Author Archives: Sean Caffrey-Agoglia
A Walk Through the Red Dragon
Vishnu Rajan gazes upon the Red Dragon Labyrinth in between Mendelson Quad and the Student Union. (Sean Caffrey-Agoglia / The Statesman)
Near the woods behind the Wang Center, Vishnu Rajan slowly walks around in a circle of red mulch. With his head tilted downward, he looks as if he is searching for his cell phone in the grass. Rajan may have been searching for something, but it is certainly not a tangible object.
“I come here to walk and clear my head before class sometimes,” said Rajan, 20, a sophomore and engineering major. “Sometimes I’m looking to relax and other times I’m just trying to sort things out.”
Faculty and students like Rajan come to walk the Red Dragon Labyrinth on Stony Brook’s West Campus to mediate or to pray. Even local high school student groups walk the rings in pursuit of its potential mental health benefits.
The Red Dragon Labyrinth is between Mendelson Quad and the Student Union. It is formed by spiraling rings of red mulch with a grass border. The total length of the spiral from the entrance to center is 54 feet. It is almost impossible to see the red coils because the mulch bed sits just below the grass.
The idea of a labyrinth is often confused with a maze, but the two are distinctly different. A labyrinth has one entrance and only one path to the center. A maze may have multiple entrances, exits, paths, and dead-ends. A labyrinth contains no dead-end paths or tricks.
Ed O’Connell created the Red Dragon Labyrinth in 2005. O’Connell, both a radiation safety officer and a union grievance officer at Stony Brook University, first introduced to labyrinth walking at Little Portion Friary in nearby Mount Sinai. He was baking bread once a week with the Episcopal Francisian brothers when he started to walk the labyrinth at the friary.
“I was very intrigued by the whole process,” he said. O’Connell decided that meditative walking is something that his colleagues should experience. After waiting a year for permission from the university to build a labyrinth, O’Connell and Brother Maximillian Kolbe of Little Portion Friary spent three days digging up the grass and laying down the mulch.
Once a month, O’Connell coordinates a labyrinth walk for members of his union, United University Professionals. In addition to reducing stress, “it changes ones point of view,” he said. According to O’Connell, typically 10 to 15 people show up for the walk.
Pam Wolfskill, the assistant chairwoman to the political science department, has gone on a couple of O’Connell’s walks. “I mostly walk for clearing the mind and centering,” she said. “I would stress that the walk is different each time.”
O’Connell said he invites students who are passing by to join him on his monthly walks. “If you have a big midterm or a final coming up, I think walking the labyrinth could help your performance,” he said. O’Connell said he would welcome requests to lead labyrinth walks for student groups or organizations.
Although campus organizations may not have found their way to the red mulch, a high school group has. A program run by the Stony Brook University Medical Center helps exemplary high school students from disadvantaged communities to strive for an education and a career in the health care field. Catherine McWilliams, who works for community related projects for at the hospital, brought a group of high school students to the Red Dragon Labyrinth.
“The students in our program are taking rigorous classes and are involved in a lot of activities,” McWilliams said. “Walking the labyrinth gave them a rare opportunity to take time out of their busy schedules to relax.”
For O’Connell and others, labyrinth walking is a way to clear their minds, but for some it is a profession. Linda Mikell is a labyrinth facilitator and is certified by Verditas, a nonprofit organization that promotes labyrinth education. When she’s not running labyrinth programs for the Unitarian Universalists Fellowship in Stony Brook, Mikell travels with a canvas labyrinth, so people without access to a labyrinth can experience the walk.
At a lecture at Stony Brook University, Mikell began by describing the three stages of labyrinth walking: releasing your stressors or harmful thoughts as you enter the labyrinth, receiving new perspectives on life in the center and returning back to your day with a clear mind as you walk out. According to Mikell, the spiral shape of the labyrinth allows for a shifting of thought from the imaginative right side of the brain to the logical left side of the brain.
“There is not a right or wrong way to walk a labyrinth,” Mikell said, despite the itinerary she recommends. “It is whatever you want it to be.”
In addition to relieving stress, labyrinths can create camaraderie. “You get a sense of community when you’re walking with a lot of people,” Wolfskill said. Since there is only one path, walkers have to yield to each other and let others pass if they are walking at a quicker pace.
Maryann Areostatico, who is a manager for the environmental safety department, is a frequent walker of the Dragon. “Everyone should at least try it,” she said. “It may feel awkward at first but in the end most people will feel a sense of unity with oneself and the world around you.”
PHEEIA May Hurt Some Students
Last month the USG released a survey about PHEEIA on their website to gauge student’s opinions and knowledge of the act. Of the 421 undergraduate students surveyed, the vast majority pays in-state tuition (85 percent) and intends on graduating sometime after 2010 (81 percent). USG Senator Deborah Machalow conducted the study.
“I felt it was incredibly important for the students to have some way of expressing their opinions on something that would have such a huge impact on them if passed,” Machalow said. “What it basically came down to was that it was my job to represent the students and it was only fair to give them the opportunity to express their opinions.”
The 16 question survey polled students on their thoughts about potential tuition increases. The most shocking statistic claimed that 20 percent of students said they would have to leave Stony Brook if tuition went up. In a press conference, President Sam Stanley said tuition would potentially go up between 6 and 7 percent a year. In-state tuition for 15 credits is $3,105 (this does not include activity fees, housing, meal plans, etc.). If it were to increase by 7 percent next year, then students would have to pay an extra $217.35.
Shanai Walker is a sophomore health science major who is worried about the potential tuition increase. “It would mean more sacrificing for my family,” Othman said. “I have two younger sisters. What about the students? What about the families?” She asked.
The survey examined who students wanted to set their tuition. Students were the most divided on this question, with 35 percent saying that they wanted Stony Brook University to set tuition, 26 percent wanted the SUNY board of Trustees, 25 percent wanted the New York State Legislature and 15 percent wanted the US government. Currently the New York State Legislature sets SUNY tuition, and if PHEEIA were to become law, Stony Brook would be able to set its own tuition.
The survey also asked students who would like to have control of their tuition. 61 percent said they would like Stony Brook and other SUNY Institutions to have control over their tuition. According to President Stanley, all of the money in tuition increases would be controlled by the university.
If PHEEIA passes, Stony Brook’s tuition could be higher than other SUNY schools. According to the USG survey, 61 percent of students said they would not be willing to pay substantially more to attend Stony Brook.
“If they decide to pass this bill, it makes it more of a private school. I came to a SUNY because I knew it would be a set rate,” said junior and political science major Zaqhuya Mason.
PHEEIA would also give President Stanley the power to set differential tuition, or charge students different rates depending on their major. 56 percent of the students polled were not in favor of differential tuition, while 25 percent were in favor and 19 percent said “maybe.”
Machalow was intrigued that most students were not in favor of differential tuition.
“The fact that students in less costly majors are willing to pay more so that their fellow students, enrolled in more costly majors, would pay the same basic amount says a lot about the students here. Students don’t want to be divided by major, and obviously want students to choose their majors based on interest, not cost,” Machalow said.
The survey also addressed the issue of out-of-state tuition. When asked if they “believe out-of-state tuition is too low here,” 59 percent responded yes, 53 percent responded no, and 18percent responded maybe. Currently out-of-state tuition is $610 a credit, which would cost a student $9,150 if they were to take 15 credits.
Alin Tomescu, a sophomore from Romania who pays out-of-state tuition because he has a green card, is not optimistic about increasing tuition.
“The tuition keeps increasing, but I haven’t seen any changes,” Tomescu said. “It seems to me that they keep increasing tuition, but it goes into their pockets and not to my benefit.”
With approximately 15,000 undergraduate students at Stony Brook, the 421 barely represents 3 percent of the student body.
“Unfortunately, I cannot say definitively that the survey results accurately represented the opinions of the undergraduate student body,” Machalow said.
Regardless of the opinion of the undergraduate student body, everyone connected with SUNY will have to wait until at least June 1st, the latest deadline for the annual New York State Budget.
One man, striving for sustainability on campus
Michael Youdelman has been on a crusade for sustainability since he was young. (Kenneth Ho / The Statesman)
A 6-year-old boy gazed at the television screen one evening in 1971 and watched his uncle speak to a news reporter about explosions that had leveled a couple of houses in Port Washington, N.Y.
Caused by neither terrorism nor a gas leak, but rather an underground accumulation of methane gas from a nearby landfill, the explosions could have been avoided, if only the town had more closely monitored the landfill, according to his uncle, a prominent community group leader.
Although the 6-year-old didn’t entirely understand what was going on, he could see the passion on his uncle’s face, and hear it in his words, as he tried to convince politicians that the environment needed more protective regulations.
Thirty-eight years later, Michael Youdelman coughed between sentences, a constant reminder that he was recovering from walking pneumonia. Despite still feeling weak, Youdleman’s voice was filled with enthusiasm, as if he were talking about recycling for the first time.
“I didn’t want to be a politician,” he said. “I wanted to come up with solutions.”
Youdelman is the manager of Recycling and Resource Management at Stony Brook University.
For 11 years, he has supervised the collection of recycled materials at all of Stony Brook’s campuses, and tried to educate students, faculty and administrators about the benefits of recycling. Although it has been over 35 years since he first watched his uncle on the news, Youdelman still emulates his uncle’s passion for educating people about their impact on the environment.
He said he continues to channel that passion into increasing the amount of materials that are recycled on the three campuses as well as collaborating with the hospital, despite the fact that his solid waste budget hasn’t seen an increase since he was first hired.
That was in 1998, Youdelman’s first and most difficult year at Stony Brook. “There was no budget for anything,” Youdelman said. He said the recycling efforts were minimal, with very little infrastructure. Despite the lack of funding, Youdelman traveled to college campuses around the Northeast to observe their recycling programs.
In those days, recycling in the dormitories on campus was almost nonexistent. Now, every room has recycling bins for paper and bottles. The number of recycling bins on campus and in the dining halls have increased at Stony Brook from four years ago.
Recycling in the dorms was the start of some influential student programs.
Four years ago, Youdelman entered Stony Brook into Recylemania, a West Campus and nationwide recycling competition. For 10 weeks, usually at the beginning of the spring semester, each dorm quad competes to accumulate the biggest amount of recyclable materials. The winning quad receives $500, which is significant, because the budget for student programs in most buildings is under $1,000.
According to Maroof Ali, the vice president of the Environmental Club,“The more times the message is put out there about recycling and sustainability, the more people become interested in it.”
The interest among Stony Brook students is already high. In the statewide Recyclemania, the university ranked second among 21 colleges in two categories: the amount of paper recycled per person, and the total amount recycled.
In the national contest, Stony Brook ranked 66 out of 293 schools in overall recycling, according to the National Recycling Coalition, the chief sponsor of the competition.
One of Youdelman’s recycling achievements has saved the university almost $5 million over the past seven years. Used concrete, scrap metal and wood scraps, as well as topsoil, are stored in the municipal recycling and handling area on the West Campus, awaiting re-use, at a fraction of the cost of new materials.
The traffic circle near Roth Quad on Circle Road, was built of recycled materials, at a savings of $200,000, confirmed Peter Scully, the regional director for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The DEC not only has its office on the West Campus, but one of its main priorities is to “foster green and healthy communities,” Scully said.
Storing and re-using soil is also one of the reasons the university saved $5 million. Construction in Roth Quad could have meant that soil excavated during the laying of new pipes would have had to be trucked to storage off campus and then retrieved as needed.
Now it is stored on campus for free, saving the costs of gasoline and wages spent if workers trucked the soil back and forth to some distant dumping station. Shorter trips mean fewer emissions too, Youdelman said.
Asked about Stony Brook’s recycling program, Scully said, “I could sum them up with one word: impressive.”
He praised Youdelman’s efforts at recycling the “not so easily recyclable” materials, such as concrete, metals and batteries. According to the DEC, the university recycled just under 70,000 tons of material in the 2008-2009 academic year.
Youdelman’s said the improvements in recycling happen in part because he is a “middle of the road environmentalist,” rather than a radical, and is able to see perspectives other than his own. This is crucial, because success hinges on cooperation among departments: his, residencies, dining, student activities and the administration.
“Many people would become frustrated by the operational challenges, but he confronts it with gusto,” Scully said.
Youdelman stressed that recycling is a team effort, and that he is just one player. “I believe that everyone is an environmentalist,” he said. “Do what you can where you can.
One man, striving for sustainability on campus
Michael Youdelman has been on a crusade for sustainability since he was young. (Kenneth Ho / The Statesman)
A 6-year-old boy gazed at the television screen one evening in 1971 and watched his uncle speak to a news reporter about explosions that had leveled a couple of houses in Port Washington, N.Y.
Caused by neither terrorism nor a gas leak, but rather an underground accumulation of methane gas from a nearby landfill, the explosions could have been avoided, if only the town had more closely monitored the landfill, according to his uncle, a prominent community group leader.
Although the 6-year-old didn’t entirely understand what was going on, he could see the passion on his uncle’s face, and hear it in his words, as he tried to convince politicians that the environment needed more protective regulations.
Thirty-eight years later, Michael Youdelman coughed between sentences, a constant reminder that he was recovering from walking pneumonia. Despite still feeling weak, Youdleman’s voice was filled with enthusiasm, as if he were talking about recycling for the first time.
“I didn’t want to be a politician,” he said. “I wanted to come up with solutions.”
Youdelman is the manager of Recycling and Resource Management at Stony Brook University.
For 11 years, he has supervised the collection of recycled materials at all of Stony Brook’s campuses, and tried to educate students, faculty and administrators about the benefits of recycling. Although it has been over 35 years since he first watched his uncle on the news, Youdelman still emulates his uncle’s passion for educating people about their impact on the environment.
He said he continues to channel that passion into increasing the amount of materials that are recycled on the three campuses as well as collaborating with the hospital, despite the fact that his solid waste budget hasn’t seen an increase since he was first hired.
That was in 1998, Youdelman’s first and most difficult year at Stony Brook. “There was no budget for anything,” Youdelman said. He said the recycling efforts were minimal, with very little infrastructure. Despite the lack of funding, Youdelman traveled to college campuses around the Northeast to observe their recycling programs.
In those days, recycling in the dormitories on campus was almost nonexistent. Now, every room has recycling bins for paper and bottles. The number of recycling bins on campus and in the dining halls have increased at Stony Brook from four years ago.
Recycling in the dorms was the start of some influential student programs.
Four years ago, Youdelman entered Stony Brook into Recylemania, a West Campus and nationwide recycling competition. For 10 weeks, usually at the beginning of the spring semester, each dorm quad competes to accumulate the biggest amount of recyclable materials. The winning quad receives $500, which is significant, because the budget for student programs in most buildings is under $1,000.
According to Maroof Ali, the vice president of the Environmental Club,“The more times the message is put out there about recycling and sustainability, the more people become interested in it.”
The interest among Stony Brook students is already high. In the statewide Recyclemania, the university ranked second among 21 colleges in two categories: the amount of paper recycled per person, and the total amount recycled. In the national contest, Stony Brook ranked 66 out of 293 schools in overall recycling, according to the National Recycling Coalition, the chief sponsor of the competition.
One of Youdelman’s recycling achievements has saved the university almost $5 million over the past seven years. Used concrete, scrap metal and wood scraps, as well as topsoil, are stored in the municipal recycling and handling area on the West Campus, awaiting re-use, at a fraction of the cost of new materials.
The traffic circle near Roth Quad on Circle Road, was built of recycled materials, at a savings of $200,000, confirmed Peter Scully, the regional director for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The DEC not only has its office on the West Campus, but one of its main priorities is to “foster green and healthy communities,” Scully said.
Storing and re-using soil is also one of the reasons the university saved $5 million. Construction in Roth Quad could have meant that soil excavated during the laying of new pipes would have had to be trucked to storage off campus and then retrieved as needed.
Now it is stored on campus for free, saving the costs of gasoline and wages spent if workers trucked the soil back and forth to some distant dumping station. Shorter trips mean fewer emissions too, Youdelman said.
Asked about Stony Brook’s recycling program, Scully said, “I could sum them up with one word: impressive.”
He praised Youdelman’s efforts at recycling the “not so easily recyclable” materials, such as concrete, metals and batteries. According to the DEC, the university recycled just under 70,000 tons of material in the 2008-2009 academic year.
Youdelman’s said the improvements in recycling happen in part because he is a “middle of the road environmentalist,” rather than a radical, and is able to see perspectives other than his own. This is crucial, because success hinges on cooperation among departments: his, residencies, dining, student activities and the administration.
“Many people would become frustrated by the operational challenges, but he confronts it with gusto,” Scully said.
Youdelman stressed that recycling is a team effort, and that he is just one player. “I believe that everyone is an environmentalist,” he said. “Do what you can where you can.