Written By Danielle Waugh
Produced by Danielle Waugh

Syracuse University student, Dan Fitzpatrick, sits awaiting Kuehner's election results as the ballots are counted.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – “Wow,” Kevin Kuehner said as the election results come in on television. He sat at a table in the corner of the Republican Rally site, surrounded by friends, family and supporters– all wearing the same “Kuehner for the County” campaign sticker.

This was Kuehner’s third time running for the same office: County Legislator for the 16th District of Onondaga County. Each time, he’s run against the incumbent, Sam Laguzza. And each time, Kuehner’s lost marginally.

Kevin Kuehner

The Campaign Strategy
The first two times he ran for County Legislature, in 2005 and 2007, Keuhner ran a traditional campaign. He knocked door to door, put up campaign signs and targeted people living in the residential areas of his district. But Kuehner had several obstacles: he was running against a 20 year incumbent, and a Democrat in a largely democratic district.

This time would be different.

“I’m changing the rules of the election,” Kuehner said in mid October. “Rather than knocking on doors of people that don’t vote anyway, I’m trying to bring new people into the process and I’m going to steal the election.”

Kuehner’s plan was to campaign on Syracuse University’s campus, rally for student support and register student voters. College students typically turn out in small numbers for local elections. They are a demographic that Sam Laguzza did not target. “I’ve been to SU, I’ve been to Le Moyne, I do all that stuff,” Laguzza said. “You can put it in front of them, but you can’t make them eat.”

But Kuehner was about to serve the first course.

Campaign Season

Kuehner started his college campaign with the Syracuse University College Republicans. He came to one of their weekly meetings in mid September.
“I told them the voter turnout is so low, that a number of students can turn this election if they chose to. And I asked them to do it,” Kuehner said.

Although they had never met Kuehner before this meeting, some of the College Republicans took to his cause.

The students passed out campaign information and a campaign item designed specifically for students: a drink koozie that reads: “Sometimes Local is the Answer, Vote for Kevin.” Together, the student campaigners registered 280 new voters in the 16th District.

“I would have liked a lot more,” Kuehner said on the October 9 deadline to turn in the new voter registration forms. “I’m a little surprised. I thought it would be easier to get the students registered to vote.”

After registering new voters, Kuehner had to get those students to actually come out and vote. He launched a campaign online; creating a Twitter account, Facebook page, and campaign website that was targeted to students. As students joined his Facebook groups or accessed his website, he created a data base with their email addresses.

Days before the election, Kuehner sent out a mass email to 736 students, inviting them to a forum on campus called “Kevin Kuehner Addresses Student Issues.” Of those 736 invited, zero showed up. “It’s OK, I’m going to keep trying,” Kuehner said, visibly disappointed.

Election Day
“The epicenter for this race is Bird Library,” Kuehner said. “Bird library is the voting booth at which I will either become a County Legislator or I will not. And that’s because for a majority of the students, that’s where their voting booth is.”

But on November 3, Bird Library was quiet. There were no lines, not the turnout Kuehner needed to steal the election.

According to data he obtained from the Board of Elections, Bird Library had about 80 students vote—the same number as 2007, when Kuehner didn’t campaign on campus.

The final count: Sam Laguzza 1,135 votes. Kevin Kuehner, 398.
One of the student campaigners was with Kuehner as the results were coming in.

“I think the simple thing is students are lazy,” said Syracuse University Student Daniel Fitzpatrick. “And it’s not that they didn’t vote for Mr. Kuehner, it’s that they didn’t vote at all.”

Graduate broadcast major Tyler King takes a look behind the scenes of Syracuse University’s weekly half-hour news magazine show, CONNECT.

Latino students in the Syracuse City School District practice vocabulary with flash cards. The language barriers between them and the teachers make it difficult for them to succeed.

Written and Produced By Stephanie Claytor

This fall, Latino community leaders from Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo met at the Upstate Latino Summit. The summit– held in downtown Syracuse–  gave Latinos from all over Upstate New York the opportunity to discuss issues in their community, such as education.

Nationwide, Latinos have the highest drop-out rate. And according the latest statistics revealed on the New York State Report card, Syracuse City School District is following that trend– a concern for some local leaders.

” We all know that, based on demographics, if we do not change that drop-out rate… this country is not going to survive,” said Syracuse Common Council President Bea Gonzalez.

During the education workshop, Margarita Reyes, a representative of the Rochester City School District showcased a survey she conducted at Monroe High School in Rochester. She asked the Latino students why their peers failed to finish school. Reyes said work, absence of parental guidance, pregnancies and lack of support from faculty were the main reasons why students said their peers quit school.

And some of the students in Syracuse shared similar sentiments.

“I didn’t like the class scheduling, I didn’t like some of the teachers, they were very rude, “said Keisha Encarnacion, a 21-year old Latina who quit attending Nottingham High school in the last semester of her senior  year. “When you did need help there, it was very hard because the classes were so large.”

“There’s a lot of percent of them that drop out because they get picked on,” said April Keller, a student at Fowler High school.

Social worker Donna Lucente has assisted students at Syracuse’s Fowler High School for more than a decade. She said a lack of vision is the reason students quit school.

“A lot of students don’t have a vision for their future that they could go to college or that college could be affordable for them,” Lucente said.

The Syracuse City School District has around 20,000 students enrolled in school this year. About 1200 of them are Latinos. Fowler High School has the largest percentage of Latinos out of all of the high schools.  There, Latinos make up about a quarter of the student body.  According to the New York State Report card, which gives statistics and evaluates the performances of schools in the state, only 32 percent of the Latino students at Fowler High School in the class of 2007 graduated by August of that year. That’s about 22 Latino students out of the 68 students in the class.

Principal James Palumbo said the school’s dropout rate is “unacceptable.” He states the school’s six-year Latino graduation rate is somewhere around 50 percent. And he said he is willing to bet that if he had more Spanish speaking teachers, the graduation rate for Latino students would rise.

But, year after year, Palumbo said there aren’t any Spanish speaking certified candidates applying.  Syracuse City School Superintendent Lowengard echoed Palumbo’s concern.

“We believe in bilingual education,” Lowengard said. “But, it’s an issue for us, finding teachers that are certified and that speak Spanish. ”

**If you want to learn more about how your child’s school scored on the New York State Report card, click here.

Dan and BrandiLee Schafran graduated from SU three years ago. Three days after walking across the stage to accept their diplomas, they walked down the aisle to exchange vows.

Written and Produced By: Marlei Martinez

For many college couples, falling in love sparks thoughts about marriage. But in a society where youthful marriages are declining, love isn’t the only factor college sweethearts are looking for when deciding to tie the knot.

Anthony Kershaw and Deana Cater are 22-years-old. Anthony is a fifth-year senior studying civil engineering at Syracuse University. His wife, Deana, graduated from SU last year. They met during their sophomore year of college.

“His shoes were really dirty so I just noticed him and I said, ‘Oh, I saw you on the bus today,’” Deana explained. “And he thought I was making fun of him so he Facebooked me and the rest is history.”

They dated for two years. During Deana’s senior year, they decided to marry due to “extenuating circumstance.”

“Pretty much the school took away my financial aid because there was a discrepancy in my FAFSA tax documents [and] my parents were unwilling to change their documents,” Anthony explained.

One way to keep his financial aid was to become independent. So, Anthony and Deana got married.

Finances are often a reason why college sweethearts decide to tie the knot. According to the Yale Daily Times, 15% of college couples get married and 7% of college couples marry while still in school.

Dr. Suzanne Haas-Cunningham, a marriage and family therapist, said money means different things for different couples.

“For some couples, finances would be really, really big,” Dr. Haas-Cunningham said. “But sometimes if there’s one person who has more financial responsibility and the other person is the caretaker, then it evens out.”

***

Dan and BrandiLee Schafran graduated from SU three years ago. Three days after walking across the stage to accept their diplomas, they walked down the aisle to exchange vows.

“It was the perfect day,” BrandiLee said.

The Schafrans met during their sophomore year of college when Dan joined the on-campus organization, Campus Crusade for Christ. They said faith is the foundation of their marriage and it was the cornerstone of Dan’s proposal in the Adirondacks.

“I got down and had her sit on the bank there,” Dan said. “And I read the passage in scripture where Jesus talks about washing each other’s feet and serving each other. So I kind of washed her feet there in the stream and told her I’d love her and serve her for the rest of her life.”

Dr. Haas-Cunningham said practicing the same faith does help the success of a marriage. However, she says it’s not a necessity.

”You could have two people who have two different beliefs that are really passionate and say, ‘I get you’re as passionate about your beliefs as I am, that’s cool, I can respect that,’” she said.

There are many reasons why college couples decide to get married either during school or right after. And while some may think love is enough, others consider a bit more.

CONNECT Reporter Danielle Waugh spoke with Lara Greenberg and Alex Zuckerman about their experience filming CONNECT’s look at the Westcott Theatre. The popular concert venue not only serves as a location for local and national bands to expose their talents, but as a community center for the Westcott neighborhood.

CONNECT Reporter Marlei Martinez interviewed Sierra Jiminez and Roxanne Bocyck about their experience with Walt Shepperd. Shepperd has been a political reporter in Syracuse for nearly 40 years. And now, he spends his time working with what he calls the most troubled group in the city: the youth.

The Westcott Theatre is located on Westcott Street, just blocks from Syracuse University

Written/Produced by Lara Bryn Greenberg

Syracuse, N.Y. – There are many different names for the same building on Westcott Street: The Westcott, The Westcott Theater, The Westcott Cinema and The Harvard Cinema. Nowadays, it’s called The Westcott or The Westcott Theater, and it’s one of the go-to concert venues in Syracuse.

The theater opened as The Harvard Cinema in 1926, and for more than eighty years, it showed independent and foreign films on a single screen.  But in October, 2007, this historical building closed down. Then-owner Nat Tobin kept the theater alive for more than ten years—along with his other building, The Manlius Cinema.

“Between utilities and rent, [The Westcott Cinema] was draining the profits of both theaters, and the only way that I felt that art as a medium in Syracuse could survive is if I gave up that theater and concentrated on Manlius again,” Tobin said.

But it didn’t take long for the space to be picked up by someone else.

Dan Mastronardi is in charge of booking bands in Central New York.  He shares his company, Hollerback Productions, with his partner Sam Levey. The two completely renovated the space themselves.

“It was long and tedious. It was not as expensive as most people would think because we did all the work ourselves,” Mastronardi said. All that work included tearing out seats and installing a 36-by-16 foot stage and a bar. The venue now has a maximum capacity of seven-hundred people. They generally have one hundred to two hundred guests per show, but have sold out at least a dozen times Mastronardi said.

Venue connects S.U. campus with Syracuse community

As a concert venue, The Westcott adds to the neighborhood—providing the “Westcott Nation” with a venue that Syracuse University students and community members can enjoy.

“It’s a big step to open a venue. And they’re taking those steps and they’re still improving things as we go now a year out,” said Ulf Oesterle, owner of Aux Records and host of iROCK at WKRL in Syracuse. He praised the venue for its closeness to the community, explaining that “the fact that you can just head out and see a show just down the street that’s national acts, that’s great.”

Oesterle explained that it’s an all-age venue. Meaning that while it has a bar, most of the shows allow people under the age of eighteen to attend. He said that makes parents feel more comfortable about letting their children go to shows and mingle with students from the nearby SU campus. He said it’s a nice spot where people are “looking out for each other.”

But the theatre is also a launching pad for new talent. Though Mastronardi brings in national touring acts, he usually has local Syracuse and Central New York bands open for them. This gave him his first piece of national press coverage on the music site, Jambase, which has information about bands, concerts, and tours.

Other local venues can’t compare

Adam Gold frequents the theater to see concerts and perform with his band, Sophistafunk. He also owns his own venue called Funk N Waffles on Marshall Street near the SU hill. It’s a coffee shop and waffle restaurant that books bands to play at night. He said he would never be able to book bands like The Westcott because his café is small and simply can’t hold the national touring bands that The Westcott gets.

“I’m really glad The Westcott’s here. You know, there’s really no venue like it in this city. And I think we really need it to help build the music scene,” Gold said.

Adults and teenagers alike packed the theater in early October when Gold and his band opened for the band Soulive. The unusual, yet comforting venue brought a well-balanced combination of young and old music lovers. And that’s exactly what Mastronardi said he aims for.

Anthony Lewis

Written By Sierra Jiminez

Syracuse, N.Y.—Twenty minutes. Twenty minutes was all it took for Angelik Mitchell’s life to change.

On August 15^th, 2009, Anthony Lewis went downtown to the Latin American Festival in Clinton Square. Later that evening, police said there was an altercation at the festival between a group of teenage girls—and Lewis was asked to leave.

Lewis ran down South Salina Street amidst a mob of more than 200 people. As he crossed the intersection of Fayette and South Salina Street, police said he was surrounded and stabbed in the heart.

He was 20-years-old.

In twenty minutes, Mitchell lost her only son. Now, she and the rest of Lewis’ family protest on the streets where Lewis was killed.

“That day we were moving here and we stopped and went to the festival,” Mitchell said as she sat on her son’s bed in their new apartment. “We probably stayed maybe 15, 20 minutes… I had wanted him to come home with us, but he was like ‘I’m ok, I’m good. ’”

“I just wish he would have come,” Mitchell said. “I wish I would have made him. If I would have known, I would have made him.”

Mitchell said her son made an impact on almost everyone he met—including his girlfriend at the time of his death.

“It’s just hard. I didn’t think I would be here like this,” said girlfriend Ana Dourdas as she sat in his room. “I knew I would be here but I didn’t know I’d be here without him.”

“I really do miss him because I spent every day with him. I don’t know who’s gonna call me in the middle of the night. I don’t hear his ringtone anymore. And I never will. I want him to call me, I’m waiting for his phone call,” Dourdas said.

Lewis’ family said they believe his murder was an act of racial violence. And they said they know who was involved. They’ve even gone as far as to look them up on MySpace.

But police said without a witness to come forward, there’s nothing they can do.

“I feel like his life was cut short. I really do,” Mitchell said. “He wasn’t hurting anybody… I mean they all got chased because they were black.”

Ana Dourdas kneels by her boyfriend's vigil a month after he was stabbed to death in Downtown Syracuse.

Mitchell said police have tried to stop her protesting multiple times, stating it’s time to move on. But every Tuesday and Thursday, Lewis’ support group is back out on the streets—fighting for justice.

“Were not going anywhere so they might as well just arrest the people and do what they have to do. Because we’re gonna still be here,” Mitchell said. “We’re gonna be rallying and we don’t care if the officer said we’re making people mad. So what!? I really don’t care. I’m mad because they murdered my son. If they didn’t want to be made mad, then they shouldn’t of murdered my son. I don’t care how other people feel right now. Because my son is not here. So what if I’m making people mad? So what?”