A day in the life of an SU athlete: Shamel Lewis

Shamel Lewis, a sophomore psychology major from Long Island who is currently a sprinter on the SU Track and Field Team, gave a look into the life of an SU athlete.

Lewis currently runs in three events for the Men’s Track and Field team: the 100 meter, the 200 meter and the 4x100 meter relay. Lewis is one of the top two athletes in his events, but his success comes with some sacrifice. In an average day, Lewis is not only under time constraints between practice and school, but he is also under very strict dietary restrictions as well. As an athlete, Lewis is told by his coach to “eat like a caveman,” with a diet of plenty of fruits and vegetables. He cannot eat junk food such as chips, or fried food, and only indulges in dessert once in a while. To curve his cravings, he eats plain rice cakes with peanut butter. He is also under a vitamin regime as well including fish oils, flaxseed, multivitamins and dietary enzymes, which are used to decrease stomach bloating. 

As far as Lewis’ social life, he says that 9am Saturday practices deter him from going out on a Friday night, and when he does go out, he is careful not to undo his week of training in one night.

Even though Lewis finds the urge to grab a bag of chips in Goldstein tough, he takes these regulations in stride, citing what is necessary to perform well over what is convenient. “It’s like a job. You’re being paid to perform well,” he said.

Shamel’s Typical Day

6am: Wake-up, do some work and eat Breakfast.
Breakfast
Omelet with 2 large organic eggs, 2 egg whites, broccoli and cheese; oatmeal and a required protein shake
11am - 1pm: Class
1pm: Lunch
Lunch 
1 lean turkey burger with an apple (Lewis’ replacement for a vegetable requirement) and water
1:30 - 2:30pm: Relax
3pm: Head to practice/ warm-ups
4pm: Team run 
4:30 - 6:30pm: Weight Lifting
6:30pm: Ice bath
7pm: Dinner
Dinner
Seasoned hamburger with cheese on a tortilla shell, broccoli and water
7:30 - 8:30pm: Relax
8:30- 9:30pm: Reading, drink a cup of green tea
10pm: bed

-Kristen Putch
March 15, 2009

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Rejection is a bitch. I know. We know.

My friends tell me that I have a habit of being verbose, so for my New Year's resolution I vowed to work towards brevity. Words are often taken for granted. Yes, I’m guilty of the reckless treatment of language. I exhaust words like “like” and I’m especially predisposed to those delicious blasphemes that Carlin once identified as The 7 Words You Can Never Say on TV[1]. But before I could allow myself to take a more economic approach to words, I felt at liberty to detach myself from some lingering emotions and reservations of 2008. Thus in my final act of wordiness, I wrote a letter-- a double-sided, 4-pg. letter to a former friend turned like-interest turned desaparecido[2].

Let me be the one to say that the outcome was pretty anti-climactic. Imagine a dolled-up Drew Barrymore in Never Been Kissed, standing in the middle of a baseball field waiting for Michael Vartan’s character to respond to her article via awesome make-out scene. Except in this scenario Vartan just doesn’t show up (not even a few seconds late). No Beach Boys “Don’t Worry, Baby” playing in the background to absolve “Josie Grossie” (or yours truly) from years of insecurity. And most of all, no awesome make-out scene. Josie, still, never been kissed.

That, dear Mr. Fersh, is an exigency that comes closer to justifying your so-called “all-out gender warfare[3].” Rejection is a bitch. I get it. We get it. But I’m so inclined to believe that without such brutal severing of ties with persons in question, we would be worse off. In this sick game of pursuit, both parties will get shit on. We should thank them for doing us the favor. And fuck, man, I too yearn to give into my deeply disturbing desire to set fire to his apartment[4]or something as equally outrageous, illegal, and distasteful… but it would be all too easy.

Honestly, I didn't get over the fact that I was rejected[5] until about last night. And it wasn’t by playing Katy Perry’s “Ur So Gay”or Leona Lewis’ “Better in Time” on repeat[6], but rather, by watching a video by Benjamin Zander[7]. It was with his last point[8] that eventually convinced me that I wasn’t lacking, and despite my feeling like shit after having made a fool of myself over a (damn good) romantic overture which would only be grossly underappreciated by some guy who’s not even that cute[9], I have nothing to regret[10]. It seems as if I lost a friend, but in hindsight, he’s the ultimate “friend” for (indirectly) helping me realize that, well, I deserve better[11], as do you, Mr. Fersh[12].

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[1] “Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, CockSucker, MotherFucker, and Tits.” But we all know that the list is endless.
[2] “Disappeared” AKA “I’m-too-much-of-a-bitch-to-make-a-move.”
[3] Literally and figuratively, Fersh is just a freshman, so I’ll let him have his fun.
[4] and while I’m at it, his car, Newhouse, and the Office of Housing. Yeah, I said it.
[5] Ouch.
[6] But damn it helped.
[7] YouTube: On Classical Music and Passion- Zander
[8] Point: Strive to say things that can stand to be the last thing you'd ever say to someone or about someone. Can we always do this? No, but it is “a possibility we could live into.”
[9] I had to say it.
[10] I’m single and ready to mingle, gentlemen. Call me.
[11] An Adrien Brody, please?
[12] and anyone else who has been a victim to rejection.

-Alexis Panaligan
March 1, 2009

The Value of Virginity - Editor's Note

Hello, 

That title, “The Value of Virginity” was supposed to be the title of the essay in Issue Two of The Student Voice. We changed it. We changed it to “The Price of Virginity” because we didn’t understand the ramifications of what we thought was a minor edit.  

How I wish that was the only change. The writer cared deeply about the subject of the essay: the young woman who is auctioning her virginity (not on e-bay, by the way) and what it means that this can happen in the United States while young girls (no, not women) all over the world are forced into prositution and the sex trade without a choice, without a voice, without a chance. The world is filled with shameful things – wars, genocides, drug trafficking – but few of them are so regularly ignored as the global sex trade and its victims.  

By the time the article published, it was no longer the work of the writer. Her point was lost and twisted into something else, something lighter and altogether less important. I want to drop the editorial “we” here; I take the blame personally. Though the writer is a friend of mine, I would feel just as upset, just as angry, just as guilty, had any of our writers come to me with such criticisms. I want writing for The Student Voice to be as rewarding an experience as possible for our writers. I want the integrity of their work to come above anything else. I want our editors to help make their stories better, not make them something else.  

So here is the original essay, “The Value of Virginity.” Please read it, and please, don’t hesitate to contact us, contact me, if you’re unhappy with something you read in The Student Voice. 

Thank you all, 

Kyle Adams
Editor-in-Chief, The Student Voice

Show me the money

In a time of recession, SU should be responding to student need instead of pouring more money into building projects.

The recently announced plan to build a new student center has been raising roars from students: Why do we need this? Why now when the economy is steadily sliding into a big black pit of debt? How much of our money is being thrown into this? If I can’t even afford to spend three nights a week at Maggie’s, how can the school afford to spend my money on a glorified bookstore?  The student center is just the latest link in a long chain of building projects at SU. While the economy has been pilfering student bank accounts, the university has recently completed construction on the Life Sciences Complex and renovations to Slocum Hall. Meanwhile, construction is currently underway on the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center and Ernie Davis Hall. In addition, there are plans to renovate both Bowne and Lawrinson Halls.

      Keeping up appearances is important to Syracuse University, and the administration seems to find ways to make it happen even in the worst of economic climates. Some of the projects are funded through donations, while others have more resourceful financial backing: the developer for the new student center is funding that project, and the university will pay the money back through its operating budget. Supposedly, SU won’t incur any debt over the building.

      But the university did just lay off 48 full-time employees and cut 71 vacant jobs in an effort to lower administrative costs. The administration has also been having intense budget discussions about how to handle the budget for the next academic year. As of Feb. 14, the estimated cost of attendance for 2009-2010 is $50,570 – up from $47,820 last year. Attending SU for four years will now cost incoming freshmen more than $200,000. Do the math, and you’ll find the university charges $1 million for every five students in attendance.

      With that kind of tab, one would hope SU students would get serious help footing the bill. According to CollegeBoard, SU students get an average financial aid package of $26,110, thereby meeting about 86 percent of student financial need. By comparison, Ithaca College manages to fulfill 91 percent of its students’ financial need, while Cornell University boasts a rate of 100 percent fulfillment.

      The “Syracuse Responds” initiative attempted to help students suffering from the unpleasant economic climate, but only $830,000 was raised as of the first week of spring semester. With approximately 13,000 undergrads, that would be $63.85 per student. I have yet to meet anyone who has benefited from the initiative, though I have met many who have been turned down for financial help.

      With all of the fiscal restructuring going on in other areas, financial aid seems to be overlooked. Although SU may have arranged to take on multi-million dollar building projects without incurring debt, few students are able to take on SU without acquiring serious student loans. Instead of increasing our tuition during one of the worst economic times in decades and instead of finding resourceful means of funding building projects, the administration should be contriving a way to meet a higher percentage of student need.

-Christen Brandt
February 21, 2009

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