Month: October 2010

Categories
Arts & Life

Professor McDayter to write book on flirtation

By Christina Oddo

Writer

Ghislaine McDayter is more than just a professor. She is also an author, a “Romantic,” a cook and a calligrapher.

McDayter, an associate profess of English who has been at the University for 14 years, was born in Toronto, Canada. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, Victoria College. Seven months after McDayter graduated, she traveled to France, learned French and “perfected the art of living on bread and cheese—very good bread and cheese, it must be said,” McDayter said. She then studied Romanticism and earned her Ph.D. at Duke University.

Since then, McDayter has become a successful writer. Her last book, “Byromania and the Birth of Celebrity Culture,” was published by SUNY Press last year, and was awarded the Elma Dangerfield Prize for the best recent work on Byron by the International Byron’s Society. “It’s really about Byron’s poetic career and the origins of what we have now come to think of as celebrity culture,”  McDayter said.

McDayter is currently working on her next book, regarding flirtation in 19th century literature, entitled “Licentious Tyrants: Flirtation, Feminism and Nineteenth-Century Literature.” She will be teaching a seminar based on her research next semester.

“I wanted to come to a university where I knew that teaching was not something the professors did out of a painful sense of duty, but rather because they loved working with students,” McDayter said.  “I think the liberal arts education offered at institutions like the University remains the most productive and pedagogically exciting way to learn—both for the students and instructors.”

McDayter decided to become a professor very early on in her life. She thoroughly enjoys reading and writing, exchanging ideas about literature, and she especially loves analyzing literature, as it is like “working out a puzzle.”

McDayter likes to cook and do calligraphy when she has free time. She also enjoys yoga and hiking. If she is not teaching and collaborating with her students, she is spending time with her two children.

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Arts & Life Campus Events Review

‘Shepardfest’ in review

By Katie Monigan

Arts & Life Editor

The best way to describe Shepardfest is a hodgepodge: this weekend’s series of four plays could not have been more varied, almost as if they were not written by the same man.

But they were. Sam Shepard was named the 2010 Janet Weis Fellow in Contemporary Letters, but was unable to come to campus to accept his award. In his honor, and because of stage director Gary Grant’s passion for his work, this fall’s acting showcase was a diverse series of Shepard’s plays and short stories.

Inside Tustin Theatre’s small performance space are four risers with chairs, enough room for 30-40 people and six circular tables that create a café atmosphere. There were even plates with cheese, crackers, grapes and water on each of the tables.

The first of four plays this weekend, “Just Space,” which according to the program is a dramatization of a short story, was only a few minutes long and had two cast members. In the play, a mother does not understand the daughter now that she has moved away and married. She repeatedly refuses to acknowledge her daughter’s husband as her “husband,” instead calling him her “beau.” While mostly serious, it had a couple one-liners that made the mood less grim. On stage, two screens, one on each side, set the scene: the mother’s was a tidy living room, and the daughter’s was a much messier and basic one. Stephanie Walters ’11 played the daughter while a convincing Emily Singleton ’12 played the mother.

The second play, “Cowboy Mouth,” was much longer, almost too long.  Set in a messy apartment, the play features a drunk man and woman who scream, sing and crawl around the stage. The entire play is very intense, with almost no lulls. There are some funny moments, like when they order lobster and a man in a red leather lobster suit delivers it. Just like the first play, though, the comedic breaks are no match for the intensity and sadness of most of the play. Katharina Schmidt ’13 and Eddie Pailet ’11 both delivered impressive performances.

After a much-needed intermission, the tone completely turned in a lighthearted play about a woman who thinks her head is going to explode while she is skiing, a maid learning to swim by practicing on a bed and a man who suffers a 10-year affliction with crabs. The play is bizarre and entertaining, with especially compelling acting by Christina Cody ’12, who played the maid.

The final play in the series was by far the most abstract. It included the entire cast of Shepardfest and was broken into three groups of people: six people in chairs with blankets on their laps who were illuminated one at a time with spotlights, four drummers hiding behind the chairs of the speakers and an entirely-female chorus dressed in dark colors who ran around and danced. They all spoke in a chant-like manner, and eventually ran up into the risers where the audience sat to further extend the atmosphere.

Overall, Shepardfest seemed to be directed at an audience other than the student body. In fact, of the few people in attendance last Sunday night, about five were students, most of them greeting cast member friends when the show was over. It was enjoyable to watch, but nothing special, and seemed more to be a tool for acting growth rather than for viewing pleasure of University students.

Categories
Arts & Life

LinkedIn: Where social meets professional

By Ashley Miller

Writer

Job searching is never fun, particularly in this economic climate. With the unemployment rate in Pennsylvania up to 8.9 percent according the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, we college students need to search more than ever.

LinkedIn is one networking site that may help college students break into the work world. While other popular career sites including Monster, Careerbuilder and Careerlink each boast their own benefits, LinkedIn provides applicants with a place to help advance their careers.

While still fairly new, its membership of already 80 million is on the rise. Similar to the classic job search sites, LinkedIn provides applicants with a place to help advance their careers. Users can search for jobs in a specific industry or area. They also create profiles, list their accomplishments and work experience, add contacts and interact with a community through user groups and messages.

“I had a LinkedIn account in high school to network for music opportunities,” said Kim Rich ’14, who plays piano for parties and banquets. “I was actually surprised to get a few jobs just from posting videos of me playing (piano) on LinkedIn,” she said.

Twitter and LinkedIn recently came to a deal that allows tweets to be shared over the LinkedIn site. The incorporation of Twitter into the site allows job seekers and other professionals to share and receive career-related news, such as job openings and other useful tidbits, nearly instantly.

LinkedIn also provides the chance to get information from experts in a field. Got a professional question? Finding the answer is simpler than a Google search. LinkedIn members can get advice from people all over the country.

The typical profile on LinkedIn is more than just a résumé, although it consists of many of the same elements. It lists work experience and education, as well as interests and objectives. The more you include, the more likely you are to come up in searches so the more likely people are to find you. You also can have recommendations in the form of comments on your profile from other users.

Another useful tool is company pages. LinkedIn has hundreds of them. They show which members of your network work or have worked for this company, including who was recently hired or who has recently left. This can be advantageous if you are looking for a job with a certain company. You can “follow” a company you are interested in and receive updates about it. You can also see typical career paths of people who worked for that company, such as where they worked previously and where they went to work next.

LinkedIn may be especially helpful for college seniors preparing to enter the career world.

“I set up my LinkedIn profile just under a year ago. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have a professional online presence,” Gar Waterman ’11 said. “From the perspective of someone currently searching for a job, you never know when [an employer] might happen to come across [your profile].”

Categories
Sports

Miami Heat stack up on talent to win championship

By Justin Cohen

Contributing Writer

Last season, the Miami Heat finished in the middle of the pack in the playoff landscape of the Eastern Conference. The talent of a young Heat squad, even with Dwayne Wade, did not make it past the first round, losing in five games to the eventual Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics.

The Heat made major changes to their roster in order to free up salary cap space by releasing or trading seven of their 15 players. A free agent class headed by LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, Paul Pierce, Amar’e Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer, Joe Johnson and many others was more than enough for the Heat to risk it all this past summer.

After spending $330 million, they re-signed Dwayne Wade and added Chris Bosh and LeBron James.

As soon as James announced his intention to play for the Heat, debates instantly began about the Heat’s status in the NBA and about the ability of three of the best players in the league to play together on one team.

The Heat refilled their roster with additional players like Mike Miller, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Eddie House, as well as drafting Dexter Pittman out of the University of Texas. With the big three looking toward next June and the prospects of having a successful 2010 season looking very strong, the Heat were poised to take the league by storm.

Five games into the season the Heat sit on a 4-1 record with the big three all beginning to work together for their common goal of a championship. The Heat were confident in their ability to win, despite a minor setback in Wade’s preseason injury. The experts began to say that without Wade, the big three would take a while to develop chemistry on the court, and because of their new roster, much of the pressure would fall to the role players on the team.

After the Heat dropped the season opener to the Celtics, critics said the Heat had no dominant big men since Bosh is more of an offensive player. They said the big three will always have to control the ball with Mike Miller hurt and the role players not being suited for the responsibility.

Amid all of the talk, the big three are putting up solid numbers: all three have an average of about five rebounds per game, while Lebron and Wade are both adding 20 points and four assists per game. Amazingly, the big three is only shooting a combined 44 percent from the field. But the Heat are still winning thanks to their defense which is ranked number one in most defensive categories in the league, allowing only 80 points per game.

The Heat will have a serious challenge in front of them when they face the Los Angeles Lakers, who maintained almost their entire roster from last year’s championship team.

Categories
Featured Sports

Bison take crown

By Eric Weiss

Senior Writer

It was a bittersweet day for the women’s soccer team, which defeated Colgate 1-0 and claimed a share of the Patriot League crown but also said goodbye to one of the finest senior classes ever to grace the pitch.

Christa Matlack ’11 put the game in her own hands early, taking a pass from Kelliann Doherty ’11 and burying the ball in the upper right portion of the goal at the 11:39 mark. This gave Matlack 32 career goals and 78 career points, placing her at fifth on the Bison’s all-time points list.

The Bison then leaned on a defense that has been rigid all season long. The Orange and Blue held Colgate without a goal for the remaining 78 minutes.

Co-captain Amanda Citron ’11 and keeper Sandita McDermott ’13 anchored the defense as McDermott made seven saves, recording her third shutout of the season. Although the Red Raiders outshot the Bison, the Orange and Blue never let the game slip away.

“Colgate was an extremely physical team, but we knew we had the ability to beat them and never gave in,” Julianne Harris ’11 said.

The team knew it would not be able to host the Patriot League tournament since Army won its game last Friday. But the exceptional leadership and character that the Bison have shown throughout the season will hopefully carry over into the Patriot League Tournament at West Point.

“We know this season is far from over and we will need to work harder than ever to capture our next goal, a Patriot League title,” Citron said.

The Bison open the playoffs with a semifinal match Friday night against third seed Lehigh.

Categories
Featured Sports

Colgate upends Bison

By Mike Wolf

Contributing Writer

The women’s volleyball team fell in the Patriot League rankings this past Saturday with a 3-1 loss to Colgate. This match marked the end of an extended road trip on which the team finished 2-3.

After a positive start—the Orange and Blue won the first set 25-17—the team dropped three straight sets, 15-25, 17-25, 18-25. It was the first time since September that the Bison have lost consecutive matches.

Heidi Kamp ’11 led the team with 12 kills and six blocks. Rachel Rodriguez ’11 also contributed 19 assists.

In the first set, Ragin Jackson ’13 had multiple kills and Katie Baumgarten ’12 an ace, a kill and two blocks. The Orange and Blue went up six points early and held this lead until late in the set when a service run by Rodriguez allowed the team to finish the set with an eight point victory. contributed with

Though the Bison won the first set decisively, the team was unable to generate any offense in following sets.

“We came out in the first game with the will to win … unfortunately the first game’s victory was followed by an overall relaxation,” Kamp said.

In the final three sets Colgate’s Logan Kaela and Lindsay Young combined for 32 kills. Colgate as a team recorded 55 kills throughout the match.

Though the Bison managed to keep each of the final three sets close, they could not get past their own errors as the match went on. The Bison managed a kill percentage of only .033 through the last three games. A good kill percentage generally averages at about .300.

The Orange and Blue have four matches left to hold their position in the Patriot League and make the playoffs. The women have home matches against Lehigh this Friday at 7 p.m. and Lafayette this Saturday at 5 p.m., both in Davis Gym.

Categories
Sports

Men’s soccer loses two games on the road

By Joe Ruby

Writer

The men’s soccer team dropped two difficult road games this week, losing 2-1 in overtime to Lafayette (7-7-3, 2-3-1) and 3-2 against Binghamton (6-6-4). Tommy McCabe ’11, Luke Joyner ’12 and Andrew Powell ’12 scored for the Bison, who now need help to qualify for the Patriot League Tournament.

Against Lafayette, the Bison trailed 1-0 at halftime but struck late to force overtime. McCabe, assisted by Brendan Burgdorf ’13, cleaned up a loose ball in the box 73:06 into the match to equalize the score at 1-1. The goal answered the Leopards’ 20th minute strike off the foot of Jeff McLaughlin.

Lafayette finished the game 2:13 into the first overtime when B.J. Glenn fired the game-winning shot past Marc Hartmann ’12, who could not manage to save either of the shots on goal he faced in the contest. Leopard goalie Andrew Pianko made three saves on four shots on goal. Overall, Lafayette held a 12-7 advantage in shots.

The game against Binghamton started with four goals scored in the first 23 minutes. The Bearcats got on the board just 2:22 into the game. Austin Hughes missed a shot, but Kyle Manscuk put in the rebound. The Bison answered at the 10:42 mark, when Joyner headed in a McCabe corner kick. Five minutes later, Binghamton reclaimed the lead on an Adam Whitehead penalty kick, but the Bison battled back. At the 22:39 mark, Powell converted a 20-yard free kick into his second goal of the year, and the score remained tied at two until halftime.

Binghamton took the lead for a third and final time in the 57th minute when Tommy Klim crossed the ball into the zone to Jake Keegan, who headed the ball past Tommy Caso ’12, who had relieved Hartmann at the half. Overall, the Bearcats put seven of their 12 shots on goal, whereas the Bison could only manage six of 13.

The Bison’s loss to Lafayette leaves them needing a win against Lehigh (8-6-2, 4-1-1) on Saturday to keep their playoff hopes alive. The Bison (7-8-2, 2-2-2) would also need Lafayette to defeat or tie Navy (7-4-4, 2-1-3) on the same day. The Midshipmen qualify with a win or with a draw and a Bison draw or loss, while Lafayette qualifies if it defeats Navy and the Bison lose to Lehigh.

Categories
Sports

Football loses seventh

By Greg Stevenson

Senior Writer

The football team fell 33-22 to Lafayette at home on Saturday thanks to four long scoring plays put together by the Leopards. The two teams had entered the game with identical 1-6 records, but the Leopards gave the Bison their second defeat in conference play.

“When a team strikes fast, there are varied reasons,” Head Coach Joe Susan said about Lafayette’s long plays. “The main result is the immediate score. Momentum changes, and there are snaps they don’t have to take.”

It did not take long for the Leopards to get on the board. On their second play from scrimmage, Lafayette tailback Patrick Mputu took a swing pass out of the backfield 75 yards for the opening touchdown just 50 seconds into the contest.

With its offense getting the job done early, the Lafayette defense countered with its own pivotal scoring play. Starting their second offensive series deep in their own territory thanks to an impressive punt, the Bison went backwards 11 yards in two plays for a safety, leading to a 9-0 Lafayette advantage.

Trailing by two possessions, the Bison defense forced a failed fourth-down try by Lafayette. The Bison proceeded to drive 69 yards in 12 plays, only to have their drive end on a costly turnover.

In a span of four plays, possession changed three times, all on fumbles. Lafayette ended up with the ball at its own 17-yard line. Nine plays later, the Leopards handed the ball back to the Bison via another fumble, setting up the first touchdown drive for the Orange and Blue that cut the lead to two at 9-7.

Over the next 18 minutes of play, Lafayette scored three unanswered touchdowns, all on plays longer than 30 yards, bringing the Leopard lead to 30-7. Tyler Smith ’13 then scored two touchdowns for the Orange and Blue, one through the air on a trick play and another on the ground, but the scores came too late as the Bison fell 33-22.

Although he has lost seven of the first eight games of the season, Susan recognizes the importance of these games in building his squad for years to come.

“Our younger players continue to develop,” Susan said. “Brandon Wesley ’14 is learning by experience. He is a very dedicated player and will work not to repeat mistakes. Travis Friend ’14 has continued to improve physically. Defensively Sean Rafferty ’12 is consistent. Tyler Anderson ’11 and Josh Eden ’12 continue to play well.”

For the third straight weekend, the Bison will try for their second Patriot League win of the season. The Orange and Blue host the Fordham Rams at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium Saturday at 1 p.m.

“This team has responded to the loss by working very hard,” Susan said. “Now it is time to get rid of the play hard and add to it play hard and win.”

Categories
Sports

Field hockey secures third seed

By Joyce Novacek

Writer

Corinne Raczek ’11 tied the program record in career assists at the conclusion of overtime when she passed to Kelly Bruvik ’11, who scored the game-winning goal of the field hockey’s Colgate 3-2 at home on Sunday. With this victory, the Orange and Blue rise to third seed for the Patriot League tournament this weekend.

The Bison outshot Colgate 13-1 in the first half but the first frame was scoreless.  Both teams scored two goals in the second half.

Only a minute into the second frame, Rachel Misko ’14 scored the first goal of the game and her sixth of the season.  Two minutes later, the Raiders responded with a goal to knot the score at 1-1.

The Raiders took the lead when Laura Denenga scored the second goal of the day for Colgate.  Not long after, Katie Durkin ’13 rebounded a shot from Bruvik and scored a diving goal to tie the score at 2-2.

Raczek assisted Bruvik for the game-winning goal with only four seconds left in overtime. With this assist, Raczek earned her 34th career helper, tying her with former teammate Amanda Faust ’09.  Faust and Raczek are the only two Bison ever to exceed 30 career assists.

“We were so pumped up for the game on Saturday. We knew the importance of our game but also knew that we just had to play like ourselves … We knew the whole game that it was our game and we were able to prove it to everyone else in the end,” Misko said.

The game was senior day for the Bison, who have four seniors on the roster: Bruvik, Raczek, Christine Weiss ’11 and Morgan Kauffman ’11.

“The seniors have made a tremendous impact on this program and will be missed so much by all of us. During the game, I wanted more than anything to win for them and you can’t come up with a more exciting ending than when Bruvik scored the game winning goal in overtime,” Durkin said.

“I could not have asked for a better class to start off my college career with. They’ve taught us so much and will be greatly missed next year,” Misko said.

The Bison will face second-seeded Lafayette in the semifinals of the Patriot League tournament  at 1:45 p.m. Friday in Washington, D.C.

Categories
Sports

Men disappointed in sixth place

By Eric Brod

Senior Writer

The Bison men’s cross country team finished sixth at last weekend’s Patriot League Championships. The Orange and Blue finished with 130 points, while Navy defended its league title with 43 points.

Once again this season,the Bison had a different runner leading the pack. This time it was Dave Brown ’12, who completed the eight-kilometer course in 25:49, finishing 23rd overall.

Brown was very happy with his performance.

“The workouts I did in the weeks preceding last weekend had gone very well but I had not yet translated them to good performances in races,” he said.  “Basically, I knew I was as fit as I was going to be for [the Championship] and whatever I had in me would have to suffice.”

Following Brown was Joshua Clark ’11, who finished 26th in 25:57.

Rounding out the scoring for the Bison were Robert Yamnicky ’13, who placed 28th, Charles Murphy ’11, who placed 30th, and Evan Novakowski ’11, who placed 33rd.

Navy’s Andrew Hanko took the individual title in 24:22.

“Even though our men finished sixth, I was pleased with how they ran the race.  They really ran a great final 3K to make it close among third through sixth,” head coach Kevin Donner said. “We have had a lot of adversity this year with sickness and injury as well as top runners graduating and transferring. We essentially had a whole new team compared with last year.”

The team lacked the one dominant runner it needed. Only 19 seconds separated the top six Bison finishers, but no runner pulled away.

“We are lacking a front runner, so even though our guys packed great, we were a little too far behind,” Donner said.

The men return to action Nov. 13 for the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Championships in University Park, Pa.