December 4, 2009
Binghamton University
Science I.

Retired faculty member Richard T. Antoun was stabbed on the Binghamton University campus at 1:41 PM on Friday, December 4th. Antoun, 77 years old,an Emeritus Proffesor of the Anthropolgy department, specialized in Middle Eastern and Fundamentalist studies. Reports from the Press and Sun Bulletin and police radio transmissions state that the professor was stabbed four times by a grad student wielding a six inch kitchen knife. The grad student, according to eyewitness reports, confessed to the police at the scene and according to Police Reports is currently in custody.

BREAKING NEWS: Binghamton University has confirmed that Professor Richard Antoun died from wounds sustained as a result of the stabbing in hospital today. President Lois B. Defleur released a statement expressing condolences and said that "we will provide them with as much assistance as we can in this time of sorrow."

In a recent discovery by WHRW News Director Robert Glass, it has been revealed that Binghamton University has risked personal information of faculty who were in its employ. In a dumpster in a public location in the Binghamton University library, folders containing names and social security numbers of professors from the Romance Languages department from the 1970s and 80s were discarded without shredding or any form of redaction on April the 28th. The documents, discovered when Glass was walking by the dumpster in question on his way to the library, were found on top of the dumpster clearly visible to passers-bye and needed no searching to be found.

The documents discovered were gathered and turned over to the University Police Department within thirty minutes of their discovery, who promptly secured the dumpster and searched it for more documents containing personal information.

Binghamton University has once again dropped the ball on securing the private information of students and parents. In a titanic breach of security, Binghamton University kept payment information for every student, possibly dating back at least ten years in a storage area next to one of the most trafficked lecture halls on campus, behind a door that was not only unlocked but taped open. The information itself contained social security numbers, credit card numbers, scans of tax forms, business information (including social security numbers and salary information for employees of students' parents), asylum records and more, all kept in a haphazard and disorganized fashion, sprawled out in boxes, in unlocked (yet lockable) filing cabinets and shelving units. And, to seemingly add insult to injury, the university left dollies and a shopping cart in the room, apparently to aid in any attempted theft. (Pictures of the room are beneath the story.)

This is a live blog of the Student Assembly of Binghamton University meeting where a motion to have a student wide referendum on removing the post of the SA Vice President of Multicultural Affairs was discussed and voted on. The blog was written by News Director Robert Glass and was updated (and time stamped) throughout the meeting. Please excuse any minor grammatical errors, as this blog (which has almost eight full pages of single spaced text and roughly 4,500 words) was written live as the meeting took place, with very little time for editing.

7:05: Andrew Epstein has first comment during public comment. Fitting somehow.

7:11 Four comments in and not one in favor of the amendment. One E-Board member of the Rainbow Pride Union spoke of personal history with a previous VPMA (Redbord?) in helping to deal with a BTV personal attack that was aired against him. Also head of College Democrats says this resolution "more fitting for other states, and not for Binghamton."

WHRW News has been informed, from sources close to the Student Assembly, that the upcoming assembly meeting regarding the status of the Student Association office of the Vice President of Multicultural Affairs is undergoing a venue change, and an upgrade in security. While the average SA meeting takes place in the Susquehanna Room in the University Union and garners the attention of, at most, 85 people, sources tell WHRW News that the SA is looking to reserve the Osterhout Concert Theater in the Binghamton University Anderson Center. The Osterhout Theater can seat up to 1200 people in auditorium style seating, far more space than any previous SA meeting has ever garnished.

WHRW News will keep you updated as this story develops.

On Friday, November 21, 2008 the Vice President for Multicultural Affairs of the Binghamton University Student Association, Maryam Belly, held a meeting in the office of the Rainbow Pride Union to raise awareness of recent developments regarding her position. About forty-five people attended the event, including the Student Association Executive Board, Student Assembly Representatives, and members of the executive boards for several different on-campus cultural and student groups.

Tonight the Student Assembly Rules Committee, chaired by Mary Leonardo, had on their agenda a constitutional amendment to abolish the Student Association Vice President for Multicultural Affairs. The amendment, authored by Adam Shamah, was brought before the committee to check the constitutionality of the amendment before it is introduced to the Student Assembly on next Monday, November 24, 2008. Sponsors for the amendment will be found and added prior to that meeting.

Currently the VPMA is responsible for chairing the Intercultural Awareness Committee, a sub body of the Student Group Council, shall work to coordinate events and activities of all cultural groups chartered on campus, and shall oversee the Student Association in that the SA follows all affirmative action guidelines.

The next step for the amendment is to be proposed to the Assembly, where it will need a 2/3 majority to pass. Following the possible passage of this amendment in that body, it will require a 2/3 majority in a campus wide referendum.

I find myself at odds with you, my beloved Binghamton. Oh you, the keeper of my future. I entrust unto you the seemingly endless responsibility of safeguarding my life in the interim period during which I attend your classes, gain your knowledge, and seek to better myself for the real world.

Yet it has come to pass that I find that very future in question. Over the last year, oh Binghamton, you have endangered the very well-being of hundreds of your past and current students. Piles of papers have been found, containing very personal information, in wastepaper baskets it seems across campus. The trust I have put in you to safeguard that information is ever more shaky.

On Monday October 13th a WHRW News team found a pile of documents lying at the top of a Binghamton University dumpster. The documents were private files from the German Department in the 1970s, containing names and social security numbers of fifty-six different people in ninety-one separate documents totaling over a hundred and twenty pages. The documents were also found on top of a pile of shredded documents, indicating that, while the German Department had shredders on hand, they had not decided to use them.

On Monday the 13th of October, WHRW News made a startling discovery. Heading by a dumpster on the campus of Binghamton University a news team inadvertently stumbled upon a pile of official Binghamton university documents containing personal information. All of the files contained Social Security numbers and full names, for fifty-six different people. The ninety-one documents (totaling almost a hundred and fifty pages) were office files from the German Department in the mid-seventies detailing classes, grades, assistant stipends and other personal information including birthdays and addresses. To add ironic insult to injury, the pile of documents and folders containing this information was piled on top of bags of shredded documents, making it clear that the building in question had a shredder at its disposal but had not decided to use it for these critical documents.