Hilbert Scribe photographer Brett Gomez took in the action at the Hilbert Hawks women’s soccer team’s 4-1 victory over Morrisville on Saturday.
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Hawks to Host First Ever Football Game Saturday
The Hilbert Hawks football program will host its first ever Division III game this Saturday.
The school announced the expansion of its athletic programs last year to much fanfare, with the new football team being the marquee addition, bringing the extremely popular sport to campus. The upcoming game against Denison University at 12 p.m. on the St. Francis High School field.
Head Coach Jim Kubiak said this first season the focus will be on helping the new players adjust from high school to a college athletics schedule and responsibility.
“That’s a big task,” he said. “We don’t have seniors and juniors who have been through it, so it’s creating these good work habits that’s been the crux of our work so far.”
Kubiak said that Hilbert has attracted many talented players. The task at hand remains getting them to buy in and develop the work habits that will make them successful student athletes.
“I’ve seen great effort go into that,” Kubiak said. “We’re not as proficient as we need to be, but we are moving in the right direction.”
The Hawks won their first exhibition game defeating St. John Fisher College’s junior varsity team 17 – 14 late last month.
Tim Siel, the school’s athletic director, said his department is very excited to be hosting the college’s first football game this weekend.
“The first game is culmination of a lot hard work, by our players, coaches, support staff and campus community,” Siel said. “Seeing our student-athletes compete on the field, in front our their friends and families, will be rewarding for everyone. The growth of our department over the past 10+ months has been remarkable, and we look forward to continuing the that growth through all of our athletic programs.”
Siel said his department understands it will take time to build success in the program, but that they have already seen significant progress.
“Our coaching staff is looking for steady improvement and effort throughout the season,” he said. “We are competing against teams and students-athletes with more experience than us, but if we can continue to improve throughout the season our program will be fine. We have already seen great improvement since the start of training camp. Continuing that growth will be the measure of a successful season.”
Hilbert Excited for Bills Opener
With the Buffalo Bills set to take on the defending champion L.A. Rams, the Hilbert campus, just up the road from One Bills Drive, was covered with red, white and blue attire Thursday.
Students sported their favorite gear in anticipation of the first game of the NFL season, in a year where the Bills are expected to go far, with many analysts – and bookmakers – picking them as the favorites to hoist the Lombardi Trophy in February.
Joseph Kupczyk said he thinks the game will be close, but that the Bills will prevail, with quarterback Josh Allen leading the way.
And he believes the teams biggest add in the offseason will be extra motivated going up against his former squad, Kupczyk said.
“I think Von Miller is going to have a day against his old team.
Head football coach Jim Kubiak, who also writes about the Bills as a guest columnist for The Buffalo News, said the team that management has built around Allen makes them an obvious choice to win it all. He also believes that the team has built the type of culture needed to play well with the immense pressure of those expectations.
“If they can stay healthy, I don’t think there’s a team in the league that they can’t beat,” he said.
College President Michael Brophy said he and his family look forward to snuggling with their dogs while taking in the game tonight.
“I don’t think the Bills take anything for granted,” he said.
Graduate Department Hosts Barbecue
The Hilbert College Graduate Department hosted a barbecue last weekend for current and incoming students to the graduate programs.
The Graduate Department hosted the event in hopes that current graduate students, incoming graduate students, faculty, and alumni could have a chance to interact with one another before classes start.
Amanda Steffan, Director of Graduate Admissions and Student Services said the barbecue enabled students and staff to mingle and new students were able to gain some insight on the graduate programs from current students and alumni.
“I think overall we had a good turnout and an excellent mixture of current students with alumni,” Steffan said. It allowed us to foster conversations around what students are doing who have graduated and how they can become more involved with our current graduate programs.”
This event took place at Buffalo Harbor State Park where food, drinks, and yard games were provided for all who attended. It gave students and alumni a chance to talk with one another as well as their families about the program and their experiences.
Incoming Criminal Justice Administration, 4+1 student, Colin Windle says the barbecue was a good way to start the program since students could chat with one another and get to know their professors.
“I think the barbecue was a great way to get to know who else is in the grad program and a great way to talk to our professors and get to know them,” Windle said. “I am definitely excited to start this new chapter of my life, however I do feel like a freshman again as the grad program is all new to me.”
The first day of Graduate classes will take place on Saturday September 3 for the incoming 4+1 students.
“I know there are a lot of great resources to help me along the way at Hilbert,” Windle said.
There is plenty support from staff and professors involved in these programs and many students succeed.
Overall, the event had approximately 60 attendees and it could be beneficial to future students as well.
Graduate Assistant, Anthony DiNizo said he hopes events like this continue to be held in the future because they can be beneficial to the students.
“I found that it was a great experience to get to network with current 4+1 students, traditional graduate students, alumni, faculty, and staff,” he said. “I hope we explore this option in the future and continue our efforts as a Graduate Program to provide these rewarding experiences for our students.”
Hilbert Kicks Off Semester with Welcome Week
As students return to campus this week they will have many opportunities to mingle with other students and get comfortable with the campus.
The Hilbert Office of Student Involvement has organized a slate of activities for new and returning students throughout the week in an effort to help students settle into the semester.
Alex Gill, the school’s Director of Student Involvement, said he hopes students will take advantage of the opportunities set up by his office to get to know other students and get involved on campus.
“I hope that welcome week gives students the chance to create community with new and old friends,” Gill said. “I hope they are able to see how welcoming and open-minded the Hilbert community is while discovering new and different ways to express themselves.”
Welcome week activities include:
Gill said he also sees this as an opportunity to reach out to students and let them know that they can help his office plan events throughout the semester.
“We have a lot of fun planned for this semester, but we are always open to new ideas,” he said. “If students are interested in planning, organizing, and implementing events, I would suggest that they get involved in the Campus Activities Board and different clubs or organizations on campus. We are so excited for this year, and we can’t wait to see the many different ways that our students get involved.”
SGA Voting Continues Throughout the Week
The Student Government Association elections are now open and will remain so through Friday.
Students can find voting stations where they will be directed to a voting website through a QR code throughout campus: two in Bogel Hall at the chapel and switchboard, one in Paczesny Hall near the 78 West Cafe, one in the Campus Center lower level and one in Franciscan Hall’s Student Involvement Center.
Voting is open through 10:30 p.m. Friday and students can learn about the platforms of various candidates at the voting stations.
Kody Harrison, the current SGA president, who is up for reelection, said he hopes Hilbert students will feel compelled to make their voices heard in this election.
“I know personally that there are some students that believe that their voices are not being heard and this is the greatest way to be that one voice,” Harrison said in an email. “The SGA Senate are the people who represent the student body as a whole. This is the opportunity for students to have their voice heard by choosing who represents them in these large scale decisions that are being made on campus.”
IT Department Works Out Kinks After Last Month’s Server Crash
Hilbert College experienced a series of internet outages last month, making it difficult for students to access blackboard, email services, self-service and the internet in general for those who live on campus.
This had impacted many students and faculty as it caused many lesson plans and classes to be changed and postponed. Many classes had to come to a standstill or be canceled since nothing was accessible, frustrating some students and faculty.
“This outage made this time a lot more difficult to communicate with any professors or just simply turning in any work,” Angelo DiNizo, a Hilbert student and member of the baseball team, said. “Because I practice six days a week with games in between and it doesn’t give me a huge time window to complete work if I can’t access to internet on my off time.”
Getting assignments turned in became difficult with Blackboard down and slowed grading as professors were not able to enter them into the system. With this, many students and faculty went to email to get the message out to one another about late assignments. However, it turned out that the email servers were down as well.
Those living on campus were also without internet access for a period of time as well. It caused many students to miss zoom meetings and classes. Zoom has become an important part of the classroom for many classes and having this happen proved to be a problem.
The Hilbert College IT department has been working hard to resolve this issue and have created many work arounds and solutions.
Jonathon Heck, a student employee in the IT department, said things have been running smooth again since the department addressed the issues.
“Essentially the core server that had the email and all other services on it failed,” Heck said. “It caused a chain reaction causing everything to crash.”
The importance of the internet has taken over the academic world as most lecture material and assignment are saved on the cloud servers. When these server outages take place, it can be detrimental.
Hilbert Hosts Breast Cancer Walk
On Saturday October 23, Hilbert College hosted its first annual Breast Cancer Walk in honor of Jennifer Czarnecki. Czarnecki battled breast cancer from October 18, 2020 until December 5, 2020 when she passed at the age of 47.
Czarnecki was a New York State Trooper for 20 years. She retired November 3rd of 2020, due to her worsening illness. According to the New York State Police, her illness resulted from her assignment at the World Trade Center site following the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.
“This walk is a new yearly tradition for breast cancer awareness,” David Roche stated, who was working the event. “We’re walking around Hilbert’s campus four times, which is two miles.”
The event included raffle basket drawings, a presentation about Czarnecki and the walk itself. T-shirts were also available for all participants.
“We are trying to start a foundation in her name,” Justine Chitwood, the organizer of the event explained. “Eventually, Hilbert will have a scholarship in her name for a criminal justice student to receive every year.”
Author Talks to Hilbert Students
Hilbert First Year Experience Program held their annual “Hilbert Reads” speaker event earlier this semester.
Throughout the fall semester, all freshmen at Hilbert College participate in the “Hilbert Reads” program, where they read and discuss a book in their GS 101 classes. In the past, they’ve read Maid by Stephanie Land, and What Made Maddy Run by Kate Fagan. This fall, the freshmen read Normal Sucks by Jonathan Mooney, who spoke to students over zoom.
Mooney’s book explored the challenges of living and learning with differences such as ADHD and dyslexia, as well as attempts to answer the question of “what is normal?”. These topics opened a wide range of discussion opportunities for GS 101 classes, including Brett Gomez’s. Gomez is a freshman in Dr. Reis’s GS 101 class, studying Digital Media and Communication with Graphic Design.
“I did enjoy the book. It definitely brought out some thoughts about growing up in the public school system.” Gomez said regarding the book, “You see these things he talks about, the discrimination against some kids by making them go into these special classes. And as Mooney says in the book, they’re not worse or stupider in any means, they actually can be smarter than us.”
Gomez’s class talked about these things during group discussions. “Its always easier to talk about things and express how you feel via verbal communication”, he said. Overall, this is a goal of the Hilbert Reads program, as students practice open communication on difficult topics.
In Mooney’s presentation, he further discussed the book’s topics of not being “normal”, and fielded questions from students.
“It was very helpful to get a better point of view on what he believes about the whole situation”, Gomez said when asked about his thoughts on the presentation. “It definitely brought it (the book) more to life when he expressed his emotions. You could hear it in his voice when he would talk about certain things, so it made it a little more emotional.”
As the first year experience program wraps up this fall’s Hilbert Reads, it looks towards next fall and the incoming freshmen class.
Hawks Pitcher Looks Forward to Upcoming Season
Since the Covid-19 Pandemic hit in the Spring of 2020 the way our world works has changed drastically. More specifically, College Athletes’ worlds have changed even more drastically. Between not playing games, having to go on pause and limited practices everything a college athlete does has to be one step at a time. The coming season should offer a more normal experience
Brendan Walsh, a right handed pitcher for the Hilbert Baseball team, said he has yet to experience a normal College Baseball season. Last season, the Hawks baseball team was lucky enough to have a season but it was only half the slate as a normal one. With many protocols and precautions added into the mix it was tough to get that full student-athlete experience.
“I’m mainly most excited to get back to the field and play, and see what the guys got in them.” he said. “After a covid season too, I’m excited to actually experience a full season, including our trip to Myrtle.”
Last season, the Hawks finished with an 8-26 overall and 4-14 record in conference play. Although they anticipated a better overall season, it wasn’t for lack of competition. In the end the Hawks found themselves in a one game play-in game vs their rival Medaille to reach the AMCC Playoffs but unfortunately they fell short in extra innings.
However, on Walsh’s end it was anything but disappointing. The then Freshman pitcher had the opposing Mavs held scoreless through five innings. Walsh finished the day going six innings while striking out 7 batters. His day finished with 3 earned runs to his credit.
Walsh said the prospect of a more normal season has he and his teemates more motivated than ever to compete.
“The extra drive everyone has this season that wasn’t particularly there last season,” he said. “No one wants to go out the way we did, and I think the guys really took it to heart, so this coming season I think our whole mindset is really gonna change.”
The Hawks certainly have a lot to look forward to with this coming season as they’ve gotten a multitude of transfers and incoming freshmen to come in and compete this season. Walsh was hurt this summer and had to rehab the tendonitis in his throwing shoulder. However, he said he remained focused on his goal.
“This off season was mainly just lifting and getting mentally and physically prepared for what’s to come,” he said.
Looking forward the underclassmen seems primed and ready to build off some of his successes on the mound last season with a full schedule to look forward to, as do the Hawks as there is quite a bit of buzz for what they might look like when they take the field this spring. The Hawks will get their next opportunity to compete this fall as their month long practice/scrimmage period is currently in the thick of things.
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