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January 22, 2008
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RIC Opens Up Studies on Addiction greater than 10 percent of the population. Many studies find that only one in eight of those found treatment. Tom Coderre, a former state senator from Pawtucket who now he serves as the national field director for the Faces and Voices of Recovery, is one of a seven-member steering committee for the Institute that will oversee its operation. “The Institute will be a central source for state and local government health and human service providers, and law enforcement officials, to obtain unbiased and insightful information,” Coderre said. The Institute will work collaboratively with academic departments on campus that offer degree programs and courses in addiction studies. RIC’s psychology department offers a bachelor’s of science degree in chemical dependency and addiction studies. About 10 other departments at RIC, including the Schools of Social Work and Nursing, also offer chemical dependency and addiction studies as part of their cur-
by Kameron Spaulding Anchor Editor The Institute for Addiction Recovery, a scholastic hub for the analysis of issues related to addiction, prevention, treatment and recovery, and to support individuals and families in recovery, has been formed at RIC using a $40,000 donation from the Del Prete Family Foundation. As a kick-off event they held there inaugural forum on Thursday, Jan. 17. Sandra Puerini Del Sesto has been named director of the Institute. Del Sesto is the co-founder of Initiatives for Human Development, Rhode Island’s only statewide prevention agency. She is also co-founder of CODAC, a statewide agency providing substance abuse treatment services, and the R.I. Teen Institute, a program that has trained and supported youth leadership in prevention since 1989. This great level of experience will be needed in her new position at RIC. “This is a personal and professional commitment,” she said of her position at the Institute. “I look forward to the challenge of establishing an Institute at Rhode Is-
land College and in the state that focuses on recovery.” In 2004, about 103,000 people in our state over the age of 12 were, or could have been, diagnosed with alcohol, drug dependence or abuse. This represents
riculums.
Primary Watch By Casey Gaul Anchor Editor Almost immediately after the start of the New Year, the U.S. launched itself into the 2008 Presidential Primaries. The Iowa caucuses led the wave on Jan. 3, awarding Barack Obama (D) and Mike Huckabee (R) their first wins. On Jan. 5, Mitt Romney (R) won Wyoming’s caucus vote. The New Hampshire primary was taken by Hillary Clinton (D) and John McCain (R) on Jan. 8, and the Michigan primary went to Clinton and Romney on Jan. 15. Four days later on Jan. 19, Clinton and Romney took another win at the Nevada caucuses, and McCain won the South Carolina republican primary. Hawaii and Florida will be holding both parties’ primaries within the next week. South Carolina will also be hosting the Democratic primary next week. As of this printing, several candidates in both major parties have already backed out of the race. Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson, and Tom Vilsack on the Democrat side and Tom Tancredo, Duncan Hunter, Sam Brownback, Tommy Thompson, Jim Gilmore, and John H. Cox on the Republican side have resigned from the running. Remaining on the Democratic ticket are Hillary Clinton in the lead with three states won, Barack Obama with one win, and John Edwards, Mike Gravel, and Dennis Kucinich bringing up the rear. The remaining Republican candidates are Mitt Romney in the lead with three states won, John McCain with two states won, Mike Huckabee with one win, and Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani, and Fred Thompson trailing behind. The US. Presidential Primaries are somewhat complicated and policy varies from state to state and party to party. Each party determines which candidate to nominate for president at a national convention. The delegates who attend this conference are determined by each state’s individual election and are either assigned a candidate to vote for or identified as non-committed. Each state chooses whether to hold a caucus or a primary. According to Vote-Smart.com, the caucus was the original method for conducting inter-party elections before the primary was introduced as an alternative in the
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early 1990’s. A caucus is essentially a meeting that generally allows any voter registered with the given party to attend. There is discussion and debate at the meeting after which delegates are chosen to send to the national conference, generally by their affiliation with a specific candidate. A primary is more like the general election in that registered voters place ballots for whichever candidate they choose to support. There are three different kinds of primaries, two more common than the third. An open primary is one in which a voter may vote in any primary he or she chooses regardless of which party they are registered with. A closed primary allows a voter to only vote in the primary of the party with which they have registered. Both of these types of primaries only allow you to participate in one party’s primary. The third and more uncommon type of primary is referred to as the blanket primary. This primary allows a voter to participate in any and all parties’ primaries. How delegates are assigned to candidates differs with each party. The Democratic Party always assigns delegates proportionally. For example, assume that State A has 20 delegates to allot. 60 percent of their voters vote for Candidate 1, and 40 percent vote for Candidate. So they will assign 12 delegates in Candidate 1’s name and 8 delegates in Candidate 2’s name. The Republican Party, however, allows each state to choose between the proportional method and the winner-takes-all method. The latter is where the candidate who won the majority gains the support of all of the party’s state delegates. According to the Rhode Island Board of Elections, Rhode Island holds a closed primary. This means that the voter may only vote in the primary of the party that he or she has registered with. However, should the voter register as “unaffiliated”, they may vote in any party’s primary they choose. Once they have voted in a party’s primary, they are considered affiliated with that party until they sign an affidavit of disaffiliation which may be done immediately after voting at the polling place. Resources for understanding and keeping up with
the elections include www.votesmart.com andhttp://edition.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/.
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