OSWEGO, N.Y. -If you’ve walked through the quad lately, you’ve seen that Oswego has new sculptures on campus. The set of sculptures were a response to renovation work that was being done on Tyler Hall. The sculptures range from large red spikes representing connection or lack thereof with earth, to a sculpture that animals can live in blurring the lines between humans and nature.
The six pieces aren’t just local art, two of them hail from North Carolina and the other four from all across New York state. The Lifestyles Center will be co-hosting an event with the Student Art Exhibit Committee on October 19. #CelebrateSculpture will be held in the quad featuring the artists who built the sculptures, who will answer questions and talk about their experiences.
The large red piece is titled Prince, by Fredrick Douglas Schatz. This work is meant to be a self portrait. He said that it was a comment on the harmony and lack of harmony between each person and the earth that we inhabit.
You can find more information about this event on the SUNY Oswego events calendar at http://bit.ly/2dWoBEv.
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Master’s project examines students’ relationships with technology
[et_pb_section][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text]Complicated relationship — The master’s in strategic communication “Integrated Media Projects” course analyzed data on students’ relationships with technology and developed this video summarizing some results. A group of master’s in strategic communication students, working a large-scale student survey from 2019, found students have a complicated relationship with technology and their smartphones.
The Student Survey on Attitudes Toward Technology (SSATT) is conducted annually to collect information from freshmen and seniors about their relationship to the technologies they use as students and young adults. The data analysis and media design exercise is carried out by students in the course “Integrated Media Projects” course, under the supervision of faculty advisor Ulises Mejias of the communication studies department, and with help of the college’s Office of Institutional Research and Assessment.
While that survey of 367 students preceded this semester’s move to remote learning, it nonetheless showed the internet and smartphones’ enormous impact on their lives.
Among the findings on how students live and learn with technology:
- 58 percent agree that the internet has had a positive effect on their lives
- 77 percent said they check their smartphones as soon as they wake up, although they admitted this habit can provide added stress and anxiety
- 71 percent agreed that they are distracted by their personal devices in class, while freshman are significantly more likely to lose focus in class/work by checking their cell phones than seniors
- Half of the students said they are distracted by their devices during face-to-face communication
- Two-thirds of the participants strongly agreed or agreed that they were notified by important issues through social media
- 68 percent of students said they look up more information on social issues discovered via social media
- 60 percent of students reported they fact-check or cross-check news stories
- 45 percent said they rely on social media as their only source of news
- 71 percent said they text others in class or when doing work outside of class
Some 2019 figures show the importance of access to reliable internet, even before this semester’s shift to learning online:
- 85.8 percent of participants said they strongly agreed or agreed they would not be able to maintain coursework without the internet
- 77.7 percent either strongly agreed or agreed that not having access to high-speed internet would impact their academic performance
- Seniors relied on high speed internet access significantly more than freshman
Building awareness
Strategic communication major Fabio Machado said the findings should prove helpful for SUNY Oswego students to better understand their relationship with technology, as well as for anybody interested in how technology and academics can better connect.
“I think we can improve the relationship, and learn how to take what is positive from it and try to maybe work on the negatives,” said Machado, who was the social media analyst for the project. “Maybe we can look at how we can make our students more aware about how they’re using technology and what is beneficial with them, what is positive about your interactions and what is not. What you can control better.”
Fellow strategic communication major Nick Derbabian noted that data was especially relevant because it utilized attitudes from fellow students. Since it was the first survey of its type, he added, the group was working with a blank slate in finding students’ positive and negative relationships with technology.
“I think a big finding that we saw was how it was contradicting sometimes. They found their phone and having access to the internet were sometimes distracting to them,” said Derbabian, the project support officer. “But they also said: ‘We absolutely need computers and the internet to get our coursework done.’”
“They acknowledge how distracting it can be in classes or how when they wake up it was the first thing they check,” Machado said.
The team was surprised to learn two out of every three students relied on social media for news to such a high extent, but found it encouraging that many sought out other sources.
In addition to Machado and Derbabian, the master’s students in the team included Kurt Albrecht, data analyst; Curtis Cady, video designer and producer; Brenna Maclsaac, website and tap course designer; and Pedro Boller, website designer and SEO analyst.
For more information on the findings, project and process, visit the team’s multimedia website.
This article was originally featured at: https://www.oswego.edu/news/story/masters-project-examines-students-relationships-technology via the SUNY Oswego Office of Communications and Marketing.
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Lakers Win Close One over Buffalo State
The Oswego State men’s hockey team defeated conference foe, Buffalo State, 4-3 on Friday night at the Marano Campus Center Arena. With the victory, the Lakers improve to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the SUNYAC while the Bengals drop to 3-2-1 on the season and 0-1-1 in conference play.
It did not take long for Oswego to find the back of the net as Joseph Molinaro scored his first goal of the season just five minutes into the game. However, Buffalo State responded with a score of their own to make it a tie game. Although there was not any scoring in the second period, the third made up for it. Aaron Huffnagle and Cameron Berry each scored for the Lakers during the period in five on five action. With Buffalo State down by one and time running out, the Bengals pulled their goalie for an extra skater. However, that move allowed Mitch Emerson to score an empty net goal which sealed the win for the Lakers.
In his third start for Oswego, goaltender David Richer stopped 21 shots. Buffalo State’s Ian Sylves made 35 saves during his time in the crease.
The Lakers will look to maintain their undefeated SUNYAC record tomorrow night against Fredonia in another home matchup. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 pm.
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SUNY Oswego’s College Republicans Club uses beach ball to promote free speech
by Briana Watson
OSWEGO, NY – On Wednesday October 25th, the College Republicans Club at SUNY Oswego put up a 8-foot beach ball in front of Penfield Library to promote free speech. The beach ball was used as a medium to encourage students to write anything they wanted whether they were political views or their Instagrams.
President of the College Republicans Club Tyler Toomey said that using the beach ball as a medium for free speech is an event that is being held on other campuses along the east coast.
“It’s a pretty big event through some nonprofit organizations nationwide so we got in contact with them and they actually drove the ball from D.C down to us last night,” Toomey said.
Student Shelby Stewart took the opportunity to express her political views.
“I wrote that I support Trump…because a lot of people wrote a lot of liberal things and I feel like there’s not very many Republicans on campus,” Stewart said.
Stewart said she hopes that by having the beach ball present that it will inspire unity on campus.
“I think if anything it’s going to unite everybody because they see that the College Republicans aren’t just saying, ‘You can’t write anything on it if it’s not Republican’. So I think hopefully, it just going to unite campus and show that people can get along,” Stewart said.
For more information on the College Republicans Club visit the Oswego College Republicans facebook page or their Laker Life page.
