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2 Vol. XXX, Issue 9 | Tuesday, July 20, 2010 news Law & Order: Go. Fight. Win! versity, explaining to him their top is - in late August. The SBEC is filing suit mainly be - sues, including increased wages. The lawsuit is still in the filing cause of the public’s rejection to the By Matt Calamia McAsey believes they were targeted stages, and can be drawn out for years planned location of the hotel, along purposely. “We can be very aggressive to come. Nicolls Road. “I think people were dis - Stony Brook Sued Over First when our rights aren’t being respected,” Hotel Lawsuit mayed that the greenbelt along Nicolls Amendment he said. The Stony Brook Environmental Road will be destroyed in order to put a Stony Brook University was served According to a press release by the Committee (SEBC) filed a lawsuit Hilton Garden Inn,” said Locker. with a lawsuit from graduate student Graduate Student Employees Union, against Stony Brook University in De - Locker also states it is “tasteless” for teaching assistants on June 7, due to the “the lawsuit is part of CWA’s defense of cember 2009 in an attempt to prevent the university to put up a hotel sign school barring them from the October the basic constitutional right of free ex - the university from constructing a long alongside the school’s entrance sign. 2009 inauguration of Stony Brook Pres - pression for graduate student union sought-after hotel at the main entrance “What would people think of putting a ident Samuel L. Stanley, stating a viola - hotel in Harvard Yard?” he asked. tion of their constitutional rights. In interviews, Barbara Chernow, At the inauguration in October, vice president for Facilities and Services Stony Brook University police had at Stony Brook, has stated that there re - banned graduate student teaching assis - ally are no other options for locations tants Kira Schuman, Kevin Young, for the desired hotel on campus. Locker, Katarzyna Sawicka and Jacqueline however, disagrees. Woods from the path of President Stan - Stony Brook acquired 245 acres of ley’s inauguration’s academic proces - land from the Flowerfield company in sion. 2005, and Locker believes this is an The reason they were given was due ideal location for a hotel. “Where in to the shirts they were wearing, which those 245 acres is there no room for a displayed the union they were part of, hotel?” and the tagline “SUNY Works Because Locker also believes the possibility We Do.” The event had no dress code. of converting the Student Union build - According to Jim McAsey, Organ - ing into part of the hotel or a location izing Director for the RA Union, Com - members to identify with their union, a of the school. closer to the railroad station would be munication Workers of America foundation for a working relationship According to George Locker, the more ideal, eliminating more conges - (CWA) 1104, the assistants went to the between administrators and representa - SBEC’s attorney heading the lawsuit, the tion on the roads. ceremony to show support for president tives of graduate student employees.” judge has filed an injunction (a tempo - “Maybe Barbara doesn’t know there Stanley. “We were there to welcome Although teaching assistants are in - rary restraining order) preventing any - is a railroad station on campus.” him,” he said, “and not to protest.” volved in the lawsuit, they are not being one from starting any project on the Several requests for comment from The union planned on delivering a suspended or being prevented from grounds until a decision by the court Stony Brook University were not re - group letter to the new head of the Uni - working once the fall semester arrives has been made. turned. Virtual Reality Star Killed the Internet Star technology to create a virtual environ - individuals within a By Colleen Harrington ment around all who enter. crowd. Because this “It is an engineering feat,” boasted room sounds like it chief CEWIT scientist Dr. Arie Kauf - will be indeed quite The future is coming to Stony man, director of the project. He said bitchin’, several gov - Brook and it should be here next year. that once constructed, the Reality Deck ernment agencies have The university announced this will be able to analyze tons of data and already signed up to week that it’s been awarded a $1.4 mil - “provide a life-like, realistic immersion use and fund applica - lion grant from the National Science into the data to be explored and rea - tions, including the Foundation to build a virtual reality soned with.” Department of De - theater. Next year, the school plans to So with its impressive LCD wallpa - fense, NASA, the Air construct a 30-foot by 40-foot by 11- per, what will this Immersive Gigapexel Force and Brookhaven foot tall room in the Center for Excel - Display theater do, exactly? The Uni - National Lab. lence in Wireless and Information versity says it will be used to take an in - Additionally, Technology (CEWIT), its walls com - credibly detailed look at high-res Kaufman says the pletely tiled with 308 LCD screens. colonoscopies performed at the medical project “will probably With the capacity to display 1.25 center. Soon, we will able to virtually revolutionize Holly - Stony Brook University Public Relations billion pixels of information, the room crawl right up someone’s butt, unfetBut wood.” But he didn’t We are, we are VR! has been dubbed the “Reality Deck,” a the Reality Deck won’t be solely limited say how, so here’s my nerdy throwback to the holodeck on to cavity exploration, Stony Brook as - speculation: People across America will movie set . It will be a simulation of re - Star Trek. (They didn’t get the grant for sures us. Its mind-blowing pixelation start getting TV Rooms of the Future in ality within a simulation of reality! Only the transporter, though–drat.) The deck may be used for analyzing climate or as - their homes, just coated with screens, you won’t have to deal with the whiny, will incorporate sensors, computer vi - tronomical models, exploring satellite and Hollywood will make virtual films coked up actors. sion and human-computer interaction imaging, or even detecting suspicious so it will be like you’re really on the The Stony Brook Press News 3 Why I Resigned In April of were doing everything to save as much discussion had begun amongst Senators status quo, and we desired anything but. 2009, I fought and as possible. Even things as small as the to rework and perhaps recreate the so - On the day of the vote, quite a few won an election to copier lease were restructured in order cial programming arm of the USG, the members of SAB attended the meeting, become a Senator to give more money to the clubs and SAB. By April there were two pieces of but most le without uttering a word of the Undergrad - student life in general. I can confidently legislation aimed at reforming SAB, on immediately aer the overwhelming uate Student Gov - say that the 2010-2011 USG budget is the one hand you had the small reform, vote in favor of restructuring SAB. Aer ernment. Fast distinct from any that came before it, in which merely created more job func - the vote (which essentially was a vote of By Moiz forward to De - that it does not reward those who hap - tions for SAB and its officers, and on the no confidence in the leadership and Khan cember 2009, I was pen to be friends of the Treasurer or the other hand you had a piece of legislation structure of SAB) I have been heckled appointed (by then Senate Budget Committee but rather that restructured SAB to its core. e many times by individuals whom I do President Jasper Wilson) and unani - not know. All I do know is that they mously confirmed as Treasurer of the were members of the former SAB. Dur - USG. From December to May, I spent ing and aer the debate, I was painted approximately sixty hours a week at the as a racist. I was simply an elected offi - USG Office, preparing and managing cial doing what I (and most other stu - the 3.1 million dollar budget. I set dents) thought was best for the campus around twenty hours aside a week to and yet the divide became defined more simply meet with clubs, and surely by race than ideas. is sort of conflict enough all of that time, if not more, was should have no place in student gov - spent meeting with one or another club. ernment, and yet it is at all times pres - e USG Constitution makes the sug - ent. My goal was never to further a gestion that perhaps fieen hours is political or racial divide, rather, I hoped enough to handle all of the tasks of the to unite students for one objective (to Treasurer, but such a number was a make this campus a bit more tolerable) gross underestimation by the framers of and yet my time in USG created a larger the USG Constitution. ough I spent divide than ever before. I look back and far too much time there (to which my think I did not do enough to work with grades can testify), I enjoyed every mo - the other side, but perhaps the only de - ment of it. sire more overwhelming than that I did Prior to my appointment, nearly not do enough to work with the other every single Treasurer of the USG was Stony Brook Independent side, was my desire for there to actually either immeasurably incompetent or be another side willing to work to - obviously biased (oen both).