Courtesy of Rare Books and Special Collections, University of Rochester Libraries

In an effort to curb what has escalated in recent years into a day of excessive drinking, this year’s Dandelion Day will be held on Friday, April 27, rather than the Saturday before reading period when it is traditionally held.

The decision — the result of months of ongoing discussion between the administration and various student groups — was publicly announced to the Students’ Association Senate meeting on Monday, Feb. 13.

“It’s a symbolic move,” Dean of Students Matthew Burns said of the decision. “We’re trying to go back to the roots of the day and make it more closely aligned with events from old D-Days.”

Burns hopes to move the celebratory day back to a time when it revolved more around honoring University traditions and having fun, rather than around what many have seen as a destructive focus on alcohol consumption — a focus that has become enmeshed in UR culture particularly in recent years.

Burns said that, despite the unsafe behavior in years past that caused the administration a “great amount of worry,” canceling the day, which has been a UR tradition since the 1950s, was not how UR wanted to handle the problem.

“We wanted to keep it, but make it safer,” he explained.

Associate Dean of Students Anne-Marie Algier agreed with this assessment.

“Everyone wanted to make the day safer,” she said. “Everyone agreed on that.”

The second significant change to this year’s D-Day is that the budget will be nearly triple that of previous years.

“Students can probably expect D-Day to be at least three times as big, if not more,” Burns said.

The increase in spending will boost funding both for the main concert — which Burns said the administration hopes is a “bigger, better name” — and for an expanded selection of activities, which they hope will help divert some of the focus from the drinking mentality.

Burns also plans to significantly increase advertising for this year’s event, also in the hope that students will view the day in a more positive light.

“The idea is to make it so fun that you can’t resist going,” he said.

Burns anticipates “some resistance” from students about the change, but said that he hopes the resistance will “make way to excitement” in coming months.

Since 2008 when Campus Activities Board (CAB) decided to stop sponsoring D-Day because it had become too difficult to control and “not worth the investment,” UR has kept both subjective and objective measurements of the drinking culture, Burns said.

In 2008, drinking-related incidents declined, according to Burns, but have been increasing every year since. CAB re-started its participation in the day after its SA fundraising was threatened.

According to Burns, this data has shown that “all hell breaks loose” between the hours of 12 and 4 p.m. and that UR simply cannot afford to have incidents continue to rise as they have in the last three years.

Perhaps no more evidence about the drinking culture is needed than an email sent by a URMC doctor, whose name was not disclosed, to Burns on Monday, April 26, 2010 — the Monday after Saturday’s D-Day.

The email states that from 3 to 11 p.m. on Saturday evening, “it was a pretty embarrassing moment for the River Campus at UR … nine undergraduates all sloppy drunk from Dandelion Day.  All at risk for aspirating on their own vomit … Two so agitated and disruptive that they had to be physically and chemically restrained. Four under the legal drinking age of 21.”

The email left off on a somber note: “Just a matter of time before someone dies during these festivities.”

Burns said that, given the ample evidence of escalating problems and the fact that the UR had “almost universal consent” that the day had to become safer to keep it, the decision for some change was necessary.

President of CAB and senior Palida Noor said she initially felt resistance toward the decision, especially given the fact that she is a senior.

“But now I’m more excited to be a part of the change,” she said. “I’m excited to leave [the day] even better than before and hopefully leave it as the largest ever D-Day.”

CAB has not decided on the headlining band for the concert or on specifics of the other
activities, but Burns said that students will “see the pieces as they come together” through the increased advertising.

SA President and senior Bradley Halpern asserted that everyone who participated in discussion about D-Day agreed that changes to make it safer were essential, though opinions on how to do so were wide-ranging.

“Everyone wanted to keep the day rather than lose it,” he added.

Burns could not provide specifics of the increased money or the breakdown between concerts and activities, but hinted at the possibility for rides, which were present in past D-Day celebrations but cannot currently happen because of liability issues.

“Even with the enhanced money, we can’t do everything we want to do,” he said.

Despite what many students have said is the inconvenience of the decision to hold the day on Friday, Burns explained that by starting the day with classes, some of the focus on drinking born by starting the day early on Saturday morning might be diverted.

He also said that activities will be planned to interfere with students’ classes in the least obtrusive way and that Friday made the most sense because the majority of students have fewer classes on that day, many of which occur in the morning anyway.

In addition, D-Day was traditionally held on a weekday in years past and holding the day on Friday will provide access to University resources, faculty and staff — resources that are more difficult to access on a Saturday and that could make the day safer for students, Burns said.

Many students, however, believe that the decision to change the day to Friday will not alleviate any of the drinking problems.

“I don’t think it’s going to help,” senior Brianna Sayers said. “Most people don’t have a lot of classes on Friday so they’re probably just going to skip them to drink.”

A senior Residential Adviser, who asked to remain anonymous because of her position, said that she does think the decision has some potential to reform the drinking culture and that she likes the fact that D-Day is a campus wide celebration during which students come together.

“I think it has the potential,” she said of the decision to change the day. “I can see where they’re coming from.”

Most students were not quite so optimistic. “I think it’s a bad idea,” junior Claire Donohue said. “People are just going to do their own D-Day on Saturday.”

Donohue disagreed with the idea that D-Day has gotten unsafe in recent years, saying that she thinks the day is “pretty regulated.”

“I think it is a poor decision,” junior Bobby Brown said. “Teachers are not going to be happy that people are skipping classes.”

Brown said he agrees that the day has become unruly, but thinks the administration should not act to curb the drinking culture.

“It’s definitely unsafe,” he said. “But I love it.”

Former SA president and senior Scott Strenger believes that UR students should rise to the occasion and take the administration’s decision “like adults.” Strenger initially reacted to the decision by planning a petition, but decided against it.

“A petition complaining about the date change and then asking to be treated like adults is the equivalent of a child holding their breath when their parents tell them they need to go to sleep and then asking why they can’t have a later bedtime,” Strenger said.

“If we want to be taken as adults, we shouldn’t act like children.”
Strenger does believe changing the day to Friday could increase problems if students choose to hold an “unofficial” D-Day on Saturday.

Ultimately, Burns believes that the potential for change is in student hands.

“In the end it’s going to depend on students and whether they heed the call for change,” he said. “If they do, the future of the event will look bright. If not, it’s bleak.”

Students interested in expressing their ideas for D-Day programming are invited to do so at a forum hosted by CAB on Sunday, Feb. 19 at 4:30 p.m. in the Gowen Room. According to Noor, this will not be a place to discuss the administration’s decision, but rather a forum for expressing ideas for the day given the additional funding and the fact that it will be held on Friday.

Buletti is a member of the class of 2013.

In speaking to David Bendes and Andrew Polec — the fifth year seniors who co-authored the petition as a part of their Kauffman Entrepreneurial Year (KEY) project  — however, it becomes clear that their goals reach considerably further than that.

According to Executive Director of Campus Planning, Design and Construction Management Jose Fernandez, approximately 5,400 square feet of the new building will be devoted to media arts in some form. Fernandez said it would be difficult to assess the exact division of this space between the digital arts and audio recording because, as he put it, “the building is being designed to minimize single purpose space and maximize flexible space.”

Yet this description of the building’s purpose is right in line with the ideal vision Bendes and Polec have for the available space.

“In a perfect world, this would be the ultimate place to make a live music video — to record it, film it, everything,” Bendes said.

“We’re really trying to say that if you make the space a little larger … then you can make it an optimal space for both groups.”

More quantifiably, Bendes and Polec expressed that they would like to see recording studios that are large enough for multi-instrumental recording and of a higher quality than the current one on campus  — WRUR’s studio — which, as Polec put it, “is in a meat locker.”

Bendes revealed that the petition currently has  between 200 and 300 signatures, putting him and Polec over halfway to their goal of 400 to 450.

In terms of how effective this petition could be, Dean of the College Richard Feldman emphasized that evidence of student interest is factored into space considerations, especially with student-centered buildings like the proposed Digital Media and Innovation Center.

“If we know that there is a large number of students who have a certain kind of interest, in this case a certain kind of recording ability, and we lack the facilities to meet their needs, we’ll be responsive to the extent we can do that,” Feldman said.

He went on to say that at the current stage in the planning process for the building, “it’s still conceivable that some changes could be made.”

Dean of Humanities Thomas DiPiero, who is leading the charge in terms of sorting out space allocation in the new building, said that its planning committee shares “the tremendous interest in music that students have been expressing,” and that they are “committed to making full provisions for space as needs arise.”

Gaining more space for audio recording, however, is just one aspect of a larger set of initiatives already put into motion by Polec and Bendes’ KEY project. Overall, the aim of the project is to create a means for both musicians and non-musicians to study the business of music on campus.

This manifests into two shorter-term goals — to create a track within the music major and a new minor focused on the business of music — and one long-term goal, which is the eventual creation of a separate business of music major.

Both Bendes and Polec have done considerable benchmarking with the music business programs at peer institutions and found that, between classes that already exist through the Simon School of Business, the engineering department, the Eastman School of Music and the River Campus music department, the course structure at UR is primed for such a major to come into existence.

The main element that is missing here is a core business of music course, something they aim to create through their KEY project.

Polec emphasized that the plan is to lay the framework for these advancements this semester, so that they can continue to grow after he and Bendes move on from UR.

“This is entrepreneurship; you build up a business, you build up an idea, you sell it and then you move on,” Polec said. “We have a great music faculty and loads of interested students who can continue to help push this plan forward.”

Fleming is a member of the class of 2013.

Courtesy of sa.rochester.edu

UR’s Students’ Association is nearly finished making amendments to its election policies and procedures manual.

The SA’s electoral process is governed by a set of rules known as the bylaws. The goals of the election process outlined in these bylaws are carried out in accordance with the Policies and Procedures Manual (PPM), which outlines and specifies the acceptable operations, policies and procedures relating to SA elections.

According to Speaker of the Senate and senior Dan Cohn, “the bylaws tell us what needs to be done and our PPM tells us how and where.”

The PPM changes frequently to adapt with the changing social climate surrounding student government elections. This year, the amendments to the PPM are largely focused on two issues: the selection process for Professor and Student Life Advocate of the Year; and the guidelines for campaigning on social networking sites.

Every year, one professor is selected as Professor of the Year for each of four academic divisions: the Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences and Engineering departments.  In the past, the award has been decided by a student body vote — students could vote on professors of their choosing on the SA website.

The SA decided that student body votes are biased, however, and this year have opted to select the four professors of the year using a special task force.

Students will nominate professors for the award on the SA website.  Then, a task force composed of members of the student government, dispersed across class years and academic divisions, will decide which professor wins the award for each division. Identical changes are in the works for the Student Life Advocate of the Year Award.

“By proxy it’s almost like it is a student vote,” SA Elections Committee Chair and senior Becky Donnelly said. “Senators represent their constituents.”

The proxy vote is meant to eliminate the bias favoring professors with large classes inherent in a student body vote.

One student worried that the new selection method might carry its own bias.

“On what basis is the task force going to select the professor? It seems like this new method is just as ambiguous,” junior Renuka Lakshmanan said. “I wonder if [the new method] is going to fix the bias?”

The SA is also establishing guidelines for campaigning on social networking sites which, until this year, have been non-existent.  Currently, students running for positions in the SA cannot spam other students with mass emails, and the SA wants this same logic to apply to social networking.

Candidates can now campaign on any forum to which message recipients have voluntarily subscribed and from which message recipients can also voluntarily unsubscribe.

The changes, according to Donnelly, “establish more clear guidelines for social media use in campaigning in the long run.”

“The new changes protect candidates rights and enhances the campaign process overall,” Cohn said.

As a result of these changes, students running for office are still prohibited from sending unsolicited messages to voters.
The campus reception to the new changes was generally positive.

“The campaigns of students running for student government positions can be overwhelming sometimes,” freshman Kiara Medina said. “I prefer the new changes.”

“When you’re running [for office] it’s hard to know what’s unacceptable and what’s okay,” freshman Rachel Suresky said. “I think the new changes will make everyone happier in the long run.”

The PPM has also been updated for the benefit of future members of the SA, with various suggestions for how to run elections in the future.

Volkov is a member of the class of 2012.

Jennifer Moon, Staff Photographer

In the Students’ Assocation Senate meeting on Jan. 23, SA Senator and junior Shiv Rambarran proposed installing cameras in Goergen Athletic Center, Rush Rhees Library study areas and Hillside Market.

Rambarran proposed the idea after a series of thefts occurred in recent months in the gym locker room and the library, but no action has been taken on the proposal yet.

Director of Security Walter Mauldin stated that in some cases cameras have the potential to be helpful, but that Security needs to assess each area of campus in turn before making a decision to ensure their “smart application” on campus.

Mauldin said that before commenting on the need for cameras in the areas that Rambarran mentioned, he would need to meet with the concerned parties and assess what specifically needs to be done and what is best for the area.

Mauldin said that UR currently has 275 cameras that send film directly back to Security, in addition to 150 cameras that locally watch the areas and that Security can pull up in the event that something happens in the specific location that the camera views.

There are currently cameras in Gleason Library that Mauldin said have been useful if something is taken that has a specific physical description.

Mauldin also said that there are two areas of priority on campus in terms of installing cameras: so-called points of intersection and passageways at the UR campus and wide stretches of campus, like parking lots.

Still, Mauldin believes that because patterns of student use change frequently, it is necessary to assess areas individually and determine whether the need is for emergency phones or more lighting, rather than cameras, for example.

Rambarran in part sees the need because he is personally acquainted with two of the students who were recently robbed in the locker room, he said.

“They lost laptops, a bag, wallet, and car keys,” he said.

The occurrence of such thievery is disconcerting to students, but many students are wary of the rush to install more cameras.
Sophomore Elizabeth Bradley, who works in the gym, said that she does not believe cameras are a necessary step to take.

“In the gym all the thefts were in the locker rooms, so cameras wouldn’t be very helpful,” she said. “In the library I’m not sure they would make too much of a difference.”

The library is a place for students to study foremost, but students also head to the library to socialize.

“The installation of cameras in the library would damper the social scene,” senior Leah Barish said.

On the flip side, installing cameras might help alleviate student thefts and create a more carefree environment.

“If I know there is constant surveillance then I won’t have to walk and look for someone to watch my stuff if I need something, let’s say from Starbucks,” freshman Mo Ahmed said.

Ahmed believes that cameras should be installed.

“Putting cameras in the library or the gym does not violate anyone’s rights,” he said. “So I am sure, for the sake of accountability and safety, they should go ahead and install them.”

Rambarran suggested that Security install these cameras “as both proactive deterrents and retroactive securities that ultimately safeguard the secure culture that we have on the River Campus.”

“As a UR student, I for one take pride in the general culture of our campus so that we can leave our things somewhere for a moment or ask someone to watch them and feel secure,” he continued.

Sophomore Hillary Figler said she thinks that the cameras would be completely unnecessary.

“It’s a waste of money,” she said. “Next year they’ll raise everyone’s tuition by a hundred dollars so they can put cameras everywhere.”

Figler, like many students, does not think that installing cameras will solve any problems.

“Have a friend watch your stuff if you have to go somewhere,” she advised.

Duncan is a member of the class of 2014.

Drue Sokol, Photo Editor

On Tuesday, Feb. 14 English professor Stephanie Li delivered a talk exploring racial language in American politics in honor of Black History Month. The event was co-sponsored by the Office of Minority Student Affairs, the College Diversity Roundtable and  student multicultural organization Shadowing the History and Diverse Environments of Students.

Li’s talk stemmed from her newly published book, titled “Signifying without Specifying: Racial Discourse in the Age of Obama.” Li became interested in the topic during President Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. After reading Obama’s memoir,

“Dreams From My Father,” Li observed Obama’s use of  racial language and became intrigued by the overlap between language and politics.

Li’s talk began by highlighting the fact that Obama’s rhetoric is quite similar to author Toni Morrison’s literary style. In one of Morrison’s acclaimed works, “Paradise,” she creates racially unidentifiable characters, which help her employ “race specific, race free language,” which Li defines as “language that doesn’t refer to race directly, but still has racial resonance.”

Li argues that Obama also employs this technique. In one of his speeches Obama states, “We’re the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

This line is derived from a poem that Jean Jordan wrote as a call to African-American women, but that is now emblematic of the African American literary tradition.

Obama alters its meaning from its original context but still uses the statement as a call for unity to the African American people, Li believes.

Obama has also stated that “we’ve been bamboozled, we’ve been hoodwinked.” This draws directly from a Malcolm X speech, a figure who has come to symbolize the African American people’s pride and vigorous fight for equality, according to Li.

Obama subtly connects with members of his race who understand the references without alienating Caucasian listeners in the process, Li said.

She highlighted an implication of this method — instead of defining race biologically, this rhetoric mechanism defines race culturally, by how people read language and society.

Li argues that these and other linguistic styles allow Obama to speak to multiple races simultaneously, and ultimately maintain a “post-racial, transcendent” image.

Following her lecture, Li facilitated a discussion in which audience members could further explore their perception of her findings, and attendees shared many diverse views and ideas.

Senior Alex Armlovich, who attended the lecture, said that Li was “an articulate and engaging speaker.”

Senior Tejas Pathak agreed, and, reflecting on the talk, stated that “there seems to be different ideas out there about what it means to be an American culturally and what it means to think like an American, but some people in the political arena are more allowed to question that and assert what it is.”

The political philosophy that Pathak discusses is an area rather remote from Li’s background in English literature, yet the unusual intersection of the two fields is what stimulates Li most about her research. She says that what she loves about her work is that “ideas that I see in literature have direct applications to the political landscape.”

She is not alone in valuing this overlap; Pathak also reflected on the importance of her message.

“It was an analysis that few people are doing, and we would all benefit more as a country if more people looked into these subtexts to better understand where we’re going as a people,” he said.

Fagan is a member of the class of 2014.

Karli Cozen, News Editor

On Friday, Feb. 10 and Saturday, Feb. 11, the Rochester community welcomed athletes and coaches throughout the state for the Special Olympics New York 2012 State Winter Games.

The Special Olympics provides an opportunity for individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) who are over the age of six to compete in a variety of athletic events. This year’s games included snowshoeing, alpine skiing, Nordic I and II skiing, floor hockey and figure skating.

“The Winter Games were a great success,” Special Olympics Genesee Regional Director Robert Marketell said.
There were more than 800 competing athletes and over 800 community members who volunteered at the games, according to Marketell.

Prior to the start of competition, an opening ceremony was held at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center. Athletes marched in with their respective city teams while being cheered on by fans and local school sports teams. There were also guest performances by the ROC City Singers, SUNY Brockport’s Sankofa dancers and UR’s own Yellowjackets, who sang “Wavin Flag.”

“There was already a heightened atmosphere because of the competitive aspect of the games,” YellowJackets member and freshman Ian Wallace-Moyer said. “I think the message and beat of the song really helped to just heighten the mood and get everyone pumped up for what would follow.”

Following the ceremony, the competitions began, starting with floor hockey at the convention center.

According to Marketell, volunteers are what make the Games a success. They not only help run the events, but are also involved with planning out the details of the program months in advance.

Individuals throughout the entire Rochester community were involved in the volunteer efforts, including some from the UR campus.

Junior Lauren Gunther described how the ice skating competition, which was held at Genesee Valley Park Ice Skating Rink, was a philanthropic outing for her sorority, Sigma Delta Tau. A group from the sorority went to the event and cheered on all the athletes as they competed.

“I gained a better understanding for what the games are about and how they work,” Gunther said. “I really appreciated the opportunity to see each athlete perform and was impressed by their courage and dedication.”

Marketell also described how the games are not just important for the athletes and volunteers, but also affect the entire Rochester community.  They illustrate the abilities of individuals with ID, rather than their disabilities.

“The next time someone sees an individual with ID, they will see a downhill skier, a snowshoer and a floor hockey player first,” Marketell said. “They will recognize and respect their abilities. That is what it is all about: inclusion, dignity and respect.”
According to Marketell, the Rochester community will host the Special Olympics New York State Winter Games again in 2013.

Cozen is a member of the class of 2015.

May Zhee Lim, Senior Staff

The UR Debate Union sent an unprecedented number of competitors to the 2012 Cornell Debate Tournament held Friday, Feb. 10 to Saturday, Feb. 12 in Ithaca. Many of the 50 students who competed placed impressively in competitions that included both policy debate and British Parliamentary debate.

More than 320 debaters from across the country competed.

Seniors Kevin Diamond and Vijay Kasschau took first place in the Varsity Division, after standing 5-1 in the preliminary debates and making a perfect run in the elimination rounds. Both debaters also won speaking awards, with Diamond taking Top Speaker and Kasschau taking third place Speaker. This was the highlight of their debate careers as Vijay is the team’s current president and Diamond is a former president, according to professor and Debate Coach Ken Johnson.

Sophomore Amelia Poulin and junior Chiranjeevi Raghunath took fifth place in the Junior Varsity Division. Junior LJ Abrell and sophomore Cody Monday also held a tight race, taking second place in the Novice division after running 4-1 in the preliminaries.

This year, the national policy debate topic was, “Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially increase its democracy assistance for one or more of the following: Bahrain, Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen.”

Preparation for this historic and prestigious tournament began in August as students practiced debating, researching topics and drilling public speaking — often late into the night with the assistant debate coaches.

“Our students have a great work ethic and it really paid off this weekend,” said Johnson. “Next up are regional and national championships, we plan to work hard, debate hard, and win.”

The University has one of the biggest debate teams in the U.S., with 70 students who travel to tournaments throughout the semester.

“We sent a large number of teams simply because we had a ton of people sign up,” Johnson said. “Debate is so important and powerful. Our coaches and team leaders feel they have a duty to try and extend the opportunity to debate to as many people as possible.”

The team is open to anyone on campus and its allure seems to come from the many skills cultivated on the team, ranging from public speaking to argument structure, as well as learning about the current topics.

Although the competition is divided by Varsity, Junior Varsity and Novice, students have the opportunity to compete at the level and format of their choosing. This year junior Catherine Zeng competed in the British Parliamentary format.

Also placing in the Varsity Division were junior Vinit Akolkar and senior Thomas Weddington in fifth; freshman Camilo Benitez and sophomore Rebecca Schaffer took fifth place in the Novice Division.

Johnson is a member of the class of 2013.

Robert Ludwig ’66 was honored for Best Surround Sound Album and Christopher Lamb ’81 won for Best Classical Instrumental Solo.

Ludwig, who received both a bachelor’s degree in music education and a masters degree in trumpet from Eastman, worked at A&R Recording, Sterling Sound and Masterdisk Corporation before opening his own business — Gateway Mastering Studios, Inc. — in 1993.

Ludwig has also worked on projects for such esteemed artists as The Band, Jimi Hendrix, U2, Phil Collins, The Police, Neil Diamond and many others. He won a Latin Grammy in 2004 for the album “No es Lo Mismo” and won a Grammy for Best Surround Recording in 2006.

Ludwig was also nominated this year for an engineering award for the album “Music is Better than Words” in the category of Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.

Lamb, who has worked at the Manhattan School of Music since 1989, received the Grammy for his work in Joseph Schwanter’s Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra, which appears on the CD “Schwantner: Chasing Light.”

Lamb was also the recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Award, which he used to study abroad in Australia. He has been a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic.

Buletti is a member of the class of 2013.

Courtesy of facebook.com

We’ve all heard, hundreds of times, about how we’re “living in the information age” and how “social media has become the dominant form of communication.” Inundated as we are with these notions of an increasingly digital social landscape, it’s rare that we’re surprised by a sensation spreading rapidly through the depths of the internet.

Yet even against this “information age” backdrop, the sheer speed with which the college-specific meme craze has exploded in popularity across the nation is, well, remarkable. Over the course of a couple weeks it has grown at such an exponential rate that today you will be hard-pressed to find a college or university without an memes Facebook page.

At this point, it’s probably worth backtracking a bit to define exactly what is meant by “college-specific meme.” According to Urban Dictionary — the obvious authority on such matters — the top definition of an Internet meme is “a short phrase, picture or combination of the two that gets repeated in message boards and [chat rooms] for far, far longer than anything ever ought to be.”

The college-specific memes, then, are comprised of the pictures from well-known, pre-existing memes with new phrases overlaid on them relating to the university in question or its surrounding area. Whether they’re repeated “far longer than anything ought to be,” though, is in the eyes of the beholder.

On Thursday, Feb. 9, UR joined the movement with the creation of its very own UR Memes page by junior Cindy Zu. In the week since then, the page has been liked by nearly 1,700 Facebook users, and well over 200 UR memes have been posted on the page. Within days of its formation, the Rochester Institute of Technology created a similar page dedicated to RIT memes.

“It just shows the power of social media,” Zu remarked. “I don’t think there are many things that could be circulated this fast.”

According to Zu, UR Memes came out of humble beginnings. When she started the group, she invited only 30 friends to be a part of it, and created the first five memes herself to get the ball rolling. As she hoped would be the case, however, the group began ballooning in size and popularity within hours. The unstoppable meme train had been set in motion.

While Zu characterized the page as “lighthearted” and “humorous,” she also noted that she feels UR Memes could grow into something more impactful, perhaps even becoming a vehicle for University improvement.

“The main thing that’s really come out of it is that it’s a means for the student body not just to vent, but also to get what they want to say out there — about the school, the administration or something they like or don’t like,” she explained.

Junior Alex Murray expressed a similar sentiment. “There seems to be a lot of stuff [on UR Memes] aimed at Danforth and food service, for example,” he said. “I just went to a Dining Services meeting and I feel very satisfied with what they’re doing, but if [UR Dining] looked at UR Memes somehow, then I could definitely see it changing campus in some way.”

While Zu and Murray hope the page might have a positive influence on University policy, UR Memes has not been without its fair share of controversy. Zu mentioned that she received personal complaints regarding one meme that targeted and slandered a particular fraternity. To date, this is the only meme that Zu has removed from the page.

Zu compared what she doesn’t want UR Memes to become to what College ACB was before it was shut down last year — an arena for students to bash (and in some, albeit much rarer cases, to compliment) individuals or specific groups and organizations.

That being said, Zu emphasized that she wants to keep censorship on the page to a minimum.

“UR kids are smart, they know where the line is and when not to cross it,” she said. “I posted something a couple days ago saying ‘if you do decide to … post something flagrantly racist or sexist, 1,600 people are going to let you know.’ So, it’ll moderate itself if anything.”

Beyond any controversies, however, a proportion of the student body also feels that UR memes are — to put it simply — just not funny. Junior Zach Bailey is among this group; he posted a meme on the page that read “there’s a point where this needs to stop, and we’ve clearly passed it.”

“It’s like beating a dead horse, that’s what this is,” Bailey said. “Nobody’s going to get it except for people at the University, and even then, how many people are going to laugh at it?”

Zu, though, has a succinct piece of advice for those who aren’t fans of the growing meme momentum: “Unlike the page.”

“That’s the beauty of it all — if you have a problem with it, you don’t have to see [the memes],” she went on. “But I think people are enjoying them more often than not.”

Fleming is a member of the class of 2013.

Drue Sokol, Photo Editor

The last leaf on a giant, white oak falls slowly to the ground and eventually croaks while tree branches — dormant in the harsh bitter cold — remind students of winter’s deathly toll. The days shorten as the sun gradually disappears behind a growing wall of clouds, gray skies define the landscape and time drags on. This oppressive climate may often cause UR students to suffer from a common form of depression called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), and one possible cure — light therapy — lies within the University Counseling Center (UCC). Sadly, though, not many people take advantage of it.

Last year, Rochester was declared the snowiest city in the United States with an average accumulation of 99.5 inches — enough snow to burst through the ceiling of a one-story room. This record amount of snow leads to another superlative: most days of snowfall. For 66 days on average, the city of Rochester falls prey to clouded skies and falling white snowflakes.

All of this snow may evoke images of a winter wonderland to many, but those who endure the precipitation firsthand know that it has a dark side. Rochester is among the top 20 cities that receive the least amount of sunshine each year — a figure especially relevant during the overcast winters.

Together, these three statistics create the trifecta of gloom. Months on end with little to no sunlight, frigid temperatures producing nonstop snow and constant wind chills create an environment that students can often barely tolerate.

“Some days you just want to see the sun,” sophomore Andrew Keene said. “It gives you hope.”

Unfortunately, Mother Nature doesn’t respond to pleas of hope and there are times when the sun remains obscured by clouds for days on end. While this happens, the average low temperature reaches a frigid 16 degrees in January, but the wind chill causes what feels like sub-zero temperatures.

Students like sophomore Colin McCoy, instead of begining their mornings afresh, often burrow in their beds and relish in the warmth of their comforter cocoons as opportunities pass them by.

“There are times where I don’t want to get out of bed,” McCoy said. “I don’t want to face the day.”

And so, Old Man Winter silently claims another victory.

For students experiencing symptoms of SAD, the urge to oversleep during the winter has a biological basis beyond laziness. The circadian rhythm — the body’s natural clock that controls sleep cycles — is dysfunctional and forces students to stay up past their desired bedtimes. The drastic alteration of sleeping patterns quickly infects other aspects of students’ lives and feelings of hopelessness often emerge. Other symptoms of SAD include decreased concentration and creativity, increased irritability, changes in appetite, a drop in energy levels and anti-social behavior.

Coping with SAD or a minor case of the winter blues is a daunting task for some students and a walk in the park for others. The majority of students make it through the winter with minor battle wounds and an occasional melancholy day, but others suffer  and endure the pain for months because they are unaware that the disorder exists. Consequently, they don’t know that light therapy is an option or are skeptical of light therapy’s legitimacy.
Light therapy lamps activate photoreceptors in the retina by emitting a comparable amount of light to that absorbed by the eyes at high noon during the summer.

For 30 minutes every day, patients position the lamps slightly above eye level so the light can reach the bottom of the eyes. The lamps have a staggering effectiveness rate of 50 to 80 percent and patients begin to benefit from the positive effects in as little as one week of use.

One to two weeks of repeated use will normalize the body’s circadian rhythm and dispel the negative symptoms of winter depression.

Secretary Brenda Lawson is the first person to greet people who come to UCC, which is home to two light therapy lamps. Lawson explained that a grand total of nine students used the lamps during the 2010-11 academic year and five students have tried them this year.

The larger of UCC’s two lamps appears similar to a computer monitor and the smaller one resembles an ordinary desk lamp.  Both lights are available to use, free of charge, whenever the conference room is unoccupied.

UCC administrator Karen Platt encouraged students to “come in and sit by the lights for an hour.”

However, students rarely take that advice.

“I have so much stuff going on,” Keene said. “I don’t have time to go all the way to UCC just to sit in front of a lamp for an hour.”

In the meantime, winter trudges on and students’ happiness is lost to gray skies. UCC keeps printing pamphlets, but recuperation must start from within the afflicted.  If students affected by SAD are willing to make a 30-minute daily commitment, their lives may be forever changed. They can rise above the pervasive gloom and let the light into their lives.

Duncan is a member of the class of 2014.