Technician
monday september
20 2010
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
Alcohol violations interpreted differently Over the past three years, Campus Police has seen a decrease in the number of alcohol violations. But, Substance Abuse with Student Health has a different view of the statistics.
alcohol sanctions class after receiving an alcohol citation or violation. “Students sent to me received a violation from University Housing or Campus Police or the Office of Student Conduct,” Austin said. There are many possible reasons for the decrease in alcohol violations, according to Barnwell. Chelsey Francis “The Alcohol Edu requirement Deputy News Editor started in 2007, which is a positive Campus Police and Substance Abuse stand point because it educates stuwith Student Health disagree about dents on alcohol and its consequenchow to interpret the numbers con- es,” Barnwell said. Some students, like Carnell Griffin, cerning alcohol violations. Jon Barnwell, patrol division com- a sophomore in management, don’t think AlcoholEmander for Camdu is the reason pus Police, said for the decrease. t h e nu m b e r s “I would have have been goguessed the aling down. Chris cohol violations Austin, assistant Eric Boone, a senior in were increasing. director of health technology education The Edu program promotion and is pretty pointsubstance abuse, said he thinks the numbers are about less,” Griffin said. “I don’t drink, so I guess it may be better for people who the same. “What was really interesting was consume alcohol to learn about its when I saw that the numbers decreased consequences.” Rikito Ogawa, a senior in internaover three years, because that’s when you can start talking about a trend,” tional studies, said he thinks the violations are decreasing. Barnwell said. “I would have guessed the violations Austin said the number of students he has for alcohol sanctions class is were decreasing because of regulations. People are also getting careful,” holding about the same year to year. “The year before last, I had 345 Ogawa said. “I don’t think there is a students sent to me for alcohol viola- direct relation between the Edu and tions,” Austin said. “Last year, I had the decrease though.” Austin said AlcoholEdu has been 338 students. Those numbers are shown to have effective results. about the same.” “The entire purpose of AlcoholEThe numbers reported by Austin are the number of students who take an du is to teach low-risk consumption
“People violate laws regardless.”
instead of high-risk consumption,” Austin said. Some numbers have increased after Student Health began education campaigns, according to Austin. “I have seen an increase in alleged alcohol poisonings. Ten years ago, we didn’t receive any calls about alcohol poisonings. One year, we printed the signs and symptoms of it,” Austin said. “After that, we received about a call a week for alcohol poisoning. In my estimation, it was happening before, students just didn’t know what it was.” Austin said AlcoholEdu has students thinking about consumption in different ways. “AlcoholEdu helps students watch out for each other more. AlcoholEdu helps teach information about alcohol poisonings and drinking safely,” Austin said. “Students know the signs and they watch out for each other.” Barnwell also said Campus Police, off-campus police departments and University Housing are working together to prevent more alcohol violations. “Also, because of cooperation between the police department and University Housing, students aren’t taking chances on campus that they were in the past,” Barnwell said. A significant spike of violations occurs on football game days, according to Barnwell. “During game day operations the police department stands out in the arena parking lot and several individ-
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Potential N.C. plan likely to mean more ACT applicants North Carolina is considering a plan to require the ACT for high school students.
We’ve always stressed classwork more than standardized test scores [for applicants], Griffin said. Passage of the state’s plan will not affect Admissions’ view of the test itself, either, Griffin said. The ACT will still Chris Boucher be considered as valid an examination Deputy News Editor as the SAT, just as it is now. “Both tests are valuable tools for Even if the state follows through on its plan to require most 11th graders to admissions officers in selecting aptake the ACT college entrance exami- plicants,” Griffin said. “The tests are nation, don’t expect radically altered different, but equally valuable.” Jayne Fleener, dean of the College admission requirements for prospecof Education, said both standardized tive N.C. State students. According to a Sept. 3rd News & tests are valid and beneficial for evaluObserver story, the State Board of ating students. While the SAT and ACT are both Education is set to require most 11th graders to take the ACT examination; valid evaluations, there is emerging the Board could decide on the plan as evidence that the ACT might be more beneficial for college preparation, early as October. Thomas Griffin, director of under- Fleener said. “Both [tests] are predictors of stugraduate admissions, said the proposal is a positive move toward preparing dent success, but the battery of tests North Carolina high school students associated with the ACT allow students to have better information about for higher education. “From the standpoint of an admis- their strengths and make adjustments sions officer, we want to encourage in their academic efforts and focus,” access to higher education for the Fleener said. While people of North the SAT remains Carolina,” Griffin the most common said. test for students “Ma k ing sure applying to colthat every student leges, the ACT has has some college already become a entrance exam beThomas Griffin, director of part of many profore they graduate undergraduate admissions spective students’ – be it ACT or SAT application pro– is a step in the cess. “More appliright direction.” The proposal’s main benefit for cants are starting to submit both [SAT 11th graders is opportunity: the state and ACT] scores,” Griffin said. According to the Admissions Office, would pay students’ registration fees if the plan is approved, according to most people that take ACT also take the SAT - but not all. the N&O story. Out of 10,390 applicants for the fall “Most colleges require the SAT or ACT, and this will help make sure stu- 2010 semester, only 563 students submitted only ACT scores, according to dents have one,” Griffin said. Admissions to continue stressing Admissions Office statistics. The number of ACT submissions is grades If the Board of Education approves quite likely to increase if the Board the ACT plan, it won’t make much passes the ACT plan, Griffin acknowldifference for prospective N.C. State edged. Plan won’t change University’s applicants. “The best barometer for college pre- teacher preparation If the plan passes, “it will not imparedness is high school performance.
“The tests are different, but equally valuable.”
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luis zapata/Technician
James Augenbaugh, a sophomore in political science, bongs a beer during student tailgating before the Cincinatti game Thursday. Augenbaugh said his favorite part of the game is “the walk to the gate because you see the fans from the other team and you get to talk to them.”
Students lose e-mails to Postini quarantine
pact how we prepare teachers. The College of Education goes to great lengths to ensure that our graduates are prepared to teach the North Carolina Standard Course of Study in innovative and engaging ways,” said Michael Maher, director of professional education. The ACT plan might, however, help teachers from the College of Education guide high school students through college preparatory testing more easily. In conjunction with the ACT plan, the state would use eighthand tenth-grade tests to provide interim information about where students are doing well, and where they may need additional help, before actually taking the ACT. These “pre-ACT” tests will “attempt to focus attention on both career preparation and improving academic achievement,” according to the ACT website. Fleener said PLAN was a great tool to get students ready for the ACT. “PLAN provides opportunities for reteaching, and provide students and families with some career preparation guidelines,” Fleener said.”In the long run, the [ACT] plan will help students stay on target for post-secondary studies and career preparation,” said Fleener. While the College of Education won’t instruct students on how to “teach to the ACT,” it will stress that teachers should be familiar with the ACT/PLAN testing battery. “We provide training for our future teachers in test interpretation, and the use data to make instructional decisions,” Fleener said. “Because the ACT will be tied to PLAN, it will give us the opportunity to address the continuum of feedback systems to access student knowledge and make adjustments
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Student e-mails were quarantined by anti-virus/anti-spam software. OIT said they have resolved the issue and e-mails can be retrieved.� Allison Saito Staff Writer
On Sept. 5, the Office of Information Technology Helpdesk sent an email to students acknowledging that students may not have received their e-mails because it had been quarantined by the Postini Anti-Virus/AntiSpam service. Student e-mails were not supposed to be processed by Postini, and this mix-up was a result of the switch to Gmail that the University made over the summer, according to Harry Nicholos, assistant director for systems and hosted services. Nicholos said the University was notified that there was an issue by a student. “We’d gotten a remedy call. It said
very precisely … that this student didn’t get something,” Nicholos said. When the University looked into why this student did not receive their e-mail, they discovered that the settings in Postini were not what they should have been, according to Nicholos. Postini is a program that scans email for spam and viruses, Nicholos said. Generally, it scans e-mails; then, it quarantines suspect mail in a separate account. Users receive e-mails that notify them about the e-mails in their quarantine. “This tool [Postini] has a quarantine. For the students, that is not supposed to happen,” Nicholos said. When the University switched to having Google student e-mail accounts, it intended to have the scan and quarantine features turned off. They were not turned off, but the notifications were turned off. Nicholos explained that finding the extent of the quarantine is diffi-
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