University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Thursday, January 30, 2020
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Wiscards to have suicide prevention hotline By Dana Brandt COLLEGE NEWS EDITOR
For UW-Madison students experiencing a mental health crisis next year, the number to call for help could be as close as the back of their student ID. A new bill passed in the state Legislature this month mandates all student ID cards for colleges and universities in Wisconsin to include phone numbers for suicide prevention hotlines. The bill has bipartisan support and only awaits Gov. Tony Evers’ signature. But the state legislation wasn’t the first UW-Madison heard of adding a crisis hotline to the back of Wiscards. Associated Students of Madison, the campus’ student government, already put the idea in motion thanks to a campaign started back in October. ASM Rep. Yogev BenYitschak introduced the student council legislation at their Oct. 2 meeting after being inspired at a summer student government conference. Northwestern University students’ ID cards, which have multiple hotline numbers, made him realize adding similar numbers to Wiscards could work at UW-Madison. “It seemed like a campaign that [ASM] could really get behind in terms of what it was trying to do — I think ASM as a whole has been really trying to focus more on mental health this year,” Ben-Yitschak said. “This campaign fit very nicely
in terms of making sure everybody knows where to reach out during a mental health crisis.” A University Health Services
Police Department phone number and the Rape Crisis Line. Around the same time ASM passed its legislation, the state’s
with it.” He added that the biggest challenge was not getting people to agree on the motion, but
GRAPHIC BY MAX HOMSTAD
Students’ Wiscards will have the suicide prevention hotline on the back starting in the next academic year. study reported 15 percent of UW-Madison students had thoughts of suicide in 2018; it is the second-leading cause of death among college students. The ASM legislation proposed adding a total of three numbers to the back of Wiscards: the UHS Mental Health Crisis Line, the UW
bipartisan mental health task force recommended adding the suicide prevention hotline number to student IDs, Ben-Yitschak said. While he communicated with representatives about the progress of this suggestion, Ben-Yitschak also worked with UW-Madison “in case the state legislation [did] nothing else
timely action. “Nobody was against [adding the numbers], but nobody was really taking the lead on it,” Ben-Yitschak stated. “It was mainly fighting against inaction of everybody saying, ‘I support this, but do we really need to do this now? Can it wait another year?’”
The campaign faced the most direct pushback at the student council meeting when it was first introduced. Other ASM representatives raised “a lot of really good questions” about whether the numbers could potentially be triggering, scare freshmen entering college for the first time or not be the best way to solve the problem, Ben-Yitschak said. At the meeting, Ben-Yitschak cited the state of California and other schools, such as Northwestern University and Ohio State University, that already mandate similar emergency numbers on the backs of their student ID cards. And research doesn’t support that adding the numbers causes harm to students, he added. The UW-Madison Faculty Senate and Academic Staff Assembly both passed resolutions in support of ASM’s campaign to add the three phone numbers to the back of Wiscards. The support from all the campus’ shared governance groups encouraged both the university and the state representatives, Ben-Yitschak said. After the state legislation passed in the Senate, UW-Madison was “ready to move” on the project, said Director of the Wisconsin Union Mark Guthier. A team of people led by
Wiscard page 2
Chabad encourages discussion on anti-Semitism at town hall By Claudia Belawski STAFF WRITER
“2020 feels worse, as far as regards to the safety of Jewish people, than it did in 2010,” Head of Chabad House Rabbi Mendel said. “That, of course, is working backward.” Following Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jewish students at UW-Madison’s Chabad House reflected Tuesday on both their positive and negative experiences of being Jewish. The Chabad House provides a safe space for the Jewish community to come together and celebrate their faith. Rabbi Mendel organized yesterday’s event focusing on issues of anti-Semitism on campus — and throughout the country. Anti-Semitism can be defined as hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group, according to the Mirriam Webster Dictionary.
UW-Madison has had previous instances of anti-Semitism on campus. While blatant accounts of anti-Semitism are rare on campus, it is social exclusion that comes from being underrepresented that bothered students most, according to Markus Brauer, a UW-Madison social psychology professor. Over 80 percent of Jewish Americans believe anti-Semitism is a problem in the United States, according to The Chicago Tribune, while 84 percent say it has gotten worse in the last five years. At Tuesday’s event, students spoke out about their personal experiences with anti-Semitism in the dorms, classrooms, clubs and from professors on campus. All students who participated wished to remain anonymous. One student expressed that dorms were a particularly hard
place for Jewish Americans, stating that residence halls were supposed to be a place for people of all different cultures coming to connect with one another — but that is not what they found. “Unfortunately, this is real,” Mendel said. “But often, you find people who really want to learn, who ask questions, who really want to be involved.” Yet, some students were able to discuss the positive aspects of being Jewish. Students shared stories about people who were interested to know about Jewish culture, educating their peers, and engaging with respectful professors who were understanding of their holiday celebrations. Mendel created an acronym for students, “ACT” — Acknowledge, Challenge, Teach. It is a suggestion for Jewish students to engage with their Jewish identity, speak
up, challenge and teach classmates on the meaning of being Jewish. “I think we have to be aware that people are still unaware of the
oppression Jews have faced,” one student said. “The first steps in fighting anti-Semitism may be as simple as educating and listening.”
BRYCE RICHTER/THE DAILY CARDINAL
Rabbi Mendel facilitated discussion with students on what being Jewish on campus means to them, both the positive and negative aspects of it.
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”