Newspapers / North Carolina School of … / Oct. 1, 2016, edition 1 / Page 8
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8 October-November 2016 OPINION & FEATURES The Stentorian I NCSSM Smooth Pavement and Rough Exams By MICAH MULLARKEY The final week of first trimester, exam week, is behind the fledgling juniors and veteran seniors. Students can all feel a little more accomplished, and a little more unified through surviving one of the most challenging weeks at Science and Math. This first tri exam week came with the typical challenges of final projects and exams, but had an interesting twist: seemingly relentless construction. At the climax of a stressful trimester already loaded with college applications and a generally overwhelming workload, the student body was given the privilege of enjoying an orchestra of construction noise across campus from wireless network maintenance in dorms, the Engineering Suite remodeling project, and a recently undertaken pavement restoration project. Quiet Hours, a NCSSM exam week standard, were almost entirely ignored during the continued execution of multiple construction projects around campus. It left many students and faculty wondering what exactly administration was thinking. In some dorms, such as Hill, contractors were banging hammers and conversing loudly at 7 a.m. sharp each day. As students tried to get in another hour of earned rest NCSSM.EDU Cable has been installed throughout the past months as part of a network upgrade project. before taking their morning exam or studying, they were interrupted by poorly scheduled construction. During exam weeks, an entirely new and revised set of noise restrictions are enforced. During testing, students are required to keep noise at a minimum by shutting doors when working in groups and refraining from holding conversation in the hallway. With the network maintenance project continuing with full force through exam week, it seemed like nearly every single Quiet Hours’ guideline was broken. Had it been students talking in the halls throughout all hours of the day, much less using drills and hammers in every comer of the living spaces, SLIs would have been encouraged to give disciplinary levels. While the contractors by no mean deserve levels, it does call into question the general validity of rules put in place by the same department that scheduled the rewiring of the entire school. On the other side of campus, in BBR, the complete remodeling of the Engineering Suite is still underway. The project was started over the summer while most of the student body was vacant from the nearby Reynolds and Beall halls. For the four days of exam week, the project steamed ahead, completely disregarding any student concerns for peace and quiet New Dorm Senators Are Elected and Begin Work By SAMANTHA GONSKI On Sept. 23, 2016 the election process of Dorm Senators began. 23 total students were nominated, although only 21 of those students campaigned, and on Oct. 5, seven of the 21 candidates were elected.. When you pass them on hall, you can congratulate the 2016-2017 Dorm Senators: Nishma Vias (Beall), BT Babatunde (Bryan), Emma Perez-Navarro (Reynolds), Claire Liu (Royall), Siyun Lee (Hill), Nikhil Gavini (Hunt West) and George Dimitrov (Hunt East). The primary job of each dorm senator is to represent their hall at Student Government meetings and other SGA events. The student body elected those among them who shared their own concerns, and could best communicate the persisting and new issues on hall. “Each dorm senator acts as representative for their dorm and voices the concerns of their individual dorms. They communicate with their dorm community to present the issues and concerns that their dorm faces to other members of student government” said Student Government’s Election Board Chair, Evan Jiang. All of the candidates ran with varying platforms, and spoke about their campaign in speeches to their hallmates which were held on the same day as the election. “I hope to work with the other members of SG towards creating a better mental health initiative, making sure that there is a lot of transparency between SG and the Student Body, and to increase the amount of social activities and stress relievers that you all can take part in so that your time at NCSSM will be filled with much more cheerfulness,” said Nikhil Gavini, Hunt West Dorm Senator. Student Government would like thank the Directors of IT, Nikhil Milind and Alexander Allen, for creating the ballot that the student body used to vote. The next election period will not be until the spring for the Student Body President and Treasurer. “If there’s one thing that I would say, it’s that SG really does care about you guys,” Nikhil Gavini, Hunt West Dorm Senator said. “If you have questions, comments, or concerns, then don’t be afraid to voice them to any of us and we’ll do our best as a whole to help you out. I know that together [the student body and SG], we’ll make our home a better place.” during exam week. Again, those responsible for the carrying out of the project cannot be blamed. Postponing the project for a few days would have eased the stress of exams, however. For a project that seems to have already taken long enough, it could be set on pause for the sake of students’ academic and mental concerns. The third and most major project set on repaving the entire campus exemplifies the true and undeniable disregard for the concerns of. the student body. Restoration was scheduled for the week before final exams, with this already being a high stress Week With the anticipation of projects and all-nighters. Yet again, the project continued around campus without hesitation. Between residential and academic buildings, normally used sidewalks and roads were reconfigured every day to create inconvenient paths bordered with orange fencing. Normally, students would be able to study outdoors and enjoy the company of friends in the fall air, but instead they were driven to the noisy library or residential buildings by a din of construction and clouds of tom up asphalt. From every building, the sound of the beeper alerting a constmction vehicle in reverse to the destmction of tons of concrete and asphalt kept the attention of students trying to take tests or pore over notes. Although it is already questionable as to how administration expects students to maintain sanity during exam week, the concern here is how can residents focus with constmction impeding their silent solitude in dorms or in exam rooms themselves? This past exam week, campus was not quiet in any comer. The library seemed even louder than usual, and of course this would be expected given the general disregard for Quiet Hours guidelines everywhere else. Even if this was the only time that the construction (which will greatly improve the campus) is able to be scheduled, no additional steps were taken to offers students places of refuge amidst the noise. The library was closed all day Saturday, which is undoubtedly due to the school cutting back on faculty working overtime in preparation for the new regulations being enacted in December. This past exam week at NCSSM, students lived up to the old Science and Math motto: Accept the Greater Challenge. In all honesty, they were not given a choice. With second trimester already underway, much of the constmction is still being carried out around campus. It is likely that by the second tri exam week, some work will still be going on in and out of buildings. In the interests of residents and their academics, it is hopeful that concerned students and faculty will speak up to administration or Student Government in order to possibly avoid future distractions caused by poorly timed constmction projects. But, in the meantime, NCSSM will be Igniting Innovation in the halls of lightning fast internet, and Cultivating Community between stressed students and faculty. NCSSM SGA Nikhil Gavini, right, poses with friend Magd Bayoumi to support Student Government’s Oct. Healthy Living Week. Gavini represents Hunt West as a Dorm Senator. THE STENTORIAN North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics 1219 Broad Street, Durham, NC 27705 Editors-in-Chief: Claire Yin, Margaux Winter, Avra Janz, Amruth Sriperumbudur Contributing Writers: Elizabeth Beyer, Samantha Gonksi, Isabella Li, Vaishnavi Siripurapu, Jessica Sullivan, Julia Wang Contributing Photographers: Elizabeth Beyer, Julia Wang Advisor: John Kirk Please fonuard comments and inquiries to stentorianl23@ gmail.com. Note that the opinions expressed in this paper are those of individual writers and may or may not reflect the opinions of the editors or of NCSSM or its affiliates.
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Student Newspaper
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Oct. 1, 2016, edition 1
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