Volume 59.11

Lyndon State College

December 7, 2012First Copy Free, Addt. Copies $.50

Twilight Dance Ensemble Premiere

Photo by Bryan BarberFalicia Woody leaps across the stage during her solo in The Twilight Dance Ensemble’s premiere dance recital, Dec. 6. The show consisted of 14 performances ranging from lyrical ballet to hip-hop. Nikki Slabinksi gathered 25 dancers for the recital. Monday nights, Slabinski teaches dance technique classes for those looking to improve their skills and to help dancers with their choreography. Some dancers created their choreography, and chose their own costumes for the show, while others looked to Slabinski for guidance. Performers practiced their danc-es once or twice a week to prepare. As far as the dancers are concerned, the recital "went off without a hitch."

December 14, 2012 The Critic, Page 4FEATURE

Morgan ForesterManaging Editor

Who likes orange soda? Lyndon State Col-lege students like orange soda - especially when Kel Mitchell is around.

Mitchell, formerly of Nickelodeon’s All That, was hired to host WWLR’s 2012 Horneys Award Show.

Cases of the pop star’s favorite beverage were wheeled into the Alexander Twilight Theater for refreshments before the show. Tyler Kittleman, WWLR’s general manager, said they cleared the shelves of all orange soda at the local White’s Market grocery store for the event.

Students filtered into the ATT lobby around 6 p. m. Saturday, Dec. 8, for what was scheduled to be a meet-and-greet with Mitchell. However, the 90s star’s flight came in later than expected, and the meet-and-greet was moved to after the show.

Instead, attendees were given pizza to munch on. They also used this time to get their free event wristbands, which allowed them access to the show, as they waited for the Horneys to begin.

Backstage, sound technician and stagehand, Scott Vogel Jr. was glad for the re-arranged schedule.

“We were definitely really busy setting up,” said Vogel.

Having the meet-and-greet after the show meant he would have a better oppor-tunity to meet with Mitchell.

“I’m a bit of a 90s child,” he said, “so I grew up watching him. If I happen to have the time, meeting him would be awesome.”

Vogel was just one of many students who volunteered their time to running the event. Members of WWLR and student vol-unteers stood in as security for the Horneys, watching all entrances of the theater until doors opened at 7:30 p.m.

As soon as doors opened, a wave of stu-dents rushed into the theater to find a seat. The front two rows were reserved for board members of WWLR and for members of

the four bands providing entertainment: The Summit of Thieves, Sails, Suncooked and Red Tin Box.

Introducing Mitchell were WWLR News Director Kevin Lessard and Business Director Victoria Reeves. Both gave a shout-out to the Student Government Association for allocating funds to the event. Mitchell then burst onto the stage with an infectious energy that didn’t quit as he introduced the bands and announced the nominees and winners of all six awards.

Some award winners had prepared speeches, while others just basked in the glow. Marc Brunco, winner of “Best Talk Show,” was almost speechless.

“I won,” he said. “I’m absorbing the feeling.”

The entertainment for the Horneys stole the show. All four bands had the audi-ence on their feet. Students danced by the stage to their favorites, before event security asked them to take their seats.

The Summit of Thieves kicked-off the night and was followed by Sails. The self-proclaimed indie-punk band dedicated their first song to LSC student, Ian Bruno, who recently suffered a stroke but is back home and recovering.

Suncooked and Red Tin Box also played high-energy sets that had everyone up and singing along. Suncooked an-nounced their new EP, dropping in January, and tossed three “I’m a drifter” band t-shirts into the crowd, while Red Tin Box celebrat-ed their one-year performance anniversary on the same stage they started on.

During all of the performances, Mitchell could be seen in the theater wings backstage snapping photos and bobbing his head to the music.

Perhaps one of the highlights was the “Orange Soda Chugging” contest. Two students, Ed Horan and Jake Reardon, were chosen from the audience to compete against one another. The competitor who

The HorneysHosted By Kel Mitchell

Greg Besso receives his “DJ of the Decade” award from WWLR General Manager Tyler Kittleman. From left to right: Kel Mitchell, Greg Besso, Tyler Kittleman, Kevin Lessard, Jeff Stabaloin and Victoria Reeves.

Photos by Bryan Barber

could drink two liters of soda the fastest would be the winner. It was a close match, but Horan declared his victory by slam-ming the empty orange soda bottle down on-stage. As Mitchell congratulated Horan, Reardon made a quick exit to the bath-room.

“He’s puking orange soda,” laughed Mitchell.

The Horneys showcased a great deal of talent, but many agreed the reaction from “DJ of the Decade” award winner Greg Bes-so was priceless. Besso leapt across the stage to shake hands with Mitchell and accepted his award. His enthusiastic acceptance speech included a shout out to some of his friends in the audience, who stood and waved, as well as a heartfelt shout out to his girlfriend, Erin Milne, who was unable to attend the event.

In an interview before the show, Besso was hopeful for an award, but DJ of the Decade was not on his list.

Campus Band “Red Tin Box” closed the musical acts for the night. Red Tin Box was celebrating one year together as a band. The first show they played was in 2011 at The Horneys.

December 14, 2012 The Critic, Page 5FEATURE

Orange Soda, Live Music, and a 90’s Childhood Icon

“I haven’t gotten anything yet,” he said. “But I’m hoping for director’s choice, probably best radio show…I’m sure every general manager for the past two years or so has noticed my dedication to the radio.”

WWLR did notice, and handed Besso a golden-microphone award for his dedica-tion.

Overall, the 2012 Horneys were a hit.Nick Potter and Marcus Jacobus

watched the show from their security posts at the back of the theater.

“It was a good show,” Jacobus said.Potter agreed. “I was really impressed, especially the

bands,” he said. Other audience members Julia McNeil

and Jennifer Lynch compared this year’s event to previous Horneys.

“It was awesome,” McNeil said.“He definitely was the perfect person to

host it,” Lynch agreed. “He got the crowd fired, and I didn’t see him calm down the

entire show.”Both gave the show a rating of 9 out

of 10 compared to past Horney events and commented on how well organized it was.

Kel and his agent, Clive Ennis, also gave props to WWLR for their event coordination.

Lessard wrote in an email, “He said we were easier to work with than most adult parties that they work with. They were both very impressed with how nice we all were. They had also mentioned that they would love to work with us again in the future, and that we could call anytime we want to talk with them about any-thing.”

After signing many autographs and posing for pictures with students, Mitchell sat down with The Critic for an interview.

When asked about his first impression stepping off the plane, Mitchell laughed.

“First impression when I walked off the plane, um, I need to get something to

eat, because I was on a Red Eye, and I saw the place and I was like, ‘This is Vermont,’ it’s a lot of land. It’s cold.”

But he also pointed out that it wasn’t too cold as he hails from Chicago.

On the ride to the campus Mitchell had the privilege of meeting Lyndon’s infamous Cumberland Farms cashier, Mary. Once they procured muffins for the hungry Mitchell, the group continued to campus.

Mitchell commented on his decision to host this year’s Horneys.

“We got the call to come out to do it, and I felt like it was a great cause,” he said. “You guys are working hard and you deserve an award.”

Though most of us remember him from the show Keenan and Kel, Mitchell is currently working on four projects, includ-ing shows for the CW, Nicktoons, Disney XD and a movie coming out this spring called, “First Impressions.”

“I’ve been in the business a long time

so I just love every aspect of entertaining,” he said, when asked which project was his favorite.

The most asked question of the night was whether or not Mitchell stays in touch with his old castmate Keenan. His reply, “Not recently.”

“Our mothers keep in contact with each other,” he said, “so that’s how we converse with each other, but you know, I’m on the west coast, and he’s on the east coast.”

Now that the event is over, the WWLR club can go back to hosting their radio shows, but would like to thank all those who attended and made the event possible.

“The event couldn’t of gone better,” Lessard said. “All of us at WWLR worked very hard to put the event together, and it came out better than we expected. I can’t thank everyone enough for coming out and supporting WWLR.”

Clive Ennis, Kel Mitchell’s manager, takes a photo of the excited audience to post on Twitter.

Award Winners

DJ of the Decade: Greg Besso

Best Team: Shera Howe and

John McIntosh

Best Talk Show: Marc Brunco

Best New DJ: Tom Sheehan

Most Innovative: Casey Hecker

Best Show: John Plunkett Clockwise from above: Sails was the second campus band to play at The Horneys. Below: Caleb Noble and Kaliegh Clowery of The Summit of Thieves on-stage. Bottom Left: Suncooked plays. Left: Kel Mitchell hosting The Horneys.

Volume 59.13

Lyndon State College

February 1, 2013

Samantha VanSchoickEditor-in-Chief

First Copy Free, Addt. Copies $.50

LSC CRIBZ: What's in Dr. Joe's fridge? see page 4

Health and Safety Committee Votes Not to Change Pet Policy; Bertolino "Dissapointed"

Twilight Players Hold Auditions for Spring Musical "Company"

Photo by Bryan BarberElectronic Journalism Arts major Jacqueline Laviolette performs her audition song at tryouts on Wednesday night in the Alexander Twilight Theater.

The Campus Activity Board is looking for student drivers to drive a new shuttle bus that will take students off-campus through-out the week to destinations such as Burke Mountain and Littleton, New Hampshire.

The Ski and Ride Club and The Outing Club currently operate a shuttle on Tuesdays and Fridays that takes students to Burke Mountain. The new shuttle bus will allow students to get to the mountain on Wednes-days, Saturdays, and Sundays.

Weston Miller, a senior Mountain Rec-reation Management major at Lyndon State College, thinks the shuttle busses are a great way to connect to people on campus.

“The Ski & Ride aims to connect many

The Health and Safety Committee has recommended not altering the current pet policy at Lyndon State College.

President Joe Bertolino asked the committee to reconsider the current pet policy to allow dogs to be on campus. Last Fall Bertolino “relaxed” the policy on a trial basis when he adopted his dog, which students named Willoughby-Vail. However, after considering the issue, the committee voted 4-2 not to change the current policy.

“I was disappointed. I think that I had hoped that the committee would be able to find some middle ground,” Bertolino said.

Nick Russo, Vermont State Student Trustee, was one of the two members of the committee who voted yes to changing the policy. He too had hoped to find middle ground.

“The two of us who voted yes, we wanted to change the policy to make it not necessarily what Dr. Joe wanted, but to try and find some middle ground and say, ‘Look, if people want to bring their dogs on campus, we’ll allow that, but it’s a privilege not a right, and if you violate the safeguards we have in place to keep those dogs from causing harm or discomfort to others, that privilege goes away.’”

Though the current policy states that no animals should be allowed in campus buildings, some staff members have been bringing their dogs to work for years with no repercussions.

“One of the big problems with the

old policy was that there was no teeth to enforce it, and that was one of the issues George Hacking (Director of Public Safety)brought up,” explained Russo. “[Hacking] had spoken with the people who had violat-ed the policy in the past and they continued to violate it; there’s no way to stop them.”

Russo had hoped the committee could find a solution to the problem by altering the policy.

“Even if we didn’t change it to some-thing too far towards having dogs, we still wanted to make the policy work, because the current policy didn’t,” he said.

Though Bertolino has the authority to override the committee’s recommendation, he will not.

“I’m going to be respect the decision of the committee,” said Bertolino. “I’m not going to turn around and say, ‘Thanks, but no thanks, I don’t think that’s right.’”

Bertolino looks at the recommendation as a learning experience.

“This is a good lesson for Joe. As the new president, I genuinely and honestly didn’t think that this was going to become the issue that it became,” he said.

So why was the change such a big issue? Russo believes it was the idea of dogs in campus buildings.

“Members of the committee couldn’t get over the idea that dogs would be in the buildings, and that was really the big stick-ing point,” he said.

Members of the committee who voted yes either declined to comment or could not be reached in time for publication.

Courtesy PhotoThe new shuttle was purchased with $30,000 of the Student Activity Fee. It will now be taking students to popular destinations such as Burke Mountain and Littleton, NH for shopping.

Shuttle Takes LSC Students Where They Want To Bepeople who share the same interests,” said Miller. The club creates events and activities that surround the culture of Ski and Ride and winter sports. Miller said that they like to “support local companies and business like Burke Mountain, opposed to other larger tourist resorts.”

Miller came to LSC in the spring of 2011. He always wanted to get involved with Ski & Ride but had no vehicle, which was a problem for the mountain hungry boarder. He liked the idea of a shuttle program, so the Ski & Ride Club sat down with Jamie Struck, who is the adventure program coordinator, to split the cost of the shuttle program with Outing. “We ran all the numbers to see how many times a week we could go to the mountain,” Miller said.

“Burke has even made designated drop-off and pick-up parking spots for our shuttle vans.”

Miller went on to say that being social probably helped him find rides to the mountain when he needed one, but he doesn’t want those who may be shy to miss out on such exciting activities like skiing and snowboarding. He extends the invita-tion that the, “Ski and Ride Club is looking to share with others and that their events are group oriented with good intentions.”

Brian Matineau, Resident Hall Di-rector of Wheelock and Student Activities Coordinator, said that the Shuttle Program is a “great opportunity to get students off campus.”

Matineau said “this is a great chance for students who don’t have cars, and to also get out the word on what SALC does

for the students.” Lastly, Matineau said that this is a good

opportunity for work study students to have a job. Eligible students are 21 with a valid drivers license and clean driving record.

The Student Shuttle leaves from the Wheelock parking lot at 8:30a.m. - 4:00p.m. Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sun-days. Saturday it runs to Burke Mountain and Littleton twice for each location and on Sunday it runs twice to Burke and once to Littleton. This isn’t just for snowboarding and skiing; it is also a chance for students to get off-campus to get groceries, shop, or just go off-campus to hang out with friends.

The Ski and Ride Club, Outing Club,

SGA and CAB encourage every student to

take a part in this beneficial service.

Hannah FrigonCritic Staff

Volume 59.21

Lyndon State College

April 26, 2013

First Copy Free, Addt. Copies $.50

File Photos

Election Results

Brittany Bernier- 82Daniel Weiner-49

The election results for the 2013/2014 Student Government Association are finally in after a revote was held Monday through Wednesday this week for the executive vice president position. Both executive vice president candidates, Brittany Bernier and Daniel Weiner, accused each other of break-ing the SGA Constitution by campaigning within 10 feet of the ballot box. Students also voted on Constitution changes pro-posed by the Constitution Committee. All proposed changes passed. To view a list of

the changes, go to lyndoncritic.com.

President

Executive Vice President

Haley Craig- 95Nick Chapin-20

Administrative VP

Melissa Segall Top "write in" candidateFinancial Controller

Matt Green-123 votesRan unopposed

Company to Premieresee page 4

Earth Day at LSCsee page 3

Photo by Brian Lacharite

Popular Burlington band Kat Wright and the Indomitable Soul Band performed at Earth Day Celebrations.

Alum Pleads Not Guilty to Lewd Act

Psychology Professor Studies Substance Use

Morgan ForesterManaging Editor

Just one day after the infamous 4/20 – the holiday celebrated by marijuana smokers nationwide– Dr. Meri Stiles and research assistant, senior psychology and human ser-vices major Andrew Cochran, released their 46-question survey to evaluate the effects of substance use by Lyndon students.

Though the release date seemed to be linked to this day of substance use, Stiles and Cochran say there was no correlation.

“No, I knew it was 4/20 only because my daughter is attending UVM and she said ‘it’s that day’,” Stiles said. “We wanted to send it out a week earlier but the technol-ogy was an issue.”

Stiles and Cochran have been working on this survey for quite some time, compil-ing questions from a previous survey created by Stiles as well as research and literature on substance use.

“This is my area of study and my re-search area,” Stiles said, “So I’ve been study-ing substance use behaviors in adolescents and young adults for really the last 15 years, and so I’ve done a number of different stud-ies and looked at different variables.”

One of the variables that holds particu-lar interest for Stiles is the sense of commu-nity at Lyndon.

“Because the college is such a commu-nity and because people really care for each other and look after each other, it’s kind of unique in that regard,” Stiles said.

She continues to explain that talking about substance use can sometimes cause individuals to become defensive, but when the topic is approached from a community perspective and looks at how individual use can affect a community as a whole, people are much more open to the conversation.

According to Cochran, Lyndon also has multiple characteristics that make it the perfect location for a substance use survey.

“There’s more substance use in rural areas, more substance use in colleges and in poorer areas. Lyndon fits all three of those areas so I think it is very pertinent not only for Lyndon but for other rural, poor, small schools,” Cochran said.

Since there are so many variables being evaluated in their survey, Stiles and Cochran hope to use the information they gather to create a substance use prevention program for the college.

See "Study" page 3

Critic Staff Reports

A Lyndon State College alum and suspend-ed WCAX television reporter pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of lewd & lasciv-ious conduct and a misdemeanor charge of prohibited acts in Caledonia Superior Court Monday.

Caledonia Superior Court Judge Mary Miles Teachout released Henson on condi-tions that he not contact the victim or enter The Packing House.

According to court documents, on March 15, Henson allegedly attempted to stick his tongue down the throat of the victim, slap her butt, and stick his hands down her pants.

Henson, a 2004 graduate of the television studies program, has not been on the air at WCAX since the incident. He remains suspended.

Lyndonville Police Chief Jack Harris wrote in his report that the alleged victim, a student at LSC in the TV studies program, saw Henson at the bar after LSC’s “Dinner with the Boss,” an event at LSC that aims to give graduating seniors advice about entering the job field. The alleged victim

spoke with Henson in an attempt to do some networking, furthering discussions held at the LSC event.

Harris wrote in his report that the stu-dent bought a few of the members from the event a drink and “began to talk with them about television. (She) advised that the ‘sexual activity’ started with gentle touching. She said Henson would put his arm around her for ‘far too long.’ (She) advised she made hints for Henson to back away, but she did not want to be disrespectful. The female said as she went to dance, Henson followed. She said that Henson began touching her, but at the time, she figured it was because he was ‘drunk’ and they were dancing.”

The student told police that as the night went on, the “touching” continued, became more frequent, and despite the student informing Henson that she had a boyfriend, he continued to follow her around the bar. The student then stated that Henson grabbed her after saying that he was going to go home with her. This same set of circumstances allegedly occurred a second

See "Lewd" page 3