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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF MANHATTAN COLLEGE | SINCE 1924
Volume CIX, Issue 8
NEW YORK, MARCH 26, 2024
FREE
President Addresses Cuts & Layoffs in Open Forum at Draddy Gymnasium President Addresses Cuts & Layoffs in Open Forum at Draddy Gymnasium Students filed into Draddy Gymnasium on Wednesday to listen to President Milo Riverso speak about recent issues facing the college. GRACE CARDINAL / THE QUADRANGLE
MC Students and Mathematics Professor Present MRI Research and Build Upon their Findings Several Manhattan College students are researching MRI effectiveness and efficiency under Angel Pineda, Ph.D., professor of mathematics, and Rehan Mehta, a senior economics and mathematics double major, presenting their findings at various conferences. According to manhattan. edu, the project is being funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH), which granted Pineda a three-year $434,000 grant as a renewal of his current NIH grant. Pineda explained that the goal of this project is to make
the MRI machines faster while keeping the results at the same rate of accuracy. “Our goal is to make MRI faster while still allowing the radiologist to see the same pathology, that way they can make it faster and keep it just as clinically accurate,” Pineda said. “If you’re a researcher, you want to find the kinds of research that other people aren’t doing because that means that you can contribute something. The reason why we’re working in MRI is because not many people are doing the kind of work that we do for MRI.” Aside from presenting in the SPIE Medical Imaging Conference in San Diego,
IN NEWS:
IN FEATURES:
Karen Flores Staff Writer
Jaspers Inducted into National Academy of Engineering on pg. 5
Jaspers Celebrate International Women’s Day on pg. 7
Mehta has presented the research at conferences in Wisconsin and San Francisco. “First we developed these kinds of models, graphs and visualizations and then all that work culminated into collating the results into a paper, which we submitted as an abstract to the SPIE medical imaging conference in San Diego,” Mehta said. “We got our paper accepted as a talk and Dr. Pineda gave me the gracious opportunity to present a talk and I am very grateful for that.” Mehta was one of a few undergraduate students presenting at the conference. “The thing that makes __________________________ CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
Kyla Guilfoil & Grace Cardinal
Senior Writer & Editor-in-Chief Manhattan College’s President Milo Riverso, Ph.D., addressed the college’s recent budget cuts and layoffs in a rare open meeting on March 20. The meeting comes after the college laid off over 25% of its faculty beginning in June 2023 and over a dozen majors and minors were discontinued. At the meeting, Riverso told students that the college had spent $50 million over its allowed budget for the last five years, which led to the reduction of faculty and programs to minimize costs. However, Riverso said that with the cuts, the college is, “Now out of the woods.” “The only thing that can hurt the college now is nervous students and nervous prospective students,” Riverso said at the meeting. Riverso emphasized that he had, “Accomplished what he set out to do.” Ultimately, he said that by cutting a number of faculty and academic programs, the college is now “right-sized.” Riverso also said that as enrollment is currently down 30% from recent years, it was no longer feasible to operate the college at the size it had previously been run at. “We have turned the corner on what was a very serious financial situation to one that will have bright days ahead,” Riverso wrote in an email statement sent after the
meeting. Both at the meeting and in Thursday’s email, Riverso emphasized that the college has no plans to close, despite concerns from students. “First and foremost, and despite unfounded rumors to the contrary, Manhattan College is NOT CLOSING, and we have no intention of seeing anything happen to this great institution other than to continue to provide the same high quality education and opportunities for the future as it has for our entire 170 year history,” Riverso wrote. Prior to the open forum, Student Government had sent out a form allowing students to submit questions that they wanted to be addressed at the meeting. Following the president’s prepared remarks at the open forum, he provided an opportunity for students to come forward with questions that had not been sent in to Student Government. Many took advantage of this opportunity to speak directly to the president, but not all felt like they left with clear answers. “I feel the same as I did before,” sophomore attendee Vanessa Eagle said. “I don’t feel any better…maybe a little better because I know the school isn’t closing, but there’s still so many unanswered questions.” Marcy Kelly, Ph.D., dean of the Kakos School of Arts and Sciences (KSAS), sent her own email statement to students following the president’s meeting. In her email, she __________________________ CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
IN A&E:
IN SPORTS:
MC Pipes & Drums Band at St. Patrick’s Parade on pg. 8
Jasper Esports Wins Valorant MAAC on pg. 17