THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW ORLEANS Volume: 60 Issue: 3
unodriftwood.com
AUGUST 31, 2016
University to implement sexual assault education program “Only five percent of sexual assaults on college campuses are reported” - AAUP.org BY CHRISTOPHER WALKER Editor-in-Chief “The national statistics show that one in five women in college will be sexually assaulted,” said Amy King, University of New Orleans student accountability director. UNO has decided to try and bring this awareness, education and training about sexual assault to campus with implementation of an online sexual assault awareness and intervention program named “Haven” and an alcohol awareness program named “AlcoholEdu”. Starting later this fall semester, the two online courses will be available for free to all students. It has been widely known that sexual assault is a real problem among college students, but it is only until recently that a serious national dialogue has begun on how to minimize it. During the summer, a sexual assault case on Stanford’s campus, perpetrated by Brock Turner, brought what has long been a problem lurking in the dark on college
campuses into the national spotlight. “I think that this culture of drunk hookups has the ability to cause so many problems down the line in students lives. And it’s easy to say that now, Monday morning quarterbacking, having been in college years ago, but it’s true,” said Amy King. “We are aware of the college culture, that this is not a utopian society, but the legal aspect of consent [under the influence of alcohol] should be a strong consideration when making decisions,” said King. “There’s some talk about what it means to get ‘drunk consent,’ but that’s a misnomer; drunk consent doesn’t exist,” said King. “When alcohol becomes involved, you become incapacitated and the law states that consent cannot be given. You need to be very cautious.
There are legal repercussions, that’s the state’s stance.” Dean of Student Affairs Brett Kemker said, “Our job is to equip the students with knowledge. And what they decide to do in a given situation is absolutely up to them. But we think the more education and the more information we can get out to students is going to alleviate those issues.” “We’re rolling [the two programs] out together because there’s a correlation between the two issues,” said Kemker. “The number of sexual assault instances per college student at UNO are lower than the national average, but training
and awareness still needs to be gotten out.” Kemker said “Haven” is “about healthy relationships, the importance of consent, being a good communicator and the many ways you can help create the safe, positive campus you want to be a part of.” “This program is being implemented in school systems all over the country, and we can compare our data with other colleges and see which schools are doing well, which are doing poorly, and with this network can all help each other,” said Kemker. “Haven is going to help us strengthen, at the university level, our support, our responses, and our outreach system,” said Amy King. Students need to keep their eyes on their school emails, as an email will be arriving soon detailing how to sign up for these programs. “Most likely you are attending UNO because you wanted to better
yourself in some way. At UNO, we are dedicated to ensuring that our students are advancing themselves beyond the classroom. [Haven] will help you develop the critical skills to make more thoughtful and educated choices outsides the classroom.” King said, “We want to do more training on bystander intervention, which is just as important. Students can learn more about sexual assault on this campus in person. They can come to counseling services, student health services, and on our student affairs website there’s a resource page for survivors of sexual assault. The office of Student Affairs is your office; any student can access it. It’s a fantastic place to get info on anything you need.” Kemker said, “We’re pleased with our UNO community and how responsible they’ve been up to this point. Very, very high quality group of people. But there’s always room for improvement.”
UNO tuition price holds steady, “fees” nearly double BY LEO CASTELL Driftwood Staff A University of New Orleans student taking only 12 credit hours this semester will technically only be paying $3045.19 in tuition, yet he or she will receive a final bill of $4322, due to over $1000 being labeled as “fees.” The difference of $1276.81 is made up of multiple charges, ranging from a building use fee of $48 to a Privateers spirit fee, which is $5 per credit hour. Compare this to the fall of 2012 where the price of tuition for the same number of hours was almost $500 less ($2582), and the fees a measly $343, as the building use fee and Privateers spirit fee did not exist. Just four years ago, a student could attend UNO for less than half the price of what the tuition is now.
Student response to these fees has been overwhelmingly negative. “Most of the fees paid are vague and sometimes have a ridiculous description, with no explanation as to their true purpose or why they have been increased this coming semester,” sophomore Clay Mistich said. Tuition steadily rose until fall of last year where it has remained stagnant, but the fees have nearly quadrupled and now make up over 25 percent of the final fee bill. An email linking to an explanation of these fees is sent to each student upon being billed and can also be accessed from UNO’s website. Fees, such as the academic excellence fee ($10 per credit hour, up to $120), technology fee ($5 per credit hour, up to $75), and
fuel recovery fee ($10 per credit hour), have been around since 2007 and have only slightly fluctuated in price since then. These fees are used to pay for everything from the library, to the computer lab, to
campus-life activities and sporting events, while the other supports academic advisement and “a new analytical tool that enhances degree completion.” Privateer bucks ($80) is a more recent fee that debuted in 2014 and may be what students are most familiar with. If you’re taking at least 12 hours worth of classes, then paying for this fee gives you money to spend on food that is attached to your student ID. Strangely, the fee this semester is $80, yet the explanation says it only grants you $75 to spend on food. The largest of these fees also debuted in 2014 and is simply listed as “other mandatory fees.” Students taking 12 or more credit hours will be paying a maximum of
“I always pay my tuition out of pocket, but it’s getting harder to do every semester.” - Juan Garcia the university’s energy bills. The aforementioned Privateers spirit fee is among the newer charges, along with the student retention initiative fee ($15 per credit hour). The spirit fee is used to fund
$529.81 for these other fees, which fund everything from campus beautification to student health services. Despite presumably being a compilation of other fees, there is no explicit mention of what exactly makes up this overall fee, yet it will account for about half of the total fees paid by each student. “I can understand something like a building use fee, but being charged for Privateer Spirit is just stupid,” senior Jessica Floyd said. “Shouldn’t most of this stuff already be covered by tuition? What does our tuition even cover if all this is separate?” The rising fees are a particular sticking point for students like sophomore Juan Garcia that don’t receive any financial aid. “I always pay my tuition out of pocket, but it’s getting harder to do every semester.”