Author Archives: Brennan Weiss

Top 5 elections you should know about

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The 2016 presidential race may be clogging the airwaves, but that doesn’t mean other elections should be ignored. As we near the end of this year’s election season, it’s important to be informed about what is happening around the world. Here are the top five most important elections you should know about.

INDIA
With more than 1.2 billion people, India is the second most populated country in the world. Its current prime minister, Narendra Modi, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, was elected in 2014 despite criticism of his role in deadly anti-Muslim riots while Chief Minister in the state of Gujarat in 2002. Many Indians have not been able to forgive him.

PM Narendra Modi has been in office since 2014, ushering in a new era of democratic governance in corruption-plagued India. Now, his party's authority is being threatened after huge election setbacks in Bihar state.

PM Narendra Modi has been in office since 2014, ushering in a new era of democratic governance in corruption-plagued India. Now, his party’s authority is being threatened after huge election setbacks in Bihar state.

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Art students paint and sculpt their way to the end of the semester

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Dozens of studio art and digital media students are in a frenzy working on their final projects. They’ve been working on sculptures, paintings, and computer designs all semester, but now they have just a few weeks to transform their best creative conception into a final product.

Under the supervision of Ed Smith, a professor of art, students in his 3-D design class are hard at work on their final projects in and around the Steel Plant studios located on the other side of Route 9 across from the center of the Marist campus. These studios, relatively unknown to non-digital art or design majors, often host art galleries and exhibitions displaying student work. The studios are equipped with canvases for painting, digital computer labs and even sculpting tables and machinery. Continue reading →

Local government officials look to strengthen college-community relations

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For most politically minded college students at Marist College, the presidential race may appear to be the most pressing upcoming election, but amid all the Hillary-Benghazi-hearing and Trump-on-SNL media coverage, they might have missed an even more consequential political race.

Local elections for key offices in the Dutchess County and Poughkeepsie governments took place on Nov. 3, ending months of hectic, door-to-door campaigning for hundreds of candidates throughout the county. In one of the most hotly contested races, Marc Molinaro, the incumbent republican county executive, won re-election with more than 63 percent of the vote, beating out Democratic challenger Diane Jablonski.

Republican Rob Rolison was elected mayor of the City of Poughkeepsie, defeating Democrat Randy Johnson by more than 1000 votes. Seats on the seven-member Poughkeepsie Town Board, the eight-member Common Council of Poughkeepsie and the 25-member county legislative body were also up for grabs, among other positions.

These officials indubitably affect the lives of the thousands of constituents within their districts, but often overlooked is the relationship between these officials and local college students. Continue reading →

IBM plays bigger role than ever at Marist

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Unless you are a computer science or math major, you probably have no idea about LinuxONE computer operating systems, or that Marist is one of the three schools from around the world hosting this new technology.

IBM Corp., the largest employer in Dutchess County and one of the driving forces of the local economy, announced in August that it would partner with Marist College to host LinuxONE mainframes, which are open-source computer operating systems available for free to students and developers around the world. The machines were fully installed in the Data Center in Donnelly Hall on Sept. 23, but students and faculty will have to wait until the project launches in mid-November to access to them.

“It’s really exciting because it is such a great opportunity to have such a close relationship with IBM where they can give us all these toys to play with and things to work on,” said Dan Martino, a third-year computer science major with a concentration in software development. “We’re pretty privileged.”

This is the LinuxONE system in the Data Center in Donnelly Hall. It is fully functioning, but won't be available for use until mid-November.

This is the LinuxONE system in the Data Center in Donnelly Hall. It is fully functioning, but won’t be available for use until mid-November.

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New media hub aims to transform Marist news

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It is sometimes difficult to get beer-guzzling, party-hopping college kids to care about what’s going on in the world. It can be even more challenging to get them to pay attention to what’s happening on their own campuses. But in an effort to improve the way students get their news, administrators in the communications department at Marist College are hoping a new converged media platform will do the trick. Continue reading →

Marist holds on to its Catholic roots

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Pope Francis has captivated audiences of all religions and nationalities across the world since being elected to lead the Catholic Church in 2013, but the pontiff’s six-day, three-city tour of the U.S. late last month was especially inspiring for many Catholics at Marist College.

Although Marist is an independent institution, its Catholic origins are undeniable. The college was established in 1929 by the Marist Brothers, an international community of Catholic priests, and remained affiliated with the Church until 1969 when it was sold to an independent board of trustees. Today, the campus is full of reminders of the college’s Catholic legacy, including the chapel in the center of campus, a grotto and a statue of St. Marcellin Champagnat, the founder of the Marist Brothers.

“There is a Catholic presence on campus,” said Dr. Sally Dwyer-McNulty, an associate professor of history at Marist. “For people paying attention, it is stronger, but for others, they might not notice it quite as much.” Continue reading →