FRIDAY, MAY 5, 2023
VOLUME 108 | ISSUE 11
SUNY Plattsburgh’s independent student newspaper since 1997
Provided by the #HealWithIt Team Amy Ryan’s BIO101 General Biology I class poses, showing the palms of their hands painted bright green as a symbol of their pledge in support of self-care.
Student campaign promotes mental health BY ALEKSANDRA SIDOROVA News & Managing Editor
Sixteen SUNY Plattsburgh students have dedicated themselves to leaving no member of the Plattsburgh community behind. They believe no one should have to struggle with mental health alone, or simply “deal with it.” A student-run campaign promoting mental health awareness called #HealWithIt has been reaching out to every club, organization and department on campus, encouraging them to pledge support for self-care.
The #HealWithIt team also hosts meetings every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Posts showcasing community members’ palms painted bright green have been filling the campaign’s Instagram account. So far, #HealWithIt has reached about 60 campus entities in the past six weeks it’s been active. The group said its hope is that the photographs taken will eventually be compiled into a mural to be displayed at the Angell College Center. One of the trickiest populations to reach has been studentathletes, according to Rachel La-
Mar, one of the students part of the campaign. LaMar, an athlete herself, said athletes’ schedules are full with games, practice, class and road trips for away games, making it “super hard” for them to participate in extracurricular activities or attend consistent meetings. According to a survey published in March by Healthy Minds Network, “one of the nation’s premier organizations” researching mental health in adolescents and young adults, 44% of college students experience depression, 37% experi-
Students present sports medicine research in NYC BY ALEKSANDRA SIDOROVA News & Managing Editor
Four SUNY Plattsburgh students presented research at the American College of Sports Medicine’s Greater New York Conference April 22. Three seniors — Eden Cormie, Nicole Hayes and Gabriela Herrera — and sophomore Koree Stillwell traveled to New York City together with their adviser Andreas Stamatis and Assistant Professor of Exercise and Nutrition Cody Dulaney. Stamatis selected the students based on their “exceptional” academic performance. He especially focused on seniors to instill within them the skills needed to “sell” their ideas and work in a team. He also said he wanted to expose them to new experiences, including collaborating with other universities in the United States or abroad and engaging in friendly competition. “This is advice I give to all my advisees in general — get exposed to things. That’s the only solution if you don’t know what you want to do, and maybe something clicks,” Stamatis said. “However, if you stay at home
and do nothing, nothing will click.” To prepare for the conference, Stamatis met with the students once a week for trial runs. The standards for conference presentations are different from those of class presentations: no aids like index cards are allowed and the target audience is not peers but professionals in the field, who will certainly ask questions, expecting “airtight” answers prepared in advance. “You have to persuade these people in three minutes that this is the most significant, most innovative thing that they’ve ever judged,” Stamatis said. Cormie and Hayes said Stamatis is a harsh critic, but means well and has successfully prepared them for the conference. “He can be very critical, and he will interrupt you during your presentation. He’s tough, but it was helpful, especially during that first, initial presentation,” Hayes said. “He just wanted to make sure that we were putting our best foot out there.” Outside of her meetings with Stamatis, Hayes practiced her presentation “every single day.” NYC > 2
ence anxiety and 15% have felt suicidal — an all-time high. The National Collegiate Athletic Association published a study in May 2022 in which 38% of female college athletes and 22% of their male counterparts “reported feeling mentally exhausted constantly or most every day.” LaMar has also been the force behind the founding of SUNY Plattsburgh’s chapter of Morgan’s Message, an organization dedicated to supporting studentathletes’ mental health. LaMar said it “really made sense” to combine her work as a Mor-
gan’s Message ambassador with #HealWithIt. As such, she is able to provide students with the mental health resources she receives from Morgan’s Message as well as those on campus. “It’s also been nice to be going out to the clubs and classrooms and introducing myself to other students and kind of getting my name out there,” LaMar said. “I do want to be a face that people recognize because I do have access to a ton of resources that I can point people in the right direction to, or just help out when needed.” #HEAL > 3
ROLDNARDY NORELUS/Cardinal Points
Campus takes on AI BY JESSE TAYLOR Staff Writer
Artificial intelligence has become popular recently with the introduction of ChatGPT, an AI chatbot that can generate responses based on prompts, released in November last year. But what are the implications of an AI that can tell you the answer to virtually everything? SUNY Plattsburgh’s Institute of Ethics in Public
Life sought out to answer these questions. Members of the Institute of Ethics in Public Life held a discussion over Zoom about generative AI April 26. The group opened with Delbert Hart, professor of computer science, explaining how exactly generative AI such as ChatGPT work. Hart explained that AI programs are fed large amounts of data that is then used to recognize patterns or improve its performance.
Additionally, there exists a wide variety of AI that can perform different tasks. AI, such as DALL-E and Midjourney, are able to create images using the data that is fed to them while others, like ChatGPT, are able to formulate responses to virtually any question. However, the introduction of AI has also raised concerns about the potential pitfalls of this technology. AI > 3
OPINION A book about middle school
SPORTS Men’s lacrosse Senior Day
ARTS & CULTURE Campus comes alive with music
THIS WEEK IN PHOTOS Spring Carnival
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