FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3
FALL 2025 | ISSUE 4 WHAT’S INSIDE:
OPINION
Late night show is back... what was the point?
SPORTS
Tennis qualifies for playoffs in last SUNYAC win
Keeping tragedy at bay by ‘training together’ Emergency prepardness month events keep campus keen on caution BY GRANT TERWILLIGER News Editor
September was National emergency preparedness month and campus fire safety month, the Office of Emergency preparedness and health center on campus collaborated to educate students on the importance of being prepared and helping others during emergencies. Michael Caraballo has been the emergency management director at SUNY Plattsburgh for over 10 years and has worked closely with the health center and other partners on campus to give students insight into different emergency scenarios. “We have a committee and we look at our agency partners and the people that usually either respond to emergencies, help us with emergencies or people we go to for resources. So we reached out to our agency partners and asked them to be a part of the event,” Caraballo said. “We looked at some of those agencies to see what things they could provide us to kind of give participants either hands-on experiences or eye-opening experiences.” Volunteer firefighter and junior at SUNY Plattsburgh Michael Watson said that he believes that having guidelines and experience with emergency scenarios allows students to better be equipped to act responsibly during an emergency. “An emergency can quickly become a mass casualty incident if we’re not prepared, and in an environment where you are rural it’s important to realize that we need to have guidelines and practices in place to respond to emergencies,” Watson said. Events like emergency pre-
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Plattsburgh Fire Department using a ladder truck for a demonstration on Emergency Preparedness day on Sept. 20. paredness day help spread awareness about being prepared during a crisis in an interactive and engaging way. Marco Ayala-Perez has been the student health and counseling center administrator since the COVID pandemic. Ayala-Perez became involved with the Emergency Preparedness committee two years ago, and realized that health goes hand in hand with emergency preparedness. “It was kind of the realization that Narcan training is not just a health initiative, but it’s also an Emergency Response initiative. So that’s why this semester
we partnered with the Office of Emergency Management to make it part of emergency preparedness day,” Ayala Perez said. The health center on campus has narcan, silas testing strips, fentanyl testing strips and xylazine testing strips with pamphlets and information on how to use them. You can also get training through the health offices on campus. The health center has a no questions asked policy, as it wants students to be able to have those resources and be able to use them. Ayala-Perez also worked with the nursing students and
Greek life on campus to canvas the local neighborhoods where off-campus student housing is located. They handed out packets of information on fire safety and prevention. Ayala-Perez and the volunteers encouraged students to attend safety training on emergency preparedness day. Watson expressed his viewpoint of emergency preparedness day and the training that goes on throughout the month and even the year. According to Watson, involvement with these events on campus is important to student safety and needs to include more student involvement.
“Having a student share their experience or maybe something that they’ve seen and building on that may draw more people,” Watson said. “I think you definitely need to have more student involvement and student input into what we can do to train together, because that’s essentially what you’re doing, you’re training people.” According to Caraballo, being prepared for events is important for all students and students should become aware of the emergency resources availPREP > 2
Planned Parenthood Spreads awareness, colors
Yearly Planned Parenthood Steps to Empowerment event hosts runners BY CHRISTIAN TUFINO Staff Writer
At the sound of the horn, runners took off. Shoes hit the pavement and dust was sent flying up at the start of the Planned Parenthood’s sexual assault awareness 5k color-run Sept. 28. Steps to Empowerment, an event dedicated to supporting survivors and building awareness, grew upon the success of last year’s tattoo fundraiser. Registration for the run started at 8 a.m. where participants paid $30 to run and $25 if they pre-registered, but showing up to support was free. Tables with snacks and water were nearby for runners to fuel up before the race started and lawn games were set up in the field behind the registration table. Bags of colored powder were handed out for everybody to throw when the race started, and volunteering fraternity and sorority members from SUNY Plattsburgh were placed throughout the run to throw the powder as participants passed. “It’s really good for the communiCHRISTIAN TUFINO/Cardinal Points ty to come out and to show support Planned Parenthood tables at their Steps to Empowerment 5k. to victims and survivors of sexual as-
sault,” said Shelli Lavoie, Director of Sexual Assault Services at Planned Parenthoods Plattsburgh Clinic. Local businesses including Twisted Carrot and Sip supported the event by handing out rewards for the top three runners in the event such as extra gift cards and cups. Recent policies under Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act have cut funding for Planned Parenthood across the nation. This, for many people, has stopped them from receiving the support that they need through Planned Parenthood. Regardless of the financial cuts, Plattsburgh’s Planned Parenthood clinic is still committed to caring for those in need of their services. “We know that Medicaid cuts are going to impact our health centers, we are still seeing our patients and even though Medicaid is no longer accepted at our health center we are still welcoming patients that have Medicaid services to our health center,” Lavoie said.
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