Cheney in the waning days of the Administration describes President Bush’s habitual deference to the Vice President. Bolen states: “I think the vice president appreciates that. That his role is in support of the president, not as a second tier substitute.” “Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency” is a visceral look at the machinations of former Vice President Cheney that will prove appealing to political aficionados and those with an interest in the pulse of the American government. -Brian Lee

HBO’s Bored to DeathCreated by Jonathan Ames Sundays at 9:30 Comedy

HBO’s newest comedy delivers a breath of fresh air—or perhaps its a sigh of relief—from a network whose recent comedic at-tempts (Summer Heights High, Little Britain USA) fell way short of the mark. Jonathan Ames’ show is appealing in every imaginable way. Jason Schwartzman is delightful as writer/privite detective Jonathan Ames (not a typo; its the same name as the show’s creator) and Zach Galifianakis shows viewers that his comedy repertoire extends beyond the slapstick, alcohol-induced humor that we were exposed to in The Hangover. But the real shining star is Ted Danson, whose character, magazine editor George Christopher, is a calmer, quieter, and kinder version of Ari Gold. Add in the Brooklyn locales and this show is a must-see. -Adam Peck

OutrageDirected by Kirby Dick Rated R 121 Minutes

Spending two hours showcasing interviews with the friends, acquaintences, and colleagues of high-powered politicians for the purposes of “outing” them as gay can be a bit of a tight rope act. One misinterpreted fact or faulty statistic would discredit the whole movie. Ethically, serious questions were raised over whether “outing” people—be they hypocrits or not—was responsible. Nevertheless, Kirby Dick has launched a crusade against politicians who vote to withold rights from the LGBTA community while simoltaneously appearing to engage in the very same homosexual acts their vote would outlaw. The movie doesn’t produce much in the way of hard evidence, but it more than makes up for it in scandelous hearsay and implicative interviews with ex-lovers. Enjoy the movie, but with a grain of salt. -Adam Peck

9) Cold December Matt Costa7) Cousins Vampire Weekend

5) Cuddle Fuddle Passion Pit6) Hypnotize Dan Black

10) Good Ol’ Fashion Nightmare Matt and Kim

8) Un Día Juana Molina

/column/culture/

22Think Magazine

In the ongoing conservative assault on President Obama, many wild and oft en inaccurate claims have been made.

Th ey have centered on health care (death panels, coverage for illegal immigrants, etc.), Foreign Policy (shunning our allies, supporting dictators, leaving us open to terrorist threats by clos-ing Gitmo…) and many more that I have neither the time nor the desire to mention.

But one particularly surprising tactic has come to the fore-front: the attacks on “Czars,” and claims that they are yet another way in which Obama is covertly destroying our Republic.

Van Jones, the former “Green Czar,” was the fi rst Obama Administration czar brought down by unfounded and grossly exaggerated attacks by conservatives like Glenn Beck.

As usual, conservative commentator Glenn Beck is at the forefront of the right’s czar frenzy. According to him, Obama has a record number of czars which collectively form an “iceberg” that is threathening the U.S Constitution. In an interview with Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck professed that he found the czars “truly frightening.”

But are they? Consider these important facts that you won’t

see on the Glenn Beck Show or Fox News in general.1) Czars have been around since President Franklin Delano

Roosevelt.2) 9 of the 32 Obama czars have been confi rmed by Con-

gress.3) 8 were not appointed by President Obama4) 15 have been appointed by previous administrations.and this one is the whopper:5) President Bush had 35 czars, MORE than President

Obama.Now of course this last fact serves to shine a bright light on

the hypocrisy of people like Glenn Beck. Th e Bush administra-tion and it’s 35 czars did not merit Beck’s attention, but now he suddenly fi nds Obama’s 32 czars a “truly frightening” aspect of the government.

Hmm, it seems that Glenn Beck’s concern has more to do with his hatred of Obama than his respect for the constitution. In short, their is nothing unusual or frightening about Obama’s Czars. Just some more nasty BS from our favorite conservative commentator.

Opinions&Editorials

Th e decision by the university to construct a hotel is a decent idea set into motion in indecent times. Today’s students are living through some of the steepest budget cuts in SUNY history, the constant threat of state-imposed tuition increases and unprec-edented shortages in living space, yet the new administration’s fi rst signifi cant order of business is to erect another building on campus whose primary benefi ciaries will not be Stony Brook students.

All of the arguments in favor of the hotel are good ones. Th e hotel will attract bigger and better conferences and events to our campus. It will provide much-needed housing for out-of-state families visiting their sons and daughters. But do those needs trump the needs of a student body of over 20,000? We don’t think so.

And then there are the serious environmental and aesthetic

concerns. If this hotel is built where plans call for it to be built, it will unquestionably be the fi rst building that many people see as they pull onto campus. We don’t believe its wise for a large Hilton sign to welcome students to our university.

It would also be a shame to lose another piece of woodlands on campus, especially one with as much educational signifi cance as this. Th ere are several parking lots and other empty land around campus that would be perfectly suited for a hotel, particularly by the Long Island Railroad station.

If the acquisition of another ground lease is the only major obstacle preventing the university from relocating the hotel, President Stanley should take a step back and reassess the pro-posal. Besides, waiting for a few years as the economy continues to improve would only benefi t plans.

Czar Talk: Separating Fact from Fictionby Dominic La Maison

The Worst Time for a Good Idea

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time I go there I fi nd sala-manders,” she said.

For two years, from March to mid-Novem-ber, Fisher-Reid has been

taking expeditions into the forest twice a week to fi nd sala-

manders and take various measurements of environmental factors and the creatures themselves.

Th e focus of Fisher-Reid’s dissertation, color variations (or morphs) within the same species, makes the site even more valu-able. Th at particular forest is home to one of the best contact zones between two color morphs of the species, she says.

“My project has the potential to generate a lot of long term monitoring of these salamanders and of the environment in general,” said Fisher-Reid.

While Fisher-Reid may be the biggest benefi ciary of the for-est, its educational signifi cance is felt by many more students and faculty on campus.

“Beyond the scope of my dissertation, the forest is used,” she said. “Once I leave, the forest is still going to be used.”

Catherine Graham, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution, is constantly looking for ways to provide students with real world examples of what is discussed in class, and the forest provides the best window for doing just that.

“Its very hard to give them any sense that you can have a lot of variation in a population,” she said.

“Th e only example I’ve found is with the salamanders. You can actually go to these diff erent sites and show students how much variation we have, and I can’t think of other easy examples where you can do that in such a small region.”

Marvin O’Neal, the Course Director for Introductory Labo-ratories in the Biology department, is afraid that the deforestation will aff ect many more students than the administration realizes.

“Th at forest is used for my course,” he said. His BIO 204 course is taught to over 1,200 undergraduate students every year. “Th e hotel would occupy our most accessible and diverse fi eld site.”

Graham agrees with the notion that the forest serves as a valu-able classroom for students, and off ered her own analogy.

“If you had a state of the art molecular lab to do state of the art analysis you needed for medical research and to teach students specifi cally how to do that research, you wouldn’t go in and bull-doze that classroom,” she said. “Th at classroom would be a prize, it would be something you valued. Whereas here, without really thinking, they’re proposing to bulldoze what is a very, very valu-able and nice laboratory for many classes on campus.”

As for the salamanders, Fisher-Reid off ered up a grim progno-sis in the event that the hotel is built where plans call for.

“Once its deforested, that population is gone,” she said. “Th ey need the woods.”

ber, Fisher-Reid has been taking expeditions into the

forest twice a week to fi nd sala-

Do NotDisturb

Continued

The Hotel Seen First in Think

This Holiday Season, give a s#*%.Oxfam Unwrapped lets you donate tons of things, from soap to sheep, and even manure.More at OxfamGifts.com.

Preparefor FinalsYou can do good even as you study. When you’re ready for a caffeine pick-me-up, head on over to the Pura Vida in Roth, where

they serve 100% Fair Trade coffee. The world’s poorest coffee farmers will really appreciate it.

Greening the LIRRSee how local com-munities on Long Island are revitalizing the areas around LIRR railroad stations.And who knows, maybe you can bring ideas back to our own station here.

Check out www.sustainableli.org for more info.

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