Monday, September 23, 2019
Volume LXIII, Issue 5
sbstatesman.com
Stony Brook marches for suicide prevention
Stony Brook plans to loosen hiring restrictions
By Samantha Robinson
By Gary Ghayrat
Salvatore Fratto stood in front of a crowd of more than 100 people waiting to hear him play with a broken guitar. The Center for Prevention and Outreach (CPO) asked him to play a song at a rally in the Student Activities Center before the second annual Walk of Hope. Fratto, a senior English major and jazz minor, wrote the song himself based on his own personal experiences. He titled it, “Who’s Got It Better Than You?” after something his dad used to tell him when he was upset. He was only a few chords into the song when a string on his guitar broke. “It just broke. The string broke,” Fratto said into the microphone. He attempted to keep playing, but without the string, his strumming was stilted, so the crowd took over from there. They began to clap along to the beat while Fratto strummed lightly and sang.
handed them out to students with sayings such as, “Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem” and “Stop suicide.” “I believe that removing stigmas and those sorts of negative connotations with suicide prevention and awareness is important,” Ferrara said. “There’s no reason for it. There’s no purpose for it. It’s the 21st century. We’re here to be active.” Richard Gatteau, the vice president of Student Affairs and Dean
The university will be loosening its hiring restrictions after “substantial progress” was made towards stabilizing the university budget, Interim President Michael Bernstein announced during a University Senate meeting on Monday, Sept. 9. Departments that have approved and balanced budgets will now go through fewer layers of review and a more speedy hiring process, though ones without will continue to be scrutinized, Bernstein said. Bernstein didn’t specify which departments those might be. “We’re starting to, quote, ‘liberalize’ the hiring process, but we’re not unleashing it completely, not just yet,” Bernstein said. Since stepping in after former president Samuel Stanley announced his departure to
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Editor-in-Chief
Assistant News Editor
EMMA HARRIS / THE STATESMAN
SBU football team runs onto the field at the opening of the game on Saturday, Sept. 21 at the Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium. The Seawolves took down the Fordham Rams 45-10. The walk — which took place on Wednesday, Sept. 18, during National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month — was meant to promote suicide prevention. It was created last year with the goal to generate a productive conversation about mental health, Danielle Merolla, the assistant director for CPO, said. “We need to be able to communicate about this,” Merolla said. “We need to make sure people don’t feel alone. They need to feel educated, knowledgeable and know their resources. We know that the body and mind are
connected. If we truly want our students to do well, we need to make sure they’re taking care of their minds as well.” Tables at the rally held boards with information on Stony Brook’s mental health resources and whiteboards that read, “I walk because … ” Students were able to complete the sentence; some responses included: “Every life matters” and “I care.” A volunteer from the Student Health Advisory Committee, junior health science major Gina Ferrara, stood behind a table with pins scattered across it. She
New York announces emergency ban on flavored electronic cigarette liquids By Alek Lewis
Contributing Writer
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced an emergency ban on flavored electronic cigarette liquids on Sunday, Sept. 15, following a rash of lung illnesses linked to vaping in teenagers and young adults. With seven deaths and the number of reported illnesses and hospitalizations growing to around 530, organizations such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are warning against vaping, especially products that contain tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Most vaping products that contain THC also contain vitamin E acetate, according to samples tested by the FDA. The vitamin E acetate is present in topical consumer products or dietary supplements, and the agency is unsure of its effects when inhaled. Though the FDA isn’t sure if the substance is connected to the mysterious illness leaving its victims fatigued, nauseous and short of breath, it urges consumers to “avoid buying vaping products on
the street, and to refrain from using THC oil or modifying/adding any substances to products purchased in stores.” New York is also raising the age required to purchase vaping products from 18 to 21 starting Nov. 13. Additionally, Cuomo plans to introduce legislation to stop the marketing and advertising of products toward young people. “Vaping is dangerous,” Cuomo said in a press conference on Sunday. “It’s addicting millions of young people to nicotine at a very early age, some would argue even earlier than cigarettes.” In addition to the New York State emergency regulations, the Trump administration announced on Sept. 11 a potential federal regulation on the tobacco market that would ban flavored e-cigarettes and vaporizers — an attempt to deter teenagers and young adults from using tobacco products. A clinical associate professor at the Renaissance School of Medicine who’s researched e-cigarette
use among youths, Rachel Boykan, agreed with the government’s warning. She explained that the vapor from an e-cigarette is actually a powerful aerosol that is technically a gas. “People call it vaping, and those of us who work in this area, we do refer to it as vaping to communicate with people, but if you talk to people who do research on it, they really call it an aerosol,” she said. “The aerosol has things in it that we are just learning about.” Boykan suspects the components of aerosol’s nano-particles in combination withb vitamin E oil could cause respiratory irritation. “I don’t think it’s safe to say it’s only modified vaping products (and many of the “regular” products can be modified),” she wrote in an email. “There are plenty of potential explanations from regular products – including [toxins like] nanoparticles, heavy metals such as copper, polyethylene glycol and vegetable glycerin (implicated in some animal studies), and the flavorings – many of which are known respiratory irritants.”
Multimedia
Arts & Culture
Students and their families enjoyed games and crafts.
Charles B. Wang Center hosts Korean Culture exhibit.
CommUniversity Day photo gallery.
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Boykan pointed out that most vaporizer pods also contain nicotine, a substance derived from the tobacco plant that is prevalent in cigarettes. She said that the chemical is as addictive as hard drugs such as cocaine. “90% of smokers start smoking before the age of 18,” Boykan said. “The adolescent brain is really susceptible to the addictive quality of nicotine.” Boykan added that the recent generation of vaporizer pods use a derivation of nicotine called nicotine salt, which makes the chemical easier to inhale and thus introduces “people to much higher concentrations.” Although e-cigarettes are often used to help older smokers kick nicotine addictions, Boykan said on the contrary, her research shows that vaporizers and e-cigarettes make young people three to five times more likely to start smoking cigarettes. Marketing plays a key role in influencing young people to start vaping, Boykan said.
She explained that when they see vaping shown in the media, some start to believe it is a normal activity. “It’s completely marketed to kids — you see the e-liquids that have the little cartoons and the flavors that is clearly appealing to kids,” she said. “It’s exactly what the tobacco industry did with cigarettes until they weren’t allowed to anymore. So there is no advertising restrictions right now on this stuff, which there are a lot of in cigarettes.” Although Boykan fears that tobacco lobbyists might attempt limit restrictions on the vaping industry, she is still hopeful that the “free market” vape products occupy right now will be reevaluated and restricted by the FDA. “Flavors are what hook kids,” she said. “So if we get rid of the flavors, and turn this into a medicine, and study it as a medicine to help smokers quit like they say it’s supposed to be, it would be great.”
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Opinions
Sports
Student Homecoming tailgate will not be in usual lot.
Seawolves rout Fordham Rams 45-10.
“Korea: A Land of Hats” draws crowds.
Don’t move the student tailgate.
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Football dominates at home. MORE ON PAGE 12