SPORTS
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THURSDAY, TH T HU UR RSD SDA AY Y, MARCH MA M ARCH 6, 2014 • WESTERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY • WKUHERALD.COM • VOLUME 89 NO. 39
Student organization works to change drug policies BY JACKSON FRENCH NEWS@WKUHERALD.COM Since its inception in August of last school year, WKU’s chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy has been seeking to change WKU’s approach to drugs. Leitchfield junior Kelly Cannon, president of WKU’s chapter of SSDP, said many of WKU’s drug policies need to be revised. She said SSDP advocates putting drugs “in the hands of regulatory government agencies who can dispense the drugs to make sure that drugs on the streets are what they say they are. So there’s not such a black market economy for illegal drugs.” According to SSPD’s website, the organization is dedicated to ending the War on Drugs. Cannon also said the War on Drugs has resulted in a vastly increased prison population. “It doesn’t make sense,” she said, “to have such a huge incarcerated population for nonviolent offenses when it’s so expensive to our nation and when it doesn’t reduce the availability and it doesn’t increase the safety of illicit substances.” She said WKU’s chapter of SSDP hopes to change campus drug policy. “We change policy with the awareness that students on college campuses have access to drugs and that they’re likely going to try them so we agitate for policies that make students safe,” Cannon said. One change Cannon said she hopes to see soon is the implementation of a medical amnesty policy. “It (a medical amnesty policy) just says that if a student is having some kind of a medical emergency due to drugs… that the student will receive medical treatment and maybe counseling or something like that but they won’t be prosecuted,” she said. The point of a medical amnesty policy, Cannon said, is to prevent students from being afraid of prosecution for drug offenses. “It’s about student safety and it’s about non-punitive policy,” she said. She said the medical amnesty policy might be in practice “to some degree” but it is not explicitly written in the disciplinary handbook. Cannon said WKU’s branch of SSDP is also seeking to change a part of the student handbook recommending any on-campus student caught with drugs be discharged from student housing. SEE DRUGS PAGE A2
The skinny on
THIN-SHAMING
Lexington junior Natalie Hayden has been naturally thin her entire life. While Hayden believe most of her friends who make comments about her weight mean no harm, sometimes their remarks dig deep. KAYLA GRORUD/HERALD
Genetics and habits equally contribute to being naturally thin BY KAYLA GRORUD LIFE@WKUHERALD.COM
curves and guys started liking these curves and I didn’t have any, so I was self-conscious about that when I was younger.” “Zero is not a size.” “Eat a cheeseburger.” “Real men Throughout her high school and college years, Hayden like curves; only dogs like bones.” has remained thin and has become the recipient of jokes Thin-shaming — criticizing a person because of his or about her body. her low weight — has long been expected of headlines “My friends have always made little comments, like, on tabloids in the grocery store, but in re‘Oh, are you anorexic?’ ‘You look like an cent years major news sources and content Ethiopian child,’ or ‘You’re a twig; I could on social networking sites have circulated break you in half.’ It doesn’t really faze me these potentially harmful remarks. because they’re my friends and I know they CNN and USA Today both ran viral ardon’t say it with a mean heart,” she said. ticles in February 2014 asking, “Is the ‘Big“But I remember when I saw the ‘Zero is not gest Loser’ champ (Rachel Frederickson) In My Skin is a weekly fea- a size’ campaign on Facebook; it upset me,” ture series that looks to tell too skinny?” Hayden added. “It is — zero is my size. They the stories of diverse stuAmong numerous thin-shaming Face- dent populations at WKU. made me feel ashamed, like I don’t exist. That’s book groups, one is boldly entitled ‘Real the one thing that really bothered me.” women have curves, not the body of a 12 In the case of the “Biggest Loser” winner year old boy’ and currently has 207,000 likes. Rachel Frederickson, who shed 155 pounds during the These comments hit home for junior Natalie Hayden show, responses to her weight loss produced congratuof Lexington. At 5-foot-4-inches tall and 106 pounds, lations and criticism. This led some media analysts to Hayden has been naturally thin her entire life. agree that while fat-shaming remarks to an overweight “Growing up, I never really thought anything of being individual can be damaging to self-esteem, perhaps thin until puberty,” Hayden said. “Girls started getting SEE THIN PAGE A2
IN MY
SKIN
Retired Army student aspires to career in healthcare BY SRIJITA CHATTOPADHYAY LIFE@WKUHERALD.COM
SNOW
STUDENTS ENJOY FIRST SNOW DAYS OF THE SEMESTER PAGE 3
THU 54°/30° FRI 61°/37° SAT 61°/36° SUN 54°/30°
Fred Rowe provides sniper fire during an insurgent complex attack in Baiji, Iraq, in 2007. Rowe was wounded twice that day. PHOTO PROVIDED BY FRED
ROWE
"To see life; see the world." The motto of LIFE magazine speaks volumes to the life story of Fred Rowe. Rowe, 29, is a non-traditional student at WKU completing his undergraduate degree in health care administration. Rowe, however, is more than a non-traditional student — he is also a retired U.S. Army man. “I dropped out of Western in 2002 — after my first year — to go fight,” Rowe said. “I have a very patriotic family and I just felt like it was my duty and wanted to do my part for my country.” Rowe toured in both the Afghanistan and Iraq, and his experiences changed with time. “I guess you are excited the first SEE ARMY PAGE A2