SGA Approves First Goalball Club Goalball is a game that is similar to handball, but the players are blindfolded so they can experience the game as a person with impaired vision would. Page D-1
Friday March 27, 2015 • Volume 98, Issue Number 20 • An Independent, Student-Run Newspaper
the rocket
www.theonlinerocket.com
Play examines 30-year relationship
Pink eye, allergy season begins at SRU By Haley Barnes News Editor
KARLEIGH SANTRY/THE ROCKET
Carina Iannarelli, portays eight-year-old Kayleen, who is trying to touch a cut on eight-year-old Doug's face, played by Tyler Hahn, after an incident where he fell off of his roof on his bike after trying to imitate daredevil, Evel Knievel. The play was on Wednesday and Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. in Sheehy Theatre. Turn to D-3 to read more about "Gruesome Playground Injuries."
LGBT advocate hopes to inform students By Amber Cannon Assistant News Editor
A presentation discussing LGBT rights in Pennsylvania will be given by the executive director of equality Pennsylvania on March 31 at Ballroom A in the Robert M. Smith Student Center during common hour Ted Martin, executive director of equality Pennsylvania, the state’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) political advocacy organization said his presentation will be about the state of LGBT rights in Pennsylvania, specifically centered around discrimination that still exists in the state. Martin said everyone should be informed about the LGBT community, especially college students. “College students are close to the issue,” Martin said. “They are activists, which is a good thing. I think it’s important to tell college students so that they can go home and tell everyone else.” Martin hopes students will gain more knowledge from his presentation and hopes that students will actually take away some of the things that he plans to talk about. “I hope they take away a couple of things,” Martin said. “One, you can be fired for being gay in Pennsylvania, which I think is astonishing. I really want them [students] to take that away. I also want them to take away the fact that they can
do something about this if they think it’s wrong. This is the decision as time has come and this is the decision where legislatures in Harrisburg need to hear from the public. I want them to be able to take away the fact that they can actually help change it.” Kristopher Hawkins, fifth year psychology major and president of RockOUT expressed how important it is for campuses all across the state to learn more about the LGBT community. “I think, not even on this campus, but across the state, because we have equality marriage now, people think that that’s the endall, be-all for the movement and I think now we’re at a place that we need to focus on other things such as employment, nondis cr imination, transgender rights an d a d opt i on rights, Hawkins said. “So, I think it’s going to be more important because we have a major leader in the state of Pennsylvania come to campus and talk about the next steps and how to be better involved in the movement.” Hawkins said he believes that the campus has not yet reached a place where the campus accepts and understands the LGBT community. However, he said there are really great resources around campus that are trying to move us to becoming a more welcomed and opened campus.
You can be fired for being gay in Pennsylvania, which I think is astonishing." -Ted Martin
SEE ALLIES, PAGE A-3
Spring brings flowers and rain to Slippery Rock University’s campus, but it also brings pink eye and allergies. Kris Benkeser, director of the health center, explained that the medical name for pink eye is conjunctivitis and that there are three different types: bacteria, viral and allergic. She said that allergies peak for students in the fall and spring, so allergies and pink eye go hand and hand. “Pink eye tends to be seasonal, so we start to see it early spring,” Benkeser said. Within the past three years, the health center has seen 422 cases of pink eye: from June 2011 to May 2012, 154 cases, from June 2012 to May 2013, 153 cases and from June 2013 to May 2014, 115 cases. “Usually when students come in with pink eye, they know they have a problem,” Benkeser said. Benkeser said that allergic pink eye is starting now, as flowers start to bloom and that it also happens in the fall when flowers and leaves disintegrate. She said that someone with allergic pink eye will look like they are crying and that the main symptoms are itchy, red eyes. She explained that the eyes water because the eye is trying to push the allergen out. When a person has allergic pink eye, she said that person is more than likely facing other symptoms as well, so the health center will examine the face as a whole. Benkeser recommends using a cool compress for allergic pink eye because it will feel soothing. She said that bacteria pink eye happens when bacteria comes in contact with the eye. She said it can happen to someone who blows their nose and then touches their eye or to someone who puts in contact lenses with dirty fingers. Benkeser said that someone with bacteria pink eye will have red, irritated, burning eyes and may experience crusted eyes in the morning. She said that it is important that a person who requires contacts and/or glasses and has bacteria pink eye throws away their contacts and/or gives their glasses a good cleaning. She also added that eye makeup can breed the bacteria, so that will need to be thrown away too. Benkeser said that the most common form of pink eye that the health center sees is viral. “Ninety-five percent of upper respiratory infections are viral,” Benkeser said. Viral pink eye may happen after having a cold and causes tearing, painless red eyes. Unlike allergic pink eye, Benkeser recommends using a warm compress for bacteria and viral pink eye. The warm compress will remove the buildup of mucus in the eyes. Benkeser said that an adult with pink eye, as long as they are washing their hands, does not pose a threat to anyone else. “What we worry about most with pink eye is little kids,” Benkeser said. “Pink eye doesn’t really pose a threat to anyone else.” She said that people never really realized that good hand washing is the key ingredient to not just prevent the spread of pink eye, but other illnesses and diseases as well. “I just read an article about how cell phones are one of the most dirtiest things,” Benkeser said. “It’s in your pocket, in your purse, in your backpack, in your hands.” Benkeser said that the best way for students to avoid pink eye and stay healthy is by washing their hands.
SGA Discusses Textbook Prices
7 Most Hated Hand Raisers
Baseball Splits With Mercyhurst
SGA addresses possible solutions to lower textbook prices at the SGA Bookstore. Page A-2
Find out if you're the type of person in the classroom that some people can't stand. Page B-2
The Rock baseball team split a doubleheader against the Mercyhurst Lakers Tuesday. Page C-1
Stone House Hosts Beer Tasting Event Old Stone House program shows how beer brewing and preference evolved. Page D-3