Ryan Crino, an RA at Hilbert, hosted an election night party for the Hilbert students. About 30 students attended, people had their different reasons for coming. The best reason being, “It’s my room, I had to be here.” The event was held in the Katherine apartment and started at 8pm. Cirino had handouts for everyone, listing the four main candidates and explaining all of their positions.

 We started watching the ABC coverage, tallying the electoral votes of the results as they came in. Everyone expected Hillary Clinton to win, it was just a question of when the experts were going to announce it. Cirino did a good job ensuring that there was plentiful food and drink, we had enough on the off chance that election results would go far into the night. The conversation of the room was light, a lot of small talk, no one was really discussing politics for the first part of the coverage. Around 9:30 almost everyone left to go back to their rooms, only five devoted and fixated students remained and we would stick it out until the end.

The race turned out to be closer than what we had originally anticipated, we were still fully expecting Clinton to win even if it was a little closer. We discussed one of the lesser known presidential candidates, Andrew Basiago. (Look him up he’s real.) This man claims that he has time traveled, been to mars and shot at dinosaurs. While obviously not a serious candidate to win, he is definitely interesting and helped us pass some time discussing conspiracy theories.

Then the election took a surprising turn, some key swing states had just closed their polls and Trump was ahead! A democratic strategist then said, “It’s ok, because Florida isn’t important to win, we’re focusing on Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico.” Presumably losing Florida was always a part of their winning strategy. On TV the talk was all about how, “Clinton is only down by a couple points.” Instead the talking points should have pointed out how much Clinton was underperforming and how low the voter turnout was, which always helps republicans get elected. For example, in Wayne County, Michigan in 2012, Obama won by 48% of the vote, Clinton was edging out a 1 point lead there. That is important because she was definitely going to lose in the more rural areas, so she had to win with larger margins in the more heavily populated areas.

Around 10:15 we changed the coverage to the fox news station, they were the most up-to-date with their projections. But after a while the commentators run out of stuff to say and the room found them to be annoying. Most commentators were followed by cynical remarks by Hilbert students. “Why don’t they just play rock, paper, scissors?” An exit poll came out saying that Trump won independents, 48% to 42%. The real surprise of the election was Florida! Not that Trump won this swing state but that they had a smooth election! They seemed to have enough ballots at all of their polling places, many congratulations is in order for the state election board of Florida!

Each swing state going to Trump became less and less of surprise. Trump winning Wisconsin was huge for the Trump campaign, the democratic blue wall had been pierced, Trump was on the verge of victory. Around 11:15 a Canadian immigration website reportedly crashed, presumably some people were not happy about the election results? As the election results were coming to an end the room became more engaged , a heavier use of political humor and puns were utilized to analyze what had just occurred throughout our country. “If Trump can win the presidency with no political experience, I better be able to get a job with my degree!” In the great political upset of modern history a total novice, an outsider, having never been elected to political office, won one of the most powerful and important positions in the world. Around 2:30 Clinton called Trump to concede, we were just waiting for Trump to give his victory speech. We were looking at, against all odds and established rules of politics, the 45th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

The room was disappointed that Trump had been elected, but they would not have been overly thrilled about another Clinton presidency either. Some had supported the third party candidates, knowing full well they they wouldn’t win, but they kept their sense of moral and political high mindedness, to them Jill Stein and Garry Johnson would have been better alternatives. People were mostly hoping that Trump would not roll back some of the social progress that had been made, especially for the LGBTQ community, and that Trump would act responsibly and rationally, the big hope is that Trump said and did a lot of his strangeness just to get attention and that he will now act more like a world leader.

LACKAWANNA — The Hilbert College community awoke to thick plumes of black smoke in the sky last Wednesday, coming from a massive fire at a building that was part of the Bethlehem Steel complex on Route Five.

The fire started early Wednesday morning Nov. 9, according to officials and witnesses who live in the neighborhood surrounding the building.

The building was a storage space for what was described as “recyclable materials,” as well as cars and boats.

No cause of the fire has been determined, but officials were still investigating.

“People were in the building at the time but no one is known to have been harmed. There is no official cause to the incident and the arson unit will do their investigation,” said Lackawanna Mayor Geoffrey Szymanski, who was at the scene of the fire last Wednesday, talking with emergency responders and residents who came by to look at the blaze.

Jesse Susi, a resident of Beech Street, a small side street that backs up to the huge structure, reported hearing a loud, explosive bang early Wednesday morning. He said he used to work inside the building several years ago.

“My old job just  burned down, I’ve never seen anything like this before,” he said. Susi lives a block away, upwind from the site, and said that he felt comfortable and safe, despite being so close to the flames.

A helicopter operated by the Erie County Sheriff’s Department hovered over the site and took video images. Route Five was closed in both directions near the site for several days, until demolition crews were able to demolish what was left of the building. News reports said there was a fear that the building would collapse and spill debris onto the roadway.

Last Wednesday, many people stood and watched responders from Lackawanna, Buffalo, and several other nearby agencies blast the fire with water cannons.

There was some concern raised by Szymanski and other officials about air quality, from the smoke plume. Szymanski told a local TV station that Lackawanna would be purchasing its own air monitoring equipment to check for harmful contamination in the coming weeks.

We interview Brynn Canttan to discuss her service in the military.

By Kylie Wooliver

After graduating from Hilbert, Nicole Maiorana assists in the social, psychological, and academic growth of children.
A 2016 Hilbert graduate with a degree in Human Services, Majorana is a rehabilitation specialist at Northwest Community Mental Health in Buffalo.
The Orchard Park High School graduate she says she chose Hilbert College for its small class sizes. In addition, Hilbert’s location was convenient for her since it is close to home. She was drawn to Hilbert’s Human Services program. However, she believes without graduate school, there isn’t much forward mobility in her field. “The chances of financial growth are very slim,” she says.
She said she plans on getting a graduate degree in the next few years.
Her job at Northwest is her first salaried position in the mental health field, and her first day on the job was Nov. 21. She’s ready to work and go to graduate school so, she said, she can “move up the career ladder.”
She says that the best advice she received about her future was from her parents. They said, “to make sure I’m the most marketable person in the room.” With her master’s degree, along with her personal skills and traits, she hopes to be an asset to the counseling field. “My parents have encouraged and supported me throughout my academic career. I am very thankful for their guidance,” she said. “I am looking forward to the future and learning from an assortment of professionals, along the way.”

By Nicole Plucinski

Lady Hawk’s head coach Kelly Starchok earned the title of Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference’s Coach of the Year Award for all her hard work the Fall 2016 season.
“I am very humbled and honored to have received the Coach of the Year award in the conference. Let me be completely honest, this award is a team award and it is about the intangibles that you each possess,” Starchok said, in a speech she delivered at an end-of-season banquet held at Ilio DiPaolo’s restaurant in Hamburg.
“Every single one of my players took a pre-season 10th place pick and wrote our own future…and to that I owe each member of this team a personal thank you.”

The women’s soccer team was predicted to be last in the conference, but surprised critics with a fifth-place finish.

The 2016 team received five honors from the AMCC this past season, the most in the program’s thirteen-year history in the AMCC league. The Lady Hawks were recognized and rewarded by the nine other league coaches who vote annually. ALong with Starchok who won Coach of the Year, Jennifer Colvin and Brooklynn Gormel were picked to the 1st Team All-Conference, Jenna Castricone was placed on the 2nd Team and Shannon Rogers took a spot on the 3rd Team.

Overall, this season has been a very exciting considering it has been the first winning season in 10 years for Hilbert Women’s Soccer. The Lady Hawks had a 7 game winning streak, with 6 clean sheets (shutouts). The women scored 27 goals, which is 8 more goals than last year. Lastly, they set a new AMCC mark with a record of 9-7-1, establishing the program’s best winning percentage in the AMCC league at 4-4-1 with a 5th place finish for the program’s third postseason tourney.

If you didn’t get to check out the moon on monday November 14th, you missed out on a beautiful sight. On that night, it was considered to be the closest full moon to earth since 1948. Its speculated that the next “supermoon” will not happen again until 2034. A supermoon happens when a full moon or a new moon synchronizes with the moon’s closest approach to Earth, which also can be called perigee moon, according to NASA. Even if you did miss this exciting phenomenon, don’t worry, there about 4-6 supermoons a year, just not this large. This is the second of three supermoons in a row. The first was Oct. 16. The next is due Dec. 14.

I had never been very athletic, at least willingly. I’d run when I had to in P.E., but aside from that it’d take Freddie or Jason to be chasing me in the dead of night for me to go faster than a constipated llama. I also didn’t have an affinity for authority. Teachers, parents, and any other superior in my life would try to restrain the ball of fire that I am and would fail miserably or I’d completely disregard and impulsively live life. So, when I told my parents that I was going to be joining the Marine Corps, they were floored.
Three months and one week would be spent in Parris Island, South Carolina doing nothing but working out, learning how to shoot an M16 A-4 Service Rifle from 500 yards away (a football field is only 120 yards long for reference), marching, and fighting techniques called Marine Corps Martial Arts Program. Every day I’d wake up a 0400 (4 AM) and run around from “activity” to “activity” to the sound of three extremely pissed off and loud drill instructors until 2000 (8 PM). We were never alone, at least one of the fiercest, highly trained bad asses was watching us at any given moment this included using the bathroom and taking showers. Moving out of position of attention or parade rest would result in being Intensively Trained (I.T.). Talking amongst ourselves was prohibited. If we wanted to use the bathroom we’d have to request permission in a loud, warrior cry. Oh, and we weren’t allowed to say “I, me, or my.” Instead we were “these recruits, that recruit, and those recruits.”
Through the 13 weeks of hell, and four years of service, I realized what I was made of. Being stripped of everything, including my own name, food, comfortable clothes, comfort in general, and anything that held some semblance of security, made me come face to face with myself. I earned my Eagle, Globe, and Anchor. Not another living soul assisted me in attaining the title of Marine. I dug from deep within and pulled it together. All the blood, sweat, and tears translated into respect that I will have that is synonymous with the world’s greatest fighting force for the rest of my life. These lessons of perseverance and dedication have prepared me for the world and are accompanying me in my life as a civilian here at Hilbert College. It gave me the confidence to try new things, the security of being ok with myself (because when you’re not allowed to shave or shower for a week at a time you learn that beauty doesn’t mean anything in the end), and most importantly it revealed to me the simple pleasures in life that so many take for granted. I am a proud veteran and have learned so much. I want to impart my experiences and knowledge onto people just as my drill instructors did to me.
Not everyone’s experience is the same. Some may have had it worse and others better, but I want to thank every person who has served, is still serving, and will serve because at times it is a thankless job. Veterans of all branches, you have my utmost respect and undying gratitude. Semper Fi and God bless.

Following the results of the election the folks at Scribe TV were unsure what to write or say. Because of this we decided the best thing to post today would be a discussion on our feelings and future plans are.

This video is highly edited and only reflects the view point of those in the video.

By Kylie Wooliver

In 2016, Nicole Maiorana graduated from Hilbert College with a Bachelor’s degree in Human Services. Where is she now? And what is she doing?
Nicole is now attending graduate school for Clinical Mental Health Counseling at St. Bonaventure’s Buffalo campus, which is actually located right here at Hilbert. While going to school, Nicole works part-time at Brierwood Child Care as a day care teacher.
She has her own classroom where she is responsible for organizing activities and small lesson plans for school-aged children. From 1pm to 3pm, she assists in the infant room, and from 3pm to 6pm she works with kindergarten to fourth grade students. These children are under her care until their parents arrive and take them home.
Nicole says, “Although I enjoy my job, I’m excited to move forward in my career as a licensed mental health counselor.”

By Gabriel Esparza

October 29th Hilbert College celebrated the career of four  athletes: Nickee Thibault, Morgan Ott, Serena Tecl and Amanda Binder.  Before the final volleyball game of their collegiate career the players were announced and took a picture with their family as part of a pre-game ceremony. A short bio was read telling the crowd about their time, not only on the court, but also off the court. Hearing some of the little things that they seniors did, such as being “team DJ” , you realize how much the seniors meant to their team and how much they will be missed. Despite losing the game, you could see the chemistry between the players and how much they enjoyed playing the sport together that they dedicated so much time and effort to.