One Term Later...Do YouKnow Who Represents You?
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Friday, January 18, 2008 Volume 7 Issue 6Visit us at www.stuystandard.org
The leaders of the student body, clockwise from top left, Oren Burspan and Jessie Lawrence (freshman caucus), Valeriya Tsitron and Casey Griffin (sophomore caucus), Philip Kim and Jenny Han (junior caucus), Michelle Lee and Lauren Gonzales (senior caucus) and Jamila Ma and James Kim (center, SU President and Vice President). The percentages are those of the number of each's respective constituents able to correctly match them correctly with their position.
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EDITORIAL
2
NEWS
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD January 18, 2008—VOL. 7, No. 6
J
ENNIFER
S
CHLESINGER
E
DITOR
IN
C
HIEF
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RIC
M
AYO
M
ANAGING
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DITOR
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IANE
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HEN
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IRECTOR
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NGEL
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ONG
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IRECTOR
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EE
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AYOUT
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ANNY
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HU
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OPY
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IM
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HANG
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ESHAM
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ALEH
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EWS
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DITOR
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IMMY
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HANG
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EWS
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DITOR
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MNA
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HMAD
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PINIONS
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DITOR
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MMA
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ABINOVICH
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NTERTAINMENT
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DITOR
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OBERT
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OLBOURN
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SST
. E
NTERTAINMENT
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DITOR
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ICHARD
M
AI
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PORTS
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DITOR
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MAR
A
HMAD
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CIENCE
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DITOR
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ANFORD
CHIU
B
USINESS
E
DITOR
R
OBERT
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TEVENSON
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ITERARY
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DITOR
J
ESSE
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HANG
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EBMASTER
K
IRIL
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OURUV
A
SSISTANT
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EBMASTER
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LISSA
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AM
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IRECTOR
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HOTOJOURNALISM
M
EGAN
B
RESLIN
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ACULTY
A
DVISOR
D
ANIEL
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GERS
(‘03)
F
OUNDER
E
RNEST
B
ASKIN
(‘04)
E
DITOR
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MERITUS
The idea for a critical analy-sis of the student government cameto
The Standard
a long timeago. While its set purpose is to“improve student life,” many viewThe Student Union of StuyvesantHigh School as a weak institutionwith the sole purpose of propellinga select few into top universities.Is the Student Union (SU), trulydedicated to “improving studentlife with respect to education, ex-tra- and co-curricular activities?”
The Standard
decided to investi-gate exactly what kind of impactour student leaders had on the stu-dent body.The statistics in the follow-ing pieces should not be viewedas a brazen attack on the SU or itsmembers.
The Standard
recog-nizes the hard work all studentsin the SU put into balancing their academics with their responsibili-ties as leaders. We also recog-nize that political awareness, ac-tivity, and leadership come with personal maturity, and that thehigh school years is the time and place for such. The following
The Student Un-ion-Is ItFulfilling Its Role?
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pieces should be taken as a mes-sage to both the SU and its con-stituents. Eloquently telling thestudents to hold their governmentaccountable and telling the gov-ernment to engage the student body. The SU should support thestudents and strive to improveStuy. While the SU does not al-ways fulfill its goal, studentsshould not be apathetic andshould continue to vote and beaware of events.
“No student’s query to theStudent Union shall go unheardor rejected out of hand” says the preamble to the SU Constitution.We feel that it is our duty, as stu-dents and as a newspaper in a freesociety, to hold our governmentaccountable for its actions or lack thereof. We urge each grade’srespective leaders to not onlyremember their duty to the stu-dent body, but to act on it aswell. Finally, it is our hope stu-dents will keep in mind the re-sponsibilities of their class lead-ers and hold them accountable.
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THE STANDARDNEWS
3
THE STUYVESANT STANDARDNEWS
January 18, 2008—VOL. 7, No. 6
Gas Prices Encourage MTAFares to Increase
by Nada Elmansy
staff writer
As the price of gas continuesto soar, the cost of everything elseincreases as well. Unsurprisingly, just as your neighborhood grocerystore is probably raising its prices,so is the MetropolitanTransportation AuthorityMetropolitan TransportationAuthority. The MTA has decidedto raise its prices in order tocompensate for the increasing gas prices.
In fact, just last month,Westchester County raised its B-line bus fares for the first time infour years. To add to thisconspiracy, the MTA has decidedto raise all Metrocard prices byFebruary or March. An expectedincrease of $0.25 would make thefare $2.25. The MTA is also proposing the increase of themultiple ride Metrocard, possiblyraising the price of the 30-daycard from $76 to $81 and offeringa new 14-day Metrocard for $48.
These increased fares areexpected to affect 46 percent of the riders who can only afford theone-ride Metrocard. However, theeffect of this on Stuyvesantstudents appears to be minimal, if at all. Freshman ThomasFlagiello believes that this willnot have an effect on high schoolstudents as a result of the studentMetrocards provided by the city.Is it possible that the increasedfare could affect the free studentfare policy? Of course, for theaverage everyday rider, spendingthe extra money is going to be theonly option.
Flagiello also believes that if your only option is taking thetrain or bus to work everyday,then you will pay the extra fareanyway. “All it will do will givethem [the commuters] morereason to complain about the waythings are being done. Anyway,most riders aren’t going to behappy about paying extra to get toand from work everyday.” AsWestchester County puts its plansinto action, the MTA is taking its proposal seriously in plans on putting it into effect by February.
As Thomas said, there is notmuch that can be done. In fact,most people will probably giveinto this reality in order to be ableto get to work. It has to be clear that the MTA can’t be entirely blamed for this. As gas pricesincrease, it’s only normal thattransportation prices go up aswell.
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Officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) have tried to frame their proposal for higher subway, bus and commuter rail fares as part of a long-term financial plan,.
S o ur c e : m t a f a r e s i n c r e a s e .h a l t t h e h i k e . c om . j p g
Trouble In Pakistan
by Abhimanyu Ghosh
staff writer
and Hesham Saleh
news editor
Just four days before the newyear, Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinatedwhile on a political campaign inthe Rawalpindi region of Pakistan.While the exact sequence of eventsis still the subject of much debate,reliable sources say that Bhuttowas greeting the crowds throughthe moonroof of her cruiser whenher assassin fired multiple gun-shots at her. After she fell back in,the assassin detonated bombs at-tached to himself, killing 21 peoplein the vicinity, and sending a shock wave around the area. Bhutto wasthen taken to Rawalpindi GeneralHospital, where doctors attemptedto resuscitate her. Their attemptswere futile, and Bhutto was de-clared dead at 6:16 p.m. local time.Benazir Bhutto was an im- portant political figure in Paki-stan. She was the first woman toserve in a position of leadershipin a country with Muslim major-ity. During her two terms as prime minister, she pushed for various reforms, mainly aimed atincreasing the rights of women inPakistani society, and moderniz-ing Pakistan. Bhutto stood out asa symbol of hope and democracy,despite the turmoil of Pakistani politics. To many, she repre-sented change, and move towardmore liberal reforms to keep instep with modern times. Often,such beliefs led to fierce opposi-tion, and multiple attempts on her life, the last of which tragicallyended in her death. There is un-certainty about how Bhutto’s as-sassination will affect the world.When asked if Bhutto’s assassi-nation will have any effect on theworld, junior John Hossain said,“Not at all. Nations have serious problems, and despite the manygovernments which expressedthat they were sorry over this,they won’t do anything to help aPakistan which desperately needshelp.” Junior Katrina Tarmidi hada different perspective on the is-sue. “It poses more of a threat for several countries,” Tarmidi said.“The [United States] stronglysupported Bhutto in hopes of working with her to get rid of Al-Qaeda who are supposedly inPakistan. But now their only op-tion is to work with [Pervez]Musharraf, who isn’t as coopera-tive.”
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Protestors rally after the death of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
S o ur c e : b h u t t o2 .n e w s . b b c . c o . uk
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