News

The National Weather Service has placed all of Long Island, including Stony Brook University, under a Tropical Storm Watch as Hurricane Earl continues to move northwest over the Atlantic Ocean. A tropical storm watch means that conditions similar to a tropical storm could affect the area in the next 24 hours.

A state judge has ruled in favor of six Stony Brook Southampton students, as well as their non-profit organization to save the campus, and called the process of the campus closure illegal. The Southampton campus was closed last semester due to budget cuts.

Anyone on campus this summer might notice that Roth Pond looks different. In June, the university roped off and drained the pond in order to repair the holes in the lining. This caused the death of the pond's fish inhabitants in early March.

The proposed sugar tax for New York State by Governor Patterson is receiving mixed reactions. The proposed tax on beverages containing mostly high fructose corn syrup is being used as a way to cut obesity rates in the United States.

Stony Brook University held its annual Roth Pond Regatta on Friday, April 30. With warm temperatures and blue skies all throughout the day, hundreds of students came out to watch the dozens of cardboard and duct tape boats race across the pond. The Independent was on hand to capture tons of photos of boat successes and failures.

The “Stony Brook Pride Patrol,” helped to kick off the school’s annual Earthstock event last Friday, working to clean up and beautify the campus. Originally known as 'green teams,' the Pride Patrol is a group of volunteers that set out to clean the campus in the spring and the fall.

More than 100 students, faculty and parents gathered at Stony Brook University’s Southampton campus last Thursday to hear local legislators announce a plan to save the school, which university officials recently announced would be closed to undergraduate students beginning next fall.

Long hours of research and gathering information finally paid off for environmental students as they showcased their work at the Environmental Exhibition of Student Research. The exhibition, which served as part of the week-long, campus-wide event Earthstock, gave students who were selected the chance to show off their completed work in front of Stony Brook professors, friends and family in a gallery in the Wang Center Lobby.

The Zebra Path, a painted section of walkway between the Melville Library and Old Chemistry building that leads down to the Chemistry building, has been repainted to its original straight black-and-white colors stripes this week.

The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Supreme Court has decided not to approve the substantial budget cuts to the Stony Brook Statesman. While the future of the publication is still unclear, the court decided in a written statement on April 19 to hold a budget hearing instead of slashing the 2010-2011 budget from over $27,000 to $2,500 at this time.

"To mourn the passing of our beloved SUNY system, will you please join us in a funeral procession to the Administration Building?" said Kevin Young, a Stony Brook graduate student. With that, he and a group of 30 students staged their mock ceremony and marched onto the office of President Samuel L. Stanley.

The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) voted last week to impeach Senator Daniel Graber and remove him from his position. The impeachment stems from Graber’s actions on Nov. 5, 2009 in which allegedly he posted a pornographic picture on a computer in the USG office.

In response to the proposed drastic cuts, the Southampton students raised $10,000 in donations by last Friday from a combination of emails, calls, and social networking via Facebook. An anonymous donor matched the amount bringing them to a total of $20,000. The students are hoping to raise a total of $50,000 by May to pay for legal fees in a lawsuit against Stony Brook University.

State Sen. Ken LeValle (R-Port Jefferson) has demanded an investigation into Stony Brook University’s controversial closing of most of its Southampton campus.

The Statesman, Stony Brook's longest running print publication, may be crippled in the face of an unprecedented budget cut. Following an Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Judiciary hearing on April 14, the Undergraduate Supreme Court will ultimately decide whether or not the funding change will stand in the next few days, effectively dictating the future of the campus’ only bi-weekly paper.