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Cell phones
Number of students addicted to their cellphones at 60 percent
Friday, Oct. 10, 2014
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THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF OSWEGO STATE UNIVERSITY • www.oswegonian.com
VOLUME LXXXI ISSUE V
“YES MEANS YES”
Photo provided by the Governor’s Office Oswego State President Deborah Stanley (left) meets with SUNY Board of Trustees and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (right center) in New York City Oct. 2 to initiate a SUNY-wide sexual assault policy, similar to California’s “Yes Means Yes” recent policy.
Cuomo initiates first-ever SUNY policy to combat sexual assault JoAnn DeLauter Asst. News Editor jdelauter@oswegonian.com
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ov. Andrew Cuomo met with the State University of New York Board of Trustees Oct. 2 to introduce a system-wide policy preventing, investigating and prosecuting sexual assault on college campuses. “There has been an epidemic of sexual violence in this country that is truly disturbing, and it is plaguing our college campuses,” Cuomo said. “It is time for New York to take what is a difficult, uncomfortable topic and lead the way.” The governor’s initiative is similar to California’s “Yes Means Yes” bill that was
passed in late September. The “Yes Means Yes” bill is structured to change how California campuses handle sexual assault and redefines sexual consent. According to a Huffington Post poll, Americans are nearly four times more likely to say that colleges and universities do a bad job than they are to say they do a good job of handling cases of rape, sexual assault or harassment. Cuomo proposed a resolution to set uniform practices in order to combat sexual assault across all SUNY campuses. Cuomo is considering legislation in the future after studying the results of the new policy. After passing this resolution, the Board of Trustees agreed to implement these changes to compliment the policies already used on
their campuses. The governor appointed Linda Fairstein, a novelist and former sex crimes prosecutor, to help talk through and execute the requirements of the resolution as an adviser for the state university system. According to Oswego State President Deborah Stanley, Oswego State has already made some changes in response to many of the laws and regulations that have advanced over the years. Title IX is, as of now, the controlling legislation at the university. “Our definitions, policies and procedures are already in line with most of what was covered,” Title IX Coordinator Lisa Evaneski said. “Even with all of the intersecting laws and legal mandates, our goal is to make sure we are creating a campus culture
that values the safety and wellness of our community and is prepared to take reports and provide helpful information to our students, employees and visitors.” According to President Stanley, the Oswego State administration does not expect significant changes to its policies but still plans to comply with the Board of Trustees’ resolutions. At this time, the administration has 60 days to study what changes need to be made in order to improve how sexual assault is handled. Alongside Fairstein, Oswego Sate will see how the regulations are progressing, report the outcomes and see if they need to be modified in the system-wide policy. This is just the first step in what could be future legislation for campuses, not only in the SUNY system, but
across New York State. “Oswego has a three-pronged approach,” Stanley said. “We make the campus safe, as safe as we possibly can, both physically and with protection of others, police and bi-standers and faculty. Then we educate as well. We do that in a pervasive fashion. It starts at orientation and we take it through many of the groups on campus, including faculty and staff. Then we also address incidents of sexual assault and harassment in a comprehensive matter, both assuring vigorous pursuit in order to redress the wrong that was done.” Because of this new resolution, all
See POLICY, A5
Panelists discuss Ebola crisis
SUNY sees recent trend in sexual assault numbers
Luke Parsnow News Editor lparsnow@oswegonian.com
Sarah Guidone Contributing Writer news@oswegonian.com
CONTENT
Thomas Eric Duncan, the first man diagnosed with the Ebola virus outside Africa, died Wednesday morning. The disease, which began as a viral outbreak in western Africa this summer, has risen to become an international emergency. The concern for public safety around the world has reached beyond the immediate hot zone of the disease, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Senegal, and has now entered U.S. borders. A panel of health experts came to Oswego State to discuss issues surrounding Ebola Wednesday, hours after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Duncan’s death. The panelists included Gwen Kay, an Oswego State his-
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tory professor and historian of medicine; Dr. Sharon Ekure, a Nigerian physician doing residency at Oswego Hospital; and Diane Oldensburg, a representative from the Oswego County Public Health Department. The panel was organized by history professor Uyi Usanlele and sponsored by the history department and the peace and conflict studies program. Kay told those in attendance about the first serious outbreak of Ebola in 1976. According to Kay, the fatality rate for someone who caught Ebola at that time was 90 percent. The origins of the disease came from what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. The disease is actually named after the Ebola River, the largest river in western Africa and the second largest on the continent. Ebola is not an airborne disease and can
See EBOLA, A4
Campus sexual violence and harassment is on a rising trend throughout SUNY campuses. According to a study by the Associated Press, 29 SUNY campuses, excluding community colleges, were required, under a voluntary agreement with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, to participate in this study. In the report, Oswego State was identified having three different departments where sexual harassment or discrimination was occurring. The agreement requires SUNY campuses to conduct annual “climate checks” through 2016. This will determine whether anti-assault policies are working. The AP
See ASSAULT, A6
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