CSU employees donate to Democratic Party more than any other university employees in Colorado | Page 3
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Same sex, same rights Zach Wahls, famous GLBTQ rights activist, speaks at CSU
THE RO CKY MOUNTAIN
Fort Collins, Colorado
Thursday, October 18, 2012
COLLEGIAN
Volume 121 | No. 52
www.collegian.com
THE STUDENT VOICE OF COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1891
ASCSU
the
STRIP
Urging Colo. Assembly to pass ‘Textbook Tax Holiday’
CLUB
Cans Around the Oval is a time-honored CSU tradition in which we — the student body — line up hundreds of cans around the historic Oval. It is the single biggest food donation drive in Larimer County. But sometimes the use of “cans” can get a bit monotonous.
By CARRIE MOBLEY The Rocky Mountain Collegian Wednesday night, student government pushed for a resolution that would urge the Colorado legislature to create a one-day tax break holiday on textbooks in university bookstores. “The purpose of this bill is to encourage the legislative assembly of 2013 to address this issue,” said Lindon Belshe, Director of Government Affairs. “By passing this, we are endorsing the legislative action to follow.” The resolution, which is approximately two paragraphs in length, in shorter than the average resolution to pass through the Senate. The reasoning behind this, Belshe said, is because there is currently no representative in either the state’s House or Senate who is sponsoring this bill and so the details of it are still unknown. “We originally had a lot of details in our resolution about specifications for this particular holiday,” Belshe said. “The reason we took those stats out is because we just won’t know the details until later.” Student senators raised many questions about the path this bill might take. When Becky Ewing, Director of RamRide, asked which representatives were being considered to sponsor on the bill, others in Senate questioned why the legislation would only benefit university bookstores. “How would this help students more than a tax holiday on all textbooks?” said Sen. Josh Shaugnessy. “If I go to the bookstore, even with this tax break I would still be paying 50 percent more there than I would somewhere else.” Belshe replied that a tax holiday targeted at all retail stores that carried textbooks would only result in a loss of state revenue, which would See ASCSU on Page 3
Other things to donate around the Oval KEVIN JOHANSEN | COLLEGIAN
Kelcey and Baylee Bedard look on as their dog Jojo receives attention from the CSU Pet Hospice volunteers. The volunteers visit family homes in the Fort Collins area to aid families as they care for their ill pets.
Vet students provide a helping hand BY SEAN MEEDS The Rocky Mountain Collegian When two veterinary medicine students rang the Bedard family’s doorbell, two black labradors greeted them — one barking with a greying face, the other with slick black fur and a calm, curious disposition. The silent dog is the reason that graduate students Jeret Benson and Sarah Eck were there in the first place. Eight-year-old Jojo was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma three years ago when the family decided to have her left hind leg amputated. She received chemotherapy at CSU’s veterinary hospital and has since enjoyed a very active lifestyle. “She’s a miracle dog,” said Jill Bedard, Jojo’s owner. “The vets predicted that she would only last for one more year and she’s on three years now.” However, things started to go downhill this July, when the family veterinarian discovered that Jojo’s cancer had come back. That’s where Benson and Eck come in to the picture. Both students are volunteers with the CSU Pet Hospice Program. It was initiated in 2003 with the goal of providing care for pets and their owners during the end of life decision-making pro-
cess. According to faculty advisor Gail Benson, the program is the first and only to use student volunteers. There are currently 25 students involved, with each member expected to handle four different cases a year. The hospice was founded by the Argus Institute, a counseling service that offers support to families and their pets while also teaching veterinary students the proper communication skill needed to interact with owners and their animals. Benson, who joined the program last fall, helped to train hospice volunteers to effectively communicate with families. “We act as liaisons between the families and their veterinarians,” she said. “We teach students effective communication skills that help them empathize with the families.” Magen Shaughnessy, the former team manager for the hospice program, further emphasized the need for good communication skills. “We talk to families about all the specifics of the disease as well as help them put a plan into place,” she said. “It lets them feel they have more control.” Shaughnessy recounted one of her visits where she included the family’s 10-year-old son and six-year-old daughter in a discussion about eutha-
nasia. She asked both kids what they knew about the process. “It turns out they already knew quite a bit,” she said. She then went on to explain the process in medical terms to reassure the kids that their dog would not feel any pain. Shaughnessy “facilitated a conversation” between the parents and the kids about all the other factors they needed to discuss if they were to go through with the procedure. “I wanted them to think about all the choices they have,” she said. “For instance, I told them that it’s okay to undergo euthanasia on one of the dog’s good days.” In terms of “good days,” many Hospice workers have families track their pet’s health on a calendar that records the animal’s behavior. For Jojo, daughters Kelcey and Baylee Bedard use a mental calendar to track their dog’s signs of good health. Yesterday, they noticed signs of Jojo being her old self. “She was eating, chasing her ball and snapping at flies,” Kelcey Bedard said. Jill noted that she also ate three meals, something that she had troubling doing in the past. See HOSPICE on Page 3
Cardboard Boxes
Cardboard is a very malleable and useful sculpting material. Since we have a penchant for making some sweet aluminum can art, we should expand that talent into cardboard boxes. Besides, there are a lot of great foods that come in cardboard boxes.
Bottles
Bottles are an indispensable and valuable resource for all kinds of things, and they are readily available to be donated. After all, CSU students go through thousands of bottles every weekend.
FOOTBALL
Straight from the mouth of coach Jim McElwain By CRIS TILLER The Rocky Mountain Collegian
Cris Tiller: What would you say to a fan who’s lost faith in this team, in this program? Jim McElwain: I understand the heartache and I understand the results. We will have results and we will get the people back and I’m really excited to see that happen. It’s going to take some time and I knew that coming in, so the expectation of the instant wins: I could have told you looking at the roster that we were going to be a ways away, but at the same time I also knew we were building something special. Tiller: How much differ-
ent or harder is it being a head coach than you thought coming into the job? McElwain: I would say the time commitment, other than the football itself, is probably the biggest adjustment and all the different people that want a little bit of your time. Yet, I also know that’s part of the job, so you McELWAIN just deal with it. Tiller: The season obviously isn’t going the way you’d like. How hard is it to rebuild a program? McElwain: Well one of the things is trying to change the
mindset and the culture is hard especially when habits have already been formed in some areas, so trying to erase those habits while building it is the exciting part. Getting other parts in here to help and that’s really the exciting part. Tiller: People had high expectations, felt you’d come in and everything would be different. How fair do you feel those expectations were and how pressure do you feel to live up to them? McElwain: You know the
expectations part, I expect it out of myself, so I wouldn’t expect anything less from anybody else to have those same thought. It’s disappointing where we’re at, but I also see what we’re building and the foundation that’s being laid, so the exciting thing is being able to put our finger prints all over that and create something that these fans deserve to be excited about. Tiller: Alabama is once again a favorite to win a national championship, is there any part of you that wishes you would have stayed? McElwain: Look, that’s a well-oiled machine, and yet building a piece of that orga-
nization out west to Colorado State, that’s what’s exciting. Tiller: The results on the field aren’t going the way you’d like, but you talk about bettering your players as people, do you feel this mission is successful? McElwain: It’s an ongoing mission and you never know when some of the lessons that you teach and some of things that will hit them in life might be five years from now, might be 10 years from now, might be when they have their first child. That’s the satisfying thing, is knowing that you’re instilling that in them and it’s something that’s going to help them forever.
Textbooks
Every year students pay hundreds of dollars for textbooks, many of which cannot be sold back. Since paper is something that is a good recyclable material — and most of our textbooks are made with gallons of the stuff — it might be a better end for unsellable textbooks. The Strip Club is written by the Collegian staff.