EDITORIALS THE EMORY WHEEL
Tuesday, April 22, 2014 Editorials Editor: Rhett Henry
CONTRIBUTE Email: crhenr2@emory.edu
Our Opinion
Luis Blanco
Luis Blanco is a member of the Class of 2017. His cartoons appear in every Tuesday issue of the Wheel.
Addressing Mental Illnesses Students Suffer From Current Limitations, Emory Community Has Obligation to Act Almost 75 percent of college student respondents in a 2011 National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) study of students diagnosed with mental health issues said they experienced a mental health crisis while in school. Yet the stigma surrounding mental health issues is one of the biggest barriers to accessing mental health care. Emory offers a vast number of resources, including the Emory Counseling Center, the Student Helpline, which can be reached at 404-727-4357 and is active seven days a week from 8:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m., and websites on the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) page, such as “Emory Cares 4 U,” which lists numerous resources to learn more about mental illnesses as well as necessary phone numbers to utilize in times of immediate crisis. Despite the availability of these resources, many students with mental illnesses are still reluctant to seek help. We believe that this is due in part to the discourse surrounding mental issues – calling our friends “insane” for doing something abnormal, or joking about suicide – as well as the lack of conversation surrounding mental illnesses on campus relative to the amount of student experiencing these illness. We recognize and applaud the work of student groups such as Active Minds, the Emory Helpline and the Rollins School of Public Health’s Emory Mental Health Initiative (EMHI) that aim to facilitate this conversation, and we also encourage the student body to collectively take part. Campaigns such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness’ (NAMI) #IWillListen, in which people promise to lend an ear to anyone who needs it, can help create more open dialogue. We also encourage students to be more cognizant of the language they use in daily conversation, taking into account that the casual, perhaps thoughtless use of phrases such as “I’m going to kill myself” or “You’re so bipolar” can undermine and trivialize the struggles of those experiencing mental illnesses. We at the Wheel would also like to encourage the University to continue making a greater commitment to support those with mental illnesses. As the prices of pharmaceuticals like anti-depressants rise, we recognize that more students may seek help from Emory Counseling Services, much of which is funded through the Mental Health and Counseling Fee attached to the Student Activity Fee (SAF). While we understand the need to balance funding for multiple purposes, we encourage the University to re-evaluate the way in which this money is allocated to ensure that the money appropriated to mental health programs is being spent in the most efficient manner, especially regarding the responsiveness and efficacy of its counseling services. The University also plays an important role in creating a campus culture that fosters broader engagement on issues of mental health and actively promotes treatment and care. For example, to make an initial appointment with Counseling and Psychological Services, a student has to call or make an appointment in-person with the Counseling Center rather than being able to use the online Patient Portal. This could potentially deter students who are already hesitant to attend counseling services for the first time from seeking important treatment. Additionally, students may not be able to see a certain therapist for an extended amount of time due to insurance constraints. We urge the Counseling Center to inform students of these restrictions prior to seeking treatment in order to allow potential clients to make an informed decision. We hope that students are able to connect with the therapists at the Counseling Center with the amount of time allotted. Furthermore, we hope the University is looking to identify any areas for improvement within the Counseling Center, which holds a profound importance on a college campus, where students may be dealing with mental health conditions. As we move forward, we hope that the issue of mental illnesses continues to receive more attention from both the University and the entire student body, so we can collectively better serve students who are experiencing mental disabilities or who may feel stigmatized by their mental illnesses. Mental illnesses can impact anyone at anytime and should be treated with the respect and seriousness that they deserve. The above staff editorial represents the majority opinion of the Wheel’s editorial board.
THE EMORY WHEEL Priyanka Krishnamurthy EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sonam Vashi Executive Editor Elizabeth Howell Managing Editor Copy Chiefs Benazir Wehelie Harmeet Kaur News Editors Dustin Slade Karishma Mehrotra Editorials Editor Rhett Henry Student Life Editor Jenna Kingsley Arts & Entertainment Editor Emelia Fredlick Sports Editors Ryan Smith Bennett Ostdiek Photo Editor Thomas Han Features Editor Ashley Bianco
Online Editor Tarrek Shaban Social Media Editor Dana Youngentob Asst. Copy Chief Alex Jalandra Asst. News Editors Rupsha Basu Stephen Fowler Asst. Student Life Editor Loli Lucaciu Asst. Photo Editor Hagar Elsayed Asst. Sports Editor Zak Hudak Associate Editors Nicholas Bradley James Crissman Nicholas Sommariva
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The Emory Wheel welcomes letters and op-ed submissions from the Emory community. Letters should be limited to 300 words and op-eds should be limited to 700. Those selected may be shortened to fit allotted space or edited for grammar, punctuation and libelous content. Submissions reflect the opinions of individual writers and not of the Wheel Editorial Board or Emory University. Send e-mail to pkrish4@emory.edu or postal mail to The Emory Wheel, Drawer W, Emory University, Atlanta, Ga. 30322.
Insight For Young Writers
bgblogging | Flickr
Student Novelist Offers Tips On Publishing EMILY LI Writing is one of the hardest fields to break into, and rightly so. Theoretically, anybody can write. The difference is that not everybody can write professionally — it takes a solid understanding of their own writing, sufficient knowledge in the publishing world, a strong work ethic and a splash of positive attitude. In 2012, I published my first novel, a 50,000-word young adult fantasy titled The Writer (Itoh Press). Last month, I signed my second novel, a 65,000-word middle grade fantasy titled Sort of Saving the World with Curiosity Quills Press, and it’s tentatively set to be published in winter of 2014. Excerpts of these novels won YoungArts 2013 and 2014 Merit Awards, respectively. Currently, I’m working on another middle grade fantasy novel titled Kidstincts. People ask me what the trick is to getting published so young, and the thing is that there is no trick; the best I can do is share my publishing stories and offer advice. First, you have to start with the novel itself. The Writer took me about four years to write, on and off. I essentially wrote it over the course of four summers throughout high school. Sort of Saving the World was written almost entirely last summer and required a more rigorous schedule — I aimed for about 1,000 words a day. The similarity between my writing process for the two novels was that I had workshopped the first few chapters of both in my creative writing classes in high school. I can’t stress enough the importance of giving and receiving feedback in order to become a better writer. You can find an overwhelming amount of information online
for specific writing, editing and proofreading advice, both in the general writing field as well as folks who would be more than happy to help you out personally. Definitely try to work on your piece on your own — or utilize free help — before hiring a professional. One of my favorite casual sources for writing advice and prompts is Chuck Wendig’s blog, terribleminds.com (warning: he is a big fan of swearing). More professional sources include Writer’s Digest, and I’d encourage everyone to check out National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) if you want to hammer out that novel as quickly as possible. After having a novel edited and polished to the best of your ability, it’s time to start trying to get published. There are several routes to this, and each has its own perks. Selfpublishing is an increasingly common form of publication — you do pay for publishing costs, but you have much more control over the process and keep all of the profit. Also, if the work is in an untraditional genre, you might have better luck self-publishing than finding an interested publisher. However, it is exceedingly difficult to become a bestseller without the help of a publisher. Check out Createspace, Amazon’s self-publishing platform. Then there’s vanity publishing, a type of publishing company that offers printon-demand technology in return for a fee. I’d generally advise against this, as most companies offering this end up being scams, and you’d be better off self-publishing. However, they are generally non-selective, which is something to consider if you are having a lot of trouble publishing otherwise. Most authors, however, go down the traditional publishing route, though there’s still variation here. You can query agents or query publishing houses directly. To be honest, there’s a much better chance of “making it
big” if you can successfully land an agent who represents your genre. The agent helps you edit and tries to get interest for your work usually from one of the “big six publishing houses” today (Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Penguin Group, Macmillan and Hachette Book Group). However, the process is generally much more time-consuming (plus it is very difficult!) so, personally, I’ve opted to query publishing houses directly with my novel. Before querying publishing houses, check Preditors & Editors to make sure that they are a legitimate publishing press. Either way, the process involves having a strong query letter that explains the work (a pitch that gets them interested), plus a small blurb about who you are and what your credentials are. You can find sample query letters and online writing communities that would be more than happy to help you edit one — I’d suggest resources like AgentQuery and QueryShark. Also, knowing people and having experience goes a long way. The more experience you have in the publishing, writing and editorial world, the better you know the market, what readers are looking for and how to be a better writer. In addition, especially in publishing, contacts can sometimes mean the difference between a contract and form rejection. The main thing, however, is to keep your head high and keep writing. The professional writing world, like every other business, can be cutthroat, competitive and very disheartening. You have to remember why you write in the first place — and how it should be for yourself. And with discipline and hard work, you should be able to share it with the rest of us. Getting started is as easy as opening a Word document and beginning to type. Emily Li is a College freshman from Mount Pleasant, S.C.