Kathleen Rice grew up as one of 10 siblings. Today she is the Nassau County District Attorney. Although she never participated in student government while she was in college, she said she was drawn to law because of an internship she did in college at Denis Dillon’s office, the 31-year incumbent District Attorney she went on to defeat in 2006.
Rice was just one of the speakers who addressed a crowd of more than 60 female students at Elect Her, an event aimed at closing the gap between men and women in office. Stony Brook is one of the 13 universities chosen to participate in the American Association of University Women event.
“Running for office is hard, but every single woman in this room can run for office,” Rice said. “Start at the student government level. It’s really, really, hard but you gotta do it.”
This is the third year that AAUW has held the event, but the first time that it has been held at SBU, according to Cathrine Duffy, staff liaison for the event. Duffy said that Deborah Machalow, executive vice president of the Undergraduate Student Government, was the one who pushed to get SBU to apply for the event. SBU was accepted and sponsored by the Smithtown Branch of AAUW.
In stressing the importance of women getting involved in government, Rice said they are only 17 percent of the people in Congress and 24 percent of those serving in local legislature
Rice found this “absurd and an embarrassment.”
A number of speakers drove home the point that women should participate in government, but they did not all paint a picture of the political process.
Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn told female students that politics is “a nasty business, but that’s why you should be in it.”
Female leaders at the peer level also got a chance to give advice.
“Be true to yourself, that’s the best advice I can give,” Anna Lubitz, a USG senator, said.
Machalow said that a campaign is like a war.
“Say bye-bye to your social life and to sleep. Politics is dirty,” she said. She went on to add that it is important not to take a lot of the attacks that may happen during a campaign personally.
Elect Her facilitator Pamela O’Leary said that women may not be getting involved in politics because they fear the media scrutiny. But she also stressed the need for women in government office.
“Women leadership style is more corroborate … We are less corrupt,” O’Leary said. Since women are 51 percent of the population, she said, they should be better represented in office.
Machalow quoted politician Maureen Murphy when she described why women should not hold themselves back from running for office: “The reason there are so few female politicians is that it is too much trouble to put makeup on two faces.”
“Don’t let makeup hold you back,” Machalow said.
Other tips that O’Leary gave out to students included the importance of networking. LinkedIn profiles are important to use, especially as a longer form of resume. Business cards are important to have, but O’Leary said is more important to collect business cards than give one’s own out. She stressed the importance of the “informative interview,” where the student interested in the company or position pursues an interview to find out more about it. The student would be asking the questions as opposed to a regular interview.
Another important aspect to O’Leary was communication. She enlisted the help of Marcy McGinnis, associate dean of the journalism school, to drive that point home.
One of the students in attendance, Toni DeMaio, said the most important thing she learned at the event was not a skill.
“It’s really about when one door closes, another opens and you really have to stay true to yourself,” DeMaio said.

Nelson Oliveria contributed reporting to this story.

In a sudden reversal, the  Academic Excellence and Success fee will not be charged for the fall 2011 semester but will be for the spring semester, according to a message to all students on SOLAR early this morning.

The fee, which was $37.50 for each semester, was implemented after the passing of the NYSUNY 2020 Challenge grant application, which totaled $35 million.

“The next bill you receive for the spring 2012 semester will reflect the new charges,” the message reads. ”We regret any inconvenience this has caused, and if a payment has already been made, the University will implement a credit balance to the Spring semester bill.”

Stony Brook University students were alerted Dec. 15 of a $75 Academic Excellence and Success Fee, half of which will be charged for the fall semester and the other half for the spring. It must be paid in full by Jan. 15.

The fee, which will help the university with resources, such as additional grants and scholarships and strengthen academic programs, comes on the heels of the announcement on Dec. 14 of a $150 million grant to the university from the Simons Foundation. However, according to University Spokeswoman Lauren Sheprow, the two are separate.

“They’re unrelated,” Sheprow said. “It was a fee that was always reported in the NYSUNY 2020 Challenge Grant presented in May for Stony Brook.”

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill for the NYSUNY 2020 Challenge Grant plan on Dec. 14, which is why students were officially notified of it on Thursday.

The executive summary of Stony Brook’s NYSUNY 2020 Challenge Grant plan mentions this fee.

“…Plus a $75 academic excellence fee increase each year for a five-year period,” as stated in the grant. ”This plan fosters economic growth and creates jobs while increasing student access to a high-quality, affordable education.”

This new fee seems to have drawn the ire of some students. Jose Rivera, a student at Stony Brook, started a petition on change.org called “Academic Excellence an Success Fee in Stony Brook University: Not to apply the fee.” Rivera could not be reached for comment.

One student who signed the petition commented on it saying, “This school just received $150 million donation from a billionaire and we, students have to pay an extra fee for tuition?”

Mark Maloof, president of the undergraduate student government, said he is not trying to stir up the student body, but he would like to redirect their emotions.

“There is a reason to be upset, but I don’t think that students are upset for the right reasons,” said Maloof. “To be mad that Jim Simons gave us $150 million and then we got a tuition increase doesn’t make sense. He didn’t give us that money to pay the bills. He gave it to expand the university. He has every right to and we have to respect his wishes.”

He goes on to say, “I don’t have a problem with enacting a fee. The name is not the best. But, we are doing students a disservice by charging them in the spring for a fee that was intended to be used in the fall. The students are retroactively paying but cannot retroactively receive benefits.”

On a Thursday morning at 9:00 a.m. Richard Gatteau places his cup of tea on a counter and then assumes a push-up position, asking someone to hold his feet up in the air as he demonstrates for a few members of his office the new exercise he learned at the gym earlier that morning. Richard, or Rick as he prefers to be called, stands up red-faced, laughs and jokes, then grabs his tea and walks back into his office as the director of academic advising at Stony Brook University.

Gatteau’s office is nestled on the second floor of the Melville library, overlooking the Staller steps. There are pictures of his family on every available surface, with his niece and nephew, Olivia and Michael, in most of them. Their father, Gatteau’s twin brother, Ron, said that everybody loves “Uncle Rick.”

“Rick has been great with my kids,” said Ron Gatteau. “He is very generous with gifts to the kids and spending time with them. For the past 20 years, we have remained close siblings.  Although we do not see each other as often as we would like, we talk on the phone at least once per week. He talks to my wife Donna more than he talks to me.”

As the director of academic advising, Gatteau said the door to his office is always open.

“While I know I’m the supervisor of the office, we’re really close colleagues and friends,” said Gatteau. “That’s especially true because many of us have worked together for almost 10 years. I always have an open door policy and do my best to build a strong, committed, and fun team.  I work best in an environment where everyone is treated like family, and that’s what we’ve tried to create in the office.”

The academic advisers he supervises have nothing but positive things to say about him.

“Rick’s the best boss ever,” said Ellen Hopkins, assistant director of the academic advising center.  “I am constantly amazed by how well he relates to all of us.  He knows each one of us very well and when to be firm and who to be firm with as well as the way in which he works with those of us that don’t need as much prompting.”

Gatteau has worked in advising at Stony Brook since 2002, but when he first graduated college, he was working in a completely different venue.

He graduated from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania in 1992, with a Bachelor of Science in business administration. Upon graduating, he went to work at Macy’s as a sales manager. Within a few months time, he realized retail just wasn’t for him.

“I don’t mind chaos, but I like organized chaos, and it was so disorganized,” Gatteau said. “I realized this was not fulfilling. Retail is so materialistic and I had to witness it everyday.”

After leaving Macys, he went to work for the mortgage department at Farrell Fritz PC law firm, where he had worked during summers in college. After spending a few months there, he went to graduate school at the University of Vermont and received his masters in education. He then went on to get his doctorate in philosophy from Fordham University.

Gatteau worked at Iona College from 1995 to 1999 as the assistant director and then director of residential life, overseeing residential assistants. However, he said he felt like it was just like an extension of high school, or “grade 13.”

He worked at Columbia University, in Columbia College, from 1999 to 2002 as the senior dean of the sophomore class, overseeing sophomore advising. In late 2001, he said he felt like there was no room for growth at Columbia anymore. He said he started applying places with no luck.

“I saw the Stony Brook job posted and said if that doesn’t work out I’ll move to a different place,” Gatteau said. “But, I went to my interview at Stony Brook and left that day, thinking, ‘I love it here.’”

In his spare time, Gatteau said he likes to go to the gym, go running, spend time with his family and friends and travel. In fact, he loves to travel so much, his brother, Ron, said their family always jokes about it.

“We have a running joke that he is always on the computer looking for new destinations to visit,” said Ron Gatteau.

Sitting behind his desk in his office, Rick Gatteau reflects on his time here at Stony Brook, summing it up in one sentence, “Ever since I started here it has been a thrill, ever since I came to this very desk.”

Derrick Lugo came into Stony Brook University as a mechanical engineering major, but in his sophomore year, he changed his major to computer science. His decision to change majors not only cost him a change in classes, but it also cost him an extra year at the university. He is currently in his fifth year.

“I hate still being here but it’s not really the school’s fault,” said Lugo, 22. “I blame it on my switch.”

The typical thought about college may be that it is the “best four years of your life,” but, according to Richard Gatteau, director of academic advising at Stony Brook University, students graduating within a six-year period is the norm.

“Six years is a reasonable time frame to finish a degree,” said Gatteau. “Even US News goes by the six-year percentage.”

According to statistics from Institutional Research at the university, 65 percent of students who started at the university in 2004 graduated in a six-year period.

The department of Institutional Research did not respond to a request for an interview about the statistics, but Gatteau said there could be many reasons that students do not graduate in four years.

“It’s less usual for students to start and go fully through,” said Gatteau. “Those numbers also don’t mean that the students necessarily dropped out, they could’ve transferred and finished their degree elsewhere.”

Compared to some other schools in the State University of New York system, Stony Brook falls in about the middle. For example, Binghamton University has an 80 percent six-year graduation rate, State University of New York at Buffalo 48 percent, and State University of New York at Albany 65 percent.

Stony Brook University’s six-year graduation rate is actually on the lower end of the Association of American Universities, which is an organization of 61 public and private universities in the United States and Canada. For example, Pennsylvania State University has a six-year graduation rate of about 85 percent.

Although the university is on the lower end of those statistics, its own rates have increased. In 1993 the six-year graduation rate was 53 percent.

“My sense is that it’s [the graduation rate] good because it is an upward trend, which is positive,” said Gatteau. “We are doing much better than in the past, but we’re still low.”

The academic advising office is working towards increasing the percentage of students who graduate in a timely manner. According to Gatteau, there is a tracking committee, behind the scenes, who keep an eye on students who are not on track. Any student who stands out as “a concern” is contacted for a follow-up.

The advising office is also working to improve upon the degree progress reports that students can access to see where they are credit wise.

“One issue related to students graduating is being able to easily self advise,” said Gatteau. “The goal is to have a full comprehensive audit for each student that includes general education requirements, major requirements, and a transfer credit listed as a one to one course equivalent.”

Lugo kept track of his credits and determined the best amount to take each semester — even if it means staying in Stony Brook longer.

“I like having some kind of life, so after taking 18-credit semesters, I switched down to 12-15 in order to help my grade point average,” said Lugo.

According to Gatteau, streamlining these reports will not only help students understand them but will be beneficial for advisers as well.

“I think it will have a huge impact,” said Gatteau. It will allow any adviser at any point to see exactly what’s missing.”

Gatteau even went as far as saying that clarifying these progress reports could affect how many spots are offered in classes.

“If you could see how many students need ‘X’ class to graduate, we can use that to plan on how many seats to put in that class,” said Gatteau.

Another option students have to guarantee they graduate within a four to six year period is to take summer or winter classes. These intersessions are shorter than regular semesters and a little more expensive. Students, like Lugo, who has taken two summer courses, pay per credit they take as opposed to one flat fee.

The academic advising office isn’t the only one available to help students. Lugo said he went to the career center when he needed help with deciding to change his major.

“The career center helped me find something that I really liked and I switched to it since I entered college as a Mechanical Engineering student,” said Lugo.

According to Gatteau, the advising office will continue to work to improve their programs to help students graduate, whether it is within four or six years.

“Obviously, we would like to see students graduate in a four-year period, but because the national standard is a six year period, that’s the number we would like to see improve,” said Gatteau.

Every time Anita Maier goes to the doctor and gets a shot, she faints. The reason? Her fear of needles, which she said she has had all her life. Even watching a movie that has a scene with a needle in it triggers some fear in her.
While not everyone is afraid of needles like Maier, people can be afraid of a lot of different things. According to Greg Hajcak, an associate professor of psychology, fear serves a purpose.
“Fear is one of the most basic emotions,” Hajcak said. “It serves a function, it’s a protective response. Most of the time the things that people are afraid of were rational at one time such as snakes, spiders or open or closed spaces.”
In a survey done by The Statesman on fears, the responses people gave of what their biggest fear was varied from the physical such as rodents, clowns, snakes, birds and spiders to the philosophical, such as dying before being able to start a family, to the psychological, like public speaking.
No matter what a person may be afraid of, Hajcak said there is one thing that is certain.
“One of the things that we know about fear is that it doesn’t last forever,” Hajcak said. “If you hang out there in a situation long enough your body goes back to baseline because there is no real threat.”
A person’s specific fear can come from a multitude of sources as well. Maier for example, also said she has a fear of swiming in deep water.
“I have a fear of the dark, unknown, mysterious ocean water because you never know what’s there that can hurt you,” said Maier, 22, a business major. “It started when I was a child and I went to swim in a pool at night. I didn’t like that it was so dark and I couldn’t see what was below me.”
One person who responded to a survey by The Statesman said he or she had a fear of snakes that originated from living out in the country near the woods. “Whenever it got cold, the snakes in the area would creep into our basement. Nothing like going to put a load of laundry into the dryer and almost tripping over something slithery.”
Hajcak said that fears could also be genetically determined. “It’s not so much what you’re afraid of, but the ability to develop a fear,” Hajcak said.
Coincidently, one person who took the survey responded that he or she has a fear of birds. One of the reasons the person gave for this was “my grandma was terrified of birds, so it could possibly be some weird connection or something.”
What’s the most common fear?
“Something around 75 percent of people would say they are afraid of public speaking,” Hajcak said.
And remember that age-old “pretend everyone is in their underwear while giving a speech” technique? Turns out it’s valid.
“When people give speeches, they tend to focus on what themselves and what they are saying, which could make them more anxious,” Hajcak said. “Doing something like pretending everyone is in their underwear draws the attention away from them to the audience.”

The Academic Advising Certificate Program teaches staff how to advise students who have not decided on a major. (SARA SONNACK/THE STATESMAN)

Every Wednesday morning, some staff, administrators, and faculty can be seen participating in a class of their own designed to make sure that students get the best academic advising they can.

The class is called the Academic Advising Certificate Program and it instructs its pupils on varying topics each week.

Richard Gatteau, director of academic advising, created the program to make sure that advising was consistent across every department on campus.

“The system at Stony Brook, while we have a centralized academic and pre-professional advising center, we also have several other decentralized parts and units,” said Gatteau. “And so one of the concerns that I’ve had since I started here in 2002 was to make sure that all advisers had baseline knowledge and information.”

The program allows for 25 people to enroll each semester. At the end of the course, each person receives a certificate from the academic advising office.  The topics that each class covers vary from curriculum requirements and degree progress reports to advising from a multicultural perspective.

“I learned more about transferable skills that they [students] can use in may occupations,” said Linda Sookhoo, a social work intern taking the class. “There was a questionnaire that we had to fill out and it stated what we’re interested in and the type of person we are and how we can use those skills in many different occupations. “

One class was on the “undecided student,” or someone who has not chosen a major yet. Guest lecturers Ellen Hopkins and Jacqueline Donnelly, both academic advisers, taught this specific class.

“It’s a really interesting topic to me personally because of my own life experiences,” said Hopkins. “Also we see a lot of students who don’t know what they want to initially and they have to make some abrupt changes.

During the class, Hopkins and Donnelly spoke about how to deal with students who have different goals than their parents. Some of the problems that students may run into in this scenario include not enjoying the classes their parents want them to take or performing badly in them. Donnelly and Hopkins recommended speaking to the student one-on-one to figure out what might not be working before potentially having a joint meeting with the parents.

The course has participants from many different departments on campus, such as financial aid and the registrar. Faculty; however, do not seem to be interested.

Gatteau said that even though very few faculty members have participated, he has options to entice them to do so.

“We put it out there to all faculty and staff members as well that if anybody just wants to come in for a week or two they have the option to do that,” said Gatteau, citing that faculty may not have the time to commit to the program.

Richard Laskowski, a business professor, said that he had never heard of the program, but probably would not participate anyway.

“Someone would have to convince me it be really worthwhile and make me a better adviser, and I guess the only way to do that is if I took part in it and went,” said Laskowski. “Honestly I probably would not spend the time in it anyways.”

The State University of New York’s Regional Campus Showcase kicked off on Wednesday, Oct. 5, for the Long Island region and was hosted at Stony Brook University’s Charles B. Wang Center. The showcase is the first of 10 that will be hosted throughout New York to celebrate the different SUNY campuses and the programs they have to offer.

Nancy L. Zimpher, SUNY chancellor, wants each of the 64 SUNY campuses to present at these showcases as part of “The Power of SUNY” plan to show all the great programs that the state university system has.

“Bringing this showcase to fruition is really to say that we are joining hands with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s regional economic development plan,” Zimpher said about the event. “There is a regional economic development council working in your behalf. Working, working, working. Anybody who is on that council can vouch for how many meetings are being held.”

The Long Island region showcase featured six SUNY colleges and universities including Stony Brook University, Farmingdale State College, Nassau Community College, Empire State College, Suffolk Community College and SUNY Old Westbury. Each school had different tables and stands to represent the programs they wanted to highlight.

Stony Brook University had various stands ranging from medical research and innovation, sustainability, community outreach, student-exchange programs in anthropology, to the School of Journalism and Center for Communicating Science.

Samuel L. Stanley, Jr, president of Stony Brook University, tied in all these programs to SUNY’s strategic plan.

“Stony Brook’s work in economic development is absolutely vital to our mission,” said Stanley. “This is something that is going to be really enhanced by NYSUNY 2020. We’re looking forward to monies that are going to be coming in to help further that mission, as I said it’s a vital part of what Stony Brook does.”

Farmingdale State College had stands that included demonstrations from its aviation and forensics departments. The aviation department came with a flight stimulator and the forensics department had a mock crime scene — fake victim included. Nassau Community College had a stand from its fashion design program, which had a display of work from some of their students who made dresses using the iconic brown shopping bags from Bloomingdale’s. Suffolk Community College was represented in part by its culinary arts program, which came complete with free pastries.

Zimpher summed up the point of the event with a simple statement.

“This is your SUNY, this is your university, this is your state of New York and we believe that together we can put New York on a better path economically,” she said.

Stephanie Sampayo missed six weeks of school her first year at Stony Brook University due to complications when she had her tonsils removed. Missing all that school caused her grade point average to suffer and she ended up on academic probation.  This semester she got an email from the academic advising center offering her some help through the Bridges Program. With this program, Sampayo gets a peer mentor who can help point her to the right resources when she needs them and hopefully help her repair her grades.

“I signed up for it because it can’t really hurt,” Sampayo, a linguistics major, said. “I know I have bad time management skills.”

The Bridges Program runs out of the academic advising center, but it was created by Ed Arzomand, Jaime Poynter and Christian Toro, who are all in the National Residence Hall Honorary (NRHH).

“The main goal was to try and connect students who needed help academically with one person who could try and steer them in the right direction,” said Poynter, who is also a senior peer advisor in the academic advising office.

Students on academic probation get an email from the advising center asking them if they would like to participate in the program. Those students are then paired with a peer mentor who is involved in either the NRHH, the Golden Key International Honor Society or a peer advisor in the academic advising office. Typically the students are placed with a mentor in a similar major to offer them the best help.

The program is meant to supplement any help they are currently getting from academic advisors or other faculty. It is currently in its second semester with 22 out of the 534 total students who are on academic probation volunteering to participate.

“A half an hour meeting with an advisor is not going to change their world,” said Richard Gatteau, director of academic advising. “As long as we offer it to you, if you make the decision to opt out, then that’s on you.”

When it first started last semester, it had fewer participants.

“There were only six or seven students involved in the pilot group,” Gatteau said. “It was a very mixed bag of grade point averages, some went up and some went down. Some of the students didn’t even fully participate. This semester we are more structured, we’re starting earlier and having mentors meet with their mentee every other week.”

According to Gatteau, students are on academic probation if their cumulative grade point average falls below a 2.0.  If students’ grade point averages stay at that level or fall lower, they are then suspended from the university. The Bridges Program is supposed to help prevent that.

Mentors and their mentees are to meet with each other every other week. They’d discuss any problems the mentee is currently having and hopefully the mentor has a solution.  Every time they meet, the mentor fills out a log of what they discussed and hands it in to Carolyn Stephenson, the academic advisor who supervises this program.

“The mentors are not tutors,” Stephenson said. “It’s a rather subtle relationship. They are really there to see where the academics are breaking down for the mentee and then help repair that.”

Along with the week-by-week meetings with their mentors, mentees get midterm grades for their classes. Gatteau said this is to gage where they are at and if they need even more assistance after that.

So far, Sampayo is enjoying her time with her mentor, Janice Hernandez, also a linguistics major.

“I want her to get more involved on campus as cliché as that sounds,” Hernandez, 20, said. “She was previously at Suffolk Community College and that’s so different from Stony Brook. And with linguistics it’s really important to work in groups so I told her to link up with a friend.”

Sampayo also has commitments teaching dance and admits that she often commits too much of her time to it. She hopes Hernandez will teach how to juggle her commitments better so she’ll have more time for school work.

“I’m hoping that I’ll get skills to naturally study and not dread doing my work,” Sampayo said.

Members of the Social Justice Alliance protest racial profiling and voice their support for the DREAM Act. (Photo Credit: Chris Setter)

Amid all the splendor of Wolfstock, one student group gathered in the SAC Plaza holding cardboard signs challenging passerby’s with one question: Do I look illegal to you?

The Social Justice Alliance, or SJA, a student-activist group on campus, held a silent protest on Wednesday, Sept. 21, in support of undocumented students on campus, whom they say get treated unfairly.

“It basically consisted of just having all different students, whoever wanted to participate, coming up grabbing a sign that said ‘Do I look illegal?’ and obviously we all look very different, we’re a diverse group of people,” said Jessica Rybak, treasurer of the SJA. “It was to challenge the racial stereotypes that just inherently are evoked in immigration politics and with undocumented students on campus. I think it was a successful event, we had a lot of people come out and support.” According to Rybak, undocumented students cannot apply for scholarships, so that in itself makes it more difficult for them to go to college.

The SJA was first formed in 2001 in opposition to the pro-war feeling that the nation had after Sept. 11. According to their website, to the group is involved in many progressive fights such as immigrant rights, the feminist movements, anti-war movements and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender rights.

Their most recent protest was also in support of the DREAM Act, which would allow undocumented students who immigrated to the U.S. at a young age to stay in the country as long as they either go to college or serve in the military. Congress voted against the act last December.

“The Dream Act is a way of regularizing the situation for hundreds of thousands of millions of young people in this country who want to stay here, who should be allowed to stay here and this gives them an opportunity to do it,” said Michael Zweig, director of the center for study of working class life.

Rybak said the group is going to create a “dream team” of their own. “One of our goals is to have a ‘dream team’ to support the Dream Act and to make a safe place for undocumented students and international students to go to know that they have a special community, that they do have a place here and that they’re valued here at this university.”

ohn S. Toll, the second president, during a press conference. (Statesman File Photo)

Energy, determination and drive. Those were just a few of the words used to describe John S. Toll, the second president of Stony Brook University, who passed away on July 15 due to natural causes. To his friends though, he was just ‘Johnny.’

Toll was born on Oct. 25, 1923, in Denver, Colorado. He graduated with honors from Yale University in 1944 and then earned his masters from Princeton University in 1952. In 1953, he joined the University of Maryland as chair of the department of physics and astronomy.

“He was a legendary guy because he did something never done before,” said Drew Braden, current chairman of the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Maryland. “His first job out of graduate school was the president of the physics department. The president [of the University of Maryland] wanted him to build the physics department. We became what we became because of what John Toll did when he was here. He built stuff that wasn’t there before.”

He left the University of Maryland in 1965 when he came to Stony Brook University to become the university’s second president. During his 13-year reign as president, the student population grew from 1,800 to 17,000.

“The history of Stony Brook has been building on the legacy he established,” said Shirley Strum Kenny, the fourth president of Stony Brook University. “The first thing he did was attract C.N. Yang from Princeton, which was a very elite institute, to Stony Brook, which was basically mud and a few buildings.”

In 1965, Yang, a theoretical physicist, was offered the position of Directorship of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. He declined that offer. Around that time, Yang was also offered the position of the head of an Institute of Theoretical Physics at Stony Brook University, an offer extended by Toll.

“My wife and I brought our two younger children, Gilbert and Eulee, with us to visit Stony Brook in the spring of 1965,” wrote Yang in his book “Selected Papers with Commentary.” “It captured our hearts.”

Yang accepted the position at the university and stayed over 30 years in the physics department.

George Sterman, director of the C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics at Stony Brook University, said that he feels lucky to have benefitted from what Toll built.

“He could recognize people with tremendous ability and give them the freedom they needed,” Sterman said. “That’s kind of his legacy. Apart of his great talent is creating an atmosphere where people can shine.”

Toll was president of the university during a volatile era of student protests. There was student unrest due to issues that included the Vietnam War and overcrowding in dorm rooms. Demonstrations over these issues sometimes led to difficult conditions for Toll.

“In those days, for $25 you could have a lemon meringue pie thrown at anyone you wanted,” said Deborah Toll, his wife of 40 years. “So this pie came at him and he was making a speech in front of the Bridge to Nowhere. He was wearing a black wool overcoat and this pie dripped right over the side of his face and everything and he went on speaking without missing a word and students were standing around completely abashed. It was funny.”

Times might have been tense, but that didn’t mean Toll shied away from the students. Peter Kahn, chairman of the physics department at Stony Brook University from 1974 to 1986, said Toll was very accessible to students.

“He would eat in the cafeteria with the students,” Kahn said. “He didn’t park in a special spot. Everything was the same, no special privileges. He was very accessible as president, which isn’t the same now.”

Toll left Stony Brook University in 1978 to return to the University of Maryland, this time as president. Then in 1988, he became the chancellor of the University of Maryland System. In 1995, he began a 10-year reign as president of Washington College.

One thing that all of his colleagues, friends and family seem to agree on is the type of man Toll was both on and off campuses.

“Everyone tells me [he was] upbeat, positive, encouraging,” Toll’s wife said. “He was so warm, kind, but infinitely persistent with very high standards.”

Kenny said that once Toll had a vision, he knew it was right and he was going to achieve it. Kahn said that he admired Toll’s honest intellect. To Baden, Toll always had a kind word and was a wonderful human being. And according to Sterman, Toll had the gift of listening.

“When you spoke with him you really felt he was listening to you,” Sterman said. “He made you feel like he was waiting his whole day just to have this conversation with you.”

As a family man, Toll said her husband was very quick with the children and participated in their events such as going to movies and dances.

Dacia Toll said her father was an unfailing model of a selfless yet incredibly joyful man. He asked for very little in large part because he genuinely felt very lucky.

The only regret she ever heard him voice was that he didn’t have more children. Dacia and her sister Caroline were his only daughters.

Of her relationship with Johnny, Mrs. Toll said, “Forty years, seems like yesterday. I can’t believe it has gone so quickly.”

State University of New York and City University of New York campuses will have an increase in tuition every year for the next five years after Gov. Andrew Cuomo (Dem.) signed the NYSUNY 2020 bill into legislation in early August.

The plan, which includes providing funds for campus construction, is set to replace what is deemed “an era of dramatic tuition increases.” The plan allows for SUNY and CUNY campuses to increase tuition by up to $300 per year for the next five years. In the past 20 years, the tuition has been increased by up to 6.7 percent.

Shown here are other SUNY campuses' challenge grant plans.

Under the provisions of the plan, Stony Brook University’s in-state tuition for 2011 is $5,270, an increase of $300 from the 2010 tuition of $4,970. If the tuition had increased by 6.7 percent from the 2010 cost, it would have been $5,302.99. The bill aims to prevent these types of “dramatic increases” and is intended to allow students and families to plan to afford school.

SUNY and CUNY campuses will also be awarding tuition credits to students who have the least financial means to pay tuition. These tuition credits will be awarded to students who are eligible to receive a New York State’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) award.

The bill would also allow the SUNY campuses of Stony Brook, Albany, Binghamton and Buffalo to increase out-of-state tuition by 10 percent each year for five years. The Stony Brook out-of-state tuition had a 10 percent increase from $13,380 to $14,720.

The out-of–state tuition increase, however, is subject to approval through a challenge grant application. The Challenge Grant Program is a partnership between Cuomo and SUNY to create long-term development on the SUNY campuses and surrounding areas. Each of the challenge grant applications begin with awarding $35 million to each of the four SUNY centers to fund the development.

Stony Brook’s application includes a plan to build a Medical and Research Translation (MART) building, which will focus on cancer research and care. The 250,000-square-foot MART building would be located on the Stony Brook University Medical Center campus. Its construction is predicted to create 4,200 jobs.

“This plan is not just about expanded research and economic development, although it accomplishes both of those goals,” said Stony Brook University President Samuel L. Stanley, Jr. in a press release. “Most importantly, it’s about increasing access to a quality education at Stony Brook. Students will be able to get the classes they need to graduate on time and we will be able to open our doors to 1,500 more students over the five-year period of the plan.”

Stony Brook has made a “commitment” to those students who may not be able to afford a tuition increase by increasing financial aid, the president added.

“Every student will benefit,” Stanley said.

Stony Brook’s plan includes a tuition program that will allow for the university to increase tuition and create revenue while at the same time protecting students and families from drastic tuition hikes. The university will also increase financial aid given to students whose families have an income of $75,000 or less.

With additional revenue, Stony Brook plans to hire 245 new faculty, 80 medical professionals, and admit an additional 1,500 new students within the next five years. The number of courses taught by full-time faculty would increase and so would the number of undergraduate course sections available to students. The availability of more classes could help students graduate on time without the need to pay out of pocket for summer or winter classes or even an extra semester.

“Stony Brook University’s NYSUNY 2020 proposal promises greater access for students, higher academic quality, a state-of-the-art venue for groundbreaking medical research and job creation for Long Island and New York State,” said SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher.

Unlike Cory Matthews and Topanga Lawrence in “Boy Meets World,” when you walk into your first college class, chances are your favorite teacher from high school won’t be your professor, and there will definitely be more than seven students in the room.

Even though we’d all love to have Mr. Feeny and know the first name of every one of our classmates, the reality is far different than the pretty picture painted in our favorite childhood shows. In your first week of classes at Stony Brook, you will probably be introduced to at least one of the large lecture halls on campus.

In these rooms, you could have more than 500 classmates. These lecture halls are the ideal places to house some of the most popular introductory classes Stony Brook has to offer.

PSY 103 – Introduction to Psychology

Since its inception in 1965, the Psychology department at Stony Brook University has been one of the largest undergraduate departments. It’s no surprise that the introductory course attracts hundreds of students each semester. Introduction to Psychology, or PSY 103, also fulfills a Diversified Education Curriculum, or DEC F, requirement.

(Photo Credit: Ezra Margono)

“It’s sort of fun to find out what the current knowledge is and see if you get any understanding of the things you do,” said Nancy Franklin, a psychology professor who teaches PSY 103. “I think that people tend to make a mistake that they think it’s going to be easy. I think a lot of people get a rude awakening of what a science psychology really is.”

According to Franklin, who has taught the course for 22 years, Introduction to Psychology is the study of human behavior, processing information, relationships and so much more.

“Psychology is very closely aligned with neuroscience,” Franklin said. “A lot of things that people intuitively think are wrong. A lot of psychology is universal. It’s a diverse group of 570 people. It makes it kind of interesting.”

Cynthia Jones, a 21-year-old psychology major, took PSY 103 with Professor Anne Moyer.

“I like that because the class was an introductory course, it gave brief descriptions about other specific fields of psychology,” Jones said. “I know with me, after taking PSY 103, I knew which areas of psychology really appealed to me. The one thing I didn’t like about that course was that I felt like it was a lot of information squished into [a] not long enough time period.”

Jones’s advice for students taking this course is simple: Read.

“Do the readings,” Jones said. “I know people say that with other classes, but to understand psychology, you have to read the textbook and try to understand it in basic terms. Straight memorization doesn’t always work for psychology classes because sometimes you’ll have to answer questions based on a theory or concept as opposed to answering about it directly.”

In the upcoming fall 2011 semester, PSY 103 will be offered in two different sections. On Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:20 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. the class will be held in Javits Lecture Hall 100 with Professor Turhan Canli. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, it will be held from 3:50 p.m. to 5:10 p.m. in the same lecture hall with Professor Nancy Franklin.

BIO 101 – Human Biology

Seeing as Stony Brook University was named one of the top schools in the nation in biological sciences for 2010 in “U.S. News & World Report,” it’s no surprise that there are a wide variety of science courses offered. However, even if students have no interest in being a science major, they are still required to take two science classes. One class that about 700 non-biology majors enroll in annually is BIO 101.

Matthew Schmidt has taught Human Biology for about 10 years and said that the class has grown in popularity over the years.

“Well, it is honestly not a terribly difficult class, for a science,” Schmidt wrote in an email. “It is also popular because it is offered in the evenings in the fall, and we have a good relationship with the Athletics Department so a lot of student athletes take this class together to satisfy their requirements. I would also like to think it is because I am awesome.”

BIO 101 is a biology class specifically designed for non-majors.

“The difficulty level is definitely lower than that of a majors class, but of course it is still science and many do not find it ‘easy,’” wrote Schmidt. “Also, we focus on basic principles from the point of view of the human body – so we don’t discuss certain subjects in detail that would be covered in a majors general biology course, such as the details of metabolism, plant structure and function, etc.”

According to Schmidt, the class is made up of three midterms, the lowest of which gets dropped; a final; and a lot of extra credit opportunities.

Phil Yam took the class two years ago as a sophomore.  He enjoyed it so much that he took it again his junior year – as a teacher’s assistant.

“It’s not difficult to get an A in the class as long as you put in a little effort,” said Yam, a business major. “He [Schmidt] helps you out by offering 11 extra credit points added on to your final grade. That’s a boost of an entire grade. All you have to do is take 20 minutes out of your day once a week to walk to the Life Sciences building to take a 10-question quiz, walk to the Stony Brook Hospital to donate blood or listen to an hour-long blood lecture, and watch an in class movie, “Gattaca”, at the end of the semester.”

Schmidt says he tries to keep the class fun and students engaged, something that Yam thinks Schmidt succeeds at.

“Professor Schmidt makes the class as enjoyable as a biology class can possibly be with his corny sense of humor,” said Yam.

BIO 101 will be offered in the fall 2011 semester on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:50 p.m. to 8:10 p.m. in Javits Lecture Hall 100 with professor Matthew Schmidt.

JRN 101/103 – News Literacy

Stony Brook University is the birthplace of the Center for News Literacy.  News Literacy is a course that teaches students how to consume news. Dean Miller, the director of the Center for News Literacy, said that it is the largest lecture course on campus.

“In civic life, you need to find reliable information,” Miller said. “This generation is pretty lousy at it. They tend to think that rank is equal to reliability on search engines. They trust how things look. If a website looks good, you trust it. The point of this course is to find reliable information by using critical thinking, look at what’s missing and think about balance.”

(Photo Credit: Ezra Margono)

The Center for News Literacy was founded in 2007 as the brainchild of Howard Schneider, the dean of the School of Journalism. Miller became the center’s director in 2009, and continues to teach students how to trust the information they are consuming.

“Last fall we had almost 40 percent of the freshmen class enrolled,” Miller said.  “It’s one of the experiences that Stony Brook students have in common.”

Enrollment comes in large numbers for this course because it can be counted as one of two Diversified Education Curriculums (DECs). News Literacy can be counted either as a DEC B (JRN 101) or DEC G (JRN 103.) According to Miller, it is because it works both as a critical thinking course and a textual analysis course.

Miller calls the course a “great introduction to college.” He warns that there is a lot of rigorous work and a lot of homework.

“One of the reasons it’s popular is because it gets great ratings,” Miller said.  “A lot of students who take the course rate it as good or excellent. A lot of students also say it’s a lot of work. So it’s sort of like they’re saying ‘It’s a pain in the ass but I love it.’”

It’s not all work and no play in Miller’s class. Sometimes, they play football. Miller attaches a microphone to a small Nerf football and tosses it to students to participate.

“Every student who participates has to catch the football, even the ones who sit in the middle and try to hide from me,” Miller said.

Gabbi Dusharm took News Literacy with Miller and liked it so much that she became a journalism minor along with her biochemistry major.

“Best class I have taken so far,” Dusharm said.  “I absolutely loved it. I highly recommend the class to anyone who reads newspapers, uses a social website or receives any sort of news at any point in the day; sounds like everyone to me!”

Another incentive that might prompt students to enroll in News Literacy is the chance to get one free semester of in-state tuition.

“Every student that gets an ‘A’ on their final paper gets put in a pool and a panel of journalism professors that are not teaching News Literacy that semester grade it and pick the winner,” Miller said.

In the fall of 2010, freshman Aleksandar Gilbert-Petrovic, beat out all other students to win the scholarship.

News Literacy will be offered in 40 different sections in the fall 2011 semester, including both lectures and recitation. To find the section that best fits your schedule, check your SOLAR listings.

SOC 105 – Introduction to Sociology

Students interested in learning about the development and functioning of society are often found flocking to sociology classes. The introductory course at Stony Brook University, SOC 105, has more than 400 students enrolling in it per semester.

The course focuses on teaching students the way that sociologists interpret data in comparison to other social sciences.

“I think the course material is a great way for students to become introduced to the social sciences,” said Catherine Marrone, a professor of SOC 105. “For many students in their first year, it is in fact their first time seeing and learning about this kind of perspective and methodology.”

Jan Hipol, a junior, has taken both SOC 105 and PSY 103.

“PSY 103 and SOC 105 are almost identical in the amount of reading,” Hipol said. “They’re both pretty easy.”

Not only do students enjoy the class, but Marrone enjoys teaching it too.

“I really like to think of my introduction class as a way to excite students about the field of sociology and social sciences more generally,”  said Marrone, who has taught SOC 105 for about 11 years. “I try to get them to feel connected to the material by bringing in current examples to support sociological theory.”

Hipol has two simple pieces of advice for students looking to take this class.

“Don’t cram on the reading,” Hipol said.  “Also, try buying books off other students.”

Sociology 105 will be offered in the Fall 2011 semester on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9:35 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in Javits lecture hall 110. It will also be offered on Mondays and Fridays from 12:50 p.m. to 2:10 p.m. in Earth & Space Sciences Lecture Hall 001.

The Undergraduate Student Government, or USG, at Stony Brook University had quite a busy day on Friday, May 6. In addition to the Roth Pond Regatta in the afternoon, the USG was holding a concert later that evening. Moiz Khan Malik, USG director of events, was in charge of both. However, he needed someone to run the Regatta while he was working on the concert. That’s where Alexander Dimitriyadi steps in.

Although Dimitriyadi is the former Executive Vice President, or EVP, for the USG, Malik chose him to run the event.

Alexander Dimitriyadi speaks at the Roth Regatta. (Photo Credit: Frank Posillico)

“To think of him as outside the USG is hard for me,” Malik said. “He was a USG senator in ’09-’10 and EVP for most of this year. I guess he technically doesn’t have a title anymore. I asked him because I knew I needed someone to rely on.”

Dimitriyadi, who is also a columnist for The Statesman, was happy to help. “Between the concert and the Roth Regatta in the same day I was asked to volunteer and help out,” Dimitriyadi said. “So I was like, ‘Yeah, why not.’”

Malik wasn’t too concerned about problems on the day of the event, including the thinning of the pond. “It’s only really thinner in one area, I think, around the middle area of the peanut shape and usually by that time, the boats aren’t right next to each other, someone has a lead,” Malik said. “Also that used to get boats stuck so that actually will help the race.”

Malik said his primary role was working on the concert.

“Dimitriyadi is running the event because I have to be over at the concert, tons of work still to do for that,” Malik said. “In some way, I have to be in two places at once, but my primary role is the concert. It’s also across campus too, which makes it even more difficult, but it should be fun. There is no one on this campus I trust more to run an event as large as the Roth Regatta.”

Dimitriyadi was running the Regatta alongside Julian Cordero, the master of ceremonies.

Dimitriyadi said he coordinated a lot of the event including the spacing, staging and speakers.

“I also worked with Fratelli’s to get a free barbecue for 3,000 to 4,000 people,” Dimitriyadi said.

There were also new awards to be handed out at the Regatta.

“We have best in show, first, second and third,” said Dimitriyadi. “This is the first year we have best costume. We also have the “Kicking in the Back Seat” award for the boat that judges thought was a good boat but it didn’t race well. Then there’s the Peter M. Baigent community award for the boat that brought most people together to work on it.”

To show how well Dimtriyadi and Malik work well together, they both made the wrong prediction that the “evil boats” would win the Regatta.

Students raced boats made out of duct tape and cardboard across Roth Pond during the Roth Regatta on May 6. The race, which has gone on for 22 years, has become a popular Stony Brook tradition. (Aleef Rahman/The Statesman)

It’s the quintessential battle of good versus evil; Superhero versus villain. But this is not about the newest blockbuster movie. It’s about a tradition that has been going on for the past 22 years: The Stony Brook University Roth Pond Regatta.

On Friday, May 6, students, staff and alumni raced homemade boats down the pond located in Roth Quad. Each year, the Regatta has a different theme. The theme committee on the Undergraduate Student Government, or USG, came up with this year’s theme.

“With Roth Regatta themes, you usually need to pick something that is broad enough to allow for a decent amount of boats,” said Moiz Khan Malik, USG director of event programing. “So we had some ideas like “Alice in Wonderland.” Someone on the theme committee said superheroes, then someone else said superheroes versus villains. And then, bam: we had a theme everyone was fine with.”

Students certainly had fun with the theme. Boats ranged from the “S.S. Kenny” to the “Batmobile.”

“The idea is to give a broad idea and let the creativity of the students do the rest,” Malik said.

Groups could have created two kinds of boats, a speedster or a yacht. A speedster is a boat that can have one or two people racing in it, while a yacht can hold up to four. According to race guidelines, boats could only be constructed out of cardboard, rope, duct tape, paint, wax, cloth for a sail and glue. Boats could only be up to 20 feet long.

There was one group that decided to make a statement and disregard the guidelines. The Environmental Club constructed a boat that was completely made up of 834 water bottles.

“Instead of using cardboard, which is trees, we used water bottles because it made a good statement,” said Alex Catti, a freshman theater arts and Italian secondary education major and a member of the Environmental Club. “We can’t qualify to win anything, but we can still race.”

Speedsters and yachts would face off in separate heats. There were 16 heats in all, and the winners of each heat would face off against each other again in the finals.

In heat four, the race couldn’t start until a goose left the pond. When it didn’t seem as though the goose was leaving, the race started. At the sound of the horn, the goose took off down the pond ahead of the boats, and was technically the winner of that heat. However, the “S.S. Kenny” was the first to cross the finish line after it, and was declared that heat’s winner.

In heat six, it was a close battle between a Pokémon themed boat, “Team Rocket,” and the Stony Brook Fencing team’s boat. Their boats crashed into each other, but that didn’t stop “Team Rocket’s” boat, made to look like the Pokémon Gyarados, from winning and moving on in the competition. This all happened while the theme song from the show played in the background.

In the finals for the speedsters, “Racecar,” “IAP Geocruiser” “Cardozo” and “Silver Surfers” faced off to take home the first place prize. Tim Tedesco single-handedly took home the prize in his boat, “Racecar.” Tedesco, a graduate student, competed in the race for the first time this year and raced by himself because he “doesn’t need anyone else.” His boat was a clever take on the Regatta’s theme.

“I always said if I was a superhero, my superpower would be seeing in reverse,” Tedesco said. “Racecar is spelled the same in reverse.”

Tedesco was lucky enough to get more than just the trophy for winning the race.

“I’m pretty satisfied,” he said. “I made a bet with my girlfriend and I get an hour massage from her, because her boat lost in her heat. Also, I did this hung over.”

The Lauterbur Powerpuff won the Peter M. Baigent Community Award for being the "boat that brought the most people together to work on it." (Ezra Margono/The Statesman)

The finals for the yachts had three boats battling it out for the trophy: “Team Rocket” versus “Dec K” versus “Beowulf.” This was a close race all through to the end. “Team Rocket” and “Beowulf” were neck and neck until “Beowulf” pulled ahead ever so slightly and won by a nose — or by a dragon’s head.

“Beowulf” was a superhero boat with a dragon slayer theme. It was put together with a lot of teamwork; Erik Zodan, Harrison Last, Steven French, Courtney Teska, Rick Sparozic, and James Farrell all helped to create the boat, while Nick Tagliasacchi, Mike Provenzano, The Statesman photo editor Kenneth Ho and Argyrios Pappas raced in it.

“We worked on it all this week,” said Sparozic, a mechanical engineering major. “We used 40 rolls of duct tape and paint.”

This is the second year in a row that this team has won the yacht race. “This is unbelievable,” said Tagliasacchi, a senior. “I’m freezing cold, but this is awesome.”