The Paw Print

A news publication created by Baruch's College Now high school journalism class

Manhattan

Can Phil Answer Our Question?

by Leave a Comment

Phil raising his Coach of the Year award.
Phil raising his Coach of the Year award.

Knicks fans have been desperate for change in the Knicks organization because it has had no NBA titles since ‘73 and questionable signings and moves over the years. Phil Jackson, aka The Zen Master, won 13 NBA championships which makes him on top as a player and coach of all time. In 2014, the Knicks announced that Phil Jackson would return to the Garden as president. This move gave Phil Jackson have full control of the coaching staff, player contracts and exploring trade options to make the Knicks as good as possible. Phil Jackson won 2 of his championships as a defensive minded player on the New York Knicks back in 1970 and 1973 and played alongside Walt “Clyde” Frazier and Willis Reed.

He was then hired as head coach of the Chicago Bulls in 1989. It took Phil, Michael Jordan,Scottie and their supporting cast 2 short seasons to win their first championship in franchise history. The Chicago Bulls went for a 3 peat from 1991-1993 and 1996-1998 which solidified Michael Jordan as the greatest player of all time and Phil Jackson as a basketball genius. Phil retired as a coach in 1998 but signed with the Lakers in 1999 and won the 5 championships in the span of 11 NBA seasons as coach which also solidified Kobe Bryant as one of the greatest of all time. Phil retired in 2011.

The New York Knicks had been in a terrible slump for almost 16 seasons after losing the NBA finals against the Spurs in the 1998-1999 season and only making the playoffs in only 11 of the last 16 seasons. In his first move as president he fired the entire coaching staff and hired someone who he’d coached for 10 plus years Derek Fisher. After this huge signing, Phil Jackson and the Knicks organization brought a lot of hope to their fans because a lot was expected from Phil.

Heading into the 2014-15 season, the Knicks were projected to be a playoff team but things didn’t go as planned. Phil’s first major move was trading a fan favorite, Tyson Chandler, and Raymond Felton to the Dallas Mavericks. Some Knicks fans thought it was a great move but the majority thought it was pointless.

The Knicks ended up 15th in the east and 29th (out of 30) in the standings, with a record of 17-65. The Knicks later got a lottery pick in the NBA (4th overall) and Phil Jackson put all his trust on a 19 year old Latvian named Kristaps Porzingis. Many people automatically lost hope on the Knicks after this random pick by Phil.

Kristaps’ first season (2015-16) recently ended and he ended 2nd in votes rookie of the year and averaging 14 points, 7 rebounds, and roughly 2 blocks per game. A lot of people doubted the overseas star but they also saw him evolve under Phil Jackson and Carmelo Anthony who guided him on the floor.

The NBA started the offseason in July 1 but the Knicks started to make power moves with a blockbuster trade acquiring Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose while sending Jose Calderon, Jerian Grant and Robin Lopez to the Bulls. As free agency began, the Knicks made another huge signing by acquiring free agent big man Joakim Noah who was Derrick Rose’s teammate in Chicago since 2008 that could bring in good team chemistry.

I’ve asked 10 basketball fans who live in New York if the Knicks can be contenders for the championship and three people thought they could and 7 they couldn’t. My personal opinion is that the Knicks could become a playoff team next season but it might take some time to be contenders for the championship.

Knicks fans are starting to have hope and starting to believe in the Zen Master aka Phil Jackson to make the Knicks a championship team once again.

Is Union Square’s “Beautification” a Facade?

by Leave a Comment

An ambulance siren blinked and blared as paramedics closely followed a tall man. They held a bright orange stretcher shadowing him as he led the way.

A woman sat with her body folded forward and eyes closed. She appeared to be unconscious just before she was swiftly pulled up straight by the tall man. Her eyes opened up wide, mostly revealing white. A hollow expression formed on her face.

The paramedics stood still for a moment looking at the woman’s eyes. She may have overdosed.

Children danced, jumped, and ran in a small field of grass just footsteps away from the helpless woman. It was Thursday in Union Square Park.

Thursdays, Union Square hosts a daylong event called Summer in the Square. The non-profit Union Square partnership offers a range of free community activities to children and adults. The events have been held since June 16 and end August 11.

Summer in the Square has been hosted by the park for 14 years, said staff. They said the event has gotten bigger and bigger each year. The program has a large range of sponsors.

According to Summer in the Square’s website, the park hosts the event “to ensure… Union Square district’s continued growth and success by providing… sanitation, public safety, economic development, marketing and events like Summer in the Square.” The site claims it is focused on “investing in the beautification of Union Square Park.”

Union Square hasn’t exactly provided the “sanitation, public safety and economic development” it insists it offers.

In a short walk around the square, you can smell the stench of rancid trash. On the east side of the park piles of garbage bags sit, left to be picked through by homeless looking for recyclables and food.

Drug addicts, who are often also homeless, populate the entirety of the park. Some are spaced out or incapable of motion.

Cop cars are usually parked along the east side of the park, yet these occurrences persist.

The growth and success Union Square claims to ensure has not been felt by all its community. While many enjoy the services the park provides, those who generally need it most don’t take advantage of those opportunities. Because they aren’t offered significant attention, they’re bound to decline.

The tents with big names plastered across them, and the big stage that holds up performers can’t hide the reality of the deterioration of Union Square’s smaller community.

 

LIFEFORCE Takes Tribeca

by Leave a Comment

 

 

 

Screen Shot 2016-08-10 at 1.06.51 PM

TriBeCa, New York City’s new exhibit, LIFEFORCE invades the city with feminist style art and moscato.

 

Photographers, journalists, hipsters, artists, family and friends from around the city came to see the premier of the new exhibit- LIFEFORCE at the minimalist art gallery, untitled-space NYC.

 

LIFEFORCE was assembled by 24 young female artist and curated by the Bennet sisters, Kelsey and Rèmy.

 

All of the pieces present feature exclusive to the female body like lactating breasts, estrogen and progesterone and perfect imperfections.

 

From the murmurs of the crowd you could hear the divide between hipster chicks and classic art enthusiasts.

 

“This is what we call art now?!” one said.

 

“She basically said ‘free the nipple’ with watercolor, sans the words.” another connected.

 

Some found it hard to believe what classifies as art or were amazed by the simplicity and manipulation of realistic depictions of the body used to rebuke misogynistic ideas embedded into pop culture.

 

Attendees Julia Bowen, 15 and Sharlana Ahmed,16, escaped the densely packed studio, as they realized that they disturbed the art pieces. The chairs and the hand sanitizer were not for use.

 

Deception at its finest.

 

If you did not pay attention to the captions, you too would’ve sat in sweat, tears, urine and synthetic female hormones or missed the connection between hands and sanitation with the UV lit and dead skin infused sanitizer.

 

There were many other intriguing displays, captivating personal struggle with religion, pregnancy, and self acceptance, along with vivid photographs and dioramas.

 

Official statements and descriptions of all of the pieces from the artists are at untitled-space.com.

 

LIFEFORCE is open to the public, free and with art available for purchase, between the dates 7/26- 8/6.
[contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Website’ type=’url’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]

Heatwave at Baruch

by Leave a Comment

A heatwave hit New York on July, 25 and 26 and inconvenienced people at the Baruch College. At the same time, it was mandatory for the college to cut electricity usage in the school.

Baruch participates in an Energy Demand Response program which requires City Universities of New York or CUNYS to “reduce energy consumption significantly” during heatwaves to prevent brownouts or blackouts in the city. The college reduces electricity consumption by turning off elevator/escalator services during certain times of the day, raising temperatures to reduce air conditioner usage and turning off lights.

The reduction of energy affected a lot of students who were quite used to the services and comfort the school provides. One student angrily described how she was late to class since she was “unable to take the elevators.”  Another one describes how it was “unbearably hot” in the classrooms since the air conditioners weren’t turned on to full power.

On the flip side, some people like Louis Li a student in the school said “I went through the day as normal and I didn’t even notice the heat or escalators not working.”

Participation in the Energy Demand Response program is good for the environment and the city, so questions remain why the college  doesn’t do more to curtail energy use throughout the year or even just the summer.

Often when you enter the college in the summer, the air is much too cold and energy is wasted on lights in halls nobody uses or elevators nobody is using. Perhaps the school should try to conserve more energy like they do during heatwaves in order to benefit the environment.

 

The Good, The Bad, and The Rotten Tomato

by Leave a Comment

“I pretty much see movies all day,” Rafer Guzman told Baruch College Now’s journalism students at the end of July at the Vertical Campus.

To many kids and young adults, watching movies all day for a living sounds fun. But to professional movie critic Rafer Guzman, it can get “frustrating at a certain point, because sometimes, there’s just nothing to say– but you have to say something.”

“You have to see absolutely everything, even if you don’t like it,” Guzman explained.

But Guzman doesn’t mind seeing terrible movies because he believes that “you always learn about what makes movies good or bad.” Many reviews by Guzman will include what he thought the director did well, or which scenes worked or failed.

It wasn’t until after Guzman graduated when he started to critique movies.

“I had no idea what I was doing with my life at all… There was no grand plan from the very start,” he said.

All Guzman knew was that he liked movies and music, that he watched a lot of movies, and that he listened to a lot of music.

Guzman told the students that he started writing freelance movie reviews at 26 and sold them to companies willing to publish his reviews.

Since then, Guzman has published over 900 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, which have appeared in publications such as the Boston Phoenix, the Los Angeles Times, and Newsday.   

High School of Health Professions Holds Election

by Leave a Comment

On May, 6, 2016, High School for Health Professions and Human Services held their annual school election.

The high school, located in downtown Manhattan,  prepared for this huge assembly weeks in advance. The candidates running for the president election practiced their speeches and advertised their campaigns all over school.

“There are posters everywhere! I’ve seen them in the locker rooms, hallways, lunchroom and even the bathrooms!” says a freshman in this high school. By using posters and creating online videos, the candidates spread the news about the election like wildfire.

When the day finally came, all the students gathered into the auditorium to make their decisions. Junior Christiny Celestinwas the first student to take on the stage. She showed the audience her video on the changes  she plans to make at the school and the crowd went wild. “WE WANT CHANGE, WE WANT CHANGE!” chanted the students. Christiny’s video included her ideas on creating more school trips and dances, more  exciting classes and better school lunch.

Her opponent, Mohammad Rahman, took the stage afterward. He recited his speech and talked about creating more school clubs and less homework. Mohammad says, “Who here has always wanted to join a club, but never has because the ones at school are lame? I can help change that, vote for me and there will be better after school activities.”  

After the assembly came to a close, the audience came to a decision. The winner of the annual Health Professions High School election was Christiny Celestin. Her classmate cheered for joy as she claimed her spot as president of class of 2017.

Black Futures

by Leave a Comment

 

On Saturday the visual arts group took a trip to the African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan. The instructor took the kids to this burial site to expose them to how blacks in New York were treated and put to rest when they passed. From the 1690s to about 1794 free and enslaved Africans were buried right outside the settlement of New Amsterdam  later known as New York.

After watching a documentary about the history of the burial ground the arts group took a tour around the cemetery and talked about their views and thoughts of the memorial.

The Junior Scholars  Program at the Schomburg Research Center is a unique program for young people. Kids around the tri-state area attend these morning Saturday sessions to learn more about Black American studies. The young scholars are split up into special groups to demonstrate their talents and to talk about global black experience through photography, visual arts, spoken word, theater and many others. All of this hard work will pay off during the celebration at the Junior Scholars Summit in May.

Every year the program identifies a specific topic for the year. This year it is “AfroFuturism,” the  idea of how the black race would progress and and grow mentally to become more aware of their opportunities for success in the future.

This year the visual arts instructor kicked off the year by bringing the group to the African Burial Grounds  to start thinking about what kind of message we want our audience to receive and how our ancestors have wanted us to live our future.

“What does Black Futures means to  you?”

The instructor asked the group that question before they started taking pictures and and choosing how they wanted to present their work.

The experience of putting together the project for the end of the year celebration takes a lot  because the discussion and the brainstorming the group goes through is very intense. The visual arts group has used the archives at the Schomburg to collect old footage and documents that could relate to the topic for the summit. As the summit approaches the group will complete various pictures and edits for other scholars and parents to see.

 

NYC Highschoolers fuming over spring break

by Leave a Comment

In New York City, spring break is much later than other spring breaks nationwide. Spring break in other states such as California or Maryland, is in late March/early April. However, in New York, the DOE placed Spring break on the week of April 25.

Any normal high scholar would agree. Jadah Stone, a 10th grader at Manhattan high school, says, “It’s completely bogus, I wish that my spring break was earlier. I hate having to wait two months for another break.”

This voice is not alone, I took a survey of ten random high school students at Tompkins Square Park, and seven of them said that they thought that this spring break is too late in the year. One of them, Jack Capello, an 11th grader at East Side Community High School, thinks that spring break should be two weeks instead of just one.

The debate about breaks is strong among students in New York City’s high school system. Many students are angered about most schools in the nation getting off for summer break in May, while the last official day of school in New York City is June 28.
Is there a legitimate concern over a student’s mental stability? Or are New York City high scholars just lazy. New York City has something that most other cities don’t, a mid-winter break, in February.

School Uses Writing Based Assessments Instead of Testing

by Leave a Comment

There is something unusual about School of the Future. While students in other schools are preparing for state exams, students at School of the Future are getting ready to present a semester long study.

School of the Future is known for its exemption from taking the Regents, a statewide exam covering all core subjects. Instead of the Regents, students are required to demonstrate a core skill through a paper and presentation known as exhibitions. Mr Fanning, the high school director comments on the exhibitions. He stated: “This is what we feel prepares our kids most for college and beyond”

Mr Copeland, the 11th and 12th grade history teacher and musical director stated: “We encourage students to investigate something that they find interesting. We hone their skills, their research skills, their writing skills.”

Many students have mixed reviews on the presentations. Some believe that the presentations truly represents a deeper understanding of the material while others would rather take the Regents.

One student commented: “I love exhibitions because they allow me to immerse myself in a topic of a subject that I otherwise might not have learned from a test”

Other students disagree with having to do exhibitions. One student commented: “I would rather just take a test and be done with it.”

Exhibitions take place twice each year, one per semester. They are broken up by into each core subject. Which consists of history, english, mathematics, and science.

Currently students are working on their second semester exhibition, and for many seniors it is their last exhibition and will determine if they graduate on time.

One student is working on a history exhibition that focuses on the contradiction between Thomas Jefferson’s personal life and his political rhetoric.

While another student is focusing on why the Women’s Suffrage Movement got underway when it did.

The Raft of Fashion Industries

by Leave a Comment

As the Class of 2016 sat in the school auditorium, everyone seemed to be chattering and catching up with their friends before graduation in June. About 10:30 in the morning the principal walked on the stage, with a stern strict face. He proceeded to tell the Class of 2016, news that will devastate the entire class.

Every year the High School of Fashion Industries senior class goes on an overnight trip, that includes going to a spa, or an amusement park.However last year, the day after the trip no one came back to school. Not one student that went on the trip, and not one  teacher that went on the trip. The principal stated that this was not acceptable, and so this won’t happen again there will be no more overnight trips. The principal had used last year’s trip as an example as to why the class of 2016’s senior trip was taken away.

“I waited 4 years for the moment for it to be taken away”. seventeen year old Seshem Sinclair uttered said  when the principal made this announcement.

“As your senior class president, this is an utter shock but we cannot act out because it would only hurt us.” Ana Rivera senior class president said these words yet you could hear the disappointment in her voice.

The senior class of Fashion Industries have been through a lot of trials and tribulations over the past year,however this has been the biggest disappoint for them. The senior class has been given the opportunity to go to Dorney Park, but many kids feel this is not a senior class trip, because this is nothing special.

Damaris Guerrero had publicly displayed her disgust in the school’s decision by making an unappealing in the auditorium. She didn’t feel that the class of 2016 should be blamed for the previous classes actions.