Prospective students in protests not to be punished by NC State Admissions

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PAGE 3 • MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2018

Prospective students in protests not to be punished by NC State Admissions

Mary Dare Martin

News Editor

In the wake of national school protests over gun violence, the NC State Office of UndergraduateAdmissions announced in a statement on Feb. 26 that any punishments a high school student may receive for peacefully protesting will not impact their admission decision.

On Feb. 14, a student opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people, which included 14 students and three staff members. One month after the shooting, high schools across the United States took part in a national movement to protest gun violence and remember those lost in the shooting by peacefully walking out of their classrooms for 17 minutes at 10 a.m.

Thomas Griffin, associate vice provost and director of undergraduate admissions, said they released a statement to provide answers for those questioning the position of the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

“We were getting a number of questions,” Griffin said. “It was good to go ahead and just put a statement out so that students wouldn’t have to worry or search or feel like there was something hanging over their head when we were just going to look at it in the context of the rest of their record anyway.”

NC State has also received several applications from students currently attending Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

“We were concerned about the whole situation because we have several applicants from [Marjory] Stoneman Douglas High School this year,” Griffin said. “We wanted to be as supportive of those applicants as we can.”

According to Griffin, the biggest disciplinary concerns that the Office of Undergraduate Admissions has when looking at student applications are academic integrity and campus safety.

“It isn’t a school safety issue if somebody is protesting against school violence in a peaceful way, that’s not something where we arise to concern,” Griffin said. “We just wanted to be clear about that. It seems like the students being active and having a voice and advocating for a cause, those are things that our students do all the time and as a university, we’re trying to not only think about problems but also do something about them. It falls in with our ‘think and do’ mentality.”

Thousands of students in the Triangle area participated in the walkout last Wednesday, including Elizabeth Hons, a senior at Rolesville High School.

“It was really cool mostly because the school really supported us with doing this and they helped organize us,” Hons said. “They also handed out ribbons and stuff like that. It was just really amazing because about half the school came out and everybody was silent, and we just did a couple of laps around the school for that 17 minutes and it was absolutely amazing.”

According to Hons, she believes it is the responsibility of the students to advocate for change because they are the population that is directly impacted.

“Any time politicians have tried to make change, it hasn’t happened,” Hons said. “I think that it’s up to us, the high schoolers now, to make change because we are the people who are being affected by this. I think it’s really important for teenagers to be up on issues like this so that way we can change the world.”

Hons said that universities supporting high school students is an important aspect of students being able to speak up for what they believe in.

“It shows the university’s solidarity with the students,” Hons said. “I think it’s really important because then it makes sure that every student knows they have a voice and they won’t be punished for it.”

Students at another high school in the Triangle area, Needham B. Broughton High School, had planned to participate in the nation-wide protest, but their walkout was postponed due to a rumored threat made against it on social media.

Darcy McMillan, a senior from Needham B. Broughton High School, said the protest was supported by teachers, but mostly put together by students and they plan to reschedule the walkout soon.

“It was organized mainly by students,” McMillan said. “But the principal came out and said that she would allow us to go out and we would not be punished, but if we left campus that’s when the punishments would happen. So she was working with us most of the time, but it was mostly students.”

Although she appreciates the support from universities, McMillan said she would have participated in the walkout regardless.

“I think it’s absolutely amazing that colleges are coming out and saying that ‘hey we commend you for what you’re doing, we support you,’” McMillan said. “But to some extent we’re all pretty okay with any of the consequences to come from us speaking out about this and fighting it.”

McMillan said that supporting the victims and students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is important for joining together as high schoolers.

“It’s the fear that it could happen to us,” McMillan said. “It’s not fair to let them be alone in the fight because we’re all in the same scenario and could be put in the situation at any moment. It’s kind of a support system, we’re trying to speak for some of them who can’t anymore, fight for what has been taken from them.”

The March for Our Lives Raleigh will be taking place on Saturday in downtown Raleigh to protest gun violence and support those who have been affected by it. More information can be found on the event’s Facebook page.

SHATORUPA GHOSH/TECHNICIAN

Two friends, Kate Butler and Marissa Roberts, participate in the Student March on the Capitol on Feb. 20.

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TECHNICIAN

PAGE 4 • MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2018

Engineering education study aims to reduce perceived bias in graduate programs

Katy Chappell

Correspondent

NC State researchers have teamed up to understand the impact of psychological barriers for engineering graduate students. The goal of the three-year project is to reduce biased experiences in programs to increase persistence in engineering.

Matthew Bahnson, a first-year graduate student studying social and community psychology, is working alongside Cheryl Cass and Mary Wyer. Cass is the director of the materials science and engineering department, and Wyer is an associate professor of psychology. The team received a grant for the project through the National Science Foundation.

Bahnson credits fewer people starting and finishing STEM degrees as a motivation for the study, as well as the environment of campuses.

“I think a lot of people think the university environment is so welcoming and everybody’s fine and there’s no discrimination here,” Bahnson said. “Even at NC State, I’ve spoken to professors in engineering that are like, ‘Oh, that doesn’t happen here,’ and I’m like, well I think your students probably have a different experience.”

David Parish, assistant dean of engineering at NC State, hypothesizes that the sheer disparity in diverse populations contributes to students’ perceptions of bias.

“I would guess that if you were from the minority side of things in that classroom, you would maybe feel ostracized, but I don’t know, and I’m speaking from outside the student population, that the students themselves are ostracizing others,” Parish said.

Bahnson supposes that people don’t understand the impact of students’ experiences both inside and outside the classroom on their process of going through the program.

“What’s important is understanding that students’ perceptions are their reality,” Bahnson said. “When they perceive something as being biased, that’s how they feel about it. What we need to do as institutions is make sure that we have institutional accountability for reducing those experiences so that people aren’t leaving because of that.”

Claire Stewart, a first-year studying computer science, experiences the feeling of being a female in a male-concentrated atmosphere.

“I’m proud that I’m one of the few females that are actually in computer science,” Stewart said. “Sometimes computer science gets really hard, but I’ve just got to know to keep at it because I need to represent the women.”

The project is set to begin in July and consist of three different phases.

“The first phase will be about a year and be qualitative interviews with graduate engineering students who have multiple minority identities, so we can look at the intersections of those identities,” Bahnson said.

The second phase will be based on a survey created from the first phase.

“We hope to have about 3,000 responses nationally of graduate engineering students just responding about experiences they have and how often they experience different types of bias within their program,” Bahnson said.

The last phase plans to follow up with those that participated in the interview from the beginning phase. To diversify the field of engineering, the project is focusing solely on graduate students.

“We’re talking about the next generation of faculty,” Bahnson said. “If we can help them persist to their degrees, then we can help with the diversification of engineering as a field which continues to be a problem.”

Parish provides perspective on the changes in engineering demographics since he studied in college.

“Years ago, it was all men,” Parish said. “That’s just what it was. Today, thank goodness, it’s more diverse, and we have better engineers because of that. It’s just a slow process and maybe because of that people are feeling that change.”

HANNAH SHEA/TECHNICIAN Members of the Women In Science and Engineering Village learn about living sustainably from Meghan Teten, EcoVillage director, in Lee Hall on Tuesday. Everyone who attended the event ate pizza on reusable plates.

ASG works to serve students across the UNC-System

Kelly Granger

Correspondent

The Association of Student Governments (ASG) provides a platform for representatives from the 17 UNC-System schools to voice concerns and ideas on behalf of their respective institutions. Additionally, the ASG president, who is elected by the ASG General Assembly, serves as an ex officio member of the UNC Board of Governors.

Campuses have delegates who serve as liaisons between their student bodies and ASG.

Emma Carter, a second-year studying criminology and international studies, currently serves as the ASG delegate for NC State. NC State’s delegate is appointed by the student body president and requires a majority confirmation by the Student Senate.

“My biggest task as [a delegate] would be hosting an event on campus that deals with whatever the topic is for that year, so for this year it is sexual assault awareness,” Carter said. “We are working toward the first week of April to host a couple of events that we want to and are hoping to do.”

The delegates serve in committees including Campus Outreach, Governmental Outreach, Media Outreach, Budget and Finance and Internal Affairs. These committees discuss the issues that are facing each UNC-System campus.

ASG is funded by student fees. That money is used to fund the salary of the adviser, to finance monthly meeting expenses such as travel and food and to fund grants that institutions can apply for.

The Budget and Finance Committee provides funds for registered campus organizations. These funds, limited to $3,000 per request, may be used for “innovative programs, projects and events,” according to the ASG website.

“People will send in a grant application and one of ours was from our Traditions Department here and they wanted to host an event on campus and they just needed funds for T-shirts, different items to hand out, things like that.” Carter said.

Student Body President Jackie Gonzalez, a fourth-year studying political science, is a member of the NC State delegation and serves on the Council of Student Body Presidents.

“What Emma has been trying to do is to encourage organizations to go get some of this money because we have this funding option that they pay into as well,” Gonzalez said. “It is only fair for them to know about that and not just Student Government.”

ASG does not directly affect what students can and cannot do on campus; however, it does impact student resources both on NC State’s campus and on other UNC System campuses.

“What we do here can affect ASG,” Carter said. “For instance, some schools don’t have an LGBT center, but we do. That is something that we advocate for, and so having that experience can give that to other schools on the ASG level. We can kind of help where other schools are lacking and they can help where we are lacking.”

DAVID TRACEY/TECHNICIAN Major Ian Kendrick of the NC State University Police Department speaks during the NC State Student Senate meeting on Mar. 14 in Talley Student Union. Kendrick spoke to the Senate about student safety on campus and answered senators’ questions regarding services that campus police provides.