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George Saunders, an English professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ creative writing program, will deliver the first University Lectures speech. Page 7
Syracuse University officials have said they would use Invest Syracuse funds to help address the gender salary gap between men and women faculty. Page 3
dailyorange.com
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Glens Falls native Joe Girard III, New York state’s all-time leading scorer in high school boys’ basketball, verbally committed to Syracuse on Sunday night. Page 12
‘Feeding an ADDICTION’
on campus
Center introduces drop-in availability By Jordan Muller news editor
illustration by audra linsner asst. illustration editor
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ames Sprankle first stumbled upon Juul in 2016, when he went to a smoke shop looking for a small, discreet device he could use to get his nicotine fix while trying to quit smoking. For him, using a Juul ended up having the opposite effect, he said. Sprankle, a graduate photography student at Syracuse University, is more addicted to nicotine now than ever, he said. One Juul pod — which contains the same levels of nicotine as two packs of cigarettes — lasts him less than a day, he said. “What purpose does (Juul) serve other than feeding an addiction?” Sprankle asked. While Juul was invented as a tool for adult smokers to reduce their nicotine consumption, not every Juul user at SU is using the device for its intended purpose. In interviews with The Daily Orange, experts said the prevalence of Juul on college campuses is concerning, given the lack of knowledge about the health effects of e-cigarettes. The Food and Drug Administration is currently investigating whether e-cigarette
Experts say Juul usage at SU is cause for concern By Colleen Ferguson asst. news editor
companies have introduced new devices and liquids to the market without agency approval. The FDA seized “thousands of pages of documents” in a surprise inspection of Juul’s San Francisco headquarters earlier this month, and sent letters to more than 20 other e-cigarette manufacturers on Friday requesting information similar to what they seized from Juul. Juuls heat a nicotine-containing liquid and produce an aerosol when inhaled, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The device uses nicotine salts, which can allow high levels of nicotine to be inhaled more easily and with less irri-
tation, according to the CDC. “Nicotine is being delivered in a different way, and … almost everyone assumes in a safer way, and that’s really the question that remains to be answered,” said Joseph Ditre, an assistant professor in SU’s psychology department. “But the long-term effects of taking vapor that deep into the lungs and nicotine that deep into the tissue (are) completely unknown.” Juul controls 72 percent of the e-cigarette market and is valued by investors at $16 billion, the New York Times reported. The sale of liquid nicotine to minors under 18 is illegal in Onondaga County, where SU is located. The legal age to buy tobacco products including liquid nicotine in Onondaga County will be 21 effective January 1, 2019. SU became smoke- and tobacco-free in 2015, the same year Juul Labs first launched their product. It’s unclear what the Syracuse University Health Services plans to do about the recent uptick in e-cigarette popularity. Health Services did not respond to a request see juul page 4
student association
SA to compile report on campus sexual assault By Natalie Rubio-Licht contributing writer
Syracuse University’s Student Association is compiling a report on campus sexual assault and relationship violence to assess how sexual assault is handled at SU, SA’s leadership has said. Kyle Rosenblum, SA’s vice president, is spearheading work on the Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence Report. Rosenblum and SA President Ghufran Salih said they hope the report
will pressure university administrators to change how sexual assault is handled on campus. Salih said the report will gauge percentages of sexual assault and relationship violence on campus through a survey that will ask students about wait times at the Counseling Center and the number of people who have had issues reporting their experience. This will help identify issues with university policies, she added. Rosenblum said he is orga-
nizing a task force comprised of representatives from Students Advocating Sexual Safety and Empowerment, the policy studies program, the SU chapter of It’s On Us, the SA assembly, the iSchool and from Greek life. The task force will collect data from SU, peer institutions and national organizations, Rosenblum said. SU’s Title IX office and Counseling Center will help SA to complete the report, but the work is being done independently of the university, he added.
“What we’re trying to get out of the survey is what resources do we have on campus that are working for students who are victims of sexual assault and relationship violence,” Salih said. Rosenblum said he’s talking to SU administrators about sending out a survey specifically related to sexual assault and relationship violence in the future. SA doesn’t plan to send a survey itself because much of the data has already been collected through
see report page 4
Syracuse University’s Counseling Center has slashed wait times in half this semester and launched a drop-in system that allows students to meet with a clinician without an appointment, the center’s director said. Cory Wallack, the Counseling Center’s director, said the wait for a first-time appointment has dropped from about six and a half days to less than three days in the first month of the fall 2018 semester. The decrease in appointment wait time and introduction of a drop-in system come as SU uses money from Invest Syracuse — a $100 million fundraising initiative — to bolster mental health accessibility on campus. The Counseling Center has added nine new staff members, including four staff therapists, and expanded its hours this fall to stay open for an additional two hours on Mondays and Thursdays, until 7 p.m. The Counseling Center’s dropin system allows students to see a staff clinician between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays without having to schedule an appointment in advance. Wallack said the center previously only had a crisis drop-in service, but it was sometimes difficult to determine if a student actually needed the crisis service.
On a campus where people can sometimes be critical ... I feel like (mental health) is an area where the university is being very forward thinking.” Cory Wallack
counseling center director
Wallack said more than 100 students had used the drop-in system in the first three weeks of the fall 2018 semester. “Given that there hadn’t really been a lot of marketing or advertising about that, we read that as a really good sign that people want to take advantage of that resource,” Wallack said. The drop-in system also allows the Counseling Center to see students in-person during their first see counseling page 4