In the fall of 2021, the pandemic was mitigated to the extent that we were allowed to return to classes. I attended class in person for the first time in my college career. But the pandemic also gave us a new set of protocols that we have adopted into our post-pandemic lifestyles. While many aren’t using masks as routinely as they did during the pandemic, masks are still normalized as a safe and prudent measure. Tolerant attendance policies regarding illness are still considered by many professors a good idea to keep themselves and the other students in the class healthy. And Zoom meetings continue to be a perfectly acceptable option should meeting in person prove difficult. We still have these holdovers from the pandemic that we have adopted because they improve our quality of life. But one benefit that hasn’t been taken advantage of to the fullest degree is the lessons we learned through distance learning.

It is now very rare for a class to be recorded or conducted over Zoom. But is that necessarily a good thing? My situation often calls for me to return home to deal with family emergencies. Just this past semester, I had to miss a week of classes and I am still scrambling to bring myself up to date with the material. Because I often miss crucial information covered in class I am forced to piece information together from my classmates’ shared notes and sparsely worded presentations posted on Brightspace. During times like these, I can’t help but think about how much I would benefit from the option of having online classes. I am certain that having this option would be beneficial to accommodate all students in a class — whether it be someone like me, who is chronically absent because they have mitigating circumstances, disabled students who face more difficulty in actually getting to class or even students who spent most of their day before class working and cannot bring themselves to be mentally present in during the class itself.

This summer I took two online courses, and I underestimated the nostalgia I had for online classes. Even during COVID-19, I was a fan of the flexibility of recorded classes. These classes were helpful when rushing around with chores or work because I could still sit down at the end of the day and enjoy taking notes and studying from the pre-recorded lecture. I think this sort of flexibility would remain valuable if implemented now. Discussions that are more helpful in person can and should still happen in person. But having the option of remote discussion if necessary is beyond helpful for days when we need a little bit of flexibility, days when people might take the chance of missing class completely if they didn’t have the option to participate remotely. And if anything I would make the argument that they help us to be more present and engaging the next time we participate in an in-person discussion.

Professors may be reluctant to rely on recorded or online lectures due to historically poor engagement associated with online learning. I’m not advocating that online learning should, in any way shape or form, replace in-person learning. Instead, recording lectures and maintaining Zoom lectures should continue because they are meant to complement in-person learning. One study has shown that having online lectures available along with in-person classes had very little impact on in-person attendance. On the contrary, this same study showed that students who tended to receive high marks were the ones who supplemented their in-class knowledge with recorded lectures. After all, recorded lectures provide the perfect study tool to pause, rewind, slow down or double-speed the course content to a pace that is appropriate for the student.

Distance learning may seem like a thing of the past that I know many people wish to never hear about again. But, recorded lectures and bringing more class content online should serve as another tool that should be included in professor’s repertoires in order to better help their students succeed in their class. I think that a lot of professors at this University hold a lot of consideration for how to best accommodate their students and still engage in many of these practices. But I think it may also be the case that professors may allow some of these tools to be underutilized not knowing the great deal of benefits students would draw from them. Going forward, we should be more mindful in employing the best of different teaching methods we have experimented with in order to best accommodate all our students.

Kimberly Mourao is a senior double-majoring in psychology and philosophy, politics and law.

Held at the Bundy Museum of History and Art on April 22 from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m., Starfest is open to people of all ages (of course only 21+ can drink though). There is no better event for dipping your toes into the Binghamton area cultural scene while you find yourself a resident of this fine city.

Starfest is a recent event that was created as a cooperation between various local organizations, individuals and businesses. This amalgamation of everything Binghamton has to offer has even surpassed the expectations of its organizer, Allenby Buchanan, a Binghamton resident.

“Starfest was created to celebrate queer joy, to center LGBTQIA+ artists of all kinds and to give back to the queer community through a mutual aid fund,” Allenby said. “It started out as a half-baked idea to get some of my favorite local bands together on a set. It evolved into this pretty massive project that myself and quite a few others have been working on. I cannot wait for you all (and myself) to experience it!”

Starfest has already met and exceeded its $800 goal in order to fund the actual event itself through communal donations. Although the event is free, a minimum $10 fee is encouraged as all profits go toward local queer mutual aid organized by North Side Mutual Aid in order to be allocated to queer individuals in need.

Even though there are more than enough philanthropic reasons to attend this event, the organizers have arranged for all kinds of entertainment that are well worth the price of admission. This event is perfect for students seeking to begin their exploration of everything Binghamton has to offer — including, of course, the local queer community. Starfest is set to showcase some of the phenomenal drag performers in the area such as blackismygender, Ms. Vivi Nox and Femme De Violette. Starfest also plans to promote Binghamton’s underground scene by encompassing local performers and bands. Starfest has more than enough performances to cater to those better acquainted with Binghamton’s cultural scene. The more experienced showgoers will have no trouble recognizing some of the talents featured. Band favorites such as Mall Goths, Happy to be Here and No More Bands will be part of the many performances Starfest has to offer.

The nine-hour festival will have lots of events to fill the time. There will also be around a dozen different vendors to browse through while attending. If you get hungry, seek out one of the baked goods vendors like Joyful Sweets and Treats. If you need a souvenir to remind you of the experience or simply looking for some treasures to add to your collection, there are also more than enough artists and vendors selling their one-of-a-kind creations and goods. For those who are more craft savvy, look for Oh Queer! for handmade, crocheted items. If you love thrifting, find the stalls for Volumes of Imagination and Parlor City Thrifts. If you need to brighten up your walls, there will definitely be something of interest from Spacehead Art or one of the many other vendors selling their paintings.

Starfest has something to offer for everyone and will be a wonderful opportunity to start getting out again and enjoying the beautiful spring weather after having braved the Binghamton winter.

The Finger Lakes CannaMarket is comprised of pop-up markets that have taken place throughout the Finger Lakes region of New York state, with CannaMarket events occurring regularly in Ithaca and Binghamton. Its intention is to create a healthy and safe event to showcase local cannabis businesses and celebrate the growing cannabis community.

The CannaMarket hosted at the Polish Cultural Center this weekend shows how post-legalization cannabis culture began in New York state. Despite the small size of the event space, it can be easy for the average smoker to become overwhelmed. With around 30 different vendors, CannaMarket offers everything a weed enthusiast can imagine and more.

Out of the woodwork of upstate New York, artisans of all kinds have applied their craft to marijuana and put it forth on display. This ranges from handcrafted pipes and bongs to homemade cannabis infusions of all kinds — even including actual cannabis growing and cultivating. Whether you smoke it, eat it, drink it, vape it, grow it, buy it or sell it, there is something here for everyone.

Kenneth McLaurin, one of the CannaMarket organizers, shared his thoughts on the event.

“The way we see it, if you can have wine festivals to celebrate and learn more about wine, cannabis enthusiasts should also have a space to come together and talk about the intricacies of cannabis,” McLaurin said. “People are still approaching cannabis in a traditional way. Cannabis is legal, coming together to have a positive cannabis experience is legal.”

Those attending should try and pace themselves as they walk past the tables. Some vendors will have tables with literal pounds of marijuana in plastic bags open for you to look at, accompanied by labels telling you the strain — whether it’s a sativa or indica — and THC percentage. Don’t be afraid to ask for a sniff of “Cheetah Piss.” The vendors you find here will be overwhelmingly nice. While of course, the vendors are trying to sell their products, they also want to share this passion of theirs with you.

One of the most notable tables was the Cannananas General Score, offering homemade Rice Krispies, red velvet cookies and chocolate chip cookies. Besides offering a small sample of their baked goods, the vendor was also open to talking about the process by which she made them. Like most vendors at the CannaMarket, most weed found here is grown locally, so quality and safety are assured.

The people at the CannaMarket aren’t only open about their weed, they are open about anything in the cannabis community. Not sure how to use resin? One vendor will walk you step by step on what is their preferred way to smoke it. Never smoked a bong before? Another will tell you what the hole at the side is for. With so much cannabis, there is no room for gatekeeping.

This isn’t to say that CannaMarket is some bacchanalian festival of druggy delight. It is truly the first growth of the open cannabis community here in Binghamton.

“CannaMarket is about making a community with people who usually are more likely to be isolated because of past stigma,” McLaurin said. “What we see here as a result of cannabis culture is generational, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. Everyone enjoys cannabis.”

The mentality that has been adopted by many in academia is often blind to lower-income students. I understand the stereotype of a typical student that many people have. It’s usually someone with enough familial support to be able to partake in everything BU has to offer. If the student needs a subscription to iClicker, they can simply call their parents and ask for the money. I very much doubt that when professors list their readings in the syllabus, they can imagine a student like myself scouring LibGen in order to avoid paying the $100 my bank account doesn’t have to spare. I have stopped emailing professors and asking for ways to afford their texts or software because I am tired of feeling ashamed for doing so. I don’t want to tell my professors a sob story every time I need to explain my situation and its effect on my academic performance. If the University could allocate more resources to fee waivers for the programs and textbooks that students such as myself need, then I would have one less burden to worry about.

According to the Pew Research Center, the amount of dependent undergraduates who are below the poverty line has risen to 20 percent as of 2016, with a much larger percentage coming into less selective colleges. Looking at BU specifically, nearly six percent of students come from families making less than $20,000 a year. The fact of the matter is, whether you know it or not, many students on campus are struggling financially. I would like to say that this problem not only exists on an institutional level, but it is so much more than that. Every day I am met with a barrage of opportunities I cannot partake in. The study-abroad poster in the University Union reminds me that I don’t have the financial security for it. When my friends haphazardly suggest getting food at the Marketplace, I need to make up some excuse as to why I’m not hungry, even though I feel my stomach growling. When the clubs I am a part of suggest an event, I’ll be the one missing out because I can’t pay the cover fee. When housing applications open, I tell my friends I think Mountainview, Dickinson and Newing are overrated, when the truth is they are the more costly dorms and I need to save wherever I can. And while it would be easy to devolve into arguments about better financial aid and social welfare programs, at this point, it seems that basic recognition is difficult to acknowledge.

While the CARE team often says that they are there in the event of a crisis, how are they supposed to help when your ongoing crisis is poverty? Who can help when your family calls, wondering how to pay their next bill? How will they help when a visit to the mechanic nearly bankrupts you? Often, it feels as if, while living on campus as a lower-income student, I face an endless line of problems I need to solve on my own, trapped within the confines of a Catch-22. Naturally, this would lead to more stressors than the average student faces. But the so-called solutions offered by University support systems don’t come close to amending the problems low-income students face. The CARE team offers a student emergency fund, but usually these awards do not exceed $500 and can only be utilized once during your undergraduate career. This money also comes with the stipulation that it cannot be used for any school-related fees, such as textbooks or tuition. Besides this, a lower-income student could be referred to the University Counseling Center in order to address the stresses of living as a lower-income college student, but once again, the support offered is inadequate. I doubt it is possible to remedy any situation over the span of 10 therapy sessions, much less the overwhelming circumstances that poor students face. Thirty percent of undergraduates face some sort of food insecurity, and while the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) may help to combat this, only 23 percent of students who are eligible for SNAP actually enroll in it. While this could be for a myriad of reasons, underuse is attributable most prominently to the fact that quite simply people do not know it exists and that they qualify for it.

Lower-income students often have to balance a dual role as students and as members of their lower-income family. And oftentimes these roles come into conflict, as I have learned from experience. Yes, I have an exam today, but my mother called to say that my sister fell and hurt her knee, and now I need to come home to carry her down to the car to take her to the hospital. Yes, I have class right now, but my mother is having a panic attack over the phone trying to figure out how to pay the added-on fees for the HOA. Yes, I have final exams, but I have to return home to take care of my mother after her emergency ulcer surgery. If I had a cent for every time someone told me to simply email my professor and explain my situation, I wouldn’t need to be writing this article. Firstly, professors have their own lives and responsibilities. It would be difficult for them to be concerned with the affairs of their thousands of students. Secondly, there is only so much professors can do to be accommodating without the requirements of the SSD office. After a certain amount, emails asking for extensions become hollow and don’t convey the desperation you feel.

The sad fact of the matter is that whatever campus resources there are to address the needs of lower-income students, they simply are not enough. Lower-income students such as myself feel that they have been forgotten and left behind while the machinery of the University continues ever onward. While I hope that there is some help out there for students such as myself, it means nothing if we can’t find it. So these existing resources must be made available in a manner that brings the help closer to those it is intended to reach. Secondly, while there exists a department for many kinds of students, from SSD to the Q Center, where should I turn beyond the CARE team in order to get the help I need? There should be an established space on campus that has the capacity to further serve its students beyond the scope of the University, whether it be connecting a student with basic benefits in order to survive more comfortably or having more of an authority to reach out to professors on behalf of students to allow for accommodations because of their ongoing circumstances.

Kimberly Mourao is a junior double-majoring in psychology and philosophy, politics and law.