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An independent student newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890
1.13.2020 Vol. 220 No. 074
New semester, new you Utilize time management skills for a strong semester BY SAGE.SMITH @iowastatedaily.com Students can focus on time management and use resources such as phone apps to have a strong spring semester. Alexander Toftness, graduate psychology student, teaches the Psychology 131: Academic Learning Skills course. Toftness said a big thing they push in the class is time management. Students can have different approaches to managing their time throughout the school weeks. Some may sit down on the first day of classes, read through the syllabus of each class and mark down important due dates in their planners. Others may take it one day at a time. “It ’s like building a jigsaw puzzle,” Toftness said. “You’ve got all your hours in the week, and now you have to figure out where your assignments are going to fit into those hours. It’s a lot better to do that approach than it is to sort of be like ‘What is due today?’ and then try to do those things.” Jesse Rothweiler is also a graduate psychology student who teaches Psychology 131: Academic Learning Skills. Rothweiler advises students to set what they know they have to do and then be specific with their schedules. When scheduling time to study or work on assignments, Rothweiler said students can block out time for specific work. Students can take a three hour block of time and have
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DESIGN BY BROOKLYN WILLIAMS
City Council sets engagement goals BY AMBER.MOHMAND @iowastatedaily.com The Ames City Council discussed methods to increase community engagement during the first goal setting meeting. Members of the Ames City Council, with the exception of Ward 3 Rep. David Martin, met for a special meeting Saturday morning to develop the new goals of the Council. The goal setting meeting is the first of two, and no decisions were made during the first meeting. During the meeting, the Council members reflected on the accomplishments and challenges in the past couple of years. Mayor John Haila said he is proud to serve with the Council. “I have trust in every individual in this Council that they have good intentions and they have the best interest of this community in mind, and I’ve never doubted that,” Haila said. “To me, [if ] we lose trust, we’re in serious trouble.” The Council goals can be found on the city of Ames website, and they are re-evaluated every two years. During the meeting,
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AMBER MOHMAND/ IOWA STATE DAILY Members of the Ames City Council, with the exception of Ward 3 Rep. David Martin, met for a special meeting Saturday morning to develop the new goals of the Council.
MONDAY
Student Government to focus on mental health, diversity BY MORGAN.LAVIOLETTE @iowastatedaily.com Student Government is undergoing changes for the upcoming semester to improve mental health as well as diversity and inclusion for students on campus. Student Body President Austin Graber has his own perspective on what Student Government is. “I like to say Student Government is students serving students,” Graber said. “Whichever area we feel student life can be enhanced, we then work on projects and work with relevant administration to try and improve on that.” An area of enhancement for the spring semester is mental health and its accessibility to students. “Within mental health, we’ve been working with Student Counseling Services,” Graber said. “The first big thing that will be rolling out this semester is a mental health app.” Therapy Assistance Online (TAO) is a mobile therapy assistance device to provide wellness tools, according to the TAO app. “This app provides 24/7 counseling for students,” Graber said. “This will cut the amount of need at the physical counseling centers and is great for students struggling with mental health issues in the middle of the night.” Student Government will be providing funds to support the app and ensure students are aware of its availability, Graber said. Creating a comfortable environment in the counseling center is another priority for Student Government in the second semester. “We are working on a positive, stress-relieving day,” Graber said. “We want students to know where Student Counseling Services is and want them to feel comfortable with being there, so we came up with this idea of having some stress-relieving dogs in that area for students to visit and play with.” Graber mentioned the reevaluation being done on educational courses that meet the U.S. Diversity graduation requirement. “We’ve decided to make a subcommittee that will be looking at the outcomes of the current diversity requirement,” Graber said. “The U.S. Diversity requirement was created 19 years ago, but the definition of diversity and inclusion has changed dramatically since then.” Graber said diversity and inclusion is becoming a larger part of the student body in the spring semester. Heroes Week is a new addition from the Diversity and Inclusion Committee at Iowa State. “Heroes Week is going to highlight a hero from a different identity each day that has been marginalized in the past,” Graber said. “This is to show that these people have made a big impact in the state of Iowa.” Graber also said the Jack Trice statue being added to tour scripts for potential students looking at Iowa State can be a way to create a more inclusive environment. “We really want to push for inclusion right when students step on campus,” Graber said. “Prospective students who come to Iowa State will know about Jack Trice, and we can make that an opportunity to talk about diversity.”