Homecoming Court of 2013 Campus Life previews this year's homecoming court members. Page D-1
Friday, October 18, 2013 • Volume 97, Issue Number 7 • Slippery Rock University's Student Newspaper
the rocket
www.theonlinerocket.com
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
SRU students volunteer at Special Olympics
NEWS Three New Clubs
Recognized By SGA The Student Research Organization, Leadership and Physical Activity Club, and Competitive Gamers' Initiative were approved by SGA.
Page A-2
OPINION
Evive Machines Have Left SRU The Evive Company removed their water bottle machines from SRU's campus. We contemplate why that might be.
Page B-1
SPORTS
Men's Soccer Cracks Top-10
The Slippery Rock University men's soccer team moved up seven places to No. 8 in national rank among Division II teams. Page C-2
CAMPUS LIFE Healthfest Debuts
New Performances Along with the organizations and booths, the dance teams performed routines to show the fun in staying active. Page D-3
Ribbit, Ribbit A new professor of the biology department discusses the potential for undergraduate student research using frogs. Page A-2
REBECCA DIETRICH/THE ROCKET
Slippery Rock University students volunteered at a variety of activities held as part of the Special Olympics event that took place on campus Sunday. Students got the opportunity to interact with some of the participants during the opening ceremony. In the photo above, volunteers (green) high five participants from a soccer team (yellow). Scan the QR Code (at right) to view a video from the event or visit our Youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/SRURocket.
Police well-trained to handle shootings on campus By Jonathan Janasik
On the other hand, SRU’s campus police are trained and ready for the threat of an “We don’t mandate [active shooter] active shooter. training [for faculty]”, SRU Director of “Our university police trained extensively Environmental Health and Safety Paul with neighboring law enforcement,” Novak explained. “We only mandate Novak said. “They have trained with training if it’s tied to the Pittsburgh legislation, like safety SWAT team, training if you’re an and they’ve electrician. I don’t know also trained of any initiative right now w it h other where the president has said, PASSHE police ‘you have to take this.’” departments in SRU has an emergency terms of active operations plan and each shooter training Part 3 of 3 academic department has and what they a document that outlines would do if an evacuation plans for each individual active shooter was present on campus.” building, as well as the contact information As prepared as the campus police are, for each faculty member of the Novak does not believe that they can have departments. Over the last two semesters, a specific plan of what to do if an active there have been multiple optional training shooter was on campus. sessions for members of the faculty, that “The police know what they’re going to they are strongly advised to attend. do, but not specifically because it depends,” News Editor
Gun Series
Novak explained. “Is there one shooter or two shooters? Does he have single firearm or multiple? Is he inside or outside? Those things are situational. They will develop the best course of action based on the situational information that they have at the time.” Novak added that even with a welltrained police and faculty, the university is still unable to promise safety. “When you go to a doctor for a physical, they take your blood pressure and test your blood. In the end, they don’t tear off a piece of paper that says you’re healthy. There are a lot of different components that go into that. There’s your genetics, your lifestyle, your dietary intake. All of those things factor into your personal health status. Like with health, safety is the same way. No one institution can [guarantee] that.” This semester, the department of Environmental Health and Safety SEE ACTIVE, PAGE A-2
Evive water stations eliminated on campus By Jonathan Janasik News Editor
PHOTO COURTESY OF MCT CAMPUS
The Evive water refilling stations in the ARC and Robert M. Smith Student center were removed from SRU on Wednesday Oct. 9. Evive’s company sent an email to customers that said, “Evive Station is a young business and we are still trying to discover what markets work the best for our product. The road to success is not a linear path, rather a bumpy road of trial and error. Unfortunately, we have learned the public university setting is not a sustainable juncture for our business at this time.” The Evive stations were installed in April earlier this year. Students or faculty members who bought the official Evive water bottle could sanitize and fill their bottle with filtered water. “Your Evive Bottle is yours to keep,” the email stated. “Please continue using it at water refill units across campus. If you have paid for a membership, we will reimburse you for the full amount and
convert your account to access the entire Evive Station network for free.” ARC employee Taylor Buhler explained that although the Evive stations were not extremely popular, he did see a lot of people with the Evive bottles. According to Buhler, students often had problems with the station itself. One problem that frequently occurred was that the machine wouldn’t be able to read the sensor on the bottle once it had been placed inside of the machine. The bottles would become stuck and locked inside of the machine until somebody else with an Evive bottle would scan their bottle’s sensor. Even though the company is removing the stations from SRU’s campus, they are still an active business with other stations at other locations. “Most of our stations are placed in corporate settings and you will have the opportunity to use them again in your future internships/job placements,” the email said.