Tor Echo Newspaper of the Pioneers

Do Civic Engagement — Register to Vote!

Less than one-third of all eligible vot-

ers in New York State turned up at

the polls last Tuesday, putting our

state in the middle of a national trend

that had lower voter turnout in 38 of

the 50 states. Voter turnout among

young people was even more pathet-

ic. Only 13% of voters interviewed in

exit polls on Election Day were un-

der 30. Voters 18-29 make up 21% of

all registered voters, so the numbers

for this election show that 1 in every

3 young voters did not vote.

The news, however, is worse

than that. Only about half of Ameri-

cans between 18-29 are even regis-

tered to vote. Here at Alfred State

College, the Office of Civic Engagement has

been conducting a voter registration drive

using Turbovote, an online voter-

registration and reminder system. Sadly,

only a handful of the more than 3,500 stu-

dents enrolled at Alfred State have

availed themselves of this service.

Voting is important. Registering

to vote is the first step. Tor Echo, the

student newspaper, and the Com-

muter Council, working through the

Office of Civic Engagement are initi-

ating a “Get Out the Vote Cam-

paign.” Here in Alfred, village elec-

tions are held in March, so we have

plenty of time to show that Pioneers

do care and do want to involve them-

selves in their own future.

Will it matter? Yes, it will. The

village government of Alfred wants to

exert ever greater control over your

lives – they are, for example, requir-

ing off-campus Greek houses to reg-

ister every resident of fraterni-

ty or sorority houses with the

village. The village has created a

special “zone” where Greeks

may live off campus. Right now,

the village is considering efforts

to eliminate Hotdog Day. A

report delivered to the village

board in October stated that

“Our committee asked for sug-

gestions on how to improve

Hot Dog Day or how to repair

it. We received a few sugges-

tions from villagers, students,

police, emergency services, and

college administrators. Predict-

ably these represented a wide

range of opinion and strength of argu-

ment.” The report went on to say

that “The firmest response” was to

“End Hot Dog Day.” When the mem-

bers of the Hot Dog Day committee

were pressed, they admitted

that only one villager called for

the elimination of HDD, “but

that response was stated in

very firm language.”

What does this mean to you? It

means that a handful of people

in this community have the

power to change your college

experience. And what gives

them that power? Very simply,

they are registered to vote and

they do vote. It’s time for us to

vote, too. Let’s show our

strength. Look for our table in

SLC and register to vote!

Show the Village you won’t be

pushed around. Get your button

and wear it proudly. Register to

vote, and show that we want a say

in our community.

Tor

Ech

o /

Pag

e 2

Tor Echo

Report, Encourage, Engage

Issue 6, Fall 2014

Editor-in-Chief: Lynnette Lockwood / Associate Editor: Jordyn Riethmiller / Sports Editor: Morgan Franchina

Treasurer / Student Senate Representative: Daniel David

Reporters: Lee Button, Katie Dussing, Grace Franklin, Brianna Freeman, Anthony Grande, MiRonda Piphus, Don Schrader,

Breanna Smith, Madison Szpaicher, Angel Torres

© Tor Echo, 2014

Editorial by Lynnette Lockwood

College students can take steps to help improve the environment and be conscien-

tious of their surroundings. One of the most efficient ways to help the environment

is to compost. Compost is taking food waste and turning it into “green waste”

which will break down into humus in a few weeks or months. After the breakdown

of the food waste it can be applied to gardens to give nutrients to the soil to enrich

growth through a natural process. It is simple to use and saves energy as well. Ecol-

ogy is a responsibility that every citizen of the world should be concerned. Some

colleges offer compost bins in the dining areas instead of garbage cans. Being eco-

conscious is a frame of mind that benefits everyone. Alfred State offers vegetarian

options to students. I like the concept of replacing the garbage cans in the dining ar-

eas on campus with compost bins. It is a huge waste considering the amount of food

that is thrown away on a daily basis. Alfred State does offer recycle bins for cans,

bottles, and papers all around campus and in the dorms. Encouragement to the stu-

dent body to be eco-friendly could be reinforced in the dining areas and creating an

additional method to recycle our wastes. Currently some of the paper from cam-

pus is recycled and is used as bedding at the farm. The Alfred Community Garden

already has a compost pile available where the college could take the compost and

deposit it daily. A compost bin costs an average of $40.00 each and if they were

placed in approximately 10 places around campus the cost would be $400.00. A

small financial investment today would go a long way for the future of our earth. So

think about joining me in recycling today for a better tomorrow.

A Look into Sustainability at Alfred State

Hooping Workshop Extravaganza

Students engaged in a

night of fun learning how

to hoop, poi, gloving,

and even juggling. It was

lead by Ben Berry assist-

ed by many others. Be-

fore the hooping there

was a yoga/ meditation

session.

Pag

e 3

/ R

epo

rt, E

nco

ura

ge, E

nga

ge!

Tor

Ech

o /

Pag

e 4

Alfred State students in the Architec-

ture and Design department are help-

ing to improve the quality of the built

environment in Allegany County and

the surrounding region through a

number of Southern Tier Architectur-

al Resource (STAR) Center civic en-

gagement projects. The STAR Center

is a collaboration of two organizations

in the department: the Architecture

Club and the Interior Design Club,

which, through the promotion of

sound design and planning principles,

seek to enhance the local built envi-

ronment.

Last semester, architectural tech-

nology majors Jeremy Dearing and

Andrew Scott proposed designs for a

project at Pioneer Park in Dansville.

The project involved creating a place

for a monument marking the park as

Dansville’s first cemetery, landscaping

and lighting work.

“What the clients were propos-

ing was fairly low impact and it was

really meant to just formalize the park

and create a place for a new monu-

ment that they had already made.

Most of the time you would create

the plan first and then place the mon-

ument” said Bill Dean, chair of the

department of Architecture and De-

sign. Jeremy and Andrew talked about

two different possible locations for

the monument and did renderings of

what that might look like, just to kind

of give them some guidance. Dearing

said, “I’m very glad that I was able to

get some real hands-on experience

with actual clients.”

Since 2013, according to Dean,

the STAR Center students have un-

dertaken eight typically infrastructure-

related civic engagement projects,

mainly in the Southern Tier. Potential

upcoming projects include conceptual

planning for a pocket park in Scio,

documenting existing conditions for a

veterans’ center in Rushford and

for a building in down-

town Buffalo, and a

master plan for Lions

Camp Badger in Spen-

cer, NY. Another pro-

ject involves two stu-

dents working with the

Alfred State Sustaina-

bility Committee on

converting an L-shaped

area near the Central

Dining Hall into a com-

munity garden.

“It’s not a huge space,

it’s not a big project,

but any place we can

help, we’re happy to

give the students that

type of experience. We don’t

know if the garden is going to be

edibles or perennials. That hasn’t

been decided yet” Dean said.

Libby Dussault, an architecture

and interior design student, from

Horseheads, NY, said the STAR Cen-

ter provides an awesome opportunity

for students. "It's a good way to meet

and work with other people and form

relationships and learn how to work

on a project with someone else be-

cause we do a couple of partner pro-

jects in the studio but nothing that has

follow-through and you don’t see the

end result and I think working with

clients, that’s a good opportunity,

too,” she said. Dean noted, “These

students are actually getting that ex-

perience of talking to people about

their problems and helping them de-

velop solutions to the extent that

they can do that through an academic

exercise, so I think it really provides a

tremendous experience for the stu-

dents that they’re not going to get in

every architecture program.”

Caption: Pictured top, counter-clockwise, Alfred State architectural technolo-

gy majors Jeremy Dearing and Andrew Scott, and members of the Pioneer

Park Committee Patricia Kreiley, Paul Hoffman, and Jane Schryver.

STAR Center Civic Engagement

Pag

e 5

/ R

epo

rt, E

nco

ura

ge, E

nga

ge!

The American Red Cross

launched a one of kind

Blood Donor App that

puts the power to save

lives in the palm of your

hand. The new app

makes it easier and faster

for users to find a nearby blood drive,

schedule blood donations, track their total

donations, get rewards and invite friends

and family to join them on a lifesaving team.

It’s free and available for download through

the App Store.

New Red Cross App

Three teams from the Alfred

State School of Applied Tech-

nology campus in Wellsville

went to Frisco, Texas and par-

ticipated in the Fireball Run. The

annual event features a life-sized

trivia game that seeks to aid in

the recovery of America’s miss-

ing children. “We’re really excit-

ed to be sending off another

team to the Fireball Run,” said

Craig Clark, executive director

and dean of Applied Technology.

The college’s support team will

perform duties such as tire pres-

sure and car checks, according

to Kent Johnson, chair of the

Automotive Trades department.

“When the cars break down,

we’re going to lend a hand,”

Johnson said of the Alfred State

team. The Alfred State drove

which will drive a 1987 Mer-

cedes Turbo Diesel donated by

1975 Alfred State graduate Mark

Crounse. Along with Clark and

Johnson, the Alfred State sup-

port team includes automotive

service technician students and

brothers Josh and Jordan Ricot-

ta, both from Falconer, N.Y. The

students said they were hon-

ored to be a part of this year’s

Fireball Run. “We’re honored to

go and represent the college

that we wanted to take up auto-

motive at,” said Josh Ricotta.

“Our hard work paid off and

they honored us with being able

to go. It sounds like a great op-

portunity and seems like we’ll

have some fun. It’s a great expe-

rience to learn from” Jordan Ri-

cotta said.

Alfred State Participates in the Fireball Run

Alfred State support team among Fireball Run squads that getting ready to depart

By Jordyn Riethmiller

I hosted a can food drive as

part of a civic engagement

project. The non-perishable

can goods will be donated

to the Alfred/Almond area

food pantry for the Thanks-

giving holiday. There was also

a collection of donations. The food pantry will use this

money to purchase perishable items for the holiday.

Can Food Drive for Local Pantry

Tor

Ech

o /

Pag

e 6

The Office of Equity, Inclusion and Title IX is honored to house the Paula Rezak GLBT Gender and Sexual-

ity Library in its new space,. It will be in SLC Room 409. The library contains numerous books, texts, films

and documentaries revolving around these topics. If you are looking for resources for personal, profes-

sional or academic purposes please come check out the library. Due to the strong commitment and gen-

erosity of the Rezak family we are able to continuously add to the library so if you have suggestions that

you would like to see included in this special collection please contact Nikkie Hockenberry at ext. 4076 or

email at hockennr@alfredstate.edu. We strive to honor Paula’s spirit and her deep dedication to educat-

ing the campus community in this area; if you would like someone to come do a presentation for your

class or organization around LGBT issues, Safe Zone or gender and sexuality we have a number of interac-

tive and educational workshops we can bring to you.

Paul Rezak LGBT Library

The National Court Reporters Association is launch-

ing its new Take Note campaign to promote court

reporting education. Professors are hoping to see

more interest and enrollment in court reporting pro-

grams in colleg-

es nationwide.

It is definitely

the hope of

Alfred State

and the Na-

tional Court

Reporters As-

sociation that

the new Take

Note campaign will result in

increased in-

terest in court

reporting ca-

reers and, in

turn, increased

enrollment in our programs, not just at Alfred State,

but at all court reporting schools around the country.

I think that just about all schools have seen decreased

enrollment in court reporting programs in the last

five to seven years; the hope is to get more students

into these programs so that we’ll have enough court

reporters to meet the demand in the coming years”

said Melissa Blake Alfred State’s court reporting and

captioning program curriculum coordinator.

The campaign’s website, http://www.crtakenote.com,

contains links with information on court reporting

careers, finding a school, and requesting information.

They filter requests and forward them to colleges

that are appropriate to what the person is asking for.

In the last cou-

ple of weeks

alone, 39 re-

quests for in-

formation have

been forward-

ed to Blake.

Each request

receives an

email response

with general information

about Alfred

State and an

attached bro-

chure with spe-

cific infor-

mation on the college’s court reporting and caption-

ing certificate program and its court and real time as-

sociate degree program.“We have no way of knowing

if any of those requests will result in students applying

to our programs, but we are very hopeful that they

will,” Blake said. “I will send information to all of

those who request it in hopes that we can get some

court reporters or captioners trained to fill the need

now and in the future when today’s reporters retire.”

Alfred State is Anticipating Greater Interest and Enrollment

in Court Reporting Through Take Note Campaign

Pag

e 7

/ R

epo

rt, E

nco

ura

ge, E

nga

ge!

Tor

Ech

o /

Pag

e 8

“Once on This Island" tells the tale of a poor peasant girl's journey to win the

heart of a wealthy young man with the aid of gods who watch over the island. The

music is jam-packed with Caribbean flavor and upbeat energy. The performance is

composed of an all-Alfred State-student cast under the direction of Buckwalter

and Eric Prentice, music director, with Jerry Ives, Alfred State's instrumental di-

rector, leading the pit orchestra.

“There is a lot of music and choreography in this musical and it is coming to-

gether well. We have a great student cast and technical crew who are working

hard and I am excited for the show” said Janna Buckwalter, Drama Club adviser.

Come and Dance to the Music

Pag

e 9

/ R

epo

rt, E

nco

ura

ge, E

nga

ge!

Tor

Ech

o /

Pag

e 1

0

Math Lab Procter Schedule

Final Exams are coming! Here is the Math Lab tutoring schedule once again. Take advantage of the resources you have here.

Pag

e 1

1/

Rep

ort

, En

cou

rage

, En

gage

!

Alfred State is teaming up with Cystic Fibrosis to hoop for a cure.

Cystic Fibrosis is a life threatening genetic disease that primarily

affects the lungs and digestive system. It affects nearly 100,000

people worldwide. People that live with Cystic Fibrosis have a

defective gene and its protein product causes the body to produce

unusually thick, sticky mucus that clogs the lungs and leads to life

threatening lung infections. The mucus also obstructs the pancreas and stops natural enzymes from helping

the body break down food and absorb vital nutrients. Cystic Fibrosis patients life expectancy has slowly

reached their way into the 30’s, with your help we can make cure found. The Basketball Game begins at 7

p.m. Wednesday, November 19th in the Orvis Gym. There will be prizes, autographs, giveaways, and events

throughout the game. All proceeds go to Cystic Fibrosis Research.

Hoop For the Cure Cystic Fibrosis

NOVEMBER 2014

Practice- Wednesday 11/5/14 9:00-10:30PM Olean Ice

Rink

Home Game VS Hilbert College 11/8/14 8:05PM

Olean Ice Rink

Practice- Wednesday 11/12/14 9:00-10:30PM Olean Ice

Rink

Away Game VS University of Pittsburgh Saturday

11/15/14 10:00AM Callahan Park

Away Game VS Elmira College Sunday 7 pm Mur-

ray Athletic Center 11/16/14

Practice- Wednesday 11/19/14 9:00-10:30PM Olean Ice

Rink

DECEMBER 2014

Practice- Wednesday 12/3/14 9:00-10:30PM Olean Ice

Rink

Home Game VS University of Pittsburgh at

Saturday 12/6/14 8:05PM Olean Ice Rink

Bradford Saturday 12/6/14 8:05PM Olean Ice Rink

FEBURAY 2015

Practice- Wednesday 2/4/15 9:00-10:30PM Olean Ice Rink

Home Game VS Daemen College Saturday 2/7/15

8:05PM Olean Ice Rink

Practice- Wednesday 2/11/15 9:00-10:30PM Olean Ice

Rink

Practice- Wednesday 2/18/15 9:00-10:30PM Olean Ice

Rink

Home Game VS Alumni Team Saturday 2/21/15

TBD Olean Ice Rink

Practice- Wednesday 2/25/15 9:00-10:30PM Olean Ice

Rink

Alfred State Hockey Team Schedule

By Madison Szpaicher

The Alfred State Women’s Vol-

leyball team got the chance of a

life time this past weekend

(October 30th-November 1st).

We headed to SUNY Canton in

Canton, NY for the USCAA

Women’s Volleyball National

Championships. With this being

only our second year as a Divi-

sion 3 school, this is some feat.

We have caught the attention of

many schools around the nation,

8 out of the 10 teams had never even heard of Alfred State or

Alfred University!

The team this year was made

up of 12 girls: 1 senior, 3 juniors,

4 sophomores and 4 freshmen.

All in all, we are a pretty young

team. But what sets us apart

from all of the other schools we

competed against was how close-

knit this group is. From team din-

ners, to team shopping trips

there isn’t much that we do

apart. One onlooker said, “I’ve

worked here at Alfred State for

14 years and never before have I

seen a team as close and happy

when they are all together than

this women’s volleyball team.”

Nationals were an eye open-

er, it led the team to believe that

it didn’t matter how young the

squad was but what mattered

was the heart and effort that was

put out there on the court. Go-

ing into this weekend we truly

had no idea what to expect, we

had not played any of the other

9 teams, nor did we know much

about them.

We made it to the final 4, we

were ranked in the top 4 of the

nation, and this was quite a sur-

real feeling. One school was

Florida College, another Roches-

ter College, out of Michigan and the third being SUNY Canton.

The New York schools repre-

sented well at this nationals

tournament. On championship

day, November 1st we ended us

taking 4th place overall, but the

semi-finals and consolation game

were not taken lightly. Every-

thing we had was left out on the

court; we knew big rewards

were at stake. We truly made a

statement, half of these teams

thought we were going to be a

walkover and we proved all of

them wrong. Alfred State Volley-

ball made a name for themselves

and I believe has a very bright

future ahead of them. I know I’m

already ready for next season to

start!

Family, Food and Then There’s Volleyball

The Alfred State cross country teams will be competing in the United State Collegiate Athletic Association's

National Championship race on Friday at SUNY ESF in Syracuse, NY. The women race at 11 a.m. and the

men start at Noon.

Keith Johnson looks to place in the 8K following his 3rd place showing at the Brockport Invitational

26:16.4 with his mile pace of 5:18.0.Jacob Hanss will also look for a strong showing after finishing 13th at

Brockport with a time of 27:46.8 pace.

The Pioneers had 11 runners with a sub-6 minute mile pace at the Brockport Invitational. In prior meets,

the men's team ran to 1st place at the Alfred Invitational and the Houghton Invitational. They also ran to two

3rd place finishes at Brockport and DeSales University. Most recently, the Alfred State men's team placed

4th overall at the New York State Collegiate Track Conference Championships.

Cross Country Get Ready AA for USACAA Nationals

Tor

Ech

o /

Pag

e 1

2

Senior Kay Pfleghardt winds up to serve in the

women’s NCAA division 3 nationals, where the

Lady Pioneers finished fourth in the USA.