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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2012 www.asubellringer.com
NEWS Our Bodies, Ourselves, Our Voices
Women’s studies program welcomes student submissions for health-themed symposium
By LEIGH BEESON copy editor
The voice of
Augusta State University EDITORIAL STAFF adviser MATTHEW BOSISIO mbosisio@aug.edu editor-in-chief TRAVIS HIGHFIELD thighfie@aug.edu copy editor LEIGH BEESON kbeeson1@aug.edu news editor JILLIAN HOBDAY jhobday2@gmail.com arts & life editor KRISTIN HAWKINS khutchi2@aug.edu
Students have a unique opportunity this semester to contribute to the first Georgia Regents University Women’s Studies Symposium in March. Although Augusta State University’s women’s studies program has previously facilitated two symposiums in 2009 and 2011, the upcoming symposium will be the first for the merged university. The 2013 symposium, titled “‘Our Bodies, Ourselves, Our Voices: Health and Human Rights in the Twenty-first Century,” focuses on health-related issues, said Marie Drews, an assistant professor of English and the director of the women’s studies program at Augusta State. “(The theme is) health and wellness-related topics but from a holistic perspective, so not just thinking about the kind of health conversations you have when you go to the doctor’s office but about how can I be well in my body in multiple ways,” Drews explained. “My mental health is important; my spiritual and emotional wellness is important. How I think about what it means to be well is important.”
JILLIAN HOBDAY | STAFF
The theme of the symposium was inspired by the book “Our Bodies, Ourselves.”
The title of the symposium draws off of an important text, “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” from the 1970s, said Seretha Williams, an associate professor of English and the current organizer of the symposium. “Before that point, there hadn’t been any kind of comprehensive text that talked about women’s bodies and how women’s bodies worked, women’s sexuality,” Williams said. “So the chapters deal with things like menstruation, menopause, women’s sexuality or sexual disorders. There
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are pictures, and I know it may seem unbelievable but lots of women (at that time) had not looked at their reproductive parts.” Williams was the interim director of the women’s studies program when the first symposium was organized in 2009. The symposiums, which are held every other year, are meant to serve as opportunities to discuss gender-related issues and how gender affects day-to-day interactions, she said. The Women’s Studies Student Association plays an integral role in organizing the events
JILLIAN HOBDAY | STAFF
Some students have voiced complaints about recent emails from ASU Discounts, a scam website purporting to save students money on products and services.
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unsolicited emails requesting their personal information. “We try to be very careful with it because we want to use email at Augusta State as an official means of communications,” Matson said. “We don’t want you to get a bunch of junk mail that clutters up your inbox so you can’t pay attention to the important things. So we would definitely not give it out to something like a business. That would not be a good thing to do.” Even though the university doesn’t distribute lists of student email addresses, there are other means that these businesses may use to acquire them. Matson said using one’s email address for online shopping, for example, can lead to those addresses being sold to third parties who go on to send spam e-mails.
“It’s called a phishing attempt because they’ll throw out a hook and see if somebody will respond to it,” Matson said. “Half of them may be invalid addresses, and one out of a hundred or a thousand will respond, and they’ve got somebody hooked.” Forwarding Augusta State emails to another email server can also lead to those sites gathering information from a student’s account for advertising purposes, Matson said. Thurman said even she receives spam emails from time to time. “I get all kinds of e-mails about academic resources and things, and they’re not anything I’ve signed up for,” Thurman said. CollegeBudget.com representatives failed to respond to a request for information and comment.
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rent cards with the spring semester decal like we do now, and it will still be the JagCard,” she said. “Our recommendations are to implement the (new) cards in segments. So as orientation groups come through for the fall, they will have the new cards. It’s going to be a slow progression. You may see some changes over the summer but definitely in the fall.” Although the policies will be different on each campus, Caughman said one thing will be the same - Georgia Regents University will be on all new cards. Academically, the new university will not see a change in the platform until the fall semester, Rychly said. Changes in the academic process include a new catalog, different admissions requirements and registration. One major change in the academic process is the policy on course withdrawal, more specifically the number of times a student can drop a course, what Rychly called “challenging” a course. Shirley Kenny, the interim president at Augusta State, said this one change will remove a major obstacle for students and, in turn, help students progress. “We have a great deal of tolerance for students taking a course, withdrawing, failing or taking it again.” she said. “That is not helping that student; that is a cruelty to that student. Give them a chance, and if they are not going to make it, then give them a chance to go somewhere else where they can succeed.” There is still no answers to what tuition and fees will cost because that is ultimately determined by the Board of Regents. A mandatory fees committee, consisting of at least 50 percent student involvement, makes recommendations to the president who then sends it to the board for
and coming up with the themes. But the symposiums are open to all students, not just those pursuing a minor in women’s studies. “Most of the students who will present don’t minor in women’s studies,” she said. “They’re just interested in gender issues. So anybody interested in gender issues (and) health issues they’re all invited and welcome to present. We’re just the people organizing it. That’s all.” Drews said the title of women’s studies is somewhat of a misnomer because the program and the symposium focus on more than just female issues. “One of our goals of the symposium especially is to take an issue that influences everyone and bring it to the forefront of conversation and invite people from across departments and across the disciplines to engage in conversations about health and wellness, to recognize the real value of thinking about women’s health and wellness in particular,” Drews said. “I think the symposium is important because it shows that there are these moments for community dialogue.” The president of WSSA, Sabrina Biddle, said student and faculty insee SYMPOSIUM on PAGE 3
approval. However, not all fees will be decided by the committee. “There were some decisions that were executive,” Caughman said. “(Ricardo) Azziz said early on that everybody, regardless of what program, was going to pay the athletic fee... Azziz said ‘I’m sorry, but this is part of being a citizen of the university.’” Another fee applied to all students will be the health services fee because student health services will be extended across the university beginning August 2013. The facility is executed as a typical doctor’s office with examination rooms, physicians and services ranging from day-today office visits to gynecologic and minor surgical procedures. “We have proposed to have a health fee of $80,” said Diane Norris, the administrative services director of Student Health Services. “So that entitles students to all services here for $80. All we charge for are immunizations, lab services and medications.” Change is inevitable when merging two institutions, and Caughman and Rychly said next semester will be important as the university enters the “transitional stage” of the merger. Both said they want to assure students that with these changes not only come anxiety but a “legacy.” “The students who were here during this transition are going to look back and say, ‘You know, that’s a great diploma to have on my wall, and it’s growing in value everyday,’” Caughman said. “It’s not going to happen tomorrow or even in January. We aren’t going to be that mature organization (immediately), but we really want every year to get better and better.”
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Old arsenal Quad Wall in renovation for new FYE office By SI-LONG CHEN web master The old Testing and Disability Services building is currently under construction to prepare for a new use in the spring of 2013. As a part of the Complete College Georgia Initiative, the renovation on the Quad Wall will be used for undergraduate education and the First Year Experience program, not just those who are in housing, said Carol Rychly, the vice president for academic affairs. “It will probably still become firstyear experience space, but it won’t be as limited as our vision used to be,” She said. “Our vision of what the firstyear experience can be is broadening as we go forward.” Hector Caceres Jr., an intern architect at 2km Architects, is helping to manage this project. One of the many purposes of the renovation is to meet the standards of the other buildings in that same area on campus while respecting the historic nature of the buildings and the quadrangle area, he said. “The exterior of the building fol-
The furniture consists of
CONTRIBUTED BY HECTOR CACERES JR.
floor plan for the new First Year Experience modern-style chairs and tables for student
lows the campus standard colors and details that other similar historic projects on campus have had,” Caceres said. “It will become an excellent example of a renovated campus historic building.” Fred Ricketson, the campus architect, said the original building was built in two different phases. The fort wall was built in 1847, and its thickness was meant to withstand incoming attacks. Later, the building was constructed within the fort wall, he said. The south
office use.
addition was built in the late 1940s or 1950s. “If we were to come in here and take the sheetrock down and expose the studs, we’d find the brick that this building was built out of,” he said. “One thing we found on the west side of the building, the side that is facing St. Mary on the Hill, was the gun ports.” There was a slight change to the design of the building after the discovery of those gun ports, he said. The change was made to incorporate the
gun ports, keeping them as a prominent feature by installing glass to turn them into windows. Caceres also mentioned that the project has been through various phases, revisions and schematic changes since 2010. The scope has changed based on the needs of the campus during each phase. The final approval of this revision of the project was in summer 2011 and construction began in July 2012. The construction is slated for completion right before Christmas and ready for use for the spring semester. Student and academic services will collaborate on creating a plan to determine how the First Year Experience program is going to develop, Rychly said. There are eight different faculty and staff teams that are working on various initiatives for undergraduate education in order to provide the best experience for students, she said. “We might use it in a very limited way when it’s finished,” she said. “But in terms of what its final state will be, (that) will probably be (decided) after we hire a new vice president for student services.”
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