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News
the Racquette
Feb. 19, 2016
Potsdam Supports Our Troops Katie Wilson Editor
Viewers see it whenever they turn on their televisions: soldiers coming home from overseas, the U.S. military fought a valiant battle, soldiers being sent back to pick up where they left off. The soldiers who fight for this country are everyday heroes, but where does it all begin? Those who are interested in a military career have a variety of ways to start out; they could enlist and as a result start out as an entry-level employee or as a private working their way up from the bottom. But for the students who attend SUNY Potsdam, SUNY Canton, St. Lawrence University and Clarkson, the journey starts in the Reserve Officer Training Corps, or ROTC, program. ROTC is one of the few ways the army produces officers. Major Scott Toth, the enrollment officer, said that ROTC is a four-year program in which students train while they’re earning the degree of their choice. He also said that after seniors reach their graduation day, they are commissioned into the army as a second-level lieutenant. “It’s a mid-level manager, more or less,” Toth said. “ROTC produces about 70 percent of the officers for the army. West Point, The United States Military Academy, produces the bulk of the rest and there are two other programs — OCS Officer Candidate School and Direct Commission — where you can also become an officer, but those are two very specialized ways.” If someone has an interest in the ROTC program, they can enroll in a variety of ways. Students can get involved as early as their senior year in high school and apply for the ROTC scholarship, Toth said, which can pay for all tuition fees or all room and board, depending on whichever costs more.
Potsdam students receive $5,000 a semester for room and board, Toth said, but they are responsible for their tuition fees, which most times are less than that. Clarkson students, on the other hand, receive $48,000 a year for their tuition fees, and since they are a private school, they do not pay for their room and board. Cadets in their
are typically equivalent to a company level officer and do all of the planning and execute the training. Those looking into the ROTC program must meet certain requirements. In order to enroll, Toth said that students must be between the ages of 17 and 31, have a cumulative score of 920 on their SATs, a 2.0 GPA and
leges would hinder them from coming together as the ROTC program, but that’s not the case. The Potsdam Bears, The Canton Kangaroos, the Clarkson Golden Knights and the St. Lawrence Saints all fall under the Golden Knight Battalion and work together as one, Toth said. The logo for the ROTC program has the crests
The crest for the Golden Knight Battalion holds the symbols of Potsdam, Clarkson, St. Lawrence and Katie Daloia Canton to illustrate their unity under one force.
junior year also get a monthly check for between $300 and $500. In addition, they receive $600 that can be spent on books. The ROTC program at the four Northern New York schools varies from week to week. Toth said that one week, a student might be a squad leader in charge of eight or nine cadets, then the next week that student can move up to being the company commander. This means that this student would be in charge of all of the freshmen, sophomores and juniors. Seniors become part of the battalion staff, where they
be physically fit and medically qualified. The two main things that cannot be avoided are the student’s physical and medical condition. Waivers for grades can be used if grades are not strong, but when in the military, commanders expect members to be in top condition. “One of the first things I ask someone interested in the ROTC program is ‘When was the last time you ran two miles?’” Toth said. “The army physical fit test requires you to run two miles under a certain amount of time.” Some may assume that the rivalries among the four col-
of the colleges combined. “Each of the four schools brings a little something different to the table,” Toth said. “Clarkson engineers excel at math, Potsdam and St. Lawrence kids are fantastic writers and Canton kids are dedicated and hardworking. It’s definitely nice to get that kind of variety and diverse mix.” The training in the ROTC program is similar to the work done in the United States Army. “We have physical training three times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” said Potsdam freshman Anthony Pelella,
“and one lab that lasts two hours on Thursday.” Labs usually consists of any kind of hands-on training that can deal with things like weapons, radios, launchers, guns and other resources, Toth said. In addition to the lab and physical training, Pelella said that cadets take part in a one-hour weekly class. “The class reinforces army values and last semester sexual harassment prevention — SHARP — was covered,” he said. “We learned more about prevention of sexual assault in the army.” Just as the army requires dedication, the ROTC program needs students who have good time management skills. Toth said that the program asks students to be versatile and involved with on-campus activities and organizations. Several cadets take part in various sports teams, sororities, fraternities and the school newspapers. “We want well-rounded cadets,” Toth said. “Well-rounded cadets make well-rounded officers.” Participants agree that the ROTC program shapes and changes people for the better, giving them traits that they didn’t have before they joined. Potsdam senior Sally Mooney said that the ROTC program gave her skills that she didn’t have in her freshmen year. “I find that I can give presentations in class now without any issues because of the leadership positions I was put in,” Mooney said. ROTC gives people the confidence that they need to protect our country. It gives cadets the needed training and morals that will assist them both on-and-off the battlefield. Pelella said he recommended the ROTC program to everyone and anyone. “You learn a lot of various skills: how to be more confident, command and control discipline,” Pelella said. “It means a lot.”
Join the Fight Against Eating Disorders Ellen Ricks Staff Writer
National Eating Disorder Awareness Week is from Feb. 21 to Feb. 27. The week is designed to help spread awareness for eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder and EDNOS — Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. The goal of National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, according to the NED Awarness website, is to “put the spotlight on the seriousness of eating disorders and to improve public understanding of their causes, triggers and treatments.” The organization serves to spread awareness to these lifethreatening diseases, one of which, anorexia, has the greatest number of fatalities of any mental illness. According to the National Institute of Mental Health website, eating disorders are, in the general sense, disturbances in eating behaviors and attempts to control one’s weight through unhealthy means. Eating disorders
frequently coexist with other mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders. To get into more detail, anorexia nervosa is a type of eating disorder that causes people to see themselves as overweight even when they are underweight, and become obsessed with control of both their food and weight. Bulimia is a type of eating disorder that, according to the NEDA website, is defined by a cycle of binging — eating a large amount of food in one sitting — and purging — inducing vomiting — to “undo” the effects of the binge. Meanwhile, binge eating disorder is binging without the purging. EDNOS is the middle ground of eating disorders, for when one doesn’t quite fit into the categories of anorexia or bulimia. Some examples that the National Alliance of Mental Illness gives for EDNOS are a girl with all the criteria of an anorexic patient but who still has her periods; someone with all the
criteria of anorexia but who has a “healthy” weight; a person with all the qualities of bulimia but who only purges once a week and not twice; and someone who chews and spits out their food. The media has greatly stereotyped eating disorders as being a “phase” that only young upper- and middle-class women with vanity issues go through. Television and movies often make jokes about eating disorders, and play it off as something other than a mental illness. In reality, eating disorders can happen to anyone, regardless of age, gender, race, economic background and even weight. Eating disorders can come in any and all forms, which is why the NED Awareness Week theme for 2016 is “3 Minutes Can Save a Life.” This theme encourages people to take their 3 minutes eating disorder screening, found on the NED Awarness website, to see if they
are at risk for an eating disorder. Finding out that someone may be at risk for an eating disorder early allows them to get help fast and live a healthier life. The SUNY Potsdam campus is doing its part in National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. The Active Minds club will be spending the week doing small events to raise awareness for the disorder. Starting Monday, the club will be passing sheets all around the Barrington Student Union with the club’s information as well as the QR code and the URL to the three-minute test. They will also be doing a project called Operation Beautiful, for which they will be posting positive messages and compliments all around campus. On Thursday, they will be tabling at Barrington Student Union, where they will pass out purple ribbons — the color representing the disease — as well as information. On Friday, Active Minds will
host a photo booth event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. In addition to giving out ribbons and resources, they will have two whiteboards, one saying “I wear purple because…” and one saying, “I am proud of me because.…” The club will post these photos to their Instagram and Twitter pages. Brooke De Rouchie, president of Active Minds, said she believed that Eating Disorder Awareness Week was important, especially on a college campus. “It’s our chance as a community of students and faculty to educate and increase the understanding of the dangers, and treatments of them,” De Rouchie said. “They are a hard concept for some people to understand, so the more that we talk about them and the more we can explain the causes then the lower the stigma will be. With less of a stigma, we hope it won’t be so terrifying for people to ask for help when they need it.”