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Fire Hazard Items in Residence Halls
by Jihad Yarber
Oswego, NY- Tapestries, curtains, and flags are just a few of the items prohibited from the residence halls in Oswego State. The items are promptly confiscated if they are discovered in any of the dorms. Onondaga Assistant Hall Director Chris Lewand says wall decorations are a risk to fire safety.
“Tapestries, curtains, and flags lead to more fire hazards than your typical poster would,” he said. “However we do have restrictions on posters, they’re only allowed to be on 10 percent of the wall they’re not allowed to be within two feet of the ceilings. So there are restrictions in place, but overall it comes down to what the fire marshall has deemed to be more flammable.”
While posters are considered to be safe for students to have in their possession, some disagree with the claim that one is more hazardous than the other.
“I feel like they take up about the same amount of space on the wall and they’re made of similar flammable materials,” student Cooper Lee said. “I just don’t see how one person can specifically say how a poster is that much more safe than a tapestry,”
Other students are accepting of the rule, but also think a change in policy may lead to a better solution, feeling there needs to be more trust in the on-campus residents.
“I understand why tapestries would be not allowed in rooms,” student Julia Gaudio said. “However I think that there are many flammable things that people don’t focus on and most kids have tapestries anyway,”
“I think there’s a lot of tapestries that are hung up and there hasn’t been a fire started yet,” student Lilia Grucza said. “I feel like they just need to give us a little more credit for knowing to be safe with fire safety instead of just banning anything that could potentially start a fire.”
For more information on what items are prohibited in the dorms, visit Oswego State’s website or contact Residence Life and Housing at 315-312-2246.
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Lakers Win Close Game Against Canton
The nationally ranked Oswego State men’s hockey team defeated the Canton Kangaroos 3-2 on Saturday night. With the win, the Lakers move to 3-1 overall while the Kangaroos drop to 1-3.
After taking an early lead in the first period off of Josh Zizek’s team leading fourth goal of the season, the Lakers never looked back. The team continued its success on the power play in the second period with AJ D’Orazio scoring the first goal of his young Oswego career. However, Canton would not give up easily as they would pull within one. Just under two minutes later, Lakers’ alternate captain Cameron Berry gave Oswego the insurance goal they were looking for to put them up 3-1.
In goal, Canton’s Austin Washkurak made 37 saves while Oswego’s Cedric Hansen earned his first NCAA win, stopping 20 shots.
Oswego will look to build on their two game winning streak Friday night at 7 pm when they take on Buffalo State at the Marano Campus Center Arena.
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Fruit Valley Orchards-Family Fun For All!
Local family owned orchard closes after a great crop season but continues to sell their delicious apples throughout the winter to the public and to SUNY Oswego as well. Not only do they sell apples but they also sell vibrant red cherries. Along with selling to the public and SUNY Oswego Fruit Valley Orchards also picks and produces apples for popular apple-based products brand Motts.
Although the Orchard has been around for many years it has recently been under new ownership for the Gfeller family from Northern Virginia. Owner and farmer Craig Gfeller said that he came to upstate New York to raise his family on a farm much like he did in Rochester. They purchased the land last July in 2017 and have been roaring ever since.
They’ve been able to rake in tons of families to their beautiful orchard with their U-pick program, when asked what family friendly activities they offer at the orchard Craig responded with “We offer a lot of activities here, mostly just U-pick right now,we have families that come and have picnics here, just a great way of spending the afternoon as a family.”
The crop season has been a little short this year due to the fact that not much rain had been around Oswego in the early fall months. However the orchard was still able to grow a great crop under the conditions they had. They grew and sold some of the same apples like Macintosh but also sold new apples to the orchard like Snap Dragon bred by Cornell University where Craig is an alum from.
If you would like to check out Fruit Valley Orchards you can visit their website www.fruitvalleyorchard.com or call them at 315-342-3793. They open again next fall but continue to sell their remaining crop throughout the winter. Get the while they last!
