On February 28, Queens College’s New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) gathered in Albany, NY for the Higher Education Action Day, along with 19 other SUNY and CUNY schools, to meet with elected officials and share why affordable education is important and why it is a necessity to invest in opportunity programs. This year the students and faculty members addressed the most pressing issues that affect the operating budget of the schools across the state and called upon Assembly members and Senators of their districts to make investments in the SFY 2018-19 Adopted State Budget. Some of these investments will initiate a multi-year plan to restore funding to SUNY…
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Turkey, Syria, and the United States: What You Need to Know
For far too long Syria has been enduring a civil war that seems to have no end. The current events have created one of the worst humanitarian disasters seen in the past few years. Recent developments have the international community focusing on how the growing interests of foreign powers in Syria are now interfering with the interests of countries in the region, such as Turkey; and how the relationships between world powers and its allies in the Middle East could be affected. The Russian Federation continues to support Bashar Al Assad’s government, while the United States has doubled its efforts to defeat ISIS. The latter has created conflict between Turkey…
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Jam if You Can for the Queens College Food Pantry
On November 29, the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) hosted the Jam If You Can Event with the purpose of collecting food items to stock the Queens College food pantry. The event was organized by NYPIRG coordinator Candice Jaimungal and Stavros Anastasiov, one of the leaders of the Hunger and Homelessness project at NYPIRG. The purpose of the event, as Anastasiov said, was to “Shine a light on student hunger and homelessness, giving students the power to fight it through their talents and abilities.” There were 12 student performances, that included dance, guitar and flute numbers, stand-up comedy routines, acoustic and acapella singers and a special performance of…
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World News: Economic, domestic, and political instability
“I was earning 20,000 bolivars every two weeks I used to live in the state of Zulia in Venezuela. That’s less than 2.00 dollars. I was earning 4.00 dollars a month.” This is how Saul, a former Venezuelan fireman, began narrating his tragic arrival to Colombia. His story is no different from the stories of the thousands of people that cross the Colombian border hoping to find a job to sustain their families. “My wife and I could only eat once a day so we could feed our kids(…) I came to Colombia and started working in a restaurant, now I can send them money.” The steadily growing crisis that…
