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November 24, 2014 monday High 63, Low 41 tuesday High 61, Low 41
VOLUME 100 ISSUE 40 FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS
NEWS Briefs World BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — A Russian capsule carrying three astronauts from Russia, the United States and Italy has blasted off for the International Space Station. VIENNA — The U.S. told Iran Sunday that it’s time to consider extending nuclear talks, in the first formal recognition by Washington that frenzied last-minute diplomacy may not be enough to seal a deal by a rapidly approaching deadline.
National TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A man who set his house on fire and ambushed responding police officers held “anti-government, anti-establishment” views and had previously threatened law enforcement, authorities said Sunday. MONROE, La. — A prosecutor says he is dismissing the ticket issued to a Texas teenager who apparently fell asleep at the wheel and caused a wreck that killed five members of his family as they were headed to Disney World.
Texas AUSTIN — Gov.elect Greg Abbott is again vowing to sue the Obama administration for lifting the threat of deportation from millions of immigrants living illegally in the United States. As Texas attorney general, Abbott has sued the Obama administration about 30 times.
Residential Commons peer health educators teach, support students christopher serrano Contributing Writer cseranno@smu.edu
Her phone rang in the middle of the night, and when she answered, a frantic student asked for help for a drunk and unconscious friend. Katie Thompson, the peer health educator for Armstrong Commons, quickly got out of bed to assist the student who lived across campus. When she got there, Thompson checked the student’s vital signs and determined that he didn’t need to go to the hospital. Thompson stayed to monitor the student for the rest of the night. On a different night, Thompson received a call at 3 a.m. from a drunk student who got lost walking back from Greenville. Thompson and the student had exchanged numbers earlier in the week. Thompson went to retrieve the student, who she found wandering in front of the Bush Library, and just like the first incident, she gave him an
assessment and decided whether or not he needed further medical assistance. “Although that’s not my responsibility to help him, I felt like he is one of my residents and I wouldn’t want something to happen to him,” Thompson said. While this responsibility would normally fall to the Residential Assistant, who has the power to reprimand students in such cases, Thompson fulfills a new role as a student liaison between the health center and SMU residents, and her only concern is the student’s health. The Peer Health Educator Program started this semester with one trained student living in each of the 11 Residential Commons and one in the Alpha Chi Omega sorority house. The idea for the program came with the addition of the new Residential Commons modeled after Oxford’s Residential Commons. Lisa Joyner, peer health educator coordinator, explained that the purpose of the program is to educate residents about healthy lifestyles in college.
“They have programs that are related to alcohol, drugs, sex, bystander intervention and stress,” Joyner said. For example, Thompson gave her residents the opportunity to participate in an activity where they were required to complete simple tasks like driving a golf cart or riding a tricycle while wearing goggles that simulated intoxication. “You get to experience why we say it’s unsafe, why you should have a designated driver and why you should call a cab if you’ve been drinking,” Thompson said. Joyner explained that students feel more comfortable talking to the peer educators rather than a staff member or Residential Assistant. While peer educators are not bound by the contract of health care professionals, they do sign a confidentiality contract. This contract allows students to feel safe discussing sensitive topics, Joyner added. Thompson explained that since the program just started, the peer educators don’t expect a lot of serious cases until
Courtesy of SMU
SMU peer health educators collected “It’s On Us” pledges Nov. 16.
rush week. The peer educators are volunteers. Students shouldn’t be afraid to reach out to any of the peer health educators; we’re here to help, Thompson said. Joyner said that she would love for students to talk to their peer educators more. “They’re very knowledgeable in their area and that’s why they were picked,” Joyner said. Background, GPA and major play a huge role in the selection of a peer educator,
Joyner explained. Thompson, for instance, has volunteered for the Ronald McDonald House, an organization designed to help children and families in need, and shadowed at local hospitals throughout high school. Joyner explained that peer educators are typically very engaged and have a “gun-ho attitude.” “It’s a reward in itself just knowing that I was in this dorm for a purpose and that I was able to reach out to student and help them,” Thompson said.
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ENVIRONMENT
Women and LGBT center hosts Take Back the Night Michael Gonzalez Contributing Writer mlgonzalez@smu.edu
Courtesy of Adriana Fernandez
The Phytofilter Project: Water Treatment Powered by Plants began a year and a half ago.
Reduce, reuse, recycle Students find a way to recycle water, relieve drought Adriana Fernandez Contributing Writer afernandezib@smu.edu Gwen Carris, a civil engineer and Spanish double major, is concerned about water. North Texas is facing one of the worst droughts since the 1950s. Only a sixth of an inch of rain has been reported since last month, for instance. This is why Carris and a group of her fellow students have spent the last year and a half working on The Phytofilter Project: Water Treatment Powered by Plants, a gray water r emediation experiment. Carris ran around collecting bottles and plants in April 2013, which were then used to build the filter. Since then, the experiment has kept her and her colleagues, Jewel Lipps, Nicholas Saulnier and Greg Thompson, busy. The students
have also had to keep up with their homework and other activities, but they say it’s been worth it to them because they see water conservation as an urgent issue that needs more attention. “It’s a deferred maintenance problem that will definitely be a huge problem in the future,” said Carris. It all started when Carris and Lipps, a chemistry and environmental science double major, went to a convention of The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). There they saw how representatives used plants to treat sewage water so it could be utilized for non-potable purposes. The students built their filter and tested it for efficacy last year and are now in the final stages of a final report of their data. The project
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won the award for Innovation Gym Showcase in the 2013 Research Improv Competition in Lyle School of Engineering. However, the initiative would have not been a reality were it not for the support of Mr. Niraj Bhagat, SMU’s assistant director of environmental health and safety. He saw the student’s enthusiasm for sustainability and found them the funds for the project. Even though the filter is only a prototype and there are no plans now to use it on campus, Bhagat was impressed by the student’s cuttingedge technology development.
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Take Back the Night, an annual event to raise awareness of sexual assaults on campus, was held in the Hughes-Trigg Theater Tuesday at 8 p.m. Members of Women and LGBT Center, Women’s Interest Network, Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center and others joined together to host the event and raise awareness. The event began with a visual representation. All the women in the room were asked to stand up to represent the 1 in 4 women who have been sexually assaulted, then the men stood, representing the 1 in 33 men who have been sexually assaulted. A silence fell in the room as the audience reflected on what stood before them. Afterward, the president of WIN and a representative from DARCC gave presentations. After the informational portion, the audience practiced saying chants in unison. The event would now be taken outside for a march down SMU Boulevard to bring attention to the cause. Everyone grabbed their jackets and cups of coffee as they braved the cold. “We are women, we are men,
with you TOMORROW night and
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together we fight, take back the night… Join together free our lives we will not be victimized,” chanted the crowd. The boulevard was filled with the voices of almost thirty people. As the group passed by the fraternity houses, onlookers came to the windows. The intramural teams stopped their games for a brief moment as they watched the crowd march by. Before ending the march back at Hughes-Trigg, the group stopped at the Ann Lacy Crain Fountain for a candle lighting ceremony Each lit candle represented a victim of sexual assault. Participants were asked to blow out the candles if they had ever been a victim of sexual assault. The rest of the group was asked to blow out their candles if they pledged to fight to end sexual assaults. Every candle was extinguished. “I thought that we should have been louder with our chants, some people came outside to watch and I just thought that we should have been louder so that way more people could hear,” Senior Cece Johnson said. The night ended with an open mic portion. Participants were given the opportunity to share, confess and discuss their experiences with sexual assault.