Opinion: What's the fracking fuss?: Understanding a controversial process that affects us all

Posted by Eliza Sherpa

You may have heard the word "fracking" around campus and wondered what all the fuss was about. 

Fracking, a method of extracting natural gas from deep shale reserves, has emerged as a topic of controversy in recent months. Proponents argue that fracking will both increase national security by providing a domestic fuel source and help New York State's struggling economy by creating jobs. Some additionally insist that the increased use of natural gas is our solution to climate change, as the burning of natural gas emits less greenhouse gas than does oil or coal. While these are valid arguments, much of the natural gas extracted will be exported, and the potential economic gains exist only in a boom and bust system, which will not result in long-term economic growth.

Other industries in this state, including agriculture, tourism and small business, will be threatened. Jobs will be temporary, and not given to those New York residents who need them most. There will be huge costs for taxpayers, including an estimated $211 to 378 million spent on roads alone. In terms of environmental impact, the comprehensive process of extracting, purifying and burning natural gas emits more greenhouse gases than coal. These valid concerns aside, the problem with hydrofracking isn't, for me, one of science or economy. It's one of morality.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has determined that fracking is too dangerous to take place within the New York City watershed. But don't all regions of the state deserve the same protection? When my family was approached and asked to lease our land to a natural gas company, we were promised a revitalized New York economy with thousands of new jobs, a role in furthering America's energy independence and, of course, a hefty check. While my family had the opportunity to say no, many others did not.

Over 50 percent of my town in rural New York is now leased, and, if drilling proceeds, everyone in our town will directly feel the environmental and economic impacts.??

There are other issues with fracking as well. Because of regional class divides, drilling disproportionately affects working class landowners in rural areas. The process blasts millions of gallons of water into the ground, infused with thousands of gallons worth of over 500 chemicals, including the poisons hydrogen fluoride, lead, ethylene glycol and known carcinogens such as formaldehyde, naphthalene and benzene. It is impossible to remove all of this contaminated water from the ground, and frequently the waste is stored, at least temporarily, in open pits, which risk spillage.

Drilling brings hundreds of trucks into targeted communities, and the land value of areas affected by drilling plummets.  While the industry claims safety, what is perhaps most worrisome is that fracking is exempt from federal regulations, including the Clean Water Act, nor has an independent environmental impact statement ever been conducted.??

While no effect, positive or negative, can be assumed as certain, negative effects have been demonstrated time and time again all over this country. There have been over a thousand instances of groundwater contamination, countless incidents where water has actually been demonstrably flammable and hundreds of people that have become sick in at-risk areas. Recently, there have even been indicators linking fracking to earthquakes. But evidence has been covered up, and these stories are rarely heard.  

The corporations argue that there is no scientific proof linking fracking to these broken communities, and that drilling is, therefore, safe. Yet with clear evidence pointing towards water contamination and human health impacts and little evidence to the contrary, wouldn't we at least want to look further into this process?

Once we begin, recovery will be difficult.

??Recently, there have been droughts in the Midwest and West, and national concern for the availability of clean water has intensified. With fracking, we risk contaminating our fresh water, the most fundamental and vital resource for our existence. By allowing fracking to move forward in this state, we are continuing to allow corporations to represent us in the government. If we say no, we protect our needs. We are showing our state, and our country, that we wish to build a sustainable green economy, one that runs on clean, renewable energy, not dirty fossil fuels, and that will create long-term economic growth and job development. ??

The fight against fracking is a fight to tell the government to value communities over corporations and to protect human rights over corporate profit. The fight against social injustice has been fought for us by countless generations past. Now it is our responsibility to sustain the fight against social and environmental injustice, and pursue a clean energy economy for a just and sustainable future.??

Governor Cuomo will be making a decision on hydrofracking this December, and plans to move forward with the process despite significant public uproar, including a move by many cities, such as Albany, to institute local bans. Now is the time to take action and make our voices heard. If you're interested in getting involved, please contact esherpa@skidmore.edu or come to EAC meetings Monday, 9 p.m. in LADD 207.  There are upcoming Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) hearings (Nov. 16 Dansville, Nov. 17 Binghamton, Nov. 29 Loch Sheldrake, Nov. 30 New York City, Dec. 1 Ithaca) as well as the Delaware River Basin Commission hearing in Trenton, NJ on Nov. 21. 

Healthful Hints: Sleep for success: Get in bed and stay there for a healthy and triumphant finals week

Posted by Zoe Silver

Finals are just around the corner, and along with the end of the year come heavier schedules that many people let cut into their sleeping time. Sleep, however, is almost as essential to succeeding on your exams as studying. Remember that sleep is a vital human activity. Without it, we can't think clearly, our mood swings and we even occasionally hallucinate. Basically, bad things can happen if you don't catch your z's, so be sure to regulate your sleeping habits in time for finals.

Sleep is a biological necessity. It rejuvenates our bodies and minds, aides in memory retrieval and storage, repairs neural connections that allow us to do fundamental things such as breathe and releases hormones that help us grow and repair torn muscle. Given that sleep is a necessity, when our sleep debt builds, our body essentially begins to "shutdown." When you begin to experience things like weakened vision, the inability to stay awake, clumsiness, difficultly concentrating and even the onset of a cold, they could all be signs of sleep deprivation: your body trying to tell you, "go to sleep!" The average college student needs 8- 10 hours of sleep a night. This sounds unobtainable to most of us while at school, but I can assure you that if you adjust your schedule to allow for this, you will find improvements in many other areas of your life, including your school work and daily productivity.

As college students, some of us are guilty of binge drinking, binge eating…and even binge sleeping. The third is an unhealthy way to catch up on sleep as it does not effectively rejuvenate you, even though you may think that it does. By binge sleeping, I mean sleeping for two hours one night and 14 hours the next night. This is not the same as sleeping for eight hours both nights. Sometimes, oversleeping can make you groggy and just as unproductive. Instead of doing this, try adding two hours to each night of sleep until you are "caught-up" on your sleep debt.

If you have a hard time getting to sleep, as many of us do, especially when our neighbors are partying or we have a scary exam in the morning, try to be conscious of some of your habits during the day, which will affect you at night. For instance, it is a good idea to cut out caffeine after around 3 p.m., and on the weekend, keep in mind that alcohol can lead to interrupted sleep and prevent your from reaching the deepest and most rejuvenating levels of sleep. In general, try to keep a steady schedule by going to bed and waking up the same time every day, making yourself comfortable in bed and keeping your room dark. Studies have found that the use of technology right before sleep inhibits the brain from "turning-off" and therefore lengthens the amount of time it takes to fall asleep. Instead of watching TV until you doze off, try reading a book or just lying there and letting your eyes adjust to the darkness.

Until next time, I hope that these hints find you in good health and that you "zzz" yourself to an A+.  

Editorial: A new look for career services

Posted by the Editorial Board

While every college aims to arm their graduates with the skills needed to succeed professionally, liberal arts schools traditionally eschew vocational instruction and focus on education for its own sake. Skidmore does not entirely fit this mold, as our mission statement specifically proscribes programs to train students "with preparation for professions, careers, and community leadership." Such an aim implies service learning and professional opportunities, not to mention programs to procure such opportunities within academic departments.

Skidmore has demonstrated its dedication to offering such opportunities as administration has begun planning a major overhaul of the Career Services Center. As this redesign develops, administration should aim to make the Center more central to student life and better affect professional preparation across campus.

Though at present academic advisors help students develop in a specific discipline and academic departments host events and guest lecturers to showcase career paths open to them, the office that guides students toward these paths is the Career Services Center. The Center offers one-on-one counseling sessions, where students are given personal advice and shown tools to find jobs and internships. In addition, students can attend seminars, use the books and directories found at the Career Center, and, as seniors and recent graduates, use Skidmore's recruiting program to get job listings and event notifications.

These offerings, while significant, are tailored to students willing to put in the effort to get started — no counseling sessions are required and, apart from the occasional event listed in mass emails, the Center makes few attempts to lure in students. This approach works only if students understand the Center and what it offers, and feel the pressure to take advantage of the opportunities it affords.

When should students feel this pressure? While Penny Loretto, Assistant Director of Career Services, says, "We always insist, the earlier, the better," the idea that students should use the center as soon as they can adds no sense of structure or purpose to the process. Though the Center attempts to make itself seen by freshmen and seniors, students may not feel pushed to stop by until they start looking for internships for their second collegiate summer after sophomore year.

Rather than focusing on pushing students to go whenever and as soon as they can make the time, the Center should be specific, letting faculty advisors know that, if their advisees have still never been to the Center by the end of their first year, for example, they should push them to make an appointment.

Another cause for concern is the lack of proportionate commitment to professional development across all departments. In the Theater department, Lary Opitz actively helps seniors set up a biography, take professional head shots, and lay the groundwork for a career in theater. In the Philosophy department, on the other hand, there is little to no discussion of life after college besides a handout given to potential majors early in the academic year. Every department should, as far as its field of study lends itself, have a standard for career development, and encourage students to visit the Career Services Center at certain times.

Currently, some departments see college education as serving no end other than self-improvement, while other departments actively attempt to teach marketable skills. If Skidmore is dedicated to its endorsement of service learning and professional development, faculty should internalize the school's mission and not fight it to the detriment of some students.

As Career Services is given its upgrade, a focus should be made at all levels of the college to embrace the services it offers. Career Services should not be a marginal resource on any campus, least of all one that professes a dedication to preparing its students for careers after they graduate.

Daydreams: Work hard, play hard: Rejecting a lifestyle of exhaustion and excess

Posted by Richard Chrisman

The dominant college ethic in my day was "work hard, play hard," and, from what I hear, it still is. For some reason, I never bought it. I thought the claim rationalized and romanticized college excesses. The work habits were extreme (e.g., last minute papers, all-nighters, panic cramming), and play was defined as heavy drinking.

Even though we were studying to improve our minds, the "work hard, play hard" ethic had the contrary effect — it boiled our brains. We were presented with high intellectual ideals, but campus party culture trumped them. What's more, the "play" as practiced never actually made the "work" any easier to bear. Students were left worse off academically and physically — we now know all about the permanent damage alcohol and drugs do to the brain. The hurtfulness of this escape into oblivion is pretty obvious, but with the passage of the years, I have come to understand from where the student need for it comes. And it's not due to the work.

After all, is studying really such hard work? Compared to what? By the time I was halfway through college, I had put in three summers on a cattle farm and two more on the assembly line in a factory. Many students today work hard summers, too, and I'll bet they would agree with me that, in comparison to physical labor, studying is in itself not that difficult. To be sure, solving equations, learning foreign languages and grasping the expanses of history or literature — all at once — can be exhausting, but enough to require the kind of anesthesia that is so often self-prescribed?

On the other hand, I do know that it is hard work to live under constant judgment, and being under intellectual scrutiny in particular feels painfully personal. In some way or other escaping it is imperative. Getting graded on everything you do, as occurs in college, makes any endeavor seem much harder than it actually is. When your work is constantly under scrutiny, when you are competing with your peers and when classroom participation feels like self-exposure, by the end of the week the self wants out. How to get away from it all? No surprise that when I was under these conditions, a good stiff drink was always welcome, and getting drunk was a regular necessity. But the cause is not the work; it's the personal judgment we feel in having our work graded.

If that is true, is "playing hard" the only remedy available? After all, what students seek is a zone in which we are just fine, even great, preferably invincible, as we are. But it is clear that the operative definition of "play" in college means "party," and, when under the influence, we do feel happily free of the judgment that steals us from ourselves.

However, if you consider a happy child, another definition of play suggests itself — an activity that has no other goal than to explore the moment. In the adult world, many activities qualify: sports, exercise, walking, artistic endeavor, dancing, cooking, conversation and daydreaming, among many others. Play of this kind leads us outside of time onto a path of discovery free of judgment - and there is no hangover (or brain damage).

It's true that adults need to be rid of adult inhibitions, sometimes, to get into a playful mood, and a drink can perform that function. How many drinks, though, does it take for play to become unhinged? After that point, all discovery is thwarted, except for the discovery the next morning of all the funny (and not so funny) things done the night before. This applies dangerously in cases where sexual activity may be involved.

Work hard, play hard — what is so wrong about this realistic, almost heroic, way of life? Nothing, if the terms are redefined a little. "Work in spite of judgment, play to free yourself from judgment." Under such conditions, we can wakefully experience the marvelous stories in which we are participating daily in college. So when you play, really play. Don't miss your life. 

Richard Chrisman is the Director of Religious and Spiritual Life on campus. He enjoys looking out at Skidmore through his office window.

Editorial: Making the most of the Writing Center

Posted by the Editorial Board

Command of the English language is something all Skidmore graduates should have within their grasp. Every department here requires solid writing abilities, and those who cannot write fluently will, and should, find themselves frustrated no matter their field of study.

While introductory English classes aim to teach remedial skills, and grammar workshops improve our campus-wide comma and colon use, true proficiency is achieved only through constant and deliberative effort. For students interested in putting in this effort, the Writing Center offers a promising, if potentially frustrating, avenue to lucid prose.

As part of the general renovations of Scribner Library, the Writing Center moved to the fourth floor in a new, larger space replete with computers, desks, and an office for ESL Specialist Thaddeus Niles, hired last year as part of an attempt to make Skidmore more friendly to non-native English speakers. In addition, the Writing Center has online appointments with specific tutors, whose specialties are listed, giving students a greater degree of control over their sessions.

These changes come at a time when the Center is seeing consistent growth in attendance. In the 2010-2011 academic year, the Center posted 2,623 tutoring sessions, an increase of more than 20% over the previous year, perhaps as a result of its growing visibility on campus.

The Writing Center plays an imperative role here. Students uninterested in pursuing English beyond their single semester of expository writing may not know how to improve their composition. As the expectations of professors creeps upward each year, students may find themselves overwhelmed. The Writing Center should be the first place these students turn for help.

Rather than editing or marking up papers, tutors sit with students and attempt to help them grow as writers, whatever their level of proficiency may be. Tutors will not simply correct your grammatical and syntactic mistakes, and thus will not be of much help to unmotivated students only attending to appease their professor. These more basic and tedious services are better supplied by the workshops and introductory English classes.

But students looking to improve their writing ability for the long-term will find a good deal of assistance without the performance anxiety that comes from working personally with a professor. This makes the Writing Center the ideal destination for students who lack confidence in their writing abilities.

However, some changes must still be made. First, a simple yet persistent miscommunication must be addressed. Far too often, students come hours before a paper is due, looking for help ironing out the last grammatical errors, and find themselves stuck in an hour-long conversation about organization, clarity and flow. Tutors are not editors, experts, or encyclopedias, but students still arrive with such expectations. It should be the goal of the Writing Center staff going forward to better communicate their purpose to the student body.

Aside from more effective communication, the Writing Center should aim to improve the breadth and customization of its services. The addition of Niles to the staff was definitely an important first step, giving ESL students the chance to participate in the tutoring process.

But there are several ways in which the center could go further: creative writing, for example, is handled no differently than analytical work, without specialized tutors. The addition of one or two students able to specifically evaluate such creative work would give creative writers a sorely needed audience to approach with rougher writing.

While Student Academic Services offers tutors trained to help students with their science or mathematics work, longer papers and lab reports could still benefit from a specialized Writing Center tutor, if such a tutor had been trained in the discipline. Increasing the number of specialized tutors would not only increase the number of students who could use the Center affectively, it might also eliminate the kind of failed session that students complain about - one in which the tutor and tutee are simply on different wavelengths. Opening earlier and increasing the number of tutoring hours offered during exam weeks would also strengthen the dependability of the Writing Center, making its services available even (and especially) at those times when they are most needed.

For Skidmore to produce graduates who think critically – the College's stated mission – students must graduate with a proficiency in the English language. Few skills picked up in college so firmly bridge the gap between the liberal arts and the professional world. By renovating the Writing Center, and continuing its improvement, the administration has shown a dedication to this objective. While some nuts and bolts remain to be tightened up in the Center, students should not hesitate to improve their writing skills, so crucial to success in their studies and beyond.

Opinion: Standing up for teachers: Responding to blame and deceit in the midst of our public education crisis

Posted by Daniel Pforte

As state and federal government attempts to save money and target social spending such as public education, teachers have increasingly found themselves under scrutiny.

Corporate powers are continuing their war on the underclass, working class and, most recently, the middle class. With the private sector almost completely disorganized and powerless, the elimination of public sector workers is next on the agenda to maximize profits. Teachers are some of the first on the chopping block.

Vulnerable children of color stuck in failing schools are told it is their teachers, rather than racism and poverty, causing their plight. Many emphasize corporate charter schools and merit-based teaching as a solution, methods which result in huge numbers of laid-off teachers and closed public schools—the same schools in which most children, especially poor children of color, attend. How can we break this circle?

The first thing is to assign blame where it belongs. Teachers have been blamed, wrongly, for the plight of public schools and the dismal state of our national public education. This irresponsible and vicious claim not only masks larger inequalities within the system of education, and in society at large, but also attacks the wrong people.

Elites across the spectrum, from Fox News personalities to political pundits and "liberal" documentary artists (see "Waiting for Superman"), have placed the problem of education on the shoulders of bad teachers. In their eyes, teachers have been lazy, failed the children and turned schools into dropout factories. While these teachers may exist in some districts and schools, there is no mention of the larger issues that plague children, especially children of color.

Such pundits have decided to ignore the most lopsided distribution of wealth in our country's history, a rising poverty rate, racially segregated districts and tracking systems that disproportionately target poor black and brown youth to the advantage of the white upper classes. Of course, a focus on these problems would mean that the interests of the ruling class would be threatened, so the responsibility must fall on the individual teachers.

Teachers may be good or bad, but the lack of success that poor and working class children experience in schools has more to do with the debilitating effects of poverty and racism than the possibility that a teacher is intentionally wasting their time. Broader social ills also make it more likely teachers will have neither the resources nor the adequate class size to actively engage with all student needs. To look at this situation and say only that teaching must improve is turning a blind eye to the real problems we face in this country.

Ignoring these problems is, of course, what a system of power must do to maintain itself. Partnerships between the ruling class and the government are keeping power under the ideological auspice of neo-liberalism that stresses the need to cut social services — in this case the teachers of our public schools.

And the solutions that the ruling class suggests are not as effective as they advertise. Cutting teacher salaries and benefits does not provide incentive to teach better in under-funded schools, and privatizing the school system through charters increases race and class segregation while having the same poor test results across the board as traditional public schools, with a few exceptions. However, a few exceptions also exist in the public school system, making it clear that there can be a solution beyond simply privatizing the system at the expense of children.

These problems are daunting, and the solutions must take the form of large-scale changes. First, however, we must stand in solidarity with the teachers that have shaped our characters and our lives. We must challenge the deeper issues of poverty, class inequality and racism that lie at the roots of educational inequality. We must stand up for teachers, if we are to stand up for future generations.  

Healthful Hints: Nutrition facts: Making and keeping healthy habits at the dinner table

Posted by Zoe Silver

Halloween has come and gone and left us with a massive pile of candy staring down from our top shelf. This time of year, eating well is a really difficult goal to maintain. D-hall cookies and candy apples call our name, the cold weather sends some of us into a period of laziness and we begin to let ourselves indulge a little too much. But it is never too late to start fresh — literally.?

We are blessed with an amazing variety of fresh foods here at Skidmore, and if we take the time to learn a little bit about nutrition, we can all find appetizing, healthy alternatives to our less-healthy dietary habits.

Let's start with the basics: serving size. Given the buffet-style set-up of D-hall, it is really easy to blow things out of proportion.

Try using your hand as a measuring tool next time you fill up your plate. You should aim for a piece of protein (meat, chicken, fish) the size of your palm, which equates to about three ounces. You can use your fist to measure one cup; you should have about five servings of fruits and vegetables of approximately this size every day.

As an overall rule of thumb, always wait about 20 minutes before you go back for seconds; it takes this long for your body to begin to digest and to send your brain the signal that you are full.

Whole grain options like brown rice, whole-wheat bread and pasta, etc., are tricky to find in the dining hall, but keep an eye out for them. In contrast with starchy, white grains, whole-grains are much more nutritious and high in fiber than refined or white grains. If you feel passionately about the fact that the dining hall should provide these more regularly, speak up. Fill out a napkin (our special version of a comment card) and let D'hall staff know by pinning it to the cork board by the entrance. The fuel they provide us is all we have to work with, so it is important that they give us healthy options.

Unfortunately, however, there won't always be an obvious healthy option when you survey the dinner menu. But, if you take a little bit more time to pick foods from different stations, you can always find a nutritious and hearty meal. Hit up Emily's Garden first and check out the option there. But remember, just because it is vegetarian does not mean it is healthy.

Watch out for fried foods and avoid them when you can. If nothing is catching your eye at Emily's, check out the Diner. This is usually where non-vegetarians will find their main source of protein for the meal. Mixing and matching between stations is a good idea; a protein from the Diner, a serving of vegetables from Emily's and maybe a whole grain side dish from Global Café, like brown rice.

The food doesn't go away when we leave the dining hall, though. Friday nights present us with many opportunities to indulge in a treat, and it is OK to do so once in awhile. Allow yourself to occasionally eat your favorite unhealthy foods, but choose them sparingly and only those that you really love. Also, learn to say "no." Just because someone offers you a slice of pizza at 1 a.m., and just because it is there, doesn't mean you have to take it. Chances are, there will be a time when someone offers you a slice and you also really want it, which would be a more appropriate time to indulge.

In between the healthy eating, find time to drink as much water as possible. An impressively large percentage of our body is composed of water. It is rejuvenating and can improve our overall quality of life by reducing headaches, aiding the immune system and more. Aim for six eight-ounce glasses a day. A few good ways to start this habit include: carrying around a water bottle wherever you go, drinking one glass with each meal, drinking one glass immediately when you wake up in the morning and flavoring your water with a lemon or lime wedge.

Like any habit, it will take a couple of weeks to form, but after a while you will find yourself naturally reaching for the glass, and you will undoubtedly see positive changes in your overall health.? 

Until next time, eat healthy, stay happy and don't forget your H2O. 

Extra Credit: Getting involved: Reconsidering the benefits of community service

Posted by Siena Tugendrajch

It's easy to forget that there's a world outside of our little liberal arts bubble. We may all set our homepages to the New York Times, but that usually means we just skim the headlines before moving on to more pressing matters, like Facebook or Tumblr. We barely make time to watch "The Daily Show." And, while Skidmore encourages community involvement, we are not required to complete any volunteer work or community service during our time here. This policy is not out of the ordinary – most schools do not have a community service requirement – but can engender a sense of apathy toward volunteer work.

Though we're busy with schoolwork, teams and clubs, most Skidmore students could handle an hour or an afternoon each week, or even each month, volunteering. Maybe to some, community service was just padding for the Common App, another chore we have left behind us now that our college counselors leave us alone. People don't realize that now that we've made it to college, service work can be strictly recreational.

Many of us participated in some form of community service before we got here. My high school had countless clubs with vague but intriguing names like Girls Learn International and the Breakfast Club. Our faculty constantly reminded us how privileged we are and how that should affect our interactions with people who have fewer advantages in life. I believe this philosophy should not apply to the Skidmore community and should not be the driving force behind your decision to participate in service work. We can do better than that, Kipling.

In our extracurricular lives, we should constantly be searching for enjoyable activities. The philosophy that work should have greater meaning than a paycheck is part of what the liberal arts are all about. There's no reason this notion shouldn't hold true to our lives right now. For example, four years working as a summer camp counselor has taught me that I love working with kids. Therefore, during the school year, I seek out tutoring opportunities because I know I'll get as much out of the experience as the children with whom I work. If you can find any kind of service work that makes you happy, whether it's finger-painting in Skidmore's own Early Childhood Center or spending an hour playing checkers at a nursing home, there's no reason not to make it part of your routine.

It's also not difficult to get involved. There are tons of volunteer opportunities, all with varying levels of commitment, available in our fair city of Saratoga Springs. Nearby hospitals, nursing homes and homeless shelters appreciate your time. We're adults now, and have real skills and talents to offer. Saratoga Springs alone has six elementary schools, one middle school and one high school, all of which need and seek out tutors and volunteers. There's no need to feel shy about sending emails of inquiry.

Despite these opportunities, some students who want to get involved still don't. Benefaction, our community service club, is one of the largest organizations on campus, but many students outside of the club only hear about volunteer projects in our area through the emailed Student Announcements Digest. It's time to stop thinking of community service as a burden. An hour of tutoring should be as satisfying as an hour of any other extracurricular activity, from physical exercise to guest lectures.

Volunteer work can be educational, rewarding and, if done correctly, extremely fun. It's an opportunity to find work you enjoy, and begin living the ideals we celebrate here at Skidmore. Take a page out of Cher Horowitz's book and start volunteering today. 

Editorial: Inter-Hall Board and adminstration dropped the Ball

Posted by the Editorial Board

By 12:30 a.m. on Sunday Moorebid Ball – increasingly the most inauspicious event on the Skidmore calendar – had been shut down early for the second consecutive year.

Last year, after nine individuals were sent to the hospital during the ball, the College spent the first week of November dealing with unwanted media attention and questions about the character and responsibility of its students. This year, the administration and Student Government Association both promised, would be different. This year's Moorebid Ball certainly was different, but the end result was startlingly familiar.

Campus Safety elected to shut down the ball early again this year, not on account of dangerous overconsumption but rather due to safety concerns resulting from significant overcrowding. Conditions in the Williamson Sports and Recreation Center, particularly in the corridor outside of the Recreation Gym on the building's lower floor, devolved into mob-like conditions that required EMTs, according to Campus Safety.

Hundreds of students found themselves jammed together from wall-to-wall in a narrow hallway, with the only path of egress coming through a single average-sized door already tasked with supporting two-way traffic. The dangerous congestion reached its peak when two fights broke out in the crowd, causing further disruption.

Thankfully, Campus Safety director Lt. Larry Britt's call to shut down the event came before anyone was seriously injured – no significant injuries have been confirmed – but that stroke of luck does not absolve the organizers of Moorebid from creating such an opportunity for disaster.

Put bluntly, the organizers of the Ball – primarily the Inter-Hall Board (IHB) and members of the administration – systemically put Skidmore students at risk of serious harm. There is no way to ignore the potential for serious injury that night. Had a student been hospitalized, a lawsuit against the college would have been a foregone conclusion.

To understand how IHB and the administration could have committed such an egregious error in planning it is impossible not to reference the embarrassment and damage control that followed last October's terminated ball.

In response to the first failed ball, cancelled due to overconsumption, the administration changed a number of policies, most notably disallowing reentry and moving the venue from the Case Student Center to the Sports Center. Some of these policies have been implemented successfully at events since last fall, though none with the same volume of attendance as Moorebid Ball – Campus Safety estimates some 1,400 students in total.

In attempting to make this year's Moorebid wholly different from last year's, however, the planners gravely overlooked significant issues concerning the new venue.

In subsequent interviews with The Skidmore News, IHB members and school administrators have stressed that planning included multiple walkthroughs of the facilities with Campus Safety officers. These statements dissolve rather than instill confidence: how could such a risk be overlooked? How did this not disqualify the venue from serving Skidmore's highest-attended social event, or at least alter the organization of the ball in light of its new location?

Interim Director of Leadership Activities Robin Adams, the liaison between student planners and the administration, admitted, "I don't really know how to respond. It probably could have been anticipated." Lt. Britt echoed that response, saying "Looking back it seems pretty obvious, but in planning everyone simply figured students would stay in the gyms where the music was."

Adams further ascribed blame again to intoxicated students. "There's got to be some personal responsibility. We can't plan for an event where students aren't in their right mind," he said. But IHB's job is to take account of precisely that issue. That an event such as Moorebid will see its share of inebriated students is a given, no matter how many resources are devoted to preventing overconsumption by attendees. It is the purpose of the event organizers to anticipate and accommodate for this brute fact.

Furthermore, although intoxication certainly did not help matters, it was the facility itself at issue, not the behavior of students. Lt. Britt was unambiguous on this point. "The reason [Moorebid] was closed," he said, "was because of safety concerns, not behavioral issues – we had some of those too, but that was not the reason the dance had to end."

After two failed dances in a row, it is reasonable to question whether Moorebid itself is the problem. Does our campus have a venue large enough to hold an event with such high attendance?

If the administration is wedded to the no-reentry policy and wants to keep the event as controlled as possible, the Sports Center's Big Gym is easily the most accommodating venue available. The Big Gym hosts the Big Show concert each semester and Junior Ring in the fall. While none of these events have comparable attendance to Moorebid, they have gone off smoothly in recent years. The hallway leading to the Big Gym, unlike the corridors leading to the Rec and Dance gyms, is wide enough to support two-way traffic without overcrowding, and the size of the gym itself would allow for Campus Safety to concentrate on a single area rather than dividing their resources between two gymnasiums.

Of course it is understandable that this single space, so often in use by the athletic teams, is difficult to book, but this year has shown that splitting the dance up poses serious problems of its own.

The other possibility is to collectively take a deep breath and reconsider Case Center as a reasonable venue. The multiple floors and entrances make it a harder building to police, but it does afford facilities that a large gymnasium does not. "We tend to think of Moorebid Ball as a dance, but it's also a broader social event," SGA President Jonathan Zeidan said. "So in the gyms, unlike in Case Center, apart from the dancing you had a lot of overcrowding in these hallways where people were supposed to be able to talk."

Allowing students to go outside without being barred from reentry likely facilitated the socialization Zeidan mentioned. Surely it would not be impossible to account for that need while adequately monitoring attendees, perhaps through a sectioned-off area of Case walkway. Similarly, despite Case Center's numerous entrances, it is not impossible to prevent students from entering while still allowing for proper egress, whether by locking doors from the outside or by placing officers at each entrance.

Whatever the future of Moorebid Ball, we cannot accept the structural chaos brought on by this year's preparations for the dance. Our indignation concerning this failure should match our gratitude that no tragedy occurred on yet another dark and cold October night.

Editorial: Something Moorebid this way comes

Posted by the Editorial Board

Appropriately, some fright is in the air this Halloween. After last year's Moorebid Ball ended early in a flood of ambulance calls, the college has spent a year making sure future events are safer.

The changes made this year are to prevent the excess drinking that ruined last year's ball. Most significantly, the dance has been moved from Case Center to the Rec and Dance gyms in the Williamson Sports Center, and reentry will not be allowed.

The change in venue makes it easier for Campus Safety to monitor students as they enter, preventing students from sneaking in concealed alcohol, and catching excessively inebriated individuals at the door before they disappear onto the dance floor. This will create what Dean of Student Affairs Rochelle Calhoun hopefully calls a "safe environment:" one in which the flow of people and consumption of alcohol are under control.

While the true effectiveness of these measures will have to be judged on Saturday, it is uncertain that they will dissolve the annual fog of drunkenness that passes over campus every Halloween.

The college's plan to police containers and bar re-entry has the potential to backfire. Students – underage or not – looking to get drunk for Moorebid can still do so. Without the option to leave for more alcohol, students may feel the pressure to go hard and fast in anticipation of being cut off once they enter the gym. And since most of the drinking occurred off-site last year anyway (less than half of the hospital-bound students were picked up at Case Center), this policy seems off-target.

It also remains to be seen how the new Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) policy will be put into action during this event. While Calhoun was quick to point out that the AOD policy was not changed directly as a result of last year's Moorebid debacle, it would be naïve to imagine that the policy changes were not designed with this year's event in mind. We will have to wait and see what the administration envisions in terms of punishing the offenses which will likely end up on display.

The policy's point system includes the new violations "Public Intoxication" (two points), and, more to the point, "Public intoxication at any academic or social event sponsored by Skidmore" (three points). It remains unclear to what degree these policies will be enforced at large events like Moorebid, but with 10 accumulated points resulting in a student's review for suspension, such offenses are precarious to casually intoxicated attendees, even those over 21.

Furthermore, the revised AOD policy includes a controversial "association rule" that assigns a Level I violation to anyone found in the presence of alcohol, regardless of whether the individual is drinking. As discussed in a previous editorial, this clause, even given its "free pass" for first offense, potentially conflicts with the school's amnesty policy that ensures that a student making a positive decision – calling Campus Safety or similar when another student is in need – will not be penalized for their friends' or  their own consumption.

While the nine ambulances called last year made for a disaster, all nine of the students made it out alive, something that may not have happened had their peers not made the calls. While Campus Safety will undoubtedly be selective in their write-ups, a clarified system would alleviate concern that students looking out for their peers will be penalized.

What happened last year put our college on the national stage in a way that damaged our institutional reputation, something in which every student at this school should feel invested. While the college's reaction could use some refinement, the truth is that we students are the real victims of Moorebid 2010. We have the most to lose from a redux. It was our friends and acquaintances who faced an evening of pumped stomachs and miserable sickness.

Luckily, it is also well within our power to refute these expectations and prove that we are capable of having fun and drinking responsibly without ambulances and vandalism.

Editorial: Preoccupied with occupations

Posted by the Editorial Board

It was hardly surprising that nothing much came of last Thursday's aborted effort to "Occupy Skidmore" The planned demonstration was a confused and muddled attempt at youthful rebellion.

None of the slogans on the picket signs or in SGA's complimentary email explained exactly why Skidmore is part of the (also undefined) big problem, why the college itself must be occupied, or why our Student Government was organizing a political rally from the top down.

There is, however, something worth salvaging from the demonstration: we as a college must look out from the Skidmore bubble and engage in the wider political arena.

Amidst an economic malaise, with a divided government that tussles over any and every new piece of crucial legislation, those of us fortunate enough to attend college cannot afford to waste our civic efficacy while Rome burns. Last Thursday happened to be an example of how not to organize politically, but perhaps we might start discussing the ways in which effective engagement in national politics is possible and achievable.

The first thing to emphasize is that we at Skidmore have the resources not only to organize politically but also to do so in an educated way. As it happens, what sounds good on a picket sign is not necessarily a well-informed, sound argument, as last week's attempted occupation showed. But what better place is there to achieve a firm grasp of social, economic or artistic questions than an institution of higher education?

Rather than simply shoo everyone over to the quad with a couple of banners and a vague sense of indignation, likeminded students can meet regularly to deliberate, debate and then finally articulate their stance on matters political in the form of an organized event. A tight grasp of the issues at hand is the difference between a disciplined picket line and Speakers' Corner.

One cannot rely, then, on nebulous consensus for legitimate organization. If indeed most students here sympathize with the wider ‘Occupation' movements cropping up around the nation – as SGA seemed to presume in their email advocating the protest – then the handful of demonstrators were clearly on friendly soil rather than enemy territory. Despite its contemporary misuse, the adage "preaching to the choir" connotes a pointless rather than a satisfying exercise.

Anti-war types don't demonstrate outside of Susan Sarandon's mansion; not many environmentalists choose to picket Ralph Nader's office; and so far this year the Tea Partiers have left the parking lots of Koch Industries alone. So what were the "occupiers" doing on the green? Even if our mad-as-hell peers could not make it to Wall Street, a trip downtown into conservative Saratoga Springs would have been enough.

For a positive example of Skidmore protesting where it matters, we need only look to this past February, when a group of students traveled to New York City to join the "Rally to Stand Up for Women's Health." From their own pockets in cooperation with Family Planning New York, the students organized the trip to protest the legislation threatening funding for "Title X."

Students read up on the nature of the conflict between the Planned Parenthood programs and the legislative agenda of Congress, initiated a grass roots movement on campus (think back to the filming and circulation of the "I Have Sex" video) and actually took themselves to a venue where their voices would be heard and perhaps challenged. Nothing could be further from the arbitrary noisemaking that SGA was trying to help "facilitate" last week.

Which brings us to what is arguably the most important aspect of real student organization: it is self-determined and spontaneous. SGA President Jonathan Zeidan said that the Student Government only intended to provide a space for anyone interested in the occupation movement. But when he told the Skidmore News, "I do not think it is the place of SGA to take sides on political issues," he tacitly admitted that this top down approach created obvious confusion about whether this was SGA fronting or supporting a specific political movement.

There is precedent for SGA having some involvement in political movements – both the Skidmore Democrats and the Skidmore Young Republican Assembly receive funding in the annual budget. Nonetheless, an SGA-organized protest is misguided. Encouraging community members to become involved in issues beyond the boundaries of our campus is a worthy goal, but such plans must be enacted judiciously. Protests ought to be held where they will be heard, not safely ensconced in a supportive college bubble.

"Occupy Skidmore," though well intentioned, was a conceptual failure. It presents, however, a valuable opportunity to reconsider how our community involves itself in external issues, both locally and nationally. There is a time and a place to protest, but as a college community we are uniquely privileged with the facilities to learn and to teach. These are our most potent tools in this tumultuous era. They should be used to their fullest extent, for the sake of our campus and the world at large.

Extra Credit: Dorm-sized workouts: Staying fit and having fun with short, creative exercise routines

Posted by Siena Tugendrajch

There are a few reasons why I've stayed healthy at college. The first, most basic and luckiest explanation is my genes. Second, I really like vegetables, fruit, lean protein and whole grains like quinoa and barley. Maybe I just like the word quinoa. But I would say that the best reason I'm in relatively good shape is because I use my free time to work out in my dorm room.

Anyone, even you freshmen loving your triples, can do most of these exercises in your dorm. Granted, they are least embarrassing in singles, but definitely still doable in doubles or triples. I find time to exercise every day, and so can you. There is always time for a 20-minute workout or two 10-minute workouts.

How? I'm glad you asked. Set your alarm 20 or 30 minutes earlier than usual. Then you can get your sweat on and still have time to shower before class. If you're not a morning person, work out when you finish class in the afternoon - it's a great break between lectures and homework.

I wish I could say that there are many exercise-based websites that I frequent. Sadly, I am shamelessly addicted to Exercise TV online and when I'm home I use Exercise TV On Demand. With time, I'm sure you'll learn to love it, too.

Sometimes you'll have only 10 minutes to work out. Not a problem! Exercise TV online has many mini-workouts from which to choose. When I'm pressed for time, I gravitate toward videos that target key areas like legs or abs. Brief lower body workouts are usually a combination of lunging, jumping and kicking. Roundhouse kicking may be my favorite form of exercise. On the other hand, the short abdominal videos incorporate standing and twisting moves with traditional crunches. This approach can be challenging but is definitely more interesting than typical abdominal exercises. These quick workouts are intense and, therefore, pretty darn satisfying after just 10 minutes.

When you find yourself with 20 minutes to spare, grab a yoga mat or a towel and check out some longer workout options. With a little more time, you can really stretch out your body from head to toe with yoga and Pilates. Yoga can make you feel inches taller while Pilates helps build core strength and long lean muscle. Can't argue with that.

If you find yourself with 30 minutes of free time, you should try my favorite exercise video on Exercise TV online: Bridal Body Burn. A few times a week, Violet Zaki, a wonderful Australian trainer, tells me to stop thinking about my in-laws and to start focusing on how great I'm going to look in my wedding dress. This workout is a half hour of incredibly fun cardio and strength moves, including roundhouse kicking and twisting abdominal moves.

Working out is the best thing you can do with your free time, assuming that you're not too busy curing cancer, finding dinosaur fossils or curing dinosaur cancer. Find time to work out every day, or maybe a few times a week, and you will be happier. How do I know this? Because of a quote from everyone's favorite sorority girl turned lawyer, Elle Woods: "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't shoot their husbands."

Siena Tugendrajch is pursuing an English and psychology double major. Her interests include epic similes and personality tests.

Healthful Hints: Self-esteem: Staying positive through the Skidmore Winter

Posted by Zoe Silver

It happens to the best of us: we wake up in the morning and try on five different outfits before we find the one that will work, we look enviously at the girl with the great hair or the guy with the bulging biceps and we diss ourselves for our appearance, grades and so on.

Because bouts of low self-esteem are unavoidable for most of us, we have to pay special attention to ensure that we care for ourselves and don't stay in a "funk" for too long. On occasion, it is important to look in the mirror and think, "I love myself for who I am; I accept my body, I am confident and I will succeed."

But this doesn't come easily to everyone. I know it can feel silly to think those things about yourself, but low self-esteem can be detrimental to your mental and physical health, so it is important to develop some tactics to avoid it. If talking to yourself in the mirror isn't your cup of tea, try taking a day to focus on the positive. Make a list of what is going right in your life and what you like about it. Set goals for yourself and try to achieve them one by one. Accomplishing each of them should give you a great sense of encouragement and confidence.

Be sure to surround yourself with people who support you and the goals you have set for yourself. If it is frustrating for you to watch others succeed at things that you find difficult, increase the amount of time you spend on things you do well. Try to work them into your daily or weekly routine so that you can experience a positive boost of confidence regularly - and keep in mind that you can't be good at everything. Instead of being envious of others' abilities, share what you can do with them in exchange for them sharing with you.

While we may feel untalented at times, during college one of the most common manifestations of low self-esteem is in poor body image, which can be difficult to overcome. My first piece of advice would be to turn off the TV, recycle the magazines and stop browsing celebrity websites. The representations of male and female bodies in the media are distorted. Your goal should not be to look like the model on the cover of Cosmopolitan or the ad for Calvin Klein.

Remember that the photographs of models are edited on a computer. Their necks are stretched, eyes enlarged, skin smoothed, so on and so forth until the image that appears is not a person, but a culturally-created image of "perfection" and "beauty." Next time you see an ad on TV that makes you question your self-worth or beauty, talk back to it. Say, "I like myself just the way I am. I don't need you to tell me how to be or what to look like." Tear out the pages of your magazine, which send degrading and negative messages, or stop buying them altogether.

But even if we try to limit the messages we receive from the media, many of us might still struggle with body image issues in our everyday lives. To defeat this, try to avoid comparing yourself to others. Every person has a different combination of genes and is beautiful in his or her own way. The only "standard of beauty" is one that we create as a culture, so we can just as easily change it if we wish to do so. In public, avoid walking with your head down and shoulders hunched; stand up straight and make eye contact with others. This will send people the message that you are confident and, in turn, will increase your confidence in yourself.

Embrace your own style; wear clothes that are comfortable and that you like, even if it isn't necessarily the latest fashion. Lastly, I suggest that you stop and think about all of the relationships you have in your life. Do your close friends and family like you for the way you look, or the way you are? It is most likely your personality that draws them to you, so do yourself the same favor and appreciate yourself for who you are, not how you appear to be.

As the weather gets colder and wetter and we find ourselves going about our days without much zest or excitement, it is typical to also start "hating" on ourselves. So try some of the tactics I discussed above to avoid low self-esteem. If you do, I bet that your winter experience at Skidmore will be much more enjoyable and positive. Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy and smile.

Opinion: Liberating Skidmore: SGA's unilateral endorsement of Occupy Wall Street brings home our lack of intellectual diversity

Posted by Michael Kraines

In an email sent last Wednesday night titled "Occupy Skidmore" in bold green and yellow letters, student body President Jonathan Zeidan invited all students to participate in a "passive protest" to be held in Case Center the next day, in coordination with the Occupy Wall Street movement and nearly a hundred schools across the country. The protest has not yet taken place and according to Student Government representatives will be rescheduled for a date in the near future.

This endorsement of the so-called Occupy Wall Street movement by Student Government betrays a lack of intellectual diversity that is endemic to our college campus.

At first glance, the ideas behind this protest appear reasonable and universally appealing: across the nation the recession has left students swimming in a pool of debt and has mired our futures in uncertainty. Surely all of us want to close the achievement gap in education. But beneath the veneer of our common concerns the Student Government has endorsed and aligned itself with a movement that is ideologically progressive.

In a recent piece in the Washington Post, George Will summarized some of the demands posted in Occupy Wall Street's name. These include "guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment," a $20-an-hour minimum wage, ending the fossil fuel economy, and among other ideas, opening the borders so "anyone can travel anywhere to work and live."

Representing as it does all of the student body, and not merely those who endorse the movement, the Student Government should not have aligned itself with the Wall Street protests nor provided materials for picket signs with money that is funded by the college.

If we discuss these initiatives on their own terms, the titles "Occupy Wall Street" or "Occupy Skidmore" suggest ending deliberation about the issues and imposing ideas on the entire community. Why must ideas be imposed? Why must the call for change amount to an occupation? Such intolerance is characteristic of protests generally and antithetical to the notion of diversity that is dear to Skidmore and critical to attaining a genuine liberal education.

Thankfully, the protest intends to be "passive" and students have been told not to miss class to participate. President Zeidan cautiously reminds us that "this will not be a protest against Skidmore but rather a movement for a better future."

But what is unsettling about the Student Government's endorsement and extension of the Wall Street protests, suffused as they are with political ideology, is its implicit assumption that we all agree on what is good for us or on what is "better for our future."

I suspect that this article will come as a surprise to our student reps who undoubtedly have the best intentions. But their silence about the specific demands of the protest is curious. Either they are unaware of the politics motivating the Wall Street protests or are under the impression that the students all agree on the desired policy changes and therefore need not speak of them. The latter possibility would cast doubt on the existence of genuinely diverse opinions on campus. Diversity emerges, after all, not from a consensus regarding our afflictions but from our differing antidotes.

The email speaks to those who wish to "make their voices heard." Here is another indication that the protestors are not interested in debating the issues but are merely "making a statement." In the Politics, Aristotle argues that our uniquely human capacity for speech allows us to reason about the good and the bad — the just and the unjust — and distinguishes us from animals that can only voice pain and pleasure. Awareness of this distinction between speech and noise is what is missing from the Occupy Skidmore initiative.

If indeed we are most fully human when engaged in rational deliberation about politics as Aristotle says we are, then we ought to seriously engage one another rather than simply "make our voices heard" under the assumption that we alone know what it is best. This will be the beginning of moral and political seriousness. 

Daydreams: Have we forgotten?: We cannot let domestic crises overshadow awareness of our foreign wars

Posted by Richard Chrisman

"Houston, we have a problem." Everybody knows that line. Two-thirds of the way to the moon the three-man crew of Apollo 13 experienced a mission-ending explosion in one of the lunar module oxygen tanks. Their craft had already entered the moon's gravitational field, so turning around at that point was impossible. They certainly did have a problem. How would they ever get home again safely?

I bring up this event because it seems like the U.S. hadn't been in a pickle like that since then, until the Afghanistan war. We went in. Disasters struck. Now the mission can't be attained but, being two-thirds of the way there, we can't turn back. If our troops are to return safely, it's going to take some very ingenious maneuvering.

The analogy is far from perfect because our present situation is already an advanced tragedy. Vastly more than a small space crew has been mortally involved, and vastly more money. Not to mention the fate of another entire nation and its people, particularly the women who are vulnerable to reprisal. But the analogy makes the point well enough. We might as well be almost 200,000 miles from home. And since the original goal is clearly unattainable according to all professional and popular accounts, people across the country unhelpfully call for some kind of strategy that goes both forward and back.

The geniuses at the Houston Space Center devised a strategy for escape using simple physics and 1st generation computers — plus immense personal fortitude on the part of the crew and support personnel. I don't think that's in the cards for America now. For one thing, the disasters in Afghanistan have translated themselves to the homeland where explosions have ripped apart Wall Street and Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. This time our decision-making centers have been disabled — that didn't happen in Houston.

Let's not spend any time debating the merits of the war policy and how we got into it. Worthy or not, the war effort is nevertheless the root of our financial crises today. What we need is a national consciousness and effort that is the "moral equivalent of war." When William James coined this phrase, he was inciting us to challenge the universally accepted assumption that "War is, in short, a permanent human obligation." Do we just want to cave in to this assumption? If we do, war will remain our default position for lack of a voluble critique. So where is the critique? Where are the voices calling out, "By the bowels of Christ, bethink yourselves that ye might be WRONG?" That was Oliver Cromwell's plea when Charles I was about to be beheaded in 1649.

Let's inventory the voices questioning war. Notice that the subject has not come up once in the Republican presidential candidates' four debates (nor did it in the 2010 elections). Notice that there is no discussion about it in Congress or at the White House. And, apart from Ralph Nader, Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich and a few signs at the Occupy Wall Street protest saying, "Stop the War," the silence is deafening. The religious communities are silent on this as well. But, you know, it is pretty silent around campus, too. Most people think there is nothing to discuss and leave it to our proxies on MSNBC, CNN and FOX News to do what talking there is. How uncharacteristic of the academy that will study and talk about almost anything!

Shouldn't we be worried that, as we go from one crisis to another, the country might completely forget we are running a war this week? It's like leaving the house and forgetting to put the screen over the fireplace!

I once learned from Thomas Hardy that, "If a way to the better there be, it requires a full look at the worst." We need an on-going, spiritual acknowledgement of the very reality faced by Apollo 13 — they had enough consumables (electricity, power, oxygen) for two men for two days, but they were three men who had to go four days with their lives on the line. Would they get back at all? Will our troops? Will they be coming back to the same country they left? They will only do so if the costs of war become present to our spirits, by some emotional or symbolic means, through art, or dialogue or (even) prayer.

What commitment can we at Skidmore make to keep this subject before us, lest we forget that death is ordered every day in our name while we sift through the the playlists on our iPods?

Richard Chrisman is the Director of Religious and Spiritual Life on campus. He enjoys looking out at Skidmore through his office window.

Extra Credit: Bookmarks: The best places to read online

Posted by Siena Tugendrajch

In arguably my favorite movie, the 1995 flick "Empire Records," Liv Tyler's character Corey says there are 24 usable hours in a day. As a sophomore, though most of my time is spent in class, writing papers, studying, pursuing extracurricular activities, eating and sleeping, I like that idea.

Despite these commitments, I usually end up with some extra time for myself. You may be wondering how I achieve this feat, or, like most of my friends, you may want to hit me. Know that with a few alterations to your daily routine, you, too, can find yourself with some time on your hands.

The first step is to always think of the big picture. Plan ahead and learn to love your syllabi! Invest in a planner and make a few To-Do lists. Then, once you find out how great it feels to check things off these lists, figure out where and how you do your best work. I personally read novels in my window seat, drag my laptop to the third floor of the library for analytical papers and make tactful excuses (i.e. I'm late for a fictional Sanskrit class) to avoid working with people who will distract me. Follow these recommendations and soon you may find yourself with some hours to spare.

Now that you have some of this elusive, mystical free time, how should you use it? This week, I say read! I often worry that we young people, specifically stressed out college students, stop appreciating the joy and satisfaction that comes with reading for pleasure. Luckily for us, the magical interweb has made reading (like so much else) incredibly easy. There are countless websites dedicated to contemporary short fiction, poetry, essays and more. Don't be overwhelmed just yet. I can help.

For original short fiction, I love fiftytwostories.com. This lovely website showcases a new story each week and encourages its readers to submit their own work. What a wonderful concept. I also recently stumbled upon corpse.com, the website for The Exquisite Corpse, a self-proclaimed journal for letters and life. The Exquisite Corpse, although badly organized and not as aesthetically appealing as Fifty-Two Stories, has some of the most unique and compelling writing I've seen in a long time. There are also tons of literary journals online, of which I will recommend rkvry.com. Why R-KV-R-Y? Because the website is brilliantly constructed and has well written work. Hard to beat.

I also dabble in non-fiction, though I should warn you that 98 percent of what I read comes from New York-based publications. The New Yorker, at newyorker.com, rarely disappoints me. Granted you need a subscription to view certain articles, but somehow I can always find something interesting, from the politics of attending college, to the psychology of Facebook, to current movie reviews.

I will also admit that I'm somewhat obsessed with New York Magazine, available at nymag.com. New York puts its entire magazine on the web, which is why I was able to read a six-page feature on Zooey Deschanel and also find out that, at long last, my subway station is getting cell phone service! If you need to ease in to this whole reading for pleasure thing, start with New York's hilarious and informative Approval Matrix, an illustrative weekly guide to everything it prints ranging from despicable to brilliant.

My least academic suggestion is Rookie, found at rookiemag.com, a magazine that caters to teenage girls. I stumbled upon this gem while figuring out how best to become Aubrey Plaza, who was interviewed by a 15-year-old from this online publication. Other Rookie highlights include a "Mean Girls"-inspired playlist and a guide that teaches you to transform your life into a coming-of-age movie.

This semester, as we all work hard like the good college students we are, I hope you'll join me in making room for the rest of life and taking advantage of the time we're able to set aside. Future topics will include volunteer work, creative ways to work out in your dorm room, my obsession with Tumblr, Skidmore events, spelunking and more. That's all for now.

Siena Tugendrajch is a Sophomore working on a double major in Psychology and English.

Daydreams: You don't have to be Jewish: Yom Kippur celebrates values and traditions to which every culture should aspire

Posted by Richard Chrisman

While you were gone for the summer, you undoubtedly had time to reflect about events on campus last year. We on the Skidmore staff certainly did. There were highs to ponder, of course, and hurts.

When you returned, we wanted to address some of those hurts, and so "Everyday Leadership" came about, a training program aimed at empowering students to make appropriate interventions where harmful behavior or hurtful words might present themselves. The 600 students who filled Zankel for the start-up with Duke Fisher and President Glotzbach stayed for the whole day-long experience. That's almost a quarter of the Skidmore student body, so it was a great first step toward changing the climate on campus.

In light of all we had gone through together last year, I had a daydream that what Skidmore could also use was a corporate act of joyous renewal for everybody—students and staff and faculty—maybe something like Yom Kippur, and here it is! For Jews around the world, these holiest days of the year, the Ten Days of Repentance beginning with Rosh Hashanah (last Thursday), are the occasion for a profound spiritual self-examination which culminates in a full day of prayer and fasting a week later called Yom Kippur (Friday and Saturday). In their prayers, they inventory the hurts they have inflicted on others, knowingly or not, and they acknowledge the ways in which they have departed from God. Through repentance and through rectifying matters with any aggrieved persons, relationships are restored and atonement won. I read in the magazine Tikkun recently: "Yom Kippur gives us the opportunity to reflect honestly on our lives—to contemplate if we are where we want to be and if not, what we'd like to change. It's an opportunity for a wake-up call without having to go through the kind of catastrophic event that often wakes people up."

How beautiful. And how necessary! The grief of our wrongdoings begs to be put aside, and this annual ritual removes that burden. All cultures recognize this need, and Jewish tradition puts it at the center of community life. Judaism makes the assumptions clear: there is right and there is wrong; wrong will happen; wrongs must be righted. All of which is divinely ordained. We stand before God, and through God's forgiveness, the door to our future is unlocked. Liberation!

We have much to learn from Yom Kippur, and our broad appreciation of forgiveness to thank it for. The message of Yom Kippur, as my Torah commentary puts it, "is not one of national or ethnic loyalty. It speaks to each human being and seeks to bring each person into harmony with others and with God. Non-Jews might well participate in the worship of the day without feeling alien and without forsaking their own loyalties." Non-Jews in some cases have actually adopted its paradigm, as indeed Christianity did. You don't have to be Jewish to need forgiveness and to ask God for it.

But if we do not have the means of attending Yom Kippur services, or if the level of their discipline daunts us, perhaps we can at least pray with the Jewish community from whatever distance we sit that day. And if we can't exactly pray, we can surely take the occasion to contemplate the respects in which our lives need purification and to do something about it. Wouldn't it be refreshing to be able to do all of this as an entire community—to be able to sit in each other's presence, knowing or just intuiting the ways in which we have let each other down, and saying we want somehow to make amends. What a liberating moment that would be, and how much happier our community might be for it.

I know it's just a daydream. I have them all the time. It's what I do looking out my office window. 

Healthful Hints: College romance: Navigating the highs and lows of the campus dating scene

Posted by Zoe Silver

Lust is the air as October graces us with its chilly presence and we become more accustomed to our new schedules and surroundings. Because our level of comfort at Skidmore is growing, some people will have more confidence in the dating arena.

For those of us who are new to college, dating here seems frightening and different from what it was in high school. We now have to navigate sticky situations like how to "sexile" our roommates, balance our workload and relationships and deal with potentially spending a few years in close proximity to an ex. Unlike before, we practically live with our significant others - a characteristic of college life that puts a lot of stress on such relationships and requires strong communication for success.

Moreover, many of us have to consider for the first time the difference between "hooking up" and "dating." Regardless of how much experience we have at Skidmore, this particular aspect of our lives never seems to be easy or flawless. We could all use some healthful hints to aide us in our dating endeavors.

While everything I said above may make college relationships sound frightening and impossible, they are obviously doable and, in many cases, really great. If you are able to be yourself, set boundaries and keep your friends close, you might even "put a ring on it!" When starting something with a significant other, though, it is important to remember that you are at college to learn, meet people and have awesome experiences.

A relationship will hinder your ability to do these things IF you do not openly communicate with your partner and, together, decide on a lifestyle and schedule that works best for both of you. More so, college is a time for exploring who YOU are, and if your relationship is healthy, it can be a great way to help you figure it out.

Some of us enter Skidmore already in a relationship, maybe from back home. Long distance relationships are notoriously difficult to maintain, but once again, totally possible and sometimes great if you put in the hard work that it takes. Remember to clarify your expectations with your significant other before the long-distance starts so that you will both be on the same page about when you can talk, when you can visit, if you are open or exclusive, etc. Also, integrating yourself into the Skidmore community eases your daily life. By doing so, you create a social network and system of support in case you need a shoulder to lean on.

For those of us who are not dating, there is an entire other culture out there: the "hookup" culture. This is new to some and commonplace to others. Whichever group you fall in, it can be a big part of college life, as I'm sure you've all seen and heard. Like I said above, college is a time for discovering who you are, what you're into and where to go from there. Some people don't want to limit themselves to the confounds of a relationship and, therefore, become involved with others casually instead.

If this is the path you take, all of the advice I stated above still applies. Set boundaries to ease communication between you and your partner so that you are both clear on what your relationship is. Communicate, communicate, communicate. It is so important to know who you are with. This is especially true if you are sexually active. Be safe and ask questions. Don't leave anything up to chance.

And remember that if your relationship or hookup doesn't work out, it's ok to take a while to bounce back and to center yourself. To ease your stress, try spending time with your friends, exercising and maintaining structure in your schedule so that you are kept busy and distracted. Most importantly, continue to believe in yourself. Don't allow this to change how you see yourself and don't put yourself down.

No matter what type of relationship we try out in college, it is highly likely that we will hit some rocky terrain along the drive. But if we keep our heads up and accept that it will take some trials and tribulations to get it right, we can take something positive from every relationship and use it to build our experiences, views of life and views of ourselves. Skidmore is full of interesting people who want to get to know other interesting people. Until next time, stay happy, stay healthy and go mingle!  

Editorial: Big Show-Yom Kippur reflects poorly on effectiveness of community dialogues

Posted by the Editorial Board

Tonight, the SEC's big concert of the year will take place in the Big Gym of the Williamson Sports Center, featuring the "Indie techno fusion band," TV on the Radio. Sundown tonight also marks the beginning of the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, a day of atonement wherein those practicing spend the day fasting and reflecting.

By the time the conflict was recognized, rescheduling the concert was impossible. The Student Government Association has formed an ad hoc committee to review event scheduling to prevent such a conflict in the future. However, this does not dispel questions about how this could have occurred.

How did it happen? The process of reserving the Sports Center for use began with Megan Buchanan, one of the directors of the facility. She, however, only consults a calendar that shows when the college in session and classes take place in relation to what days the sports center is available for such an event. Although classes are normally cancelled for observance of Yom Kippur, it was not listed this year because it falls on a weekend.

Organizing and setting up for a concert requires more time than just the day of the concert; the process requires several consecutive days. For example, the Oct. 24 was also considered a viable option, but when the request was sent to Interim Director of Leadership Activities Robin Adams he rejected it on the grounds that there were not enough days for preparation.

"Essentially, the precedent with events has been to do our best to avoid holiday weekends," said Robin Adams, in an email to The Skidmore News, "but there was no policy prohibiting events. Because the Sports Center is, just that, a sports center for our athletic teams and there are numerous other college events that take place (open houses, etc.) there are precious few opportunities to put on student run events (concerts, dances etc)."

Three possible dates, as determined by Buchanan, then went through Robin Adams to the SEC, who made the final decision.

Orchestrating these huge concerts is enormously complex; that there will be conflicts is generally understood. Nonetheless, in light of the on going dialogue regarding tolerance and minority issues, it would have been prudent of the college to pay attention to the practices of its Jewish population, particularly on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

The scheduling of the event on such a day appeared, to a good portion of the campus, insensitive, regardless of how or why the dates were. Despite the complexities of the scheduling process, it is hardly understandable that Yom Kippur could have been overlooked. Ultimately, someone should have noticed.

However, the issue does not stop as a mere scheduling blunder. It poses a deeper question to our community: does the college practice what it preaches as far as respect for and awareness of diversity? If Yom Kippur were, historically, a holiday not recognized by the college, then this conflict would have been somewhat understandable. But, there is in fact a policy in place that classes would not be held on Yom Kippur were it to fall on a weekday. The college clearly made note of when Yom Kippur would occur when this year's academic calendar was made, yet that attention did not carry over into scheduling further events.

This is particularly an embarrassing gaffe when put into the current context of campus-wide efforts on diversity and inclusion. The college has spent a semester and counting making acceptance and tolerance an ongoing topic of discussion on campus, including a lecture just last week by Dr. Frances Kendall. That the administration has managed, in the midst of these efforts, to marginalize almost a fifth of the college's population, unintentionally or not, we must call the effectiveness of this overarching narrative into question.

Editorial: Make composting a campus-wide effort

Posted by the Editorial Board

Last Friday each resident of Northwoods and Scribner Village received a knock on their door and a bucket for the corner of their kitchen. The composting season has begun.

Thanks to the efforts of the college's Environmental Action Club (EAC) Skidmore's residential areas have remained on board for one of the easiest and most gratifying ways to reduce waste on campus. Perhaps one of the more immediate benefits of this practice is the soil quality of the Skidmore Garden, which through the use of compost is more fertile and productive. The wider purpose, of course, is to reduce our waste production, amassed not only through scraps of food but also landfill space.

The contribution of the apartments is impossible to ignore. A subcommittee of the EAC has kept track of how much waste Northwoods Apartments produced last spring: 945 pounds of waste, about 24 pounds on average each week, was created by each apartment building.

So the buckets in every house, taken to the nearest composting bin and left for volunteers to pick up, have already demonstrated their potential to push Skidmore closer to an ideal environmental policy.

The next logical step, then, would be to institute composting in the college's nexus of food and waste production, the Dining Hall. According to Riley Neugebauer, Skidmore's sustainability coordinator, the college is currently looking into a smaller pilot project for some of the waste from the Dining Hall. 

Why, in the wake of the impact of composting in the residential villages, might we be taking this kind of gradualist approach? The project under way is certainly better than nothing, but it is by no means obvious why the college shouldn't throw its full weight behind an initiative that would reduce so much waste and potentially save money.

One reason, and the one most cited by students, is the less than enthusiastic reception of Dining Hall composting after an audit was conducted last year. This test-run, one must admit, was not perfect in its execution. A table of only four composting bins were simply propped in front of the standard tray accumulator and made the expected lines much longer. It comes as no surprise that students felt any new composting system might bring about a clumsy and clogged dining hall experience.

But the kinks in the audit that gave way to such doubts are easily fixed; the fact is that Dining Hall compost stations can work, and are working elsewhere in the country. For some competitive context, we might take into account the progress made by other colleges on this front. Connecticut College, only a year after the idea was proposed, has eliminated 35,000 pounds of waste a year from two of its campus dining halls.

Cornell, having perfected its vast system for years, eliminates 850 tons of pre and post consumer waste from the dining halls each year. Schools such as Oberlin, Vassar, and Tufts are all joining in and making strides toward an impressive policy.

The details of Skidmore's new dining hall project are still being determined as the college gathers more information and talks with those who have done large-scale composting for years such as state municipalities and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation. Hopefully the planning and execution of this initiative will match the relevancy and importance of its purpose.