FRIDAY
February 4, 2011 Sat. Sun. Mon. SUNNY SUNNY CLOUDY 29ŗ21 31ŗ22 31ŗ27
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Cuomo announces major budget cuts Brian Racow Assistant News Editor
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his executive budget Tuesday for the State of New York for fiscal year 201112, which begins Apr. 1. The governor’s proposals include significant cuts in funding to education and Medicaid, among other sectors, as part of a plan to close a $10 billion budget gap this year. If passed by the legislature, Cuomo’s budget bill would reduce New York State government spending from one year to the next for the first time since 1996. Cuomo’s budget includes $132.9 billion in spending, a reduction of $3.7 billion, or 2.7 percent, from the current fiscal year. In decreasing spending, Cuomo is seeking to revise statutory requirements for spending growth, such as mandates that funding for education and Medicaid be increased by 13 percent next year — increases he has called “unsustainable.” As a result, the proposals to cut education funding by $1.54 billion and Medicaid by $982 million contained in the Governor’s bill would amount to cuts of about $2.85 billion in planned spending for both areas. This cut in funding for Medicaid would also roughly be doubled due to loss of federal matching funds. Some of the largest proportional decreases Cuomo is proposing would be to SUNY and CUNY, which would each have their budgets cut by 10 percent from last year. This comes on top of cuts to SUNY totaling close to $1.1 billion in the last three years, or a reduction of roughly a third of state funding for public colleges
and universities. Jennifer Jensen, a professor of political science at Binghamton University who has done research on different states’ governments and their relationships with the federal government, said that New York’s difficult budget situation is similar to that of many states. “Gov. Cuomo faces a real challenge, as are most governors … the budget crisis in this state is bad, but not as bad as a number of other states,” Jensen said. “One of the difficulties is that the state used stimulus money to offset the revenue shortfalls that the state was facing [and] that economic stimulus money is now spent.” Nevertheless, BU Interim President C. Peter Magrath said the budget’s effect on SUNY could have been worse, citing predictions from news agencies made before Cuomo introduced his budget bill that SUNY would have its budget cut by twice the amount the governor actually proposed. “The good news is that the bad news is not as bad as it could have been,” Magrath said. “We’re looking at a loss of approximately $6 to 7 million in funding here at Binghamton, and we’ll deal with it without doing furloughs for employees or reductions that would hurt the quality of our academics.” He said the University did not have finalized budgets for beyond this year and next yet however. But Magrath praised a feature of the budget that would eliminate what he called inefficient rules governing how SUNY campuses enter into private partnerships and procure goods and
Vol. LXXIX, Issue 4
Binghamton University
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opinion
Gap-Closing Action
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Governor Cuomo s budget included further cuts for SUNY ̶ nothing new, but still worrying
Research back on track Meghan Perri Pipe Dream News
In the early hours of a Saturday last November, Mark Lenzenweger received an emergency alert from Binghamton University on his cell phone notifying him that electricity had been turned off in the science buildings and that the buildings were closed until further notice. He later found out that this was the result of a break in an 8-inch-wide water main buried 10 feet underground that had unleashed an estimated 1.6 million gallons of water, flooding the science buildings. Lenzenweger, a psychology professor, contacted the psychology department chair, Celia Klin, who informed him that the damage to the ground floor of Science IV, where his lab and office are located, was severe. “I took a tour of [Science IV] and it was unbelievable,” Klin said. “I knew we were looking at a real crisis here.” After the pipe first broke on that Nov. 13 morning, Lenzenweger and Klin, among many others, entered the building that night to dump dry ice into out-of-commission freezers, the rising temperatures of which threatened to destroy years’ worth of data. “We were there in the building that night walking around with flashlights. It was really quite eerie and otherworldly,” Lenzenweger
See CUTS Page 5
See WATER Page 4
Sasa Sucic/Staff Photographer
Pictured above, a sign indicates that Science IV is now open for the spring 2011 semester. Since the water main break of December 2010, the ground floor has been restored to preflood conditions and seen the addition of new lab equipment. Additional funding has also been procured to allow the graduate students to complete their research.
Study finds college males less interested in romance than females are Ariel Argueso Pipe Dream News
A new study conducted at Binghamton University found significant differences between men and women on their views of relationships and sexual hookups. Justin Garcia, a SUNY doctoral fellow in the
biology department and scientific adviser for www.match.com, began studying cuddling in early 2010. His focus for the study is commitment and sexual behaviors. Focusing on romantic relationships, hookups, one-night stands and infidelity, Garcia has discovered a variety of results and differences between genders.
Anna Menkova/Contributing Photographer
Ph.D. student Justin Garcia researches love at Binghamton. His most recent research looks into how much committed, single people enjoy cuddling.
“One of the questions we have been looking to answer is how exactly men and women differ in their desire for long-term relationships and affiliative gestures such as cuddling and kissing,” Garcia said. Dr. Ann Merriwether, a BU psychology professor; Chris Reiber, a BU anthropology professor; Leslie Heywood, a BU English professor; and Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist at Rutgers University, also helped run the study. In the study, 681 students were asked what type of relationship they prefer now. About 83 percent of women responded that they preferred a romantic relationship, while 63 percent of men preferred a romantic relationship. “What’s most fascinating is that the majority of both genders said they wanted a relationship right now,” Garcia said. “Usually, we see this hookup culture on college campuses.” Garcia added that many people are hooking up because they hope it will develop to a relationship. The results also showed that 97 percent of men and women are interested in cuddling, embracing and holding, if in a relationship. About 52 percent of men and 61 percent of women said they were interested in cuddling with someone they are hooking up with. Garcia is currently investigating the characteristics of those who are comfortable with a hookup and want to cuddle regardless of knowing the person. “We want to know what they want out of it,”
Garcia said. “Another interesting result we have found is based on cuddling after sexual behavior.” The study found that 94 percent of men and 95 percent of women said they would like to spend the night cuddling after sexual behavior if in a relationship. On the other hand, 38 percent of men and 46 percent of women said they were interested in cuddling after sex, if they were not in a relationship. “A lot of evidence says that love is in our biology,” Garcia said. “A lot of people want to feel romantically attached to one another.” Tori Serigano, a junior double-majoring in English and philosophy, politics and law, said she likes to cuddle. “I think cuddling is a lot more intimate and special than just going out and hooking up with someone,” Serigano said. Alvin Chau, a junior majoring in economics, said he finds cuddling relaxing. According to Garcia, students for the study were taken from the human subject pool, psychology subject pool, introductory courses and other places. “We’re not the only creatures that engage,” Garcia said. “Certain primates express grooming behaviors and other species defend nests; I want to see what we [humans] do.”
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