Volume 7 Issue 1

Monday, September 17th Volume 7 Issue 1Visit us at www.stuystandard.org

Your School,Your World —Your News

Student UnionReforms

PresentingOur Principal:Mr. StanleyTeitel

by Rammiya Nallainathan,

SU Correspondent

The new Student Union (SU) Constitu-tion came into effect on the first school day. Manychanges were made to a document which had notbeen updated in several years.One change within the constitution in-cludes a new commitment for all presidents andvice presidents of each grade. This is to “Promotespirit, unity, and activity within his or her grade”.Jamila Ma, President of the Student Union andmember of the committee which revised the con-stitution, elaborated on the new clause.She stated that before, the duties of theclass president were a bit more “technical” in thesense that they would describe what committeesthey would be on rather than the actual duties of apresident and vice president. The duties of theclass presidents include organizing and preparingfor special events in their grades , including butnot limited to comedy nights and grade-widedances. Ma explained that this would make thepresidents and vice presidents responsible formaking their grade more “functional and cohe-sive.”Another change was that the directors of all committees would be able to vote as a memberof the Budget Committee and Executive Council.When Ma was asked about this, it was discov-ered that this change had actually been in effectfor some time. The problem was that no one offi-cially updated in the Constitution who was votingat these meetings. When asked her opinion onwhy this was a smart choice she said,“Many issues that the Executive Counciland the Budget Committee vote on will affect thecommunications department, as well as the otherdepartments, so it is only fitting that they shouldIn September 1983, Stanley Teitel enteredthe Stuyvesant community as a chemistryteacher. The following year, he began teachingphysics. Soon afterwards, he was promoted tothe position of Assistant Principal for Chemis-try and Physics. Then, in 1999, Teitel was ap-pointed principal of Stuyvesant High School.Even with this position, he still retains a pas-sion for teaching his students, and still teachesfreshman physics. This year marks Teitel’s25th year as a member of the Stuyvesant com-munity and his eighth year as principal.As both the principal and a teacher, Teiteloften has to juggle the two jobs at once. In aninterview, he happily replied that the physicshalf of his job was the easy part because he wasalready accustomed to it with years of teachingexperience. Being a principal requires thatTeitel deals with three main bodies: the student

In this Issue

Arabic School Causes Contro-versy in Brooklyn

News

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 3Is Celebrity Coverage Excessive?

News

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 4The Enigma of Peer Evaluation

Opinions

. . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 8

by Kenneth Lam,

staff writer

and JimmyZhang,

co-news editor

PRESENTING OUR PRINCIPALcontinues on page 4

REFORMScontinues on page 3

WIN FREE PRIZES!WIN FREE PRIZES!WIN FREE PRIZES!WIN FREE PRIZES!WIN FREE PRIZES!WIN FREE PRIZES!

SEE PAGE 3

The SU Constitution governs how the Student Union is run

TSS/Eric Mayo

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THE STUYVESANT STANDARD is a non-profit publication produced bythe students of Stuyvesant High School.THE STUYVESANT STANDARD distributes 2,000 free copies on a bi-weekly basis to the students and faculty of Stuyvesant High Schooland throughout the adjoining neighborhoods of TriBeCa and BatteryPark City.THE STUYVESANT STANDARD welcomes letters from its readers. For aletter to be reproduced in print, a name and method of contact mustbe provided.THE STUYVESANT STANDARD reserves the right to edit any publishedmaterial. The viewpoints of contributors do not necessarily reflectthe views of the Standard staff Copyright ©2007 THE STUYVESANT STANDARD

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EDITORIAL

COMMUNICATION

2

NEWS

THE STUYVESANT STANDARD

September 17, 2007—VOL. 7, No. 1

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A new locker system and new scanner policies were introduced asstudents made their way back to school. Though the policies themselveshave in the most focus of the students, we need to look at the bigger issuesurrounding all of these policies: Communication.Did the Student Union really accept the new locker policy, as reportedlast year, or were they “strongly opposed” to this, as Student Union Presi-dent Jamila Ma said in a Facebook posting on August 31? If the StudentUnion was strongly opposed, why didn’t they attempt to organize the stu-dents to rally against the new lockers?The Student Union’s failure to communicate with the student body isthe reason why the administration can get away with imposing restrictionafter restriction on students. Students last year received zero informationdirectly from the Student Union about what was going on in the StudentUnion. Media outlets cannot report about everything that’s going on. It isthe responsibility of the student government to make sure students are in-formed about important issues effecting them.Another example is the new constitution. The new constitution referseverything about the Budget Committee to the “Budget Committee Meet-ing Procedures”. These procedures, if available online, would have ex-plained our Budget Article (Volume 6, Issue 6). However, we were led tobelieve that an error was committed.The Student Union can’t rely on outside sources to rally the studentsagainst a cause. Stuycom is clearly not what it used to be, and Facebook can only do so much.If the Student Union feels that student support can help their agenda,that’s fine. It must be their responsibility then to seek out the students totell them what’s at stake.

LETTER

TO STUYVESANT

The Stuyvesant Standard

is excited about the start of a new schoolyear. We are looking to continue to improve our paper to make it the best itcan be for our readers. To help us further achieve this goal, we have re-designed the paper with easier to read fonts and bigger pictures, so you canget your news quicker and easier.For those of you new to Stuyvesant, we welcome you to our com-munity.

The Stuyvesant Standard

is a newspaper of Stuyvesant HighSchool. We are dedicated to providing the Stuyvesant Community withinformation to allow them to be informed about not only their school, buttheir surrounding community as well. We are entirely student run with afaculty advisor, Ms. Breslin. The editorial, which you see directly abovethis letter, is written by the Editorial Board, a group of seniors, juniors, andsophomores. We publish bi-weekly, but more up to date information can befound on our website, www.stuystandard.orgWe will be holding recruitments later this week, for all sections.This includes more than just writing, such as business, layout, photography,comics, and web. Information will be posted on posters and our website.Please contact recruitment@stuystandard.org if you have any questions.We are also taking ads now. Ads are a great way to reach Stuyve-sant High School as well as the local community. Please contactcfo@stuystandard.org if you have more questions.Welcome back to Stuyvesant, and we wish you success in your new schoolyear.Sincerely,The Stuyvesant Standard Editorial Board 2007

THE STANDARDNEWS

Arabic Language School CausesControversy in Brooklyn

by Hesham Saleh,

assistant news editor

3

THE STUYVESANT STANDARDNEWS

September 17, 2007—VOL. 7, No. 1

The Stuyvesant Standard Raffles

Code:

0704911112

Click here to win free prizes!

From buying textbooks for AP classes to going out to eat dur-ing lunch, many students in Stuyvesant just don’t have enough money to buy themselves the latest gadgets. Many are dying to buy the latestPSP-2000 or the recently released iPhone but can’t seem to musterthe money needed. Well, starting this year,

The Stuyvesant Standard

will be having a number of raffles for prizes such as these and more.Though there are no set prizes,

The Standard

team hopes to have giftcertificates to Best Buy and other stores as well as some technological gadgets for the drawings starting this December.So, how much do you have to pay for these raffles? Nonewhatsoever! All you need to do is sign up on

The Standard’s

website(http://www.stuystandard.org/). Each issue, a small box similar tothe one this article is printed in will contain a special code. Just enterthis code on the website and you’ll automatically get a ticket.The alternate method to acquiring these tickets is to utilize

The Standard

website. When you are logged in, you can post com-ments and vote on articles. Also, you can chat on the Forum withother Stuyvesant students. Whenever you do so, you will get a certainamount of points. After acquiring 50 points, you have an option topurchase a ticket for the current drawing. It’s simple and it’s easy todo!So, when you get home today, turn on your computer andenter in this code to redeem your free ticket!

On September 4, all NYCpublic schools reopened theirdoors for the thousands of studentsin the NYC public school system.One new school, Khalil GibranInternational Academy (KGIA),which opened in Brooklyn, facedmuch controversy from the com-munity even on its grand openingday.A group of 60 11-year oldsentered the doors of KGIA on Sept4, which is currently open only forsixth graders. KGIA is a NYCpublic school that teaches the regu-lar curriculum, but with an empha-sis on the Arabic language.There were large groups of protesters outside KGIA on Sept 4.One major group, which calledthemselves “Stop the Madrassa”(“madrassa” means “school” inArabic) tried to fight their way toCity Hall to protest the opening of this school. Supporters of thisgroup claimed that the new schoolhad not clearly explained its cur-riculum. More importantly, theseprotesters accused the school of planning to teach its students howto become terrorists.KGIA released little informa-tion about its curriculum. The prin-cipal, Danielle Salzberg, made itknown that many of the books inthe curriculum were directed to-ward teaching Arabic, and in-cluded English novels, released by“Scholastics,” which were trans-lated into Arabic. But opponents of the school want more information,to ensure that the school is neithera religious nor a terrorist school.One critic, Brian Rooney, toldCybercast News Service (CNS) of his and many others’ suspicionsabout the school. “It [the school’swithholding information] contin-ues to raise suspicions that KGIAis an anti-American, anti-Christian,and anti-Jewish propaganda centeroperating as a public school,” hesaid.According to CNS, NYCSchools Chancellor Joe Klein, sup-ported the opening of the Arabicschool, saying, “Khalil Gibran willadd a new, important option forour students who are interested in arigorous academic program withan international and Arab languagetheme.”Allen Rabinovich, a junior atStuyvesant High School, summedup the major reason for the contro-versy surrounding this school.“People just associate the Arabiclanguage with Islam,” Rabinovichsaid, “and Islam with terrorism.”This stereotypical view, along withseveral other reasons, has indeedbeen the reason for the large num-ber of people protesting the open-ing of KGIA as a NYC publicschool.

Parents’ Camp Stuy

by Tim Chang,

news editor

PARENTS’ CAMP STUYcontinues on page 4

29 August – After two monthsof slumber, Stuyvesant’s lobbywas once again abuzz with theenergy of orientation. But this wasnot a student orientation. Rather,hundreds of anxious parentspoured into the lobby to sign in forthe first ever Parents’ Camp Stuy,created and coordinated by EleanorArchie, Stuyvesant’s AssistantPrincipal for Pupil Personnel Ser-vices.

After having sandwiches at thesnack table, parents sat in the audi-torium and listened to variousspeakers, including Alec Klein,Stuyvesant alumnus and author of the new book “A Class Apart.” Butthis meeting would be of littlepractical use unless, as SumeiChan, representative for the stu-dent leadership team, stated, theprogram took “the whole child”into account. Speakers on stressmanagement, parent-child relation-ships and other important topicswere brought in to bring the par-ents into the Stuyvesant commu-nity. “It is important to let the par-ents know,” Chan said, that “thereare people to help empower themto raise their child.” Knowledge-able parents lead to less stressed,happier students, which meansbetter academic performance.Parents’ Camp Stuy wasArchie’s brainchild, but the Par-ents’ Association (PA) and the BigSibs brought it to life. Over 50 BigSibs and tens of parents volun-teered to help in order to keep eve-rything running smoothly. The PAspent approximately $14,000 onthe event.The PA was surprised at theturnout. According to Chan, fromthe 831 students enrolled for theclass of 2012, over 700 parentsshowed up, a very high turnoutconsidering that the event fell dur-ing the vacation and right beforeLabor Day weekend. As for theBig Sibs, Chan believes that theBig Sibs showed “wonderful en-

REFORMScontinued from page 1

have some say in the matter.”The other major change to the constitution came under the BudgetCommittee. As reported last year, there were several inaccuracies concern-ing the members of the Budget Committee and whether they were actuallyeligible to vote. The new constitution refers students to the Budget Com-mittee Meeting Procedures, a document not available online. In the proce-dures, how a budget meeting works is clearly laid out, including the mem-bers of the committee and their responsibilities.

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