The short answer is no. Not because vandalism is right and just, but because I don’t want to read about Team Edward while I’m taking a tinkle. All it does is remind me of a multi-million-dollar-earning mediocre book series that is the glorified diary of a painfully average 14-year-old girl.

But every now and then, one finds bathroom graffiti gold. Scribbled in shades of baby blue, hot pink, and classic black, gems of wisdom such as “and just when the caterpillar thought the world was over he turned into a butterfly,” and “love won’t feed you –> it will feed your soul” capture your attention. Sometimes you even get lucky enough to find an impromptu wall mural. Who doesn’t want a little art with their toilet time, after all?

So while it pleases me to see quotes from brilliant films like Inception and Finding Nemo, and graffiti portraits of cuddly animals makes everyone else’s bathroom vandalism inadequate in comparison, it’s nearly becoming an epidemic. And the school’s janitors cannot be thrilled.

One must imagine that the janitorial staff cleans these messes up more often than they would like to. Sometimes the graffiti is not even painted over, but halfheartedly scrubbed from the walls, leaving behind faint streaks of highlighter and permanent marker. Is it frustration from a tedious task, or the lack of desire to rid a girl’s restroom of scrawled advice?

It is likely the former. The janitors don’t care about your favorite song quotes. They simply care about getting their job done. But it’s a repetitive cycle. It’s Einstein’s definition of insanity; doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Vandals are always going to be painted over and janitors’ work is always going to be written on.

But if the graffiti is gone how am I going to determine the ratio between Edward and Jacob lovers? And how will I be reminded that all I need is love? When I’m feeling down-trodden I need the inspiring, recycled, clichés on the walls of restroom stalls to remind me that all life’s dilemmas can be solved with the reading of romantic comedy movie quotes.

Hélène Volat, Head of Reference & Information Services at the Melville Library, is opposed to this particular form of expression, calling it an “indelible form of writing.”

“When your poetry attains the quality and importance of Emily Dickinson or when your paintings rival those of Georgia O’Keefe, then we might reconsider. In the meantime you may want to practice on your own bathroom walls,” she said in an email.

However, I fear that this barbaric method of communication will not die, even with the critique of library staff. It seems we must settle for the bizarre, fluctuating state of cleanliness the bathroom stalls face. So if the masses can forgive these forlorn souls for their indiscretions, then allow me to implore all the vandals of Stony Brook not to throw a hissy fit about their most beloved quotes getting the ax. Instead, be grateful for the renewed chance at plagiarizing someone else’s creativity and inspiration. You can’t draw a new picture on your Etch-A-Sketch without erasing the old one first, after all.

By Anders Boule 

Are you Asian? Do you frequently find yourself sleeping in the library? Tired of sleeping in the library?

Well, boy do I have good news for you! The Stony Brook Press proudly presents you with the top 5 places to sleep on campus.

5. Couches: 2nd Floor//Staller

This is an ideal spot because not only is it dark enough at night to lull you to sleep, the location of the long row of couches affords you enough seclusion to keep prying eyes from scoping out your spot. What’s also great is that the building is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which means that you have access to this prime piece of real estate whenever you so desire. Although I would recommend you not sleep there until late at night, say around midnight or later, as there will be a consistent flow of veteran art students, freshmen taking ARS 154 for their DEC requirements and the occasional tour group passing through downstairs to bother you, but otherwise, your spot is safe. Another great perk is that right after you step through the double doors to overlook the Gallery, you have unlimited access to Stony Brook’s great and reliable (sarcasm) Wi-Fi network. So you can watch your shitty Netflix movies all night long.

4.  Desks: 3rd Floor//Staller

Many of you may already be familiar with this location as I’ve seen so many of you fuckers studying Bio, Chem or whatever other stupid shit that isn’t art whenever I needed to use the space. But aside from the foreign exchange students who don’t speak a word of English that frequently squat there, it’s another great spot in Staller. Despite its appearance, the chairs are surprisingly cushioned and comfortable and you can recline back and have your laptop or whatever on the table in front of you. However, the Wi-Fi here is more reliable than it is on the 2nd floor, so keep that in mind.

3. Painting/Printmaking Studios: 4th Floor//Staller

These studios are great for sleeping in. During the semester, there are virtually no people inside after-hours except when art students pull multiple all-nighters in them to finish a single painting. Fucking hippies (I kid, I kid). These rooms have big tables and prop couches to sleep on so you’re set. However, you have to have explicit access to these rooms to be able to get in after-hours. If you’re taking a printmaking class, you’ll likely get a key inside a locker to work inside whenever you want, but you kind of have to be actually doing work. And if you’re lucky enough to be a monitor for the painting studio, you’ll have a key to get in whenever you want. I don’t want to see any of you non-art students in there. You philistine apes.

2. Photo Checkout Room: 4th Floor//Staller

This room is one of, if not, the best to squat/chill in. Not only is it heated to keep your sorry ass warm during the cold winter months, but it also has a fridge to keep your shitty leftovers fresh for another day. You’ve got a high-perched desk with Ethernet access as well as a reasonably comfy couch-chair. You’ve also got a huge window to comfortably watch the rats and dogs of this campus run around outside on the Lawn or miserably trudging to and from class. However, this room is exclusive as it requires a keypad-entered code to get in. You’ll have find that out yourselves, fuckers.

1. Stony Brook Press Office: Basement//Union

This is the best to sleep on campus ever. Hands down. Huge comfy couches, video games, Netflix, a microwave and the most reliable internet on campus. However, you have to be a member of the Press to be able to appreciate its beauty. So come on down and join the Press. We meet on Wednesdays in 060 at 1pm. Also, DON’T SUCK.

As the world’s information becomes digitalized, libraries are struggling to make purchasing decisions between new and old mediums. Stony Brook’s Melville Library has been operating on a shrinking print book allowance, as the shuffling of money through a stagnant budget has given priority to subscription-based electronic resources.

It is partly due to Stony Brook’s emphasis on the sciences, which depends heavily on pricey, searchable journals rather than monographs, or scholarly print texts. “Our journal collection is heavily digital already,” says Nathan Baum, Assistant Director of Electronic Resources. “There is this conception that these things are free, because it’s on the web and the web is free,” he says. “But we pay a lot of money for these resources.”

Books!

Electronic databases, such as ScienceDirect, JSTOR and LexisNexis, tend to lock in purchases with a three-to-five year contract, eliminating the ability to negotiate subscriptions with respect to budget variances from year to year. In addition, a relatively unchanged library budget in the past decade actually depletes the spending allowance due to inflation. Inflation reduces the purchasing power of print books according to the consumer price index, typically two-to-four percent annually. And the inflation rate for journals is actually much higher, 10% each year.

The Library’s material budget for the 2007-2008 school year was $6,988,988. Five years prior, during the 2001-2002 year, it was working with $6,776,222, and five years before that, the working budget was $5,358,522.

As the library becomes increasingly locked into set electronic subscription costs, coupled with inflation rates, the remaining allowance reserved for purchasing print resources has been shrinking every year. Some librarians say that this creates gaps in the print collection, as some newer editions cannot afford to be purchased.“Students assume that an accredited research institution is supplying them with an adequate collection of print books,” says Richard Feinberg, Head Preservation Librarian. “A sufficient collection would allow a student to go to the stacks, browse the shelves, and stumble across material they never expected to, enriching their research.”

The tight budget is shaping the library’s format collection. Publishers typically sell resources in packages; an electronic edition, a print edition, and other possible accessories such as CD’s and DVD’s. Electronic editions get priority, says the library administration.  It becomes easier to handle, archive, search and print. When asked whether this is better for the library system, Chris Filstrup, Dean of the Libraries, says that this is the future.  “Our job is to give people information whatever the format is, whether it’s using LexisNexis or digging through the Stacks.”

Balancing between print and electronic resources has been a complicated issue for years, says Aimee DeChambeau, e-Resources Librarian. But as e-journals, e-books and online databases rapidly expand, book shelves could get lonely. “It’s not a temporary shift,” she says, “It’s here to stay.”

Subject specialists advise the library administration in purchases, making the acquired list a collaborative effort between faculty, academics, librarians and a Library Senate Committee that ensures the money is used efficiently. Close collaboration with other state schools allow for no more than two SUNY schools to purchase the same monograph. Interlibrary loans enable the sharing within the system, cutting back unnecessary spending.  “When you don’t have much money, you are very particular,” says Filstrup.

With such a small print book budget, priority of purchases is going only to support the courses and the curriculum. If a professor will be teaching the material, the library acquires it. Susan Lieberthal, the Business and Interlibrary Loan librarian, says the people that are suffering the most due to the stagnant monograph collection are the researchers in the Humanities, who rely heavily on dated, often obscure material. “If you’re studying in the history department, and your thesis is on ‘women’s novels in 18th century America,’ you’re going to need a lot of books,” says Lieberthal.

More books!

Libraries are strange animals. “The provost views us as black holes, because we require so much money but don’t generate any revenue,” says Lieberthal. However, an extensive research library tends to mirror the credentials of an academic institute.

This is where a library’s priorities may be shifting. In the past, a library’s collection value was often measured by hefty card catalogs. Nowadays, a quality resource collection may be redefining itself in light of diverging formats, as long as funds grow to compensate for the increasing costs and conveniences of all things digital.

The next step for the library is the accumulation of WorldCat, a non-profit, member-regulated network of 50 million library records and growing. It allows students to locate books nationwide, send out an interlibrary request, and receive it within two-to-four days. “I’m not saying it’s the same thing as going to the stacks and browsing, I understand that,” says Filstrup, “These days of huge print collections—browsing and serendipity—they’re gone.”

As for the budget dilemma, library administrators remain somewhere between optimistic and realistic. “There are a lot of things that I wish we could buy, but you have to live within the budget situation.” The library received a modest victory this year, receiving a $100,000 increase in “tech fees,” growing the printed book budget from $300,000 from last year to $400,000 this year.

“The budget will always be an issue,” says Filstrup. “I think we’re managing our money well.”

By Raina Bedford

Last Wednesday, an elevator in the library malfunctioned–sending thirteen students on a freefall from the fifth floor to the basement.

Katherine Papamanolis, a resident of Roosevelt Quad originally from Brooklyn, said that, after the elevator door closed at the fifth floor, the elevator beeped and then plummeted down the six story drop.

When the elevator hit the basement, students felt it finally level itself out and come to a stop.  Immediately after the elevator came to a halt, students inside phoned campus police using the emergency button.  Police simply told the students “someone is coming and everything is okay.”  Police didn’t tell the students in the elevator how long it would take for help to arrive or what kind of help they would be receiving.  Thomas Patterson, a resident of Roosevelt quad originally from Loudonville, NY, said, “If I knew how long it would take, I wouldn’t have had like an anticipatory anxiety attack thinking like this could take an hour.”

According to students in the elevator, help arrived approximately twenty-five minutes later.  Students reported that the elevator was poorly ventilated with no openings for air to come in.  “I thought the girl in front of me was going to faint; she was having trouble breathing,” said Papamanolis.  Patterson described the scene as overwhelming, saying, “The elevator was so cramped, it was hot and people started to take of their shoes and sit on the floor with little to no room to move.”

When the technicians opened the door at the basement level, students saw that the elevator had fallen a few feet below the basement floor.  They had to climb up out of the elevator to get to the basement level.

Larry Twork, head of Elevator Maintenance at Stony Brook University, said that this was a case of “misuse” because there was thirteen people on the elevator whose combined weight exceeded the maximum load.  Twork sought to reassure the campus about the elevators safety.  He also said, “You may have a sensation that the elevator is dropping, but it’s actually not.”  He said that the elevator actually only fell for a few feet but then the emergency break kicked in–preventing the elevator from violently crashing into the bottom of the shaft.

It’s unclear how long it takes for the emergency break to kick in, but students inside the elevator said they didn’t feel the elevator stop itself until they had fallen five stories.

Shindler Inc installed the elevators in the library in 1971 and they have not been replaced since.  According to Twork, “Elevators don’t have to be replaced.  They can last forever with the proper maintenance.”  He said Stony Brook spends approximately 1 million dollars a year on elevator maintenance.

Twork is currently trying to determine the max load of the elevators in the library so that this doesn’t happen again.  He is bringing in weights to test the elevators to determine whether or not they need to be replaced.

Two other elevators in the library are currently being replaced due to similar problems.  The elevator that dropped five stories is currently still open for use after technicians determined that it was safe.  However, it is still plagued by awkward up and down maneuvers every time it stops at a floor.  This elevator is situated in a high traffic area and is in constant use throughout the day, making it likely that were it fundamentally faulty, this situation may repeat itself if the elevator is not repaired or replaced.

In the interim, the elevator is still running and it remains unclear whether or not the elevator is actually safe to use.