Donoghue began his speech by talking about debilitating diseases that can be treated Deep Brain Stimulation. He showed a side-by-side video of a woman suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The left screen showed her hand quivering, the right screen showed the same hand not moving. The woman been treated with DBS, a treatment where electrodes are placed in the subthalamic nucleus, a Tic-Tac-sized area deep in the brain. DBS has been shown to improve hyperactivity, ADHD, OCD, epilepsy and dementia. More than 80,000 people have gone through DBS to help treat their disease.
Claire Gladstein of Roslyn, New York was intrigued by the possibility that Donoghue’s research could possibly help children who suffer from mental handicaps. Gladstein was a special education teacher for 40 years, and she can see the possibility of this helping children with hyperactivity and ADHD.

“I would be very happy with the success of his research if there was no need for special education teachers,” said Gladstein.
The team at Brown is currently working on a Brain Computer Interface, or as Donoghue called it, “BrainGate.”
“BrainGate’s vision is to re-connect the brain to the external world to recreate actions performed by the arm and hand,” said Donoghue.
One of the subjects for BrainGate, a man named Matt, was stabbed in high in the neck at the second cervical vertebrae. This type of injury usually produces paralysis. Using BrainGate Matt was able to control a circle on the screen and play a simplistic video game using only his thoughts.

Donoghue and his team implanted a tiny chip into Matt’s brain that was picking up signals of his intentions to move his arm and they translated it into a command signal. The command signal was then sent to the computer and the computer reacts as though it was being controlled by the mouse- but it was really Matt’s brain. BrainGate bypassed the inoperable functions of Matt’s nervous system.

Seems complicated at first. It’s actually quite simple. Being paralyzed isn’t a disease. The brain is still functional; it’s just that the brain has lost communication with the muscles and/or the spinal cord. BrainGate’s goal is to bypass the missing link by grabbing signals in the brain and decoding them so that machines can read them, and then turns it into action.

The target for this experiment was the primary motor cortex, the region of the brain responsible for sending signals to the arm that make it move.

The microelectrode array implanted in the brain is four millimeters in length. It goes on the outside of the cerebral cortex, which then goes to a connector in the skin, about the size of a penny. The connector has about 100 signals on it, and those signals are then brought to the outside world.

Donoghue and his team then implanted the electrode into the motor cortex of a monkey. The monkey had to make two dots on a screen touch using a joystick while the scientists monitored activity in his brain. Every time the monkey did this, he was rewarded with a drop of juice. They realized if they could decode those signals, they could take away the joystick and hook up the electrodes in his head straight to the computer so it could decode activity sans-joystick. They then ran the same experiment on Matt.

Donoghue told the audience about a patient named Cathy who suffers from locked-in syndrome. She is fully awake and aware of her surroundings, but she can’t move or talk, she can only blink. Cathy’s technician asked her to imagine her opening and closing her hand. As she opened her hand, her motor cortex produced signals as if she was opening and closing her hand. The robotic arm that was linked to her brain reacted to the commands. The motor cortex was stimulated and the signals were decoded so the robot arm could read them and Cathy, who cannot move from the neck down, was able to make a robotic arm move a glass of water.

The BrainGate project still has many factors to explore, such as safety, durability, reliability, and if they are cosmetically acceptable.
“In 15 years, hopefully people who are paralyzed, and literally cannot move, will be able to control robotic arms, to at least take care of some of the day-to-day functions,” said Dr. Craig Evinger, a professor of Neurobiology, Behavior and Ophthalmology.

One of the staples of the festival is the information about Fair Tade practices and companies. Fair Trade aims to create sustainable practices and farms, recyclable products, produce free of chemicals and ensures labor rights and appropriate wages for workers. One of the most popular areas of Fair Trade is in the coffee industry, with companies like Starbucks and Green Mountain Coffee both helping workers and farmers to earn a stable living through their produce.

At Earthstock, SBU’s Oxfam America chapter and Sobornost for the World Foundation, Inc. had tables promoting Fair Trade. The two groups are non-profit organizations that are supported by donations and try to raise money and awareness in an effort to end extreme hunger and poverty.
According to their website, Oxfam America’s mission is to “create lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and social injustice.” The Oxfam table at Earthstock gave away Fair Trade milk and dark chocolate, as well as accepting meal point donations for the organization. The main attraction to the table came from the club’s free pots that festival attendees could fill with soil and plant seeds in, ranging from marigolds and dahlias to cilantro and hot peppers. Club President Nader Nouraee explained the message the Oxfam America table was spreading.

“Right now we’re launching a grow campaign. It’s about spreading awareness of Fair Trade, because there are a lot of farmers and small farm communities that are being exploited by larger corporations, and there’s a lot of injustice going around regarding who gets how many crops and who gets properly paid for their labor,” Nouraee said.

Oxfam America is currently considered one of the best non-governmental organizations in the world and is supported by many other groups, and bands such as Coldplay and Radiohead. Not only does the humanitarian organization support Fair Trade practices that benefit workers and farmers, but the club members at the table were also informing students of the widespread issues of hunger faced by many in impoverished countries.
“It’s estimated that one billion people go to bed hungry every night,” Nouraee said. “That’s one in seven people, so we’re trying to bring an end to that by spreading awareness.”

Further down the academic mall towards the fountain was the table for the World Village Fair Trade Market. The store in Hampton Bays, opened by Sobornost for the World Foundation, Inc., supports countries and their workers in making recyclable and sustainable products in order to earn a living. Members of the organization also help teach these same workers in African and Indian countries how to turn the resources available to them into sellable products.

Some of the items for sale were three-dimensional magnets in the shape of various animals and jewelry made from recycled paper, wall sculptures created from old metal drums and bracelets made from recycled saris in India. Painted pan flutes, whistles and messenger bags were some of the other popular items at the table, and also available at the store and on their website.

Eileen McPhelin, the store’s manager who helped to run the table at Earthstock, said the doors of the World Village Fair Trade Market have been open for ten years selling products from across the globe. She explained what Fair Trade means and the mission of the founding organization, Sobornost for the World Foundation, Inc.

“Fair trade means that all the people who make [the products], all the artisans, are guaranteed a fair living wage and there is no child or slave labor involved,” she said.

McPhelin said that the prices of the goods sold are marked up so that the profits made are put towards taking care of orphans in Kenya and Zambia. “So it’s a double-mission that we have going on,” she added.

The products on sale at the store in Hampton Bays and at the table at Earthstock were made in several different countries including Cambodia, Guatemala, Thailand and India, as well as countries across the African continent. McPhelin described some of the various materials the artisans used to make the pieces that were for sale, such as used rice bags, newspaper clippings and flips flops, but said that not everything is recycled; many things are just indigenous to where the workers live. Organization members also employee themselves to these countries to aid in the manufacturing of these items.

“Usually about six months of the year [members of the organization are] living with these people and helping them to develop so that they can market something…other than what they may be used to doing for hundreds of years. They’re traditionally doing what they like, but then incorporating [ways] to be a little bit more sellable,” McPhelin said.

One of the pledges for the World Village Fair Trade Market was on the front of the pamphlets handed out to buyers at the event: “Providing Fair Trade Products Made with Pride, Sold with Hope, Bought with Conscience.” This reminded event-goers that they were purchasing products that benefited a just cause. Oxfam America and Sobornost for the World Foundation, Inc. will assuredly continue to be definitive and easily accessible non-profit organizations that will spread awareness and help support impoverished families and workers around the globe to create better working and living conditions for as many people they can reach out to as possible.

The recent close of the main election and runoffs have resulted in members of the Seawolves for Change party occupying a whopping 22 seats in the organization, something that Machalow has concerns about.

“Unfortunately, you build a ticket to win,” Machalow said. She explained that a common tactic of this year’s election, and one that was often used by the now dominant Seawolves for Change, was to recruit many people that you think can win, and to get them to run alongside you, not concerning themselves with competence or whether or not they’d be good for the job. “We’ve seen that that doesn’t work all the time. You get a senate that doesn’t ask questions, that sits there silently and stares blankly at the chair. It doesn’t work.”

She further elaborated that those recruited into the ranks of Seawolves for Change are those interested in jockeying for university sports clubs.

Machalow also had growing concerns about the campaign tactics of the recent election, believing many of the candidates and parties to be stooping to nefarious and unethical campaigning practices in their quest for seats in the organization, breaking several rules and regulations set forth by USG and the university.

For example, regulations forbid any campaigning within 100 feet of a SINC site, COLA, a computer lab with four or more university-owned computers, as well as campus residences. Reports indicate that numerous parties were in violation of these regulations, and at least one unnamed party was responsible for “dorm storming” as part of the electioneering process. “There were repeated reports of people dorm storming and the elections board has done nothing, as far as I can tell.” she said.

In addition, the Student Conduct Code forbids candidates and parties from posting a message on multiple listservs in the attempt to reach the most people possible. “I would argue that at least one party went to multiple listservs with the same message,” Machalow said.

Campaigning parties were also guilty of directly violating electioneering regulations concerning the posting of fliers and other campaign materials on community bulletin boards. A notable example is the reporting of former presidential candidate of the Students United Party, Adil Hussain, for violating posting statutes.

“It was just disgusting. The whole thing makes me sick,” she said.

Another reservation Machalow has is the lack of experience and knowledge of the new senators and executive board members.

“Amy [Pomeroy] was a voting member of USG SAB and a front desk girl,” she said, further explaining that Pomeroy’s sole experience in the senate was a single day in which she proxied a senate meeting last year. “She spent the entire meeting on her phone and has been reported as saying that she never wanted to attend another senate meeting. She’s going to be running meetings next year.”

Machalow also believes that in order to adequately serve as an officer of USG, and especially the position of Executive Vice President, they must have experience as a senator first. “You don’t learn parliamentary procedure by reading Robert’s Rules of Order, as beautifully annotated as my copy is,” she said, gesturing to her copy. “You learn it by doing it and acting it out.”

“I still know the laws better than anyone else. I can talk parliamentary procedural circles around people.” she added.

Questions were also raised about the legitimacy of the current election board. “I’d be very interested to know if we actually had a full elections board. We [USG] are required to have between 5 and 15 people. I can only think of four,” she explained. Having a full elections board is important because they are the ones responsible for regulatory matters concerning parties and candidates, and an incomplete board would result in inadequate regulation.

“Elections should be easy, but they’re not. Especially when you don’t have an elections board that knows what it’s doing,” said Machalow.

A little known fact brought up by Machalow was the requirement of all parties and candidates to officially declare all campaign expenditures and donations to the elections board within 10 days of the conclusion of an election.

“I’d be very interested to know if Seawolves for Change declared their shirts, or if SUP declared their pens. Because, fun fact, the election laws state that if you don’t do this you are ineligible to take the office you won and also ineligible to hold any other position in USG.” However, Machalow doubts that the current elections board will take any action if there is a violation of the laws.

Ultimately, it isn’t Machalow that will have to deal with the newly elected members, it is the very student body that voted them in. The student body that they are to serve.

“The students will get the government they elect. If they choose to elect incompetent and corrupt individuals, the government will reflect that.”

Almost every club received a small increase in their funding, while some, like the Fine Arts Organization and the Japanese Student Organization, received double the amount of the previous year’s allocation.

There were, however, some notable exceptions to the increased funding. A number of religious organizations—Catholic Campus Club, Gospel Choir, Hillel, Orthodox Christian Fellowship, Intervarsity—all received a decreased amount in comparison to last year’s budget.

The political clubs also saw a change with the College Republicans shrinking from $15,070 in the 2011-2012 academic year to $8,384 for 2012-2013. Interestingly, they still received more than the College Democrat’s $7,500 budget.

Another development was the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transsexual Alliance’s budget increase. In the drastic 2011-2012 budget cuts that consumed almost every club, aside from the Student Activities Board, the LGBTA dropped from $13,500 to $8,489.

According to the LGBTA’s secretary, Nolan Theodore, the club was “not able to function to our optimum level this year” due to the budget cuts and a speaker cap that has since been repealed.

Thomas Kirnbauer, the 2011-2012 USG treasurer, said that the reason for some of the decreases in funding was the fact that 15 clubs did not send in their budget applications, even when the deadline was extended. As a result, any club that wanted to apply for funding in the Spring could only receive 66 percent of the previous year’s budget.

“If a club doesn’t apply in Spring, then we don’t want to reward them when they apply later,” Kirnbauer said when explaining the law.

There is also the option of event grants, an opportunity for event funding that was provided after last year’s budget cuts. Of course, any organization that does not host events cannot apply for this extra funding.

Kirnbauer’s successor, Allen Abraham, said in an email that the process of applying for funding would be simplified when he takes over office.

“By remedying certain problems with the budget I meant that I want to make the process fairer and simpler,” said Abraham. “I will talk with club leaders next year to see where they face difficulty and look into ways to simplify the process.”

Abraham also mentioned that it is not fair to say what clubs deserve the most revision and that the process of allocation depends on who is eligible and who actually applies.

One organization that has undergone much scrutiny is the Student Activities Board, a USG agency that is in charge of providing on-campus entertainment as well as organizing events like Roth Regatta and Wiz Khalifa concert.

In the last budget, SAB received $534,887, the largest allocation of funds to any club. There were rumors circulating that $100,000 of the SAB budget was not spent, but according to Kirnbauer “there was a huge misconception,” and the rumors were unsubstantiated.

He did mention, however, that SAB had a few issues with booking artists to come out to Stony Brook and perform.

“The biggest problem is definitely the athletics arena,” said Kirnbauer when describing the difficulties with booking talent. “We have to book a year in advance, we only get one day for prep and one day for pack-down. It’s hard to find big names to perform on specific dates.”

He also mentioned that SAB was a new organization within USG, so they were learning while on the job.

According to Kirnbauer, SAB will begin booking the Student Activities Center ballroom for every Thursday to provide a space for incoming performers. This will hopefully alleviate the problem of venue space and prevent awkwardly timed concerts, like last semester’s Sunday night Chiddy Bang concert.

With the academic year drawing to a close, we look forward, with hope, to a year full of activities and events hosted by Stony Brook’s clubs. Perhaps we will finally return to the glory days of Stony Brook’s concert series.

A Stony Brook club, Free the Children, held a panel on Monday, April 16, to discuss the details related to Martin’s shooting, the trial and the entire ordeal as portrayed by the media. The discussion panel was one of several being hosted at Stony Brook as a medium for students to vent their frustrations and voice their opinions on the controversy that has stunned the nation.

The panel was made up of the club’s executive board and some members, who instead of picking a side weighed in with factors that contributed to the public’s formation of an opinion on the case. They scrutinized the media, and it’s handling of the case.

“The whole entire media sensation happened a month after this occurred,” said Patrick Lim, head of public relations for Free the Children.

They also discussed the media’s use of old pictures of Martin, not ones that accurately portrayed how he looked the day he was shot.

The panel also observed that the media has been clearly pro-Martin. “The media always pick a side. Trayvon is a victim, which I totally agree with,” said club secretary Shawn Chacko.

Every student there was clearly angry at George Zimmerman, the man who shot Martin.

“He claims he’s the neighborhood watchman, but he’s not,” said Chacko, as the rest of the panel agreed.

“It’s worse when people in power do it and don’t suffer any repercussions because they’re in power,” added Lim.

The police’s handling of the case also prompted a dialogue. It was agreed on by the entire board that the police could have handled the entire situation more effectively.

“Police have done all things wrong that they possibly could have done,” said Chacko.

Free the Children was discussing the shooting of Trayvon Martin because that the club aims to prevent similar cases from occurring, according to Chacko.

“The purpose of our club is to shine a light on the injustices happening around the world [so] this kind of thing can be avoided,” said Chacko.

Lim recalled a tweet from a Will Smith parody account: “We live in America where a girl that threw flour on Kim Kardashian was arrested on site but the man who killed Trayvon Martin is still free.” If students are upset about how the aftermath of the murder plays out, at least students on campus have somewhere to talk about it.

“We never know our life’s chances, until we know our life’s choices,” Smiley said. He is the host of several public television and radio shows, including PBS’ late-night talk show Tavis Smiley and co-hosts Smiley & West, with fellow event speaker, Cornel West. Smiley inspires the next generation as a broadcaster, author, advocate and philanthropist, and continues to be an influential voice for change.

“This is a love tour, that’s really what it is,” said West. He is one of the nation’s leading public intellectuals, and is an educator and philosopher. West is a university professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, and holds more than 20 honorary degrees.

Smiley started off the presentation by getting right down to business, letting the packed house know that we “need to care about the least among us.”

He spoke about his relationship with Bill Clinton, and his thoughts about what he refused to call welfare “reform.”

“Bill Clinton is my friend,” Smiley said, “but he was wrong to sign that welfare bill 15 years ago.”

The discussion of Clinton brought up the subject of the presidential debates, and Smiley made it a point to say, “In the three presidential debates in 2008, you never heard the words ‘poor’ or ‘poverty’ once.”

Smiley openly talked about his childhood, “I know this story because I lived this story.” Coming from a family of 13 kids, he lived in a three-bedroom, one-bathroom trailer. “You can build an entire life on hope, but even hope these days needs help,” Smiley added.

Smiley cleared his throat and introduced the audience to West, who stood up and asked the audience, “What does it mean to be human?”

West effectively used his witty charm and humor to highlight the histories of poverty in different racial communities, while bringing the diverse audience together in recognizing this growing problem in America.

“For so long, poverty has been associated with people of color,” West said, then adding, “but [then] it starts spilling over on the vanilla side of town.” Laughter filled the room, and for the first time, poverty was looked at as something more than just a burden in life, but an obstacle that could be conquered. “Only the strong survive it,” said West. “It requires being creative.”

Following the talk, a Q&A was held, giving the audience a chance to question Smiley and West. When asked what Stony Brook University’s role is in breaking poverty, West said, having a voice in our society is something that we can all do. “Students should always be a part [of] the community,” West added.

As the night came to a close, the audience rose and the sound of clapping echoed through the Staller Center. Poverty is something that needs to be addressed, “sooner than right now, and quicker than at once,” Smiley said.

This semester Lubitz managed to balance her 23 credit schedule with singing the national anthem at Basketball games, participating in and helping organize on campus events such as Earthstock and Elect Her, and heavily campaigning for the presidency.

Lubitz, an avid Star Wars fan and commuter who grew up very close to campus likes to say she’s been attending Stony Brook since the sixth grade, when she started spending her summers here at science camp.

“I have a driving passion for the University,” Lubitz said of her decision to run for president.

As a very active member of the campus community, she feels she understands  what USG could do to have a stronger presence among the student body.

“It’s sad that a lot of students don’t know who is representing them,” she said. “I want the senators to get out of the office to really talk to people and see what is happening and what needs to happen.”

Lubitz is a member of many on campus clubs and organizations, including the Commuter Student Association and the Pre-Vet Society.  Her involvement with clubs, as well as her position as a senator, has given her a unique perspective of the relationship USG has with such organizations.

“The combination of everything I’ve done has prepared me for this,” Lubitz said.

Lubitz, a member of the Seawolves for Change party, promised improved communication as a major part of her platform.

“We need to open up and reach out to more organizations,” Lubitz said. “People need to know and be reminded of deadlines and important dates.”

Her first step in closing the gap between USG and clubs would include making sure USG has up-to-date contact information for Executive Board members of clubs so that they can send out e-mails and notices to groups efficiently.

“It does no good if we have the e-mail address of the club president from 2009 listed,” Lubitz said.

She also would like to hold more town hall discussions for students to voice their opinions.

“I want to make Stony Brook a much closer community,” Lubitz said.  “We are all representatives of the same school.”

Another of her proposed improvements for USG includes working with the Student Activities Board to plan bigger and better events.

“If you’re going to do it, you have to do it right,” Lubitz said of the major events on campus.  “I want events that people will remember.”

In response to all the budget issues SAB has faced in the past two years, Lubitz thinks a better watch of the agency is necessary.

“They need a substantial budget to do what they do,” she said. “We have to closely monitor that large amount to make it work.”

Of all the things she has done on campus, there are several that stand out as inspiration for her choice to run.  The Elect Her event, of which Lubitz served as a student liason and spoke at as part of a panel, held in mid-March was a major milestone for her campaign.

“It was a wonderful experience,” Lubitz said of the training session that Stony Brook was chosen for based on an application submitted by Executive Vice President Deborah Machalow.

“I was able to apply the lessons learned there to my campaign,” Lubitz said. “It made me more willing to take on this challenge.”

Lubitz also feels the class SOC 268: Theory and Practice in Student Leadership was beneficial to her campaign.

“I really learned about myself as a leader,” she said of the class.

As for all the clubs and organizations Lubitz is currently involved in, she will have to wait and see if her schedule next year will allow her to continue.

“My elected position comes first,” she said. “I don’t want to spread myself too thin.”

“Swallow This!” a program run by the Center for Prevention & Outreach Health Education Office and the Department of Theatre Arts, performed dramatized real-life experiences of Stony Brook students involving alcohol and drug abuse. The show is designed to educate the audience about substance misuse, abuse and dependence.

The subjects vary from students who abuse drugs to students who have been sexually assaulted. One skit about suicide left a question for the audience to answer themselves, “have you ever wanted to be perfect?” Others portrayed girls wanting to be prettier, wishing they looked like their friends instead of themselves.

Yanil Nunez, a sociology and psychology double-major, thought the performance “was a creative way to address a lot of campus issues.” One skit that really stood out for Nunez was the story of a girl who had been sexually assaulted.

“I was actually really shocked the sexual assault skit was so short in comparison to others, Nunez said. “I am well aware that these cases do occur on campus so I would have liked to see more emphasis on it.”

Another well-performed bit was on drug abuse, and included the performers running around the room. “The performance was great. They covered almost every aspect that young students encounter during their college career,” said Matilde Acevedo, a Spanish and sociology double-major.

Following the prepared performances, they opened it up to improvisation, asking the audience if anyone had any stories they wanted them to perform. The actors were given three minutes to consult and then acted out a scene written on a card by an audience member. The improv was a really cool way of giving the audience a chance to get involved

“It offers valuable information regarding campus resources for different issues while still maintaining the audience members attention through entertainment,” Nunez said.

As the performance came to a close, there was unison hand clapping as the house lights slowly turned back on and people started making their way to the doors. It was a performance that everyone in the audience should keep in mind because things like drug abuse and suicide can occur anywhere. It helps to be reminded that it can happen on campus as well. Now swallow that.

“I won’t start one, but I won’t walk away from one either,” Tyson said in the documentary. The 45-year-old holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the World Boxing Council, World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation heavyweight titles; he was 20 years old at the time.

The documentary started off with Tyson reminiscing about his early years. At the age of 12 he was arrested for the first time, and by the age of 13, he had been arrested nearly 38 times. Tyson was sent to Tryon School for Boys in Johnstown, New York. It was at this school that Tyson was introduced to the sport of boxing and was discovered by Bobby Stewart, a juvenile detention counselor and former boxer. Stewart trained Tyson for a few months before he introduced him to Constantine “Cus” D’Amato.

Tyson and Cus’s relationship was stronger than that of any other trainer and fighter. “Even though he is my manager and trainer, I forget that sometimes,” Tyson said in the documentary. In the winter of 1985, Cus passed away leaving Tyson, who was 19 at the time, heartbroken and lost. “I felt very naked to the world,” Tyson said. “He taught me to be furious inside and out.” In the year that followed Cus’s death, Tyson became the Heavy Weight Champion of the World. “I wore the belt around my waist for three weeks,” Tyson said, adding, “I even wore it to the store, I was so proud.”

His life took a turn for the worse when he was accused of raping an 18-year-old girl in July of 1991. On February 10, 1992, Tyson was convicted of rape and was sentenced to three years in prison. “It basically took the life out of me,” Tyson said. “It’s a hard pillow to sleep on.” After being released from prison, he went back to fighting and won the Heavy Weight title one last time in 1996. He is now retired with six kids, and he ended the documentary by saying, “What I did in my past is history and what I do in the future is a mystery.”

Following the documentary, a panel discussion was held, hosted by Jed Morey, publisher of the Long Island Press, to “discuss the role of drug and alcohol abuse, and the social construction of masculinity in spiking incidences of violence against women.” Other panelists included: Nicole Behrens, Vice President at Merrill Lynch, who endured an abusive relationship for over a decade, and is now a board member of The Retreat. Charles Robbins, DSW, LCSW, Vice President for Undergraduate Education and Dean of the Undergraduate Colleges here at Stony Brook. He is also a clinical consultant and member of the leadership council of Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (LICADD). Paul Hokemeyer, J.D., Ph.D., a licensed family therapist, and a part of the Dr. Oz Show Panel of Experts, and Robert Lenahan, the Police Chief for the University Police Department since 2008.

All panelists agreed that violence is about control. Robbins made a clear point that, “not all abusers look like Mike Tyson. It’s not a cookie cutter; people don’t look a certain type.”

Behrens indicated a few key signs that might reveal a domestic violence situation. For example, needing to know where you are and who you are with all the time, and making you believe everyone else in your life, like your family, isn’t looking out for your best interests, like they are. “Tyson never referred to women as an individual, more like an object,” Behrens said.

Robbins added, “We need to be careful to not look for the stereotypes.”

Behrens openly admitted that she was in an abusive relationship. “It’s a slow process; they chip away at your self-esteem and self worth.”

When asked if fighters are prone to be aggressive, Lenahan said “domestic violence crosses all borders.” Being a former Deputy Inspector for the New York City Police Department, he was responsible for implementing aggressive crime reduction strategies which assisted in overall crime reduction throughout NYC.

The panelists closed with remarks about educating others about domestic violence. Behrens made an important statement that, “educating young men and women to look for these sign is something that needs to be done.”

It was certainly an important evening at the Wang Center, which educated those who attended about the subject of domestic violence and what we all can do to help prevent it. Tyson was really hard-hitting, giving the audience a brutally honest look into the life of the notorious former World Heavy Weight Champion.

A huge challenge faced by any event planner, like the director of Stony Brook University’s Special Programming Agency, is managing to find the time and space appropriate for any event.

Jackie Cowles, this year’s SPA director seemed well prepared for the challenge.  After working with RockYoFaceCase for several semesters, Cowles knew the amount of work required for successful events on a college campus. The SPA director is the one and only organizational position in the Student Activities Board, and is responsible for pitching and planning large, expensive campus events, like last year’s Bruno Mars concert. The position also involves coordinating relationships with other campus clubs that want to plan events on campus but need funding assistance from SAB’s roughly $530,000 budget.

“I chose to apply for the job in SAB because it was event planning, much like the work [I had] experience with,” Cowles said.

While her event planning skills lined up with what the USG job would involve, Cowles was still hesitant to apply.

“With RockYoFace, it’s a very organic, natural and raw environment,” Cowles said. “I never pictured myself working for USG, because it’s so different.”

The challenges associated with planning events on campus often mean dealing with an administration that has a history of imposing difficulties on student event organizations, like forcing expensive and excessive security measures that USG has no control over.

Former SPA Director Moiz Khan can testify to this.

“Our biggest challenge was a bunch of people in administration who weren’t very fond of taking risks,” said Khan. “My approach has always been slash and burn, and if someone gets in your way, then you steamroll them.” This ideology feeds into Khan’s reputation and w\career with USG. Along with others—like former USG Executive Vice President Alexander Dimitriyadi—Khan advocated for the controversial 2010 Establishment of Student Life Act that completely restructured SAB and created the SPA Director position. Khan himself would later serve as the first SPA Director.

He is quick to highlight that administration’s adversarial stance is nothing new. “I met some people at an event last semester who worked on the concert series back in the 70s and 80s, and the first thing they told me was how difficult it was working with the administration.”

Cowles found herself in for an even more complicated situation when she learned the spaces and dates reserved by SAB for the fall and spring semesters did not match up with the events the student body would be most interested in.

“We had one concert on a Sunday night because it was the best we could do,” Cowles said of last semester’s Chiddy Bang concert. “It was out of my hands.”

Another potential concert featuring Manchester Orchestra had to be completely scrapped because the only available space was the Student Activities Center auditorium, where students would have to remain seated throughout the show.

“That’s not the kind of show I would want to go to, so I wouldn’t have expected students to want to go either,” Cowles said. “It’s not a good concert atmosphere.”

Khan offered an explanation for this, stating that the system in which events are booked on campus is to blame.

“You don’t book a room for a concert, and then try to book the artist. That’s not how it works,” said Khan. “What you do is you find an artist that people want, and then you find a date that works for them, not the other way around.”

According to current policy, the SPA Director will book venues on campus and dates for events a year ahead of time. This leaves the next SPA Director with the task of finding artists to fill those spaces during those pre-determined times, which can be difficult. SAB, despite being an arm of USG, is still technically a university club and is allowed no preference when it comes to booking venues like the SAC Ballroom or the Sports Complex.

While Cowles is proud of the events she helped coordinate, her biggest regret is that she could not secure an alternative rock band for any date. As a big fan of the genre, Cowles said she would have loved to host an event that featured one of her personal favorites, like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But divisions within USG over the band’s relevancy, and their massive $150,000 price tag, kept them off the table.

“I’d rather have a sold-out show than a band that I love,” she said. “There’s so much diversity among music tastes so it’s really hard.”

Cowles hopes that whoever takes over her job in the future has fewer issues with planning. Cowles secured as many dates as she could for next year to make it much easier for her successor. She also hopes they will have an actual agency to assist them because, as it stands now, the SPA Director has only a contracted assistant to help with all of the organizational duties, alongside the planning and carrying out of concert ideas. The contracted assistant position, currently held by graduate student and co-founder of RockYoFaceCase Patrice Zapiti, will only exist next year if USG decides to extend the contract.

“I wish I had more people working with me,” Cowles said. “Hopefully that’ll happen in the future.”