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Groups train students to assist suicidal persons Bushra Hasan Correspondent
Counseling, Alcohol and Other Drug Assistance Program and Psychiatric Services (CAPS) has teamed up with the Rutgers Panhellenic Council, the governing body for 10 sororities on campus, to raise awareness about suicide among college students. The program, called Campus Connect, provides students and staff on campus with a two-hour training session to initiate them as “gatekeepers.” The training informs them about mental health and suicide, including statistics and facts, said Annmarie Wacha-Montes, the assistant director for community-based services at CAPS. Campus Connect is the first suicide prevention program created specifically for college campuses and uses an evidence-based approach that emphasizes the role the entire campus community can play in suicide prevention, said Amanda Foster, the vice president of recruitment for the Panhellenic Council. The goal of this collaboration is to educate as many women in the University community as they can on the signs and symptoms of suicide, the School of Arts and Sciences senior said. The training session, which is used at more than 150 universities and originated at Syracuse University, “uses
experiential exercises and discussion about gatekeepers’ own fears” to prepare them for crisis scenarios such as anxiety-provoking situations of interacting with a suicidal student, Wacha-Montes said. Interacting with a suicidal student allows gatekeepers to overcome the obstacles that often leave a student in crisis feeling misunderstood and invalidated, Wacha-Montes said. “Through the connection, Campus Connect gatekeepers can understand the feelings of isolation of a suicidal student and allow the student to more fully benefit from referral and connection to professional resources such as CAPS,” she said. Emphasis is also placed on developing empathetic listening skills, communication skills and compassion for students regarding their suicidal ideation, she said. Campus Connect gatekeepers gain an increased awareness of their own emotional reactions and are able to more effectively respond to students’ emotional needs and increase the likelihood of a meaningful connection with appropriate professional such as a therapist or psychiatrist, Wacha-Montes said. She said training will also enable gatekeepers to respond effectively See persons on Page 5
Marijuana is not likely to be legalized under Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), even if the legislature passes a bill approving of its use. The next New Jersey governor, who will be elected in 2017, may legalize weed. PIXABAY
Professor says marijuana could be legalized under next governor kira herzog correspondent
When New Jersey’s next governor assumes office in 2018, legislation to decriminalize and legalize the use of recreational marijuana may be signed into action, according to NJ Advance Media. In September, Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-25) sponsored a bill in the New Jersey State Assembly that would treat marijuana similarly to tobacco products in the eyes of the government. If passed, the bill would allow cannabis to be sold to anyone aged 19 or older in unlimited
quantities in convenience stores, according to Politico. The bill would also decriminalize the use of cannabis and clear the criminal records of individuals previously convicted of marijuana possession. Yvonne Wollenberg, a professor in the Department of Political Science, said despite the popularity of legalization among voters, she finds it unlikely that this bill or any legislation similar to it will be passed before Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) leaves office. “Even if (this bill) passes both the State Assembly and State Senate, Christie is likely to veto the
See governor on Page 4
U. pledges additional $10 million to diversity hiring
Scammers target students with fake tax collection calls
stephen weiss contributing writer
Brielle Diskin contributing writer
A phone-based IRS scam has taken more than $5 million from its targets, some of whom are Rutgers students. The scam, which primarily targets college students, involves IRS impersonators leaving voicemails and phone calls requesting money in back taxes, social security numbers and wire transfers through Western Union, said Chelsea Berger, a School of Arts and Sciences sophomore. The tone of the calls are highly dictatorial and authoritative, including the threat of criminal charges if the money is not paid immediately, she said. “The voicemail said that because I owe money in back taxes, the cops were going to come to my house and arrest me if I didn’t call back. It also said I need to hire a lawyer,” she said. When asked about the scams, the Office of Financial Aid at Rutgers said they were unaware of such incidents.
measure,” Wollenberg said. “The state legislature has not yet been able to override a single veto during Christie’s tenure.” During Christie’s presidential run he promised that if elected, he would implement federal laws against marijuana to counter legalization of the drug in states like Colorado and Washington. “Marijuana is against the law in the states and it should be enforced in all 50 states,” Christie said in a television interview in 2015. “That is the law and the Christie administration will support it.”
Students have been receiving calls from alleged Internal Revenue Service agents telling them they owe the federal government money. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JEFFREY GOMEZ / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER “They wanted me to use Western Union to send them money and said I had 30 minutes or detectives were going to show up at my house,” said Michael DiBlasio, a School of Arts and Sciences first-year student. IRS scammers also called the home of Sara Sayed, a School of Environmental and Biological Sciences junior, several times within the last few years. They asked her dad to go to 7/11 and buy gift cards to send to them and threatened that if he did not, he would be arrested for tax fraud, Sayed said. “I called the police department to report what just happened and the minute an officer picked up the phone, he immediately said, ‘Let me guess, you got a call from the IRS?’ He told me it was all a scam and that
they were calling from some foreign country,” said Tatiana Helena Soldan, a School of Environmental and Biological Sciences sophomore. The calls often shift from authoritative to aggressive when recipients question their validity. When asked to speak to a supervisor, Berger said the impersonator poorly attempted to alter his voice and pretend he was the supervisor. “I said, ‘No, this is the same person,’ and the guy proceeded to call me stupid. We argued for about two minutes back and forth until I hung up,” she said. With further research, Berger found the practice of degradation to be common in these types of scams. See calls on Page 4
At Rutgers’ 250th commencement ceremony, President Barack Obama said “America converges here,” noting that the University had a diverse student body with experiences from around the world. Rutgers prides itself on diversity, with nearly half of its undergraduate students being of black, Latino, Asian, and other minority groups. But according to the Fall 2016 Humanities Task Force report, Rutgers ranks 8th in faculty diversity among its fellow members of the Council of Independent Colleges. A year ago, University President Robert Barchi pledged roughly $10 million to different programs on top of nearly $22 million already pledged which focus on diversifying Rutgers’ faculty. Deepa Kumar, vice president of the faculty union and the head of University efforts to enhance faculty diversity, said racial diversity among faculty is necessary in order to progress and set a
precedent as to what “race” means in today’s society. “When our diverse student body fails to encounter people who look like them among the faculty it sends an unconscious message that there is no place for people of color in the academy,” she said. The Race Connection, a research project conducted by Dean of Faculty Affairs at Stanford University Thomas S. Dee, found that students generally learn more effectively from people who resemble them physically. His report said “among black children, the results indicate that having a black teacher for a year was associated with a statistically significant 3 to 5 percentile-point increase in math scores.” The same results reflected on reading scores. Kumar said she is concerned about the millions of dollars pledged to diversity by Barchi, beginning by mentioning there is no clear mechanism for departments to access the money.
VOLUME 148, ISSUE 104 • University ... 3 • opiNIons ... 6 • classifieds ... 7 • FOOD & DRINK ... 8 • Diversions ... 9 • SPORTS ... BACK
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