Mighty Taco will be making an appearance again in Central New York.
Last Friday, Mighty Taco announced on Facebook that they will be opening a new location in Cicero, NY. The food chain will be taking the place of an old Tim Horton’s.
Mighty Taco is a Mexican style restaurant that started in the city of Buffalo in 1973 and it has been a fan favorite ever since it started and has spread out to, with the addition of this new location, 24 locations.
Mighty Taco is primarily based around the Buffalo area and western New York, and the new location will now be the farthest east of any of the other Mighty Taco locations. It is also the second time the franchise tried starting up in the Syracuse area.
The last time Mighty Taco was in the Syracuse area was when it had a location in Carousel Center, now known as Destiny USA.
Given the continuous growth, Mighty Taco believes they are now ready to take on the challenge of starting up in Syracuse.
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SUNY Oswego leaders send call to action to Congress
Some leaders of the SUNY Oswego community are urging congress to pass legislation in response to President Trump’s decision to end the Delayed Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
SUNY Oswego president, Deborah F. Stanley, Faculty Assembly Chair, Lisa Glidden and Student Association President, Dalton Bisson composed a call to action to send to the NYS Congressional Delegation on Thursday.
According to US Citizenship and Immigration services, the DACA program was announced by the Secretary of Homeland Security on June 15, 2012. It stated that “certain people who came to the United States as children and meet several guidelines may request consideration of deferred action for a period of two years”. Under DACA they could could also renew this deferred action and it also made them eligible for work authorization.
Ending the DACA program would impact “nearly 80,000 individuals in our nation [who] now face devastating alteration to their lives and aspirations and do not deserve the fate unfairly placed upon them” Stanley, Glidden, and Bisson wrote in the call to action. The call to action was emailed to SUNY Oswego staff and students Thursday morning.
The email illustrated how much Stanley, Glidden, and Bisson value members of the DACA program, called “Dreamers”, at SUNY Oswego and across the country. “We, as Americans, must be willing to shoulder the responsibility to assure that our nation’s laws reflect highly moral and deeply ethical positions. To refuse to do so in this instance would seriously debase our heritage as a nation of immigrants and hope” Stanley, Glidden, and Bisson wrote.
For more information on the DACA program and to read the full announcement please visit https://www.uscis.gov/archive/consideration-deferred-action-childhood-arrivals-daca#previousdacaupdates -
New York: The First Tuition Free State in the Nation
by Stefanie Sciolaro
OSWEGO, NY- – On April 8th, Governor Cuomo announced that all public 2 and 4 year universities in the state of New York will offer a tuition free scholarship. The Excelsior Scholarship will allow middle class families, who qualify, to be exempt from paying for college tuition.
In order to qualify, a family’s adjusted gross income must be under $100,000 in 2017. By 2018 that number will go up to $110,000, and by 2019 the amount will increase to $125,000. These incomes will include all student, parent, or spouse incomes within the family.
Students must be enrolled full-time, already have 30 college credits, and continue to complete 30 credits per year, which includes summer sessions, while in college. Transfer students will be eligible if they, or once, they’ve met the 30 credit requirement. If the student loses the scholarship, for now, they will be unable to regain it, though there is an appeal process being put in place.
Once students who are receiving the scholarship graduate, they will be required to stay New York residents for the same amount of time they had received the scholarship in college. Christopher Britts, an education major at SUNY Oswego, is apprehensive of where the state’s getting the money to fund this and what the resident restriction entitles.
“Are my taxes or other college expenses going to go up?… Will they decrease the PELL or TAP grants we get? Because if so and I don’t qualify where does that leave me?… What if I get a job in Cali or Jersey, I have to say no? If so, I’d rather have the loans, then at least I’m free.” says Christopher.
Graduate students are not eligible for the scholarship, nor are students who have already completed an undergraduate degree and are pursuing a second.
Families will still be responsible for other expenses such as room and board, meal plans, and books, but the hope is for the Excelsior Scholarship to help relieve some of the burdens that families face in trying to pay for student’s college education. Financial aid will not be effected if a student receives the scholarship.
Christopher is also a team leader for Mentor Scholar, an after school program helping children with homework, and says this scholarship is good for younger children as well.
“Yes the scholarship needs adjustments and clarification but it really does give them a future to look forward to. Many of these kids come from low income families who before now, college was probably never an option…well now it is. As a future educator and current college student thats a beautiful thing to see.” Chris said.
This scholarship will go into effect and be available to students for the Fall 2017 semester. For more on the Excelsior Scholarship visit http://www.ny.gov, for SUNY (State University of New York) information visit https://www.suny.edu, and for CUNY (City University of New York) information visit http://www2.cuny.edu.
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McDonald’s Security Hiring
McDonald’s has been a long time staple of American culture. In Oswego, New York, the restaurant branch on Bridge Street is experiencing some difficulties. Multiple incidents have been reported to police authorities concerning college students causing disruption during the night shift of the weekends. In order to solve this predicament, the branch made the conscious decision to hire security to stand guard at the door during these hours.
Management claims that the hiring has had a great effect on the decrease in misbehavior in the establishment. Before the hiring, some employees made claim that some customers have even tried to climb over the counter and assault employees. After the appearance of security, no such incident has been reported. Conor Rielly, a Broadcasting major at SUNY Oswego, shared his thoughts on the employment of security, “I think it’s a smart idea. You get a lot of drunk and disorderly people who come through there every night and I think some get too rowdy and you need to kick ‘em out. I think it’s a good idea.”
With the positive results of this new change, it’s expected that we’ll be seeing security in this McDonald’s branch for a long time.
