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volume 138, Issue 7 • wednesday, October 3, 2012
1700 S.W. College • topeka, kan. 66621
Nursing students create smoke-free campus survey
Amanda Narverud
WASHBURN REVIEW
A group of five Washburn University nursing students are interested in making Washburn a smoke-free campus. For a class project the students decided to conduct the campus-wide survey to see how students, faculty and staff would react to a smoke-free campus. Josh Schell, Erin Thomas, Erin Morris, Kate Wise and Donald Sortonis are the students behind the Washburn Smoke-Free Campus Interest Survey. The main concern regarding smoking on campus is evident; it is about having healthy students and faculty at Washburn. “[One] benefit [of making Washburn smoke-free] would be not having to walk through someone’s smoke when on campus,” said Wise. “Usually this is unavoidable and over time, secondhand smoke can cause serious health problems in people who don’t smoke. Also, this could potentially get some students and staff to cut back or quit smoking.” The Washburn Student Health Services on campus offers students pamphlets and brochures with valuable information on how to quit smoking, and the many health hazards associated with smoking. Any student may also talk with the nurse practitioner to discuss their options when they are trying to quit smoking. The nursing students conducting the interest survey
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hope that their project raises awareness and makes way for any future programs to help students and staff quit smoking. “Another goal of ours is to raise awareness of the effects of secondhand smoke by posting information on campus with approval,” said Schell. In December of 2009 the city of Topeka passed the Clean Indoor Air Ordinance No. 19315. According to the city of Topeka, the primary purposes of the ordinance are to improve and protect the public’s health by eliminating smoking in public places and protect the right of non-smokers to breathe smoke-free air. “I don’t have anything against smoking, it’s a personal choice and I respect that,” said senior marketing major, Shea Kirsop. “The only thing that affects me is when I walk through the smoke, though rarely does it even bother me.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions, nearly 50,000 Americans die each year from lung cancer and heart disease attributed to secondhand smoke exposure. “Although smoking and secondhand smoke have been proven to have negative effects on the overall health of society I feel it’s our choice if we want to smoke or not,” said Chris Hill, freshman kinesiology major. “It’s one of our rights as an American, to be free. We also pay to attend school here, it should be our choice.” In July of 2010 Kansas issued a state-wide ban on smok-
Photo by Mike Goehring Washburn Review
Blowing Smoke on Campus: The debate is beginning on campus, whether smoking should be allowed. Five nursing students created a survey for students and faculty to take, sparking the conversation of who is right? Smokers or non-smokers? ing that Washburn’s campus clearly falls under. Kansas was the 35th state in the nation to restrict smoking in public areas. The state-wide ban states that it is illegal to smoke in indoor places, including restaurants, job sites and bars. The part that principally pertains to Washburn is that it is illegal to smoke within 10 feet of a doorway or open window of
an establishment where smoking is prohibited. “I personally have tried to get the campus, specifically WU-Police, to enforce the policy of smokers to be at least 10 feet away from building entrances…with no avail. They said they were enforcing that policy already. But I didn’t see any changes,” said junior biology
Inscape challenges creativity Amanda Narverud
students, who make all the decisions about everything from submission process, to Every year, students enroll content, to design,” said faculty in a capstone course in the advisor and writer-in-residence, English department compile Tom Averill. “It offers students Inscape Magazine; a literary a complete taste of what it’s like journal featuring poetry, short to have a literary magazine.” fiction, creative non-fiction and The annual submissions visual art from the region and period is Aug. 1 to late beyond. October. The deadline for the Washburn University 2013 Inscape Magazine is undergraduate Wednesday, s t u d e n t s Oct. 24. The founded Inscape 2013 issue will “Inscape is a Magazine in be published 1972. It began in the spring small magaas a literary with zine with a lot semester publication for a release party of heart students and in April of the surrounding ” 2014. There T o p e k a is no entry fee - Elise Barnett community and individuals senior English but has now may submit one major merged with fiction piece, the academic one nonfiction curriculum for English piece and up to five poems. majors with a creative writing According to senior emphasis, at Washburn. English major, Elise Barnett, The editorial process of the review process is blind. the magazine takes place in Meaning that the names of the EN384: Publishing Lab, the authors do not appear on the capstone course for English work that is submitted until majors with a creative-writing it has been accepted for the emphasis. magazine. All submissions “It is completely run by to Inscape are considered for WASHBURN REVIEW
Photo by Amanda Narverud, Washburn Review
Submit Your Creativity: Inscape Magazine is displayed and sold at the Ichabod Shop. The 2013 issue of Inscape will be released in the Spring semester. the Inscape Magazine Award, given to one fiction, one nonfiction, one poetry and one art contributor from each issue. Averill says that in the past several years, Inscape has gone from a journal of Washburn students and the Topeka community writing to an international journal of very high quality. Submissions can be made at the Inscape Magazine website, inscapemagazine.org.
“Inscape is a small magazine with a lot of heart,” said Barnett. “This year’s staff is really dedicated to creating something unique and inspiring, something that branches away from what people think of as ‘typical Midwest.’” Amanda Narverud is a junior mass media major. Reach her at amanda.narverud@washburn.edu.
major, Anthony Davis. “If Washburn’s campus was smoke free, I believe that people would be happier and healthier.” The group is planning to meet with WSGA to find out what future steps they need to take to make Washburn a smokefree campus. The survey started Sept. 26 and will end Oct. 10. The group plans on sharing the
results of the survey after it closes. Students can find a link to the survey on MyWashburn under personal announcements.
Amanda Narverud is a junior mass media major. Reach her at amanda.narverud@washburn. edu.
Professor to read at ESU Tess Wilson
WASHBURN REVIEW
Each year, Emporia State University offers a class regarding playwriting and screenwriting, in which students have the chance to meet a playwright or a screenwriter at a scheduled reading and talk. “We try to bring in a playwright or a screenwriter to help enlarge our students’ view of the art and trade of writing for stage and screen,” said Kevin Rabas, Associate Professor and Co-Director of ESU’s Creative Writing program. This year, ESU will be hosting Penny Weiner, published playwright and Washburn professor. “Weiner will read from her plays as well as talk about issues and elements in her craft,” said Rabas. “She’ll talk about what it takes to write plays, from their initial genesis through workshop and scriptin-hand readings to their eventual full production.” Weiner recently directed a script-in-hand reading of a collaborative adaptation of the work of another Kansas native, Gary Jackson. The reading of “Missing You, Metropolis” was an innovative and extraordinarily unique one, and there’s a possibility Weiner might cite her recent experience at ESU next Friday.
“I’ll be in classrooms, doing workshops, discussing structure, character and theatricality,” said Weiner. In her own classes at Washburn, Weiner is known for approaching the art of playwriting with passion and enthusiasm. This event will not only be a platform for education and exploration, it will also serve as a showcase for some new work. “I’m requesting to use the work of two former students and might work with a piece I’m developing,” said Weiner. Because the event is free and open to the public, Rabas hopes the entire community – academic and otherwise – will be able to take advantage of such a great opportunity. “We expect that students, faculty, staff and community members will come and enjoy Weiner’s presentation,” said Rabas. “Attendees will come away from her reading and talk inspired and filled with essential playwriting knowledge. That is my intuition, expectation and hope.” For a night of education and entertainment, head to ESU’s campus for the reading that will take place from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., Oct. 12 in Plumb Hall.
Tess Wilson is a senior English major. Reach her at tess.wilson@washburn.edu.