The Lantern - February 15 2018

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TUESDAY

THURSDAY

POST-GRADUATE special section The student voice of the Ohio State University

Thursday, February 15, 2018

President Drake clarifies purpose of CCS

thelantern.com

@TheLantern

Year 138, Issue No. 11

DRAKE WEIGHS IN JACK WESTERHEIDE | PHOTO EDITOR

The Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity remains suspended indefinitely at Ohio State after the decision was handed down by the chapter’s national organization.

KEVIN STANKIEWICZ Editor-in-Chief stankiewicz.16@osu.edu

IFC suspension in part due to national climate surrounding hazing culture

RACHEL BULES Copy Chief bules.7@osu.edu University President Michael Drake, in an interview Tuesday with The Lantern, offered clarification on how he views Ohio State’s mental health services, calling it a “pathway to assistance and support,” while affirming the school’s commitment to its students’ well-being. “What we want to do is to manage the mental health support of our students the best that we can,” Drake said. “CCS is not comprehensive mental health services. That’s done in the health care segment. It’s a pathway to assistance and support that we want to be.” The CCS website’s “About Us and Our Services” section states “[CCS] provides comprehensive individual and group mental health services, psychoeducational prevention and outreach programming to currently enrolled undergraduate, graduate and professional students.” However, Drake said these services are not necessarily designed to provide intensive, long-term mental health care that some students seek. Instead, CCS serves as a source of support during tough semesters. He said the service is a resource to connect students with long-term counseling options outside of the university. In moments of crisis, in particular, Drake said Ohio State strives to offer immediate support. “We would hope there’s a place that one can call and get help when that’s necessary [in crisis intervention],” Drake said. Drake’s remarks about the role of CCS provide the university community with clarity. While CCS has undoubtedly been helpful to large numbers of people, there seemed to be confusion among the student body about what purpose, exactly, it is supposed to serve. “It’s not a substitute for longterm mental health care,” Drake said. “We’re not ramped up to do CCS CONTINUES ON 8

JACK WESTERHEIDE | PHOTO EDITOR

University President Michael Drake sat down this week with The Lantern for his semesterly interview, which touched on a range of topics from mental health services on campus to Greek life to state funding for higher education. On top of our special graduate school section, today’s edition features stories on what Drake said.

University President Michael Drake continued to voice his support for DACA recipients in a Tuesday interview. Drake has visited D.C. to lobby in-favor of DACA recipients.

In addition to being the Associate Director in the Office of the Senior Vice President for Student Life, Bowen Marshall is also the DACA Liaison for Ohio State.

appropriately,” Drake said. “And these are easy conversations for us to have, generally.” Drake said he met with Stivers last week and met with Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty on Monday, who represent Ohio’s 15th and 3rd districts, respectively, to make sure the two are clear on the university’s views. Drake said Beatty is a “great supporter” of DACA. He did not comment on Stivers’ opinion. Stivers issued a statement Sept. 5 in support of DACA’s end. Drake said he believes Republi-

can Sen. Rob Portman and Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown “support us” and were in support of policies “favorable for the Ohio State University,” despite coming from different sides of the aisle. “[The senators] know how I feel, so when we talk, we speak very frankly and open,” Drake said. “They represent the community more broadly than just the university, but they certainly know our position.” DACA provides protection for children of undocumented im-

Ohio State’s fraternity chapters simply needed a “pause” in order to get back on track, according to University President Michael Drake. The sweeping suspension handed down in November that put all 37 Interfraternity Council chapters on an indefinite suspension is now all but over, with only one chapter’s suspension of recruitment activities still in place, according to the website the university set up to announce the status of each chapter’s suspension. In an interview with The Lantern Tuesday, Drake said as more and more chapters were committing infractions and being investigated, he became increasingly alarmed, and got more involved. Drake said the growing number of fraternities exhibiting “behaviors that weren’t according to the university’s values” spurred the decision to have the community take a step back and reassess the role of the Greek community at Ohio State. He said the suspension was always intended to be a short-term break for the fraternities, not a permanent ban in any way, adding it was the right decision to make before he would “have to have a conversation with a family about a tragedy.” Additionally, with other universities around the country feeling pressure to suspend Greek life, he wanted to “hit the pause button” before it was too late. Drake said the administration read about several Greek life suspensions throughout the country stemming from hazing deaths and decided Ohio State wasn’t going

DACA CONTINUES ON 4

IFC CONTINUES ON 5

University continues support for DACA students with program expiration looming EDWARD SUTELAN Assistant Sports Editor sutelan.1@osu.edu University President Michael Drake has been an outspoken supporter of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals since its inception. With DACA now set to expire in less than a month, Drake has met with several politicians to voice the university’s support for DACA, most recently meeting with Republican Rep. Steve Stivers in hopes he could sway support for its recipients. In an interview with The Lantern, Drake said he’s made several trips to Washington since September to lobby with Ohio congressional delegation on the matter. “I think I’m in D.C. next week ... and one of the things we’ll talk about for sure will be DACA and higher-ed reauthorization,” Drake said Tuesday. He added the conversations he has with the representatives in Washington are the same that he would have with students, and that he does all he can to show his support for the students who are impacted by the future of the program. “DACA students are a part of our population, and it means a lot to us that they’re treated fairly and

OWEN DAUGHERTY Assistant Campus Editor daugherty.260@osu.edu

JACK WESTERHEIDE | PHOTO EDITOR

COURTESY OF OSU


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