The room defines the station itself: edgy and eclectic—a personality that has made WUSB widely popular on campus and off.

But despite that popularity, the station is struggling. This year the Undergraduate Student Government cut WUSB’s finances by roughly $9,000, from a budget of $72,000 last year to the station’s current one of $63,000. As recently as the 2009-2010 academic year, WUSB received over $80,000, making the cuts over the past two years total about $25,000.

Davanelos, WUSB’s program director, says the cuts are detrimental to the station’s operations.

“They affect us in a whole slew of ways,” he says. “We already run on a shoestring. Cutting our funding prevents us from doing our job.”

WUSB’s budget is used to pay bills—a $1,000 monthly Verizon phone bill and a $4,500 monthly lease on a transmitter tower. Additionally, the station pays satellite fees and a fee to run its Integrated Service Digital Network line, which is used to broadcast to other stations. And because WUSB uses old equipment, including a 1967 analog board, repairs are frequent and costly, Davanelos says. He adds that deejays sometimes use their own money to replace damaged equipment.

Because WUSB does not advertise, it holds donation drives. Years ago it would receive as much as $55,000 in donations from listeners across the country. But with the slumping economy, Davanelos says, donations have dropped to around $22,000. The station used to put those donated funds towards updating equipment, but now the money is only used to pay the bills the station’s budget cannot cover.

But WUSB is not the only student media group at Stony Brook with a shrinking budget. USG cut about $66,000 from the seven funded student-run media outlets this year. Isobel Breheny-Schafer, Assistant Director for Student Media, says that for the past three years funding to student media groups has dwindled significantly, and many groups have faced problems with USG. In the 2010-2011 academic year, the Statesman, which also relies on advertising revenue, lost almost all of its funding, forcing the paper to limit its publishing from twice a week to once a week. SBU-TV, the campus-wide television station, saw its budget freeze last spring after USG took it over to refurbish it.

Breheny-Schafer says she is worried about whether or not this trend will continue.

“My concern is, if this keeps happening, then there will be no more campus journalism,” she says. “They won’t be able to cover as much campus news.”

Student media groups use their budgets differently than other funded clubs and organizations. Rather than using funds to host events or pay for trips, they use theirs strictly for operational purposes. Print publications such as the Statesman and The Press pay for camera equipment, office supplies and layout software along with printing fees every time they publish. Even online publications have to pay for domain space as well as camera equipment and office supplies.

Broadcast media groups, however, normally require higher budgets because their equipment is more expensive and they are required to pay additional fees in order to broadcast.

USG Treasurer Thomas Kirnbauer says USG did not specifically target student media outlets when forming this year’s budget.

“We do not cut clubs/organizations based on the service they provide to the campus,” he says. “Therefore, to say we are doing so or to ask if media groups will get their budget cut further is completely under false pretenses.”

But many of Breheny-Schafer’s concerns stretch beyond the funding of student media. Many of the groups’ memberships, including SBU-TV, are increasing, but budget cuts mean fewer resources will be available to students so they all can participate and voice their concerns on campus.

The assistant director says she is also concerned about the new financial bylaws, which became effective last semester. Section 118, Subsection 6 of the legislation states that every club and organization must host at least one event on campus each semester that is entirely or partly funded by the Student Activity Fee. In January, the Asian American Journal lost its budget of at least $2,800; on USG’s website Kirnbauer writes that this occurred because the group violated the bylaw. While Breheny-Schafer worries about how this will affect other student media, Kirnbauer says AAJ lost its funding because it didn’t spend any money at all.

“I interpreted the rule very, very loosely,” he says. “As long as the media groups spent some amount of money, I didn’t consider it a violation of the rules.”

But perhaps the most questionable of USG’s actions concerning student media, and the one that troubles Breheny-Schafer, is its acquisition of SBU-TV. Last spring, after SBU-TV allocated for more equipment so it could stream some of its content digitally, USG found that the station’s service was outdated. The organization passed the Reformation of SBU Television Act, acquiring the station and freezing its budget so it could not operate. The act states that USG will restructure the station, but SBU-TV President Andy Mavra says there’s been little process.

“As far as I know there has been little effort by USG in terms of trying to restructure SBU-TV,” Mavra says. “And if there have been efforts they have all been done without discussing it with the currently existing members of the club. As far as I know USG has not used our studios for anything productive or in favor of other students since they kicked us out.”

Mavra, a cinema and cultural studies major, says that any progress with the station’s reformation is thanks to members of SBU-TV. Although the station is technically still recognized as a club and still holds meetings, it has no definitive meeting space, useable budget or access to its equipment. Mavra says more people have expressed interest in helping it regain activity.

“From the time our studios got closed down SBU-TV has made it clear that we are open to the idea of change and want to work with USG to help turn SBU-TV into the more open, student-friendly organization they claimed they wanted,” he says, “But in the year that has passed little to no effort has been done to achieve that.”

“We understand that money is being cut from most clubs, especially in the media department, but our main goal is to simply get the use of our studio and already-owned equipment back,” he adds.

USG President Mark Maloof could not be reached for a comment.

Breheny-Schaefer and Davanelos, say the way USG handles Stony Brook’s student media needs to change. Both agree that USG is potentially preventing students from developing crucial job skills. Many Stony Brook alumni have gone obtained jobs at well-known, respected news media outlets because of their involvement with student-run media organizations. Scott Higham, once a writer for The Press long before the School of Journalism was established, is now a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The Washington Post. Shivana Harriram, the current news director at WUSB, got a job with News 12 because the station knew of the news pieces she aired.

“College is supposed to be a sandbox,” Davanelos says. “It’s supposed to provide you with real-world tools. Stuff like these budget cuts are totally [preventing that].”

The program director suggests that USG may not understand how crucial funding is to the way student media groups operate. “They’re completely ignorant,” Davanelos says. “If they weren’t ignorant, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“We provide a valuable service,” he continues, “They’re completely preventing that.”

Students and faculty members were greeted by a mini multicultural fair in the back of SAC Ballroom A, prior to presentations. Many of the displays related to African-American culture in some aspect. Presenters included Caribbean Students Organization, African-American Brotherhood and Minorities in Medicine. They also offered presenters from different Greek life organizations, such as Zeta Phi Beta and Delta Sigma Theta. Both sororities are a part of the Divine Nine, an honorable title dedicated to the first nine multi-cultural Greek life organizations in the nation.

Secretary of the African Students Union, Folasade Ajibade offered information on her club’s activities, which vary from political and cultural discussions to their very popular King of Africa/Queen of the Motherland pageants. Beauty contests aside, the club also coordinates charitable events geared towards needy nations, specifically in Africa.

The spectators eventually gathered and observed quietly as the opening ceremony began. President Samuel L. Stanley offered his words which slightly resembled a history lesson, but allowed viewers to understand the importance of February and African American history in particular. Although some joke that February had been chosen to represent black history because it is the shortest month of the year, it is also rich in past events that have shaped African-American culture. On February 3, 1870, Congress passed the 15^th Amendment which had given (limited) rights for African-American to vote. February 23 marks the birthday of W. E. B. Du Bois, co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. February also marks a few morbid events for the African American community, such as Malcolm X’s death on the 21 in 1965.

Cheryl Chambers, Associate Dean for Multicultural Affairs and Co-Chair of the Black History Month Committee helped set up much of the event. This program marks her 22nd year honoring black history with Stony Brook. This year’s opening ceremony featured guest speaker Andrez S. Carberry, a successful alumnus of Stony Brook University and lawyer who has worked with the Pajama Program, a New York City based charity.

“To me, Black History Month is not only about the past, it is now,” he said, commanding the attention of the spectators with a strong voice and faint Jamaican accent. He gave a brief description of his days at Stony Brook and strongly advised students to remain as active as he had been as a student. “Serve because you want to do something for others,” he said. He showed concern with the decline of African American enrollment at Stony Brook, noting that black make up less than 6% of the undergraduate population. “I know more black men are headed to prison than to college,” but he strongly advised the audience to act as teachers and to spread the word of education so others may embrace it as he had done.

But perhaps the most united moment of the ceremony was during the singing of the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The diverse audience of blacks, Latinos, Asians and students of other ethnicities had all been able to sing along to the lyrics of the song as they had appeared on the screen, “Out from the gloomy past, ‘til now we stand, free at last.”

Last semester students were informed through SOLAR that the University was going to back-charge $37.50 for the fee, before redacting the fee a day later. Students taking 10 or more credits will be charged $75 annually. This year, the fee will only be implemented for the spring semester.

In a September 20th memorandum, Nancy Zimpher, SUNY’s chancellor, expressed that SUNY’s Board of Trustees had been in favor of charging new “broad-based fees,” including instructional cluster fees charged to students taking a related group of courses and the Academic Excellence and Success Fee.

According to the Stony Brook Graduate Student Organization Senate’s meeting minutes from October 11, Dr. Susan Dimonda, the Associate Dean and Director of Student Life, reported that a $75 fee per semester will be required to finance the costs of the recreation center. Although the $75 fee was voted for undergraduate students, no fee has been established for graduate students.

A requisition against the fee on the online petition site Change.org has received 2,233 signatures as of this writing. The stated goal by petitioner Jose Rivera is to reach 2,500 signatures. His original goal of 1,000 signatures was reached within a day.

Dennis N. Assanis, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, called the fee an “investment” in a letter to the students. In Stony Brook’s NYSUNY 2020 Challenge Grant, Stony Brook stated that the fee, along with tuition hikes, will allow the University to add 267 new faculty positions.

The plan, however, offered no timetable as to when these hirings will take place, which could mean students will be paying for benefits they may not be receiving.

The school is balancing its attempts to strengthen the university academically while placating students with financial constraints. The school states that a portion of the academic excellence fee is to go towards TAP-eligible students, those whose family income is less than $75,000.

In the recent past, Stony Brook has increasingly relied on tuition as a source of revenue for the university. In the past 10 years, tuition revenue has increased 114 percent, while state support has increased just 4 percent. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, public school tuition as a whole has risen nearly 74 percent during the last 10 years.

The Bursar’s Office, which is in charge of student accounts, declined to comment. A spokesperson for the university did not respond to questions.

Three other flagship SUNY centers—Albany, Binghamton and Buffalo—along with the entire CUNY system, have implemented academic excellence fees for this semester as well.

On August 3, 2011, the CUNY Board of Trustees approved the tuition and fee structure for all CUNY campuses, effective fall 2011, which was met with much derision from students at Baruch College, where the vote was held. SUNY hasn’t been able to stage a protest on a similar level.

This comes at a time when President Obama has warned public universities not to raise tuition if they expect taxpayer support. “We are putting colleges on notice — you can’t assume that you’ll just jack up tuition every single year,” Obama said in a speech last Saturday at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “If you can’t stop tuition from going up, then the funding you get from taxpayers every year will go down.”

The memos, which featured University letterhead, stated that an overload of semen in shower drains was causing major clogs. Students were then asked to refrain from touchin’ on their wieners while in the shower and, by extension, to keep the major jack-sesh in their rooms.

Even though a quick internet search revealed that different versions of the memo have appeared in the dorms of at least 18 colleges around the country, including Dartmouth, Virginia Tech, Villanova and several other colleges way better than Stony Brook, we at the Press decided to investigate the sploogefest to find out if the letters contained a seed of truth, or were simply an ecstatic spasm of humor that resulted in a white glaze obscuring the facts. So it was with great gusto that we pumped Associate Director of Campus Residences Alan deVries, whose name was attached to the alleged notice, for a few spurts of information.

While he did thank us for our concern about unseemly amounts of man chowder congesting Mendelsohn Quad’s virgin pipes, our stiff line of questioning went limp when deVries told us that “this letter comes up every year at least once and…is clearly a hoax.” He penetrated the heart of the issue when he said that commenting on the letters for publication would “not be worth anyone’s effort.” Apparently, he must have thought we were just jerking him around.

The clubs were defunded on January 16 after being found in violation of a section of the new bylaws that states that clubs that don’t use USG funding to host at least one event during the course of a semester will lose their funding pending a senate appeal.

Maloof, however, says that the idea of revising the financial bylaws had been in the works before then.

“I think when you have clubs being unhappy for an entire semester that’s unacceptable,” he said.

The current financial bylaws, a set of rules and regulations that dictates how Stony Brook’s more than 200 USG-recognized clubs can spend their money, were written over the summer by USG Treasurer Thomas Kirnbauer and former USG Vice President of Student Life Allen Abraham, who resigned last semester over a scandal involving assistant pay.

According to a number of sources in USG, the bylaws were shaped in large part by threats of a lawsuit from Young Americans for Freedom, a conservative organization whose chapter on campus would have otherwise failed to receive funding last year.

In an effort to promote a more “viewpoint neutral” method of funding clubs, Kirnbauer and Abraham created a number of per-year and per-event spending caps for specific items, but the caps have proven to be unpopular.

Laura Drapkin, a member of the LGBTA, a group that has regularly spoken out against Kirnbauer and the new bylaws, said that the wisdom of the caps has also been called into question by other members of USG.

“I don’t particularly understand [the caps], so that’s something I’m willing to look at,” Maloof said.

He said feels that the caps stifle creativity and encourage clubs to ask for the maximum allowable amount of money for items in their budget.

“It becomes a shopping list and we want clubs to think outside of the box,” he said.

While Maloof and Kirnbauer may disagree about what’s wrong with the financial bylaws, they do agree that changes need to be made. Both also explained that regulations are always unpopular, although some do indeed need to be lifted.

Maloof, for example, is focused on allowing clubs to be able to throw mid-sized events, which he described as costing between $5,000-15,000. Under the current bylaws, only the Student Activities Board would be able to put on such a large event.

Kirnbauer said he was unaware of Maloof’s idea. He did, however, say that there would not be a major overhaul of the bill, but that changes seemed appropriate.

“Everything could use a bit of tweaking,” Kirnbauer said.

He also said he was glad that Maloof has appointed him to be, according to the executive order, Chief Consultant to the Commission.

Maloof, however, pointed out that Kirnbauer was in an advisory role, even if it was the role of chief advisor, and that any final decisions would come from the office of the president. The commission of students charged with evaluating and recommending changes to the bylaws would only be giving him a list of suggestions. He said that making the changes could be a semester long process.

Kirnbauer said that the bylaws have proven to be flexible in the past. When Black Womyn’s Weekend and the Commuter Student Organization complained about the $5,000 dollar limit on fashion shows, Kirnbauer said he found a solution.

“The $5,000 cap won’t include USG expenses,” he recalled saying to them. USG expenses include ticket office and event planning fees. “If you don’t include that, they did stay within their limit.”

Maloof also trumpeted the fashion shows as an example of how making small changes to financial bylaws could allow them to function much better. He said in that case, club input had helped them adjust the bylaws.

As part of his executive order, Maloof has called for a number of town hall meetings, for which he is currently attempting to secure space. He says he hopes to hold the meetings soon.

“I want as many people to have input in this as possible,” Maloof said.

In the past, there have been communication difficulties between clubs and the USG.

Drapkin aid that her club’s attempts to object to the new law were both ignored by USG.

“We were actually allocated time to speak s[at the USG Senate meeting,] but the meeting was cancelled,” Drapkin said. She described another instance in which Kirnbauer failed to attend a meeting that members of the LGBTA scheduled with him.

Thursday night was an example of how slowly senate business can move. Of the ten club that filed appeals, only four got to speak before time ran out. All four won their appeals.

“With the rule that said we could remove clubs, we also made it so that the Senate could reinstate clubs,” Kirnbauer said, describing the process as fair. He said that since the law was new, some senators felt uncomfortable imposing any harsh penalties on the clubs.

Kirnbauer said that the ten clubs filed appeals for very different reasons, most stemming from confusion about the bylaws.

The Marine Sciences Club quickly acknowledged that they had made a mistake the previous semester.

“We were planning on joint-hosting an event with Sigma-Iota-Sigma last semester,” said Brian Gallagher, a junior and the club’s vice president, “but we had a miscommunication about which club was allocating for that.”

As a result, the event fell through.

Gallagher said that his club was unaware of how serious the penalties were for not hosting an event, and that he wasn’t clear about the new financial bylaws.

“We have a lot of events planned for this semester to compensate,” he said.

Animated Perspectives, another club that was found in violation of the bylaws, was more confused by Kirnbauer’s decision. They were able to provide proof that they held an event, a movie screening in the Student Activities Center.

The movie screening did not require any USG money, and Animated Perspectives did not spend money on food, in part because they were trying to save more of their already reduced budget.

Club members, some of whom had been playing Yu-Gi-Oh cards and others Super Smash Bros. Melee, left their games to search for a flier that promoted the movie screening and was approved by USG, which they allowed The Press to scan.

Michael LaBombard, a member of Animated Perspectives, said that he disagreed with the restrictive nature of the financial bylaws, pointing out that not all clubs were designed to host specific events.

“This club is an event every single day,” LaBombard said of Animated Perspectives. The club, which is set up in club alley in the Union basement, generally has a number of students using its televisions, tables or libraries at any time of the day. “If you don’t count that as an event,” he said, “then I really don’t think it’s quite fair.”

Kirnbauer acknowledged this, saying that he decided not to charge some clubs with violating the rules even though they hadn’t spent USG money. An example he used were dance clubs.

“I didn’t even include dance teams into this because all the dance troops perform a lot on campus.” He said that they will often perform at other people’s events. Clubs that regained funding in fall revisions were also exempt from the rule.

Both LaBombard and Gallagher said they were happy that Maloof decided to review the law.

President Maloof indicated that he would change the way he did business this semester and that this executive order would be a sign of things to come.

“I spent a lot of time my first semester trying not to step on people’s toes,” Maloof said. “Now, with a semester under my belt and with the work that I’ve done talking to club leaders, I think I’m in a better position to affect change.”

Irene Virag looks at the line of people waiting at Starbucks as her husband, Harvey Aronson, settles himself at a table.

“I already know what you want,” Irene says, smiling at Harvey, and he reciprocates the gesture.

“We love Starbucks,” Harvey says while Irene stands on the line, “and I drink decaf. With soy.”

Every time they travel, the two make an effort to find a Starbucks. The couple has even been to one in Paris and the original in Seattle, Harvey proudly reports.

“I’m the addict; he just drinks decaf,” Irene says when she gets back to the table.

Harvey, 82, and Irene, 56, have spent almost every day together since the day in 1982 when Irene went to work at Newsday, they say. Harvey was an editor and Irene a reporter who had just moved to Long Island from Texas. Harvey was 50 years old and Irene was 25.

“I was a skinny… punky kid,” said Irene, a Pulitzer Prize-winner who is now a bright-eyed, pink-cheeked woman with shoulder-length silver hair and a smile warm enough to melt a glacier.

Harvey had returned to Newsday just one month earlier after spending a twelve-year period freelancing and writing books.

He said he was immediately taken with Irene’s writing.

“The way she wrote touched me,” he said. “I think there are great similarities in the way we write.”

After working together as a reporter and editor for eight years, they began to date.

“We were both always with other people during the eight years of our working relationship,” Irene said.

But, suddenly, she said, they were both unattached.

“We went to see The Silence of the Lambs,” Irene said in an e-mail. “When we realized we were holding hands, we both started laughing.”

Harvey said he had always seen something in her—he thinks he had feelings for Irene for a while during their work relationship but chose not to acknowledge them.

He was impressed by her attention to detail, noting that she would come back from reporting and he would ask her for the color of the rug in the room she was in, to test her, just for fun.

“And she always knew,” he said, a look of awe and reflection in his eyes.

According to Richard Firstman, who currently teaches journalism at Stony Brook and was one of the writers Harvey mentored at Newsday, Harvey has a soft spot when it comes to a certain writing style.

“I think that Irene’s particular writing really must’ve been the first thing that won his heart because she’s such a wonderful writer and really does write from the heart,” Firstman said. “And I think that’s the way to Harvey’s heart.”

Firstman does not know when Harvey’s feelings about Irene began to grow, because Harvey took so well to being a mentor and treated all of the young writers with the same degree of sweetness.

“You couldn’t tell because he was that way with a lot of people,” Firstman said. “And then I guess at some point it just became something different for him.”

“They have just a really great love story—a very long-lasting one.

Harvey and Irene’s professional relationship ended as soon as they began to date, but he never stopped being her editor.

The twenty-five year age difference used to trouble Harvey, now reaching his 20th anniversary with Irene.

“I used to worry terribly that I was too old,” he said, “that I’d die and she would be left alone.”

But the couple does not worry about that anymore.

Two or three years after being married, Irene was diagnosed with breast cancer—a scare that made them see that health problems were not reserved for the elder member of the couple.

Almost two years ago, Harvey underwent a triple bypass open heart surgery.

“We keep relearning that lesson to sort of treasure every day,” Irene said.

One of Irene’s step-children, Harvey’s daughter, is a year older than Irene. According to Harvey, his daughter once said she sees Irene as a friend.

“None of them call me Mom,” she said with a smile. “Thank God. I’d giggle.”

But according to Irene, age does not matter in a relationship.

“It’s hard to be happy in this world, and so, if somebody makes you happy, it doesn’t matter what their age is.”

Neither expected the relationship to grow in the beginning.

“I just couldn’t believe I was going out with Irene, I thought, wow,” said Harvey.

Irene thought the same thing, she said, but it was a different kind of “wow.”

“Never say never,” she said, “because you really never know what’s next, what kind of weird twist fate is gonna take, and suddenly you’re married to your long-time editor.

In 2006, Howard Schneider, dean of Stony Brook University’s School of Journalism, who worked with the couple at Newsday, asked the two to join the faculty as founding members.

“He came to our house and sweet-talked us,” Harvey said.

According to Irene, it was the couple’s idea to teach together. It was the first question they asked.

The dean approved, and they have now served as teachers and mentors to many students. They even stay in touch with numerous pupils—they like to follow their careers.

Carl Carrie, who graduated from SBU in 2009 with a degree in journalism, took two classes taught by Harvey and Irene during his time at the university. He, Harvey and Irene have kept in touch ever since.

Carrie now works in social media and marketing at St. Johns University, but keeps in touch with the couple and said they are “two of the kindest and most thoughtful people [he’s] ever met,” and the best storytellers he has ever known.

“When my uncle was battling cancer, [Irene] was always there for me,” Carrie said. “The two of them have that trait that they know when people just need someone to listen, or when they need some advice.”

Irene even called to keep Carrie updated after Harvey had his emergency heart surgery.

“She told me Harvey told her to ‘tell Carl we’ll make it to his engagement party,’ which was a month or two away,” Carrie said. “I spoke to him at length a week or two later, and in his classic sarcastic, but never condescending, tone, he told me, ‘I’m having a great day. I walked all the way to the mailbox! I’ll be at your engagement party even though you are too young to get married.’”

Harvey and Irene did make it to the engagement party—Harvey wearing his trademark cowboy hat.

“As much as [Harvey] makes fun of love, he is the most in-love person I’ve ever met,” Carrie said.

Carrie had only positive things to say about the pair; they taught him countless life lessons. He recalled a night when he needed help with a piece that he was submitting for award eligibility, and Harvey and Irene worked through it with him for an hour, starting at 9:45PM.

“If you want to know how great Harvey and Irene are, know this,” he said. “I’m sitting in my living room with a bunch of people watching the Superbowl, and yet, I’d rather talk about them.”

People often ask the two how Harvey and Irene can stand being around each other all day, but they agreed that being around each other all the time has never been a problem.

Irene remembers being puzzled at the fact that some couples at Newsday chose not to each lunch together—she and Harvey would eat lunch together every day.

“Once in class, someone asked me what was the greatest, I guess, story I ever covered or the greatest thing I’d ever done, and there are stories that stuck out, but I said ‘marrying Irene,’” Harvey reminisced.

He sarcastically acknowledged that he does have other options.

“If I wanted to make a fortune, I could go to Florida and exploit elderly women,” he said. “I mean, I have my hair, I don’t have any false teeth, I know how to dance.”

But he already has his two loves: Irene and writing, which they agreed brought them together.

“I take such pride in her work,” Harvey said.

“We’re each other’s sounding boards for writing,” Irene added.

They edit each other and are both what she called “active writers.”

Throughout their relationship, they have discovered that they have read many of the same writers.

“We’ve melded our libraries,” Harvey said.

Harvey smiles with recognition as Irene begins telling a story. They finish each other’s thoughts and Harvey whispers into Irene’s ear. Irene looks at Harvey like he is the most precious and intriguing specimen in the world; and she takes care of him.  They have inside jokes and share looks that are telling to one another but mysterious to anybody else. They are the embodiment of the clichés of romantic comedies and Nicholas Sparks novels.

“I think we’re partners in the truest sense of the word,” Irene said.

Irene’s bag holds all that she needs to take care of both herself and Harvey, including matching granola bars and a worn brown case labeled, “Harvey: Reading glasses.”

But there is one significant difference between the characters of movies and books and Harvey and Irene—Harvey and Irene are real.

Students were waiting to attend the free event in celebration of the lunar year change, which occurred on January 23, hosted by the Asian Students Alliance, an undergraduate club at Stony Brook.

2012’s lunar new year is the year of the dragon – the only mythical creature represented in the Chinese calendar.

According to the gala’s organizer, Anne Chau, 21, a junior Biology and Philosophy major, the year of the dragon is a particularly special year due to its mystical origins.

“If you are born in the year of the dragon you’re considered very lucky,” said Chau, referring to the fact that the dragon is the symbol of good fortune and protection in Chinese culture.

The gala included raffles, a pin-the-tail-on-the-dragon competition, origami lessons and a peculiar game that involved marbles being picked out of a bowl with chopsticks – not easy. And then there was the food; perhaps one of the biggest draw cards of the evening.

Traditional Chinese cuisine was on hand – General Tso’s chicken, rice, dumplings, and egg rolls – all free and ready to be consumed by the roughly 400 students who stopped by.

Many of the students agreed the dinner was good, and it showed an hour after the doors opened when the food was all gone.

The hosts, Chau and two other members of ASA, kept the audience occupied during dinner with the thrill of winning a prize in one of the raffles offered throughout the evening.

There was even a brief flashback to childhood in the form of an impromptu game of “Simon Says” while the hosts waited for the real entertainment to arrive. The audience could laugh or grimace as the participants failed to do exactly as Simon, or in this case Ryan, said.

After a one-hour traffic delay, the highlight of the evening, the Dragon Dance team, arrived. The dance is traditionally performed over the 15-day New Year celebration and is no mere feat to perform, involving two or more people holding poles that move the body and head of a jumping and dancing dragon.

Some of the audience did not have the patience or desire to wait the extra hour for the dance team to arrive and left shortly after eating their fill.

While junior Yiufat Lam, who goes by the name Benny, 20, an Engineering and Studio Art double-major from Chinatown, Manhattan, said that this year’s gala was a little less organized than last year’s celebration, but he still felt it was a good way for students to honor the new year away from home.

According to Lam, the Chinatown New Year celebrations in the city are particularly fun.

“The whole of Canal Street shuts down and at midnight there are firecrackers in the street,” he said. “You wear new clothing on new year’s day, usually red.”

Lam also described the traditional act of handing out red envelopes with money in them to relatives or friends during the celebrations.

Unfortunately no red envelopes stuffed with cash were distributed at this particular gala.

All occupants were evacuated from the building for approximately 45 min while the building was cleared by the Stony Brook and Setauket Fire Departments. Several building occupants said they smelled something burning before they were evacuated.

After the building was reopened, Stony Brook Facilities and Services confirmed that the burning smell was caused by a malfunctioning ventilation motor located on the second floor of the union. The burning motor was shut down and the Union building is now considered safe.

[[Show as slideshow]]

(photos also by Jasmine Haefner)

“It’s the best of jazz pianists,” said Julie Greene, marketing director of the Staller Center. “Chucho Valdés is a legendary artist. For students who have never seen jazz before, they can have the best of the best.”

Valdés performed January 29 in the recital hall of the Staller Center at Stony Brook University, with songs from his latest album, Chucho Steps, winner of the 2011 Grammy award for Best Latin Jazz Album.

“He plays to his own music,” said Alan Inkles, director of the Staller Center. “He really connects with the audience. There’s nothing more exciting than him playing our recital hall. He’ll bring to us a night of great Latin jazz and great high-level jazz.”

Valdés is on tour in the United States and is performing at Carnegie Hall in New York. His band, the Afro-Cuban Messengers, uses piano, cello, drums, bass, trumpet and saxophone, and his sister, Mayra Caridad Valdés, provides the vocals for the group.

“Just look at the inspiration and passion,” said audience member Stacey Torrann. “I just think that they’re trying to express their culture through their instruments. It’s like going back to Cuba with that percussion session.”

A multiple Grammy-winner, Valdes has performed with some of the greatest jazz musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea and Herby Hancock. The New York Times named him, “the Dean of Latin Jazz” and “one of the world’s greatest virtuosic pianists.” Valdés attributes his Afro-Cuban roots as the main influence of his music.

“The majority of what people take is the African-Cuban rhythms mixed with jazz,” he said. “The rhythm that I bring is what they take with them.”

Valdés performed a number of songs, including “Obtabla,” which received a standing ovation. But what enchanted the audience the most was the contribution of the band. Audience member Jacqueline Corkey described the band members as “possessed” as they played.

“It was painful not to dance,” she said. “The music is all about the rhythm. They’re marvelous.”

The governor’s plans for economic development include the establishment of the Energy Highway Task Force, which will help facilitate the transfer of power from upstate plants and wind farms to areas downstate, and the legalization of casino gambling, which could potentially raise $1 billion in revenue, according to Adams.

President Samuel Stanley said he is very positive about the energy highway and the potential for Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Lab to be involved in the process.

“That really ties in very well with the smart grid work that we’re trying to do,” he said. “The idea that we could actually help facilitate that transmission line that they create and actually make it as efficient as possible—that’s really exciting.”

Stanley added that he is supportive of Cuomo’s budget proposal unveiled Jan. 17 because of its commitment to keeping the university’s budget intact and its emphasis on SUNY’s contribution to the state’s economic development.

Adams was one of several cabinet members sent to various regions of the state to echo the governor’s proposal for reform in his 2012-2013 executive budget. He discussed Cuomo’s solution to the “education crisis” in the state, which he said would begin with the establishment of a teacher evaluation system. If districts do not implement the system by January 2013, they would be ineligible for a state aid increase, and if they do implement it by September 2012, they would be eligible for extra funding.

Other proposals included improvements to New York’s infrastructure, such as repairs to bridges, roads and water systems and the construction of a new convention center at the Aqueduct Racetrack.

Adams also discussed the proposed reevaluation and consolidation of state programs and agencies, the proposed cap on administrative costs and executive compensation, a $370 million state take-over of Medicaid growth costs to counties, and state employee pension reform.